Germany and the US : differences ?

[Monique]

True, but the point here is Houston is mostly surburban area. The metorpolitan downtown area is relatively small, as Houston is largely residential, it also has a big mall, the original Galleria.

I guess we are using different definitions for metropolitan, according to dictionary.com "constituting a large city or urbanized area, including adjacent suburbs and towns".

 

[rcgldr]

So how much of Houston's nearly 600 square miles are you not considering as metropolitan? Granted that to the west there is a lot of open space (farms, ranches, ...), but I'm not sure what percentage this is. I'm pretty sure that the metropolitan area of Houston is much bigger than all of Detroit.

 

[Monique]

I am saying that is should be bigger, according to http://66.249.93.104/search?q=cache...n+area+detroit+square+mile&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1 website the Detroit-Ann Arbor-Flint metropolitan was 6,565.9 square mile in 1990 and Houston-Galveston-Brazoria was 7,706.7 square mile. Las Vegas is no. 1 with 39,370.3 square mile according to the consensus website.

 

[FredGarvin]

This is a tough one because the dividing line of where to stop is not well established. There are some pretty wide open spaces between Detroit, Flint and Ann Arbor. I would not consider them to be part of the metro Detroit area. The map Monique showed was pretty representative of the metro area. The suburbs take up almost the entirety of SE Michigan.

Everything, except in downtown Detroit (which is like wheel spokes), is pretty much laid out in a grid. It does make things a bit boring, but easier to navigate.

I have never been to Houston. I always assumed Houston was larger though.

 

[Astronuc]

Interesting statistics here.

http://www.citymayors.com/government/mergers_locgov.html

I do seem to remember that Jacksonville, Florida, was the largest city areawise (840 sq mi) with respect to land under political control.

Suburban or metropolitan areas are certainly larger.

I much prefer the European models.

I disagree somewhat that sprawl builds wealth. The value of something is somewhat arbitrary. Monetarily sprawl creates a concentration of wealth, but also higher cost for services, and inconvenience because of the population density. My personal experience is that the quality of life is better in Europe than the US, but they may be closer together these days.

Houston is one of the classic cases of mismanaged (laissez-faire) development. These days it seems to be competing with LA for the dirtiest, smelliest city.

As for Japanese suburbs, Tokyo and Osaka are surrounded by suburbs.

I personally prefer the countryside. Although I don't mind small cities, I don't particularly care for large cities like NY, LA, London, Tokyo, etc. On the other hand, I like most cities in continental Europe, and I really like Osaka.

 

[oldtobor]

Are suburbs common in ALL of Japan like they are in Germany and the US ? In these 2 countries the entire nation has suburb type towns, in most of the rest of the world (save some Western Europe, Canada, Australia) there are only big cities and outside these cities there is only poverty, no suburbs.