What is an exburb?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Interesting, I live in dc and still consider great falls and centreville suburbs.

I'd consider Leesburg or Manassass to be exurbs. Maybe Frederick. An exurb is such that the population identifies more with their town than the large city they commute to.

I think of exurbs as communities where some portion might commute in to the larger city, but many many don't. My brother lives in a town in New Hampshire that's an exurb of Boston. Almost all of the people work in businesses in the area. Many of those businesses are connected to Boston, and people might go in once or twice a week, but their offices are in the suburbs or exurbs.

Similarly, while there are some people who live in Loudon and commute to DC, there are plenty who commute to Herndon or Reston, or who work out in Loudon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I honestly consider anything outside the beltway to be more exurb than suburban. I consider the palisades and spring valley and close in Bethesda to be suburban.

This: any where people snicker when people claim to be from Dc but the area has no real tie other than it doesn't have enough jobs of its own some people commute is an exurb. If you claim DC when travling but live outside the beltway you are kind of kidding yourself if not out right lying.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I honestly consider anything outside the beltway to be more exurb than suburban. I consider the palisades and spring valley and close in Bethesda to be suburban.

This: any where people snicker when people claim to be from Dc but the area has no real tie other than it doesn't have enough jobs of its own some people commute is an exurb. If you claim DC when travling but live outside the beltway you are kind of kidding yourself if not out right lying.

This makes no sense because there are places outside the beltway closer to metro than areas inside the beltway. Tyson's is outside the beltway, but isn't an exurb. I don't think 495 is some magical divider of what areas have some sort of "tie" to the DC area. You sound insecure and like you're trying to make yourself seem somehow superior, but no one cares.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Definitely Leesburg. Maybe even Stafford.

In MD, it's tougher because Frederick Co. residents tend to associate more with Frederick Co.; although that's changed and is still changing. In the next 5-10 years, it will probably considered a solid exurb.

Frederick's a satellite city of DC and Baltimore. It's got its own media base (daily paper, active radio station), an active downtown, its own employment base (Ft. Detrick, downtown, along Rt. 85, and some business parks off of Monocacy Boulevard). It has a historic downtown, existed before the growth of the Greater DC Blob, and has farmland/undeveloped land between it and DC/Baltimore. It also has its own suburbs such as Dearbought, Wormans Mill, and Discovery along 26/193, Ballenger Creek this and that to the south of the city, and places like Whittier and Tuscarora Crossing to the west of town (they're in the city but more suburban in nature.) There is traffic from the outside heading INTO Frederick from Thurmont/Gettysbrg/Hagerstown as well as OUT OF Frederick heading to DC and Baltimore.

And yes, there is a MUCH stronger FredCo identity than there was a separate Loudoun identity (except in western Loudoun).

Leesburg was smaller before the DC area began booming in population.

DC/Baltimore are multipolar cities along the lines of Dallas/Fort Worth or Minneapolis/St. Paul.

Edge cities are like Tysons, Reston, and Columbia -- they have employment bases and cultural offerings, but aren't separate municipalities and aren't as historic as places like Leesburg, Frederick, Annapolis, etc.

Commuter towns/bedroom communities are suburbs where there's little to no employment base within the city. The term exurb was initially defined in 1955 to describe bedroom communities.

As for exurbs -- the distinction between that and a suburb is harder to grade. Ashburn is clearly a suburb of say Reston but it is an exurb to Tysons/Arlington/DC.

I think Urbana will become suburban in nature to Rockville (and exurban to DC/Bethesda) but Frederick will retain its satellite city status.

[Anonymous]

Interesting PP. Fredericksburg is sort of like Frederick too. I think it is growing because it is affordable compared to Ffx. It has the VRE too which means people commute to the DC environs.

I think MARC functions the same way for MD/WV. Those places are exburbs but within the DC nexus.

[Anonymous]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltimore%E2%80%93Washington_metropolitan_area

Super interesting.

[Anonymous]

That is interesting. I've never really thought about it before.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What about Maryland? Is Olney and exurb? Gaithersburg?

I wouldn't consider Olney or Gaithersburg exurbs. Clarksburg definitely, and maybe Germantown or Burtonsville.

It's funny because Burtonsville is only slightly farther out than Rockville. The southern half of Burtonsville is the same distance from DC and the beltway as the northern half of Rockville. And virtually all of Burtonsville is closer to DC than Gaithersburg.

You have to drive 10 miles to get to a metro from Burtonsville. So Burtonsville may not be much farther in terms of mileage, but in terms of time/ability to get to DC, it's way farther than even northern Rockville (downtown in 30 mins, regardless of traffic, via metro).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What about Maryland? Is Olney and exurb? Gaithersburg?

I wouldn't consider Olney or Gaithersburg exurbs. Clarksburg definitely, and maybe Germantown or Burtonsville.

Burtonsville?

It's close to Ho Co and not that far from Baltimore. It's right around 29, and 198 takes you to 95 in minutes.

You do realize that towns around major highways aren't really that "far out."

Once people start fleeing the cities, these exurbs will no longer exist. Howard was farmland years ago, with the exception of Columbia - not so true now. same could be said for Olney

You can't stop development.

You're right, I meant Laytonsville. Not Burtonsville, which is much closer in.

Defining exurbs is funny. Ellicott City may seem to be an exurb to DC folks, but it's not a bad commute to Baltimore.

It's all relative, I guess.

This site is DC-centric.

btw - I love Laytonsville. not a fan of the schools - But the area is beautiful. And yes, it's an exurb by DC standards.

Well, yeah. It's called DCUM.

my point being that as development continues, people will move farther out for several reasons - schools, safety, less congestion, land

So DC won't be as "centric."

People may move to the burbs for "safety reasons, but that's because people are terrible at evaluating risk. The suburbs are considerably more dangerous than the city. While they're fretting about getting mugged in the city their kids are killing themselves in traffic in the burbs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I honestly consider anything outside the beltway to be more exurb than suburban. I consider the palisades and spring valley and close in Bethesda to be suburban.

This: any where people snicker when people claim to be from Dc but the area has no real tie other than it doesn't have enough jobs of its own some people commute is an exurb. If you claim DC when travling but live outside the beltway you are kind of kidding yourself if not out right lying.

This makes no sense because there are places outside the beltway closer to metro than areas inside the beltway. Tyson's is outside the beltway, but isn't an exurb. I don't think 495 is some magical divider of what areas have some sort of "tie" to the DC area. You sound insecure and like you're trying to make yourself seem somehow superior, but no one cares.

Your argument makes little sense. While Tyson's could be considered it own town doesn't mean is is part of DC. Tyson's is the edge of the proper suburbs at best

[Anonymous]

The level of discourse on this thread is staggeringly low. It seems like DC remains full of stupid people, including many transplants, trying way too hard and with no success to make themselves sound urban and sophisticated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

People may move to the burbs for "safety reasons, but that's because people are terrible at evaluating risk. The suburbs are considerably more dangerous than the city. While they're fretting about getting mugged in the city their kids are killing themselves in traffic in the burbs.

my kids can ride their bicycles just outside our house. This area is safe and occationally we have not locked all our doors.
I sometimes see even the neighbors kids walking and playing on the road.

They are not being killed by traffic, and get to attend a school that is much better than what is available in the dc public school system.

We are not urban and do not want to be

[Anonymous]

We are talking about the actual definition vs the DCUM definition.

In DCUM terms, it is anywhere but DC, 'Close In' MC, and if they hold their nose - North Arlington


If you own two or cars, live in a house larger than 3000SF or built after 1957, don't ride the metro, don't shop exclusively at Whole Foods, don't consider an afternoon at the museums fun entertainment and let your kids watch TV - it is highly likely that you live in an 'exurb' where there is little or no intelligent life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I honestly consider anything outside the beltway to be more exurb than suburban. I consider the palisades and spring valley and close in Bethesda to be suburban.

This: any where people snicker when people claim to be from Dc but the area has no real tie other than it doesn't have enough jobs of its own some people commute is an exurb. If you claim DC when travling but live outside the beltway you are kind of kidding yourself if not out right lying.

This makes no sense because there are places outside the beltway closer to metro than areas inside the beltway. Tyson's is outside the beltway, but isn't an exurb. I don't think 495 is some magical divider of what areas have some sort of "tie" to the DC area. You sound insecure and like you're trying to make yourself seem somehow superior, but no one cares.

Your argument makes little sense. While Tyson's could be considered it own town doesn't mean is is part of DC. Tyson's is the edge of the proper suburbs at best

No one said Tysons is "part of DC." But the argument that it is an exurb and has no "ties" to the DC metro area because it falls outside of the beltway is silly. Vienna/Fairfax/Dunn Loring are outside the beltway, but there are homes there closer to (even walkable to) metro than a lot of parts of McLean or Falls Church. The fact they are a couple miles outside the beltway doesn't automatically make them comparable to Manassas and Leesburg.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are talking about the actual definition vs the DCUM definition.

In DCUM terms, it is anywhere but DC, 'Close In' MC, and if they hold their nose - North Arlington


If you own two or cars, live in a house larger than 3000SF or built after 1957, don't ride the metro, don't shop exclusively at Whole Foods, don't consider an afternoon at the museums fun entertainment and let your kids watch TV - it is highly likely that you live in an 'exurb' where there is little or no intelligent life.

Most boring people in the world must be the ones who live in dc