samy316 Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 I was listening to NPR radio on my way home a few weeks ago, and I happened hear a guy named Richard Florida who is a renowned urban theorist, talk about DC, and how it is now a home away from home for a lot of media types and executives. He also talked about how a lot of people travel frequently back and forth between both locales weekly, and in some instances even daily for business and pleasure. He ended up saying that because of this, DC in many ways is now a suburb of NYC. I don't think that this is the case because of the distance between the two cities, but I wanted to get your opinion on if he is wacky, or if he has some fact behind his comments. Here's the link to what he said (it is around the 16 minute mark): DC: A Suburb of New York City Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattFancy Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 I don't think so. When I think of suburbs, I think of places that are like an hour or 2 away from a big city. DC is what like 5 or 6 hours away from NYC? I could see Baltimore being a suburb of DC or vice versa, but I think NYC is a little extreme. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheGoodBits Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 Basically, if the trend continues, there will be one big East Coast mega-city stretching from Boston to New York through New Jersey to Philadelphia to Baltimore to DC. So in that sense I agree. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterMP Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 I guarantee you if you look at the train there are people that take the train back and forth at least 2 or 3 times a week. Whether that makes one a suburb of the other I don't know, but they aren't truly independent either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Midnight Judges Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 That's a stretch. DC has a very diverse workforce in my experience. Some folks are from NYC, some folks are from Boston, some from Texas, North Carolina, Seattle, some from freakin' Missouri and damn near everywhere in between. I don't think the amount of folks from NYC/NJ is out of proportion with their total share of the population. If this guy has some data that says otherwise by all means let's have it. And the thing about DC is that the metropolitan area (5.3 million people)has exponentially more people than the city itself (592,000). Fairfax county alone has twice the population of DC. So if you want to call DC a suburb of NY, there would have to be a hell of a lot of people making that commute. I would conservatively bet there are more than 20 times as many people commuting to the district everyday from Fairfax county than from NYC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjah Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 In the sense this guy is using the term, the entire eastern seaboard north of Richmond must also be a suburb of NYC. That doesn't pass a literal smell test. And Philly must qualify as a suburb of Boston and Montreal. After all, I live in Philly but do all my business in those two cities with frequent travel to each. I have a desk in Montreal, a desk in Boston, and a home (office) in the Philly burbs. And there are folks in Boston whose situation is the opposite of mine. So we're all mutually suburb-ed up. I think the greater point is what another poster said: These cities are all close enough to allow quick travel between them, allowing for more complex work vs. live geographies. But I don't really see the whole thing orbiting NYC necessarily. Surely there's more private money there than in any other city in the network -- but to my eye the whole thing looks more like an exhaustively connected network whose links in and out of NYC are somewhat stronger than most other links. DC-Baltimore, for instance, is probably one of the most heavily traveled links in the entire network. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buenosdiaz Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 lol no...but a very small number of people have been doing this for a while and will continue to do so... our office shares space with a small advocacy group that does similar work to us...anyways the exec director of it lives in connecticut and just comes down 4-5 days a week to be in the office. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GibbsFactor Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 I go to NY via the Accella about twice a month, and I'm nobody. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Midnight Judges Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 I go to NY via the Accella about twice a month, and I'm nobody. Clearly NY is a suburb of Alexandria then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GibbsFactor Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 Clearly NY is a suburb of Alexandria then. But I work downtown. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burgold Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 I think it goes both ways though. There are quite a few New Yorkers who travel daily, weekly to DC to do business because we're the seat of power. So, in that sense, NY is a suburb of DC. In a weird way, I think both are true. I was surprised a few years ago how close Vermont is by car from DC. It's well less than a day's drive. In 1700's thinking that makes Vermont a suburb of DC... and if we add in planes...? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prosperity Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 yankee, go home! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigMike619 Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 if ANYTHING New York is a suburb of DC. bama ass New Yorkers.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sikbug Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 Before I moved to NYC I was coming up here from DC every other weekend or more, but in no way is DC a suburb of NYC. DC is it's own city with it's own suburbs. Most of the people I work with live in the suburbs of NJ or LI. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skins24 Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 I don't any of the east coast cities are 'burbs of each other. But really...it is all just one big city with several peaks... BosWash... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrypticVillain Posted April 1, 2009 Share Posted April 1, 2009 if ANYTHING New York is a suburb of DC.bama ass New Yorkers.. :1stplace: Man this post is full of win. lololololololololololololol Nice to see you still have some DMV in your bllod all the way in Cali. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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