[strmini]

Quote:

[Wrencytet]

I'd call Somerville a suburb because it is primarily residential and not (any more) a major employment centers. People who live in Somerville mostly commute to jobs in Boston, Cambridge, or elsewhere.

[secondmertg]

I think that probably, a suburb and a suburban area are two different things entirely. A suburb is a separate city or town, in the greater area of a city, regardless of density or urbanism. Last I checked,"urbanism" wasn't even in the dictionary (at least, not on Firefox's spell-check).

"Suburban" describes somewhere 'less urban,' while a "suburb" describes somewhere in the vicinity of a larger city.

I think I'm just rambling/rephrasing what Van said. Oops.

What's an Exurb?

[katetomson]

You got me thinking about the following: If you could imagine an "inner ring road" of surface streets within 128 that defined the outer limits of the city's core urbanity (leaving the inner belt expressway out of this!) where would you place it?

My proposal: http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en...4f107c46a7fd52

That is, Rt 60 from Revere through Medford, on to Rt 16 from Mystic Valley Pkwy to Alewife, on to Soldiers Field Road, to Market St which becomes Chestnut Hill Ave, Rt 9 to Jamaicaway, and following Rt 203 from the Arborway to the Neponset River Bridge.

It certainly isn't perfect, but I wanted to use as few streets and as major arteries as possible.

Other suggestions?

[P1international]

other way around - newton was part of cambridge, which was originally called newtown, or new towne, or however it was spelled.
yes somerville is a suburb, a dense one.
in urban theory an exurb - see similar edge city, technoburb, exopolis, (make your own neologism here) - is an urbanized area (ie not rural) distant from and not necessarily functionally dependent on the core. suburb traditionally connotes dependence for employment and many services.
there isn't any technical definition - these are all fluid, critical ideas, theories (exurb more than exurb), just ways of understanding social function and geography i think.

[P1international]

A "satellite city" I guess.