10 Suburbs That Are More City-Like Than Cities

[@CityNerd]

Hanging out in a suburban coffee shop trying to work remotely? Don't be deceived - those suburban "indie" coffee shops are the worst, trust me. Keep your stuff locked down with my exclusive NordVPN deal here ➼ nordvpn.com/CityNerd - it’s risk-free with Nord’s 30-day money-back guarantee!

[@williammaddox3339]

BTW Norfolk, Va. is pronounced nor-fuk (you can add a c before the k). It rhymes with Suffolk County NY.

[@lws7394]

I would have expected Evanston, IL on the list. Itt scores with (54/45/89) a lot better on walkscore ratings than a Tempe, or Norfolk, National City or Norfolk ...

[@cameronjohnson3913]

I live in Atlanta if you want recommendations for anything! :)

[@FameyFamous]

The phrase Man in the Middle is sexist. The adversary might be a child, woman, robot, etc. But Adversary in the Middle is problematic because we are used to MITM as an abbreviation. Steve Gibson of the Security Now podcast suggests calling it Miscreant in the Middle.

[@cbaylor7382]

its pronounced Nor-fick not nor-folk. Kind of like how suffolk is pronounced su-fick... Also virginia beach is larger but is the suburb of norfolk. Historically, it became a "city" so norfolk couldn't annex land from it.

[@nates7465]

Hey CityNerd, I’ve noticed you haven’t covered smaller New England cities like Providence, RI; New Haven, CT; or Portland, ME. While they may not meet your population or transit standards, these cities are walkable, historic, and culturally vibrant-offering a unique form of urbanism that’s distinct from typical college towns or large suburbs. I’d love to see you explore how these cities are doing urban life differently and where they could improve, especially in transit and infrastructure. New England cities deserve a spotlight!

[@angusb99]

Came here to say this. Tbh, it irks me that New England is sort of the original breeding ground for walkability, high density, mixed-use development, solid intercity rail, and good urban design and that - despite this - I've never seen CityNerd visit the region.

[@weeeee33]

New Haven would be a perfect city visit. So much b-roll potential. Arguably some of the best urban fabric and architecture for a city of its size in the U.S. It’s just all very pretty. It’s really as college town as you can get. City officials are seeming to start to care a bit more about urbanism as well, with some bike lanes (albeit poor ones) and some street conversions (high street) happening. The downtown is thriving as well. Even during the summer, there are so many people out and about and walking. Yes, the transit is mid, and so is the infrastructure, but again, the fabric is great.

[@chrisk5651]

CityNerd hates the Northeast except for Pittsburgh - which is really a midwestern town.

[@coasterjaz89]

Agreed!! New England cities are definitely underrated and under-represented on this channel. The only city that gets regular call outs is Boston, of course. I lived in Portland for 4yrs, and while the transit was lacking, downtown on the peninsula had some incredible walkability and green space. I also appreciated how it was connected to both regional Amtrak network, and the intercity bus system connecting you with Boston.

[@weeeee33]

@@chrisk5651did he openly admit that? Or are we just speculating?

[@minnybiker4505]

I live in a suburb of Minneapolis. I'm about 3/4 mile from groceries, pharmacy, UPS, fast food, good restaurant, bike shop, etc. 1 block from major park with ball fields, lake with public access and fishing dock, play ground with splash pad... 3 miles in either direction to additional shopping centers, 3 miles to a natural spring and large river. Took me a long time to realize how great this spot is. I had wanted to move for a long time until I started walking and biking more. Now I'm a little spoiled. Although, I'd really like a light rail station within a mile...

[@ananyabhardwaj8578]

What suburb?

[@goldenstarmusic1689]

Fellow Twin Cities suburbanite. Richfield is GOATed, and soon Hopkins and St Louis Park will have light rail stations. Even Bloomington has at least 2-3 BRT lines, the Blue Line LRT connection, and a whole host of local routes. Housing density is increasing across many Twin Cities suburbs.

[@emileoperalta121]

@@ananyabhardwaj8578 I am guessing it is a suburb on the south side of Minneapolis. Perhaps Richfield or Bloomington? Edina is a possibility as well. I am just guessing but it could also be St. Louis Park?

[@minnybiker4505]

@@ananyabhardwaj8578 Eden Prairie

[@SecretMountainTroll]

Minneapolis has gotten rid of R1, yes?

[@dugwtf]

Denver has a Cheesecake Factory on a closed pedestrian street mall, so its walk score must be off the charts.

[@legatus_newt]

When was the last time you were downtown. That part of the mall is open. Further down is still fenced off. There is still work to do but the progress is happening pretty quickly now that all the underground infrastructure was torn up and replaced

[@gars129]

@@legatus_newt Why did removing underground stuff revitalize the place? Do you mean parking?

[@Matt90541]

Downtown Denver has a walk score of 96 - "walker's paradise" tier. It's probably why Denver didn't make the list where the suburb is more walkable than the central city.

[@jessewolk1381]

@@gars129 They probably mean utility services.

[@coilbiohazard]

Yeah this list is nuts, I've taken light rail from the Denver airport and walked to my hotel. One of the easiest cities to get around in.

[@FilmWithoutReason]

Fun note about Davis: the bus system (Unitrans) is run under the student government instead of the city itself.

[@joebehrdenver]

Same setup in my alma mater town of Ames IA (Cy-Ride).

[@TheObimara]

It's true, but it also receives funding from the City. It's fare-free only to undergraduates (it's not really free as it comes from their admission fees - but yes it's like a free bus pass for all of these people.)

[@Luxicar]

I'm from the East Bay and currently living in Davis as a university student -- I honestly love it here so much. Not sure how I'm supposed to live without bike-able streets and a bus stop every other block whenever I go home.

[@TheObimara]

Davis is TWO cities: First of all, it's what I call "Greater Davis" - inclusive of the city and UCD campus. The first city is nearly all of the campus & the areas closest to it including Downtown. The second city is especially the eastern parts (east of Pole Line), South Davis (east of Lillard) and to a lesser extent the furthest northern and western parts. The first city has relatively high cycling modal share, the second city does not. Most people in the second drive everywhere. Few take Unitrans except for people with UCD destinations. The first city - and places close to the few shopping centers in the city - have decent walking performance, but hardly anyone walks elsewhere, aside from recreation, or walking the dog. The barriers that create the second city are both systems - e.g. the free parking at both ends of a trip to work or shopping - and structural - e.g. the overcrossings and associated connectors over I-80 (and the railway)- inclusive of the Pelz bike-ped bridge - that have gradients of 6 to 8%: Pretty much all new overcrossings funded by the State have gradients of 5% or less - it's partly about ADA as that requires less modifications - and Dutch standards for grade-separated crossings top out at 3 to 4%. The first city doesn't have these issues: the western end of South Davis has a very moderate undercrossing to campus and a very short steeper section just south of I-80. Data from the City is hard to come by as the City more or less refuses to count modal share (this was made clear at a recent meeting of the volunteer transportation commission where only LOS data was provided for a discussion about a new roundabout. UCD has its well-known Campus Travel Survey but it's mostly about trips to campus (and a bit about what people who normally travel to campus do elsewhere). YES, overall Greater Davis is a leader, but the City on its own is not, except for sometimes not so well facilitating trips to campus by means other than private car. The first city has expensive or difficult parking on campus, some paid parking downtown. The second city is all "free". I have lived here for eight years and was on the City of Davis BTSSC (predecessor to the Transportation Commission) from 2017 to 2020. Here is a great example from the second city of Greater Davis: www.davisite.org/2024/10/city-of-davis-prefers-chipotlanes-to-bikelanes.html

[@Luxicar]

@@TheObimara This is a really valuable perspective, and the article from Davisite is a great read. Several facets of this two city analysis ring true to my experience. I live near Lake without a car and I'm able to get around fine only relying on buses. However, I really don't have reason to ever go east of, say, J Street, and it seems like quite a hassle if I wanted to.

[@snowless456]

I visited LA for the first time this summer and stayed in Santa Monica, and as a New Yorker, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, and I was able to do a lot car-free, including taking the expo line downtown and then the B to Hollywood

[@brandontaraku6081]

SM is definitely conducive to car free living in my opinion. Not only is it walkable and has transit options, but it also has a great bike network. You have great beach path where you can easily bike from SM to Venice beach, and you can also bike to other places inland like Sawtelle and Brentwood. To me, biking is the best way to get around these beach side neighborhoods in LA.

[@bbartky]

I took the Metro E Line from downtown LA to downtown Santa Monica and back again for the first time two weeks ago and thought it was great. There were a lot of people westbound to Santa Monica in the morning but the eastbound train back to LA in the afternoon was standing room only.

[@frankmerrill2366]

I was close, I guessed West Hollywood (which, unlike Hollywood, is not part of Los Angeles, right?). Looks like I'll have to explore Tempe someday. I've never really been there.

[@weirdodad]

Your obsession with Cheesecake Factory will never not be funny.

[@tarikviaer-mcclymont5762]

He should purchase shares of CAKE

[@ViewofVictory]

Notification crew, thanks for all your hard work citynerd. You actually inspired my recent move to Pittsburgh. As someone who can’t drive I was looking for a good place to live car free and landed on Oakland, PA thanks to your videos.

[@links212]

Welcome! Hope you like it here!

[@thedapperdolphin1590]

Welcome to Pittsburgh. We need more people. Also, Oakland is a part of the city.

[@CityNerd]

Nice!

[@schmangusschmangus8628]

@@ViewofVictory I grew up in Pittsburgh but only live there for a few years of my adult life before moving away the still within a couple hour drive. Almost 9 years ago moved to Florida but thinking of leaving there. Pittsburgh is on the radar screen but real estate is still too expensive unfortunately.

[@zacharyabelson8196]

I am visiting Pittsburgh, what should I make sure to see?

[@NelsonBrown]

Reinforces my hunch that walkable urban places are in high demand with artificially limited supply, so the prices are super high.

[@dxnqxn_]

I think another great example would be Arlington Va. It’s literally a whole city with good transportation, great downtown, lots of museums, parks, office buildings, high rise apartments and more and it’s just next to Washington DC.

[@SSGranor]

DC as a whole has higher walk and transit scores than Arlington as a whole. (Some specific areas of Arlington - Ballston, say - do match or beat the overall DC scores; but, then, there are areas of DC that have near perfect scores - U Street is 99/82/96, for instance.)

[@ahmedzakikhan7639]

Jersey City, NJ too

[@frankmerrill2366]

@@ahmedzakikhan7639 I had Jersey City on my guess list! I love the place.

[@yesid17]

I never thought I would hear you say anything like "you will get a whole lot of San Mateo County content next week" that's just so incredibly specific lmao as a resident of SMC I can't wait! lol curious to see if you will mention my town, I live near the only Caltrain + BART station in the Bay

[@Stealthwealth1001]

In all the years I used to live in Burlingame I never once rode the Caltrain but I did ride my bicycle around the entire city even over the Dumbarton bridge into Newark and Oakland.

[@yesid17]

@@Stealthwealth1001 wild! I take Caltrain pretty much every day as part of my commute. Have yet to bike across the bay, but I did bike from Stanford to Millbrae once lol

[@reevegarrett8412]

@@yesid17 That's a long bike ride! I'm living in Menlo Park without a car. Been doing so for the past 3 years. I've been seriously thinking about moving up to Millbrae or San Bruno for more convenient Caltrain and BART service.

[@CityNerd]

Oh yeah you'll get like 20-30 sec of that specifically

[@frankmerrill2366]

@@Stealthwealth1001 Burlingame was my guess for a San Mateo County municipality.

[@savannah4439]

“You think that walk score is bad? Hold my peach cobbler” 😂😂

[@CityNerd]

I was gonna make a barbecue joke but the rhythm was off

[@FarFlungHeel]

“Hold my Cheerwine” would have been even better - especially as Cheerwine HQ is in Charlotte suburb Salisbury - but few outside of NC would gotten the joke.

[@smashing_data4292]

Norfolk is actually a principal city and Virginia Beach is a suburb. The current Virginia Beach is an extinct county that merged with a smaller Virginia Beach to fend off annexation from Norfolk.

[@jamalgibson8139]

It's crazy to me that virginia beach is the largest city in Virginia. It's crazy to me that it's considered a city at all. In my opinion, Virginia Beach should be broken up into a few different municipalities.

[@AMPProf]

SOUNDS LIKE a Government Cover up I knew they found a Sea alien ship monster

[@benpholmes]

@@jamalgibson8139 It's merely "largest" because it has a larger population, and that is largely because it has such a large landmass.

[@jamalgibson8139]

@@benpholmes Not sure what your point is. To me it could/should be virginia beach county, with maybe a couple of cities scattered throughout. The fact that it became an entire city in itself is madness.

[@BossXygman]

​@jamalgibson8139 in Virginia, cities can not be a part of a county. All cities in Virginia are independent cities

[@sepotrude]

We lived in downtown Watertown, Mass and found it to be a functional, walkable “streetcar suburb.” It’s one of the first ring suburbs of Boston. Within 5 minutes you can enjoy the Charles River pathway. Within 10 minutes you can walk to the post office, library, a big park, restaurants, UPS Store, CVS. 15 minutes walk from home was a major grocery store, gymnastics and restaurants. A 20-30 minute walk in two different directions and you’re in two parts of Newton with restaurants and shops. Several buses take you to Boston in about 20 minutes.

[@aerob1033]

Oh man I just realized when you were talking about Decatur that you probably have a whole folder on your hard drive with all kinds of neatly-organized B-roll of every city you've been to. What a treasure trove.

[@bennyboiart7781]

I grew up in an old trolley car suburb (the trolleys were long gone of course, but the street grid influenced by them remained), and I loved how walkable it was: bakeries, restaurants, miscellaneous shops, parks, playgrounds, schools, libraries, etc, all interconnected by safe, easily traversable sidewalks through old, unique neighborhoods. Contrast that to where I live now, where you have to drive pretty much everywhere, and I would go back if I could financially afford to.

[@GS_666]

What suburb😅

[@smapti_MHD]

I enjoy this channel and I learn a lot from the videos. But as a displaced Norfolkian, I must respectfully point out that Norfolk is not a suburb, by any definition. Norfolk is the 300 year old city around which the sprawling “white flight” suburbs of VA Beach, Chesapeake, Suffolk and the others were created (from formerly agricultural areas). Norfolk is the cultural and economic center of the Tidewater, or Hampton Roads area. By contrast, the “city” of VA Beach did not exist 100 years ago. Norfolk has an urban core, a downtown, two universities, large commercial ports, and some nice, historic neighborhoods (not to mention a world class museum that may be nicer than my hometown deserves). VA Beach is patchwork quilt of former counties and towns or villages (Seatack? Kempsville?) that were morphed together to create a “city”. Contrary to what economic developers might preach, VB is not a resort city, in that the main economic driver is its US Naval facilities (and associated contract businesses), and not revenue from vacationers. Obviously Norfolk, being the home to the world’s largest navy base also has its economy rooted in the federal govt. Apologies for the rant. The few times that the 757 is mentioned on this excellent channel, the message is not entirely accurate. Thanks again for the hard work you put into producing this content!

[@szurketaltos2693]

He did say that he just did it by first named city in the metro to be consistent, but yeah you are absolutely right.

[@Futurerecluse]

Yeah Virginia Beach, Suffolk, and Chesapeake are a lot more like suburban counties. I believe they became cities in the 1960’s to avoid annexation due to a law that allowed cities to annex counties. VA is the only state with independent cities.

[@randomone4832]

Commentors like you adding nuance are a godsend.

[@Squaretable22]

Nuance like this is what's missing from Nebula

[@a_plus]

Came here to post this lol!

[@behard2]

I moved to Charlotte as a near daily bicycle commuter in 2017 and that city beat it out of me. Cycling infrastructure horribly disjointed, hit or miss sidewalks, large sections downtown impassable due to the 277 loop. The light rail can work if you are in University City, South End, and possibly some pockets to the south. With cost of living skyrocketing and just not enjoying the city, I left after two years. Hopefully it has improved since then.

[@cullenpeterson]

Kind of insane that Evanston, Cicero, or Oak Park, Illinois didn’t make this list. Very good transit for suburbs (including direct CTA service), pretty compact and dense town centers, and I’d imagine decent bike/walk scores as well.

[@cullenpeterson]

And there’s a lot of sprawl within Chicago city limits so I’d imagine their walk/bike/transit scores would be at least marginally better given the relative size.

[@charlienyc1]

​@@cullenpetersonAlthough I bike daily in the city, I'd enjoy biking in any of these burbs a lot more!

[@eightbitw0rld]

Elmwood Park and Berwyn also, they have CTA bus service (and Pace, if that counts as "service") and metra lines. With some work, Elgin and Aurora can be walkable and bikeable too, they have good bones being pre-car cities with 100-200k people and Metra stops

[@Not_Sal]

Not that insane when you consider the criteria. They are not more transit rich than their corresponding central cities

[@chrisseidl8294]

Really surprised that Evanston didn't make the list, with all of the train station stops (CTA and Metra) that they have. Also, for an honorable mention - Niles Free Bus!

[@eadsd]

You nailed it on Decatur, GA. I lived there before I moved to Austin. I commuted to Midtown Atlanta by train. I took the train to the airport. I walked to the Courthouse Square which is the epicenter of walkability. It’s a fantastic place to live and I would totally live there again.

[@StrawberrySarah96]

I lived in the Decatur area for 5 years. Hated living in Atlanta but Decatur (and Avondale) was a nice oasis. You just can't escape the presence of the suburbs (even the Braves moved to the suburbs). I commuted on Marta to downtown and loved taking Marta to Atlanta United games (one of the only things I miss). If I had to move back to Georgia, I'd go back to Decatur and that's about it.

[@antonioalvarez9087]

I'm really excited for your Atlanta trip. As an Urbanist who loves Atlanta I have so many hopes for it.

[@tuffy11111]

Seems like the key here is to live in the suburb where the college exists.

[@danielcarroll3358]

Good idea. My house is in Berkeley: Walk score 94, Transit score 66, Bike score 95. Five minute walk will get you to a dozen restaurants, a couple of grocery stores and the post office. The bus at the corner runs every 12 minutes and gets you to BART in six minutes. BART goes to two international airports and several Amtrak stations. No car needed.

[@ahmedzakikhan7639]

Why don't they make more colleges in cities like Houston and Atlanta so that public transport improves.

[@frankmerrill2366]

I definitely give honorable mention to Evanston, just to the north of Chicago (AND, for that matter, my closest suburb). I don't think the transit is as good as Chicago's, though, and the excellence of Chicago mass transit may be one reason that Chicago suburbs weren't considered.

[@duncanhanna7855]

The hampton roads area is just a name that encapsulates multiple cities. Norfolk is seen as big city in the area due to the taller buildings and what not. VA beach has more people just due to the area of the city

[@josephfisher426]

Yeah, I would have assumed that VA Beach or Chesapeake would be the "suburbs" out of those.

[@ThreeRunHomer]

Virginia Beach and Chesapeake are just counties that incorporated to become “cities”. Nothing urban about either. At least Norfolk and Portsmouth have historic urban fabric. Williamsburg too, I guess. 😁

[@padgettish]

@@ThreeRunHomer Chesapeake is literally having an identity crisis over this. Virginia Beach is definitely incredibly suburban, but I think it's worth making a case that instead of having a city center it has an urban corridor between VB Blvd and Laskin from the Norfolk line to the Oceanfront

[@StrawberrySarah96]

Norfolk is absolutely the central city. VB just gets listed first for population. Its like how Atlanta only has 600k people but the metro has 6 million. No one city has more people than Atlanta because they are all smaller, but VB is geographically large and can fit a lot of people in its suburban sprawl. VB doesn't even have a downtown unless you count its artificial Town Center or the neglected oceanfront.

[@lildepew37]

As a former Davis student and current Mountain View resident, you're spot on!

[@solido888]

Never thought I would hear "affordable" and "Santa Monica" in the same sentence😂

[@colinneagle4495]

Well, I think that it's only affordable compared to other urban California real estate

[@sayimjustadreamer]

@@colinneagle4495 Not affordable even compared to the rest of California.

[@--julian_]

compared to san fran? ​@@sayimjustadreamer

[@ileeeenify]

Slightly more affordable than Silicon Valley 😬

[@ericfielding2540]

He said that Santa Monica was more affordable than Mountain View, but not by much. It was “only” $1.6 million for a median home vs. $1.8 million in Mountain View.

[@henrymoore9739]

Fun to see my hometown listed here. I've heard that the reason Davis has such great cycling infrastructure is that the second UCD chancellor Emil Mrak was inspired while touring the netherlands.

[@rekmcc]

I'm surprised South Pasadena or Pasadena did not make the cut here. They are both fairly walkable, bikeable, and have decent bus systems as well as the metro gold line. Maybe Pasadena is not considered a suburb of LA?

[@TorqueBow]

Hey, Ray. Your videos are extremely, unbelievably, incomprehensibly valuable. Thank you for being you.

[@kevley26]

When you demanded we guess the final three, Santa Monica came to mind immediately! Was around that area a lot as a UCLA student.

[@BobG15]

a video on the upcoming mexican passenger rail projects would be amazing. tren el insurgente is opening to toluca already and the upcoming cdmx to queretaro line just broke ground. the next 6 years should be huge for north american passenger rail.

[@thatoneotherotherguy]

Frankly, one of the biggest reasons I'm hoping Dems win the upcoming US election is to keep advancing federal rail funding. If they win, billions will be allocated to more high-speed rail and ordinary passenger rail projects. If Republicans win, they're not going to shell out another infrastructure bill or any other dime for rail, they'll divert it all to garbage highway widenings.

[@sayimjustadreamer]

Several of these places aren’t really “suburbs.” Santa Monica, Culver City, and Cambridge might be independent jurisdictions, but they function more like city neighborhoods than suburbs. No one living in these places would consider themselves to be living in the “suburbs.” And Virginia Beach is a suburb of Norfolk, not the other way around. The only reason Virginia Beach has a higher population is that it functions as a county and is a city in name only . It only rates as a “city” due to a quirk of Virginia law that allows counties to incorporate as cities. Norfolk is generally acknowledged to be the core city of the metro.

[@charlienyc1]

Yep, larger airport with more connections, city structure, plus it's the geographic center, with VA beach out to the east, Hampton & Newport News N & W across the bay.

[@DarrienGlasser]

+2, while everyone in east MA says they’re from Boston, if you say you’re from Cambridge, in state folks will say it’s actually true, rather than just saying it to keep out of state folks from being confused

[@zoicon5]

I was thinking the same thing. If you think of Somerville as a suburb then so might as well be Brooklyn NY. It used to be a separate city after all.

[@silverXnoise]

That’s kind of restating the thesis of the video, isn’t it?

[@angusb99]

In the case of Massachusetts, this really just says more about how Boston didn't expand its borders through municipal annexation very much (specifically in the northern direction). It is pretty weird to stand on Memorial Drive in Cambridge, see the gold dome of the Massachusetts State Capitol across the river less than a mile away, and think: "That is a different city (and county) over there."

[@nathang4682]

Was excited to see a rare VA city in your videos! I used to live in Norfolk. It is probably the best part of the Hampton Roads region, which is a complete large scale urbanist nightmare, in ways that deserve more attention imo

[@charlienyc1]

My MIL just moved to Chicago from Hampton. Her mind is blown how easy it is to walk everywhere, available park services, etc. I can't wait till she gets her bus pass!

[@smapti_MHD]

Agreed!! So much to unpack and discuss in regards to urbanism and the lack there of, in the greater Norfolk area! The story of the "regional" effort to build the light rail and how VB left Norfolk holding the bag. Norfolk's tragic and cyclical destruction of beautiful historic infrastructure in the name of "urban renewal". The history of Norfolk's gone but not forgotten street cars. VA Beach, Suffolk and Chesapeake as examples of what happens when property developers are in charge of "planning". There are many lessons in urbanism to be found in the region's history.

[@nathang4682]

@@smapti_MHD agreed. All the cities being independent from each other and the history of that has a lot to it as well

[@StrawberrySarah96]

I live in Norfolk now. There is so much potential in this region and its sad to learn some of the history. I love Norfolk but hate having to go out to VB. Things could be so much better here but its a classic case of the suburbs not supporting regionalization.

[@vanessamae01]

Yayyyyy! Super excited to see Decatur GA make your list, it's a fantastic place to live. Hope you enjoyed your time visiting.

[@bobsykes]

Yay! Davis makes your lists again! My home for nine years, although I'm displaced to New Jersey for the moment. For sure, quiet, smaller towns, look better and better as I get older.

[@DanielScheidt]

Would love a City Nerd video on affordable towns! Many have decent public transportation, downtown areas and have crippling traffic

[@Not_Sal]

I might be wrong but I feel like he has done that before

[@corylong5808]

Jacksonville being probably the most spread out city in America has a lot of “suburb downtowns” that are far more lively than actual downtown. It sucks we don’t have a good downtown but it’s nice to have so many unique spots to choose from when we do want to go out.

[@frankmerrill2366]

Chicago has that, too, despite being far more densely populated than Jacksonville. I live in the northeast quadrant which is the most-diverse part of the city (and reasonably safe, even at night). I can think of multiple locales in this city which resemble downtowns of cities that may have 50,000 to 120,000 people. One such cool "downtown" that's walking distance from me (just over two miles), I can stand at the main intersection (Western and Devon) and listen to the conversations drift by, and they are ALMOST NEVER in English. It's heavily Indian, Pakistani, Middle Eastern (and, yeah, the over-the-top CRAZY options for truly marvelous food speak to that), and you can go there 12:30 in the morning and the streets are still vibrant. And safe. I'm 77 and I've spent my entire 70s (and nothing before reaching 70) living here in Chicago. Best decision I ever made in my life. Because of the diversity, and some of the VERY cool organizations that I belong to here (some of them emphasizing connection via unusual or exotic means, spirituality, cuddling, yoga, etc.), have caused my 70s to be a period of enormous personal growth. That falls well into the part of the human lifespan that isn't usually known to be conducive to inner growth... You do NOT see throngs of activity at that hour in "The Loop" which is the name/neighborhood given to the heart of Chicago's true downtown. Those who are still out and about may also tend to be more dodgy.

[@drewmusto6941]

I live car-free in Downtown Santa Monica and it’s a dream. It affords me a 15-minute-city lifestyle in an earthly paradise. Can’t imagine living anywhere else!

[@sayimjustadreamer]

I lived car-free in Santa Monica for two years, and yes, it was a dream.

[@tone_bone]

Decatur GA is the best stop on the blueline. Midtown is also a great stop as its right in the middle of food and great walking and its an easy walk to piedmont park. Also good luck if you are taking the bus while in ATL its some times on time and most busses are a 40 min turn around.

[@kiosk5595]

Knew Tempe had to be there but Santa Monica is well deserving of the top spot, it’s absolutely an urbanist dream especially since the weather is so nice year-round, even compared to other parts of the LA area. Also has a decent pedestrian mall

[@Alps-e3h]

The only fault santa monica has is it’s apart of LA county lol I live off santa monica blvd in westwood and I love santa monica , always 10 degrees cooler with coastal weather , 5 miles down the road its another story weather wise !

[@ericfielding2540]

The pedestrian commercial street, Third Street Promenade, in Santa Monica is very nice but it was hit hard by the collapse of retail during the pandemic. Last time I was there, almost half of the stores were closed.

[@ananyabhardwaj8578]

You'll love Decatur. In Atlanta, you'll like Virginia Highlands, Inman Park, Reynoldstown, Cabbagetown, Little Five Points, and some of Midtown (closer to Piedmont park, the more east you go the better)

[@StrawberrySarah96]

I lived in the Decatur area for 5 years and it was the only part of the city I liked. I hated living in Atlanta because you can't escape the presence of the suburbs but Decatur (and Avondale) provide such a nice little oasis. I worked downtown so it was nice to hop on Marta. One of the few things I miss.

[@frankmerrill2366]

A friend showed me "East Atlanta" (which includes a tiny bit of Decatur, right?) and I thought that neighborhood was pretty damn cool. Looks like a WONDERFUL place to call home!

[@andrewhurricane]

Ah, yes, the Chessecake Factory index has returned.

[@AMPProf]

makes My gas act up

[@room34]

Having lived just outside of #4, as soon as I saw the title of this video, I knew it was going to be on the list.

[@rhombusx]

I don't even know if I'd call the various Silicon Valley/Peninsula towns "suburbs." At this point, practically the entire West and South Bay is essentially one continuous semi-urban area, starting with San Jose and going up the Peninsula. The big tech firms are pretty equally distributed throughout Silicon Valley, and there's practically as much traffic coming from San Jose and San Francisco as there is going. The whole region has a population gradient that's dense on the bay side near the 101 and decreases as you get to the 280. I lived for years without a car and used CalTrain to commute, but eventually was priced out of Mountain View, Sunnyvale, Cupertino, and Santa Clara and ended up living along the 280 corridor in SW San Jose and then required a car to commute. Sure, all the areas have their own distinct little downtown area, but in general, the whole region feels very similar from Campbell up to Redwood City. This is just my perspective as someone who didn't grow up in the area, but lived and worked as an adult in 8 different apartments over 15 years in the area.

[@holographictheory1501]

Would love to see you come to Boston/Cambridge/Allston/Somerville!

[@frankmerrill2366]

Isn't Allston actually a neighborhood that's part of Boston itself, rather than a suburb?

[@peterbradfield2805]

While you are here in MetroAtlanta, you might want to check out the cities of East Point (in Fulton, south of Atlanta) and also in DeKalb County, Avondale Estates, Clarkston, Tucker (which in the recent past reincorporated, became a city, again), Chamblee and Brookhaven - all of which have gone through extensive revitalizations of their city center cores in recent years. The Atlanta neighborhoods of Grant Park, East Atlanta, Edgewood, Kirkwood, and Cabbagetown and the Decatur neighborhood of Oakhurst are worth exploring as well.

[@user-ym6dl8tq6u]

This concept definitely needs another video!

[@a.j.4644]

1)Ann Arbor is fully 30 miles west of downtown Detroit, and is in another county. Washtenaw County is not even included in the official "Tri-County Area" that makes up the traditional greater Detroit metropolitan area. 2) To those looking for N.VA suburbs to make the list: Which one do you imagine is more walkable and has better transit than the District?

[@frankmerrill2366]

Alexandria is definitely walkable, but I have no frame of reference to compare public transit.

[@P0w2you]

"Hold my peach cobbler" is Hilarious!!! 🤣

[@Prodigious1One]

In Atlanta, visit the Central Library, West End, Little Five Points, Atlantic Station, Piedmont Park, Auburn Avenue, the Municipal Market (Curb Market), Georgia State University, King Center and Georgia Tech.

[@edisonz2006]

And Emory University

[@saratemp790]

​@@edisonz2006Emory University has a great museum and it's free.

[@javigme-d3x]

I grew up in National City and was shocked to find it being mentioned here!

[@bibby3027]

6:03 yo this actually made me laugh that cross walk is funny as hell

[@critiqueofthegothgf]

always fascinated by just how much tree cover the Atlanta area has

[@Vex-MTG]

It feels weird listing two suburbs of San Jose, when San Jose itself is essentially a suburb of the SF/Oakland central core.

[@ericingersoll7243]

I was thinking the exact same thing.

[@ogix123]

As a resident of San Jose, I’m not at all surprised to see it show up for 4/10 . Excited for the next video!

[@anthonysnyder1152]

Hmm having grown up in Mountain View, it’s technically walkable, if you consider a large stroads walkable. The downtown surely saves it but the height limits really restrict the amount of people who can live within walking distance from downtown.

[@kennylee8936]

Check out some Sydney, Australia examples of city-like suburbs: -Chatswood -Parramatta -Burwood -Bondi Junction -Liverpool -Hurstville -Hornsby -Cabramatta AND SO ON

[@frankmerrill2366]

Certainly don't forget Newtown, either. Def the coolest Sydney suburb I experienced in 2016 - if not the coolest suburb I've experienced ANYWHERE. Also went to an incredible vegan restaurant in Eveleigh which was also a "pay what you feel is fair" place (i. e. some people abuse that life hack for a free meal, etc.), and I left a "treat" of a US $20 bill (which I think was 31AUD at the time). Ahhh, memories.

[@elvismansoncpa]

Let me be the first to point out: Norfolk was incorporated as a city in 1736, and saw action in the Revolutionary War, War of 1812, and Civil War. Virginia Beach was incorporated as a city 216 years later, after World War II ended. If Norfolk is a suburb of Virginia Beach, the colonists were awfully prescient.

[@RyanCoughlan-d9w]

Media PA and Ardmore PA could be on this top 10 list or included in the honorable mentions. Both suburbs have a regional rail stop (Media has 2 stops), each one has an additional light rail line going through it, and they both have a few bus lines in town. Having all of those features in a small area would rival or surpass Philly's transit score of 67. If you include their walking scores (Media 95 and Ardmore 91 compared to Philly's 75), and the not horrendous bike scores compared to Philly's 67 score (Media is 30, Ardmore is 49), you can make the case. You need to make a visit to Philly if you haven't already!

[@letitiajeavons6333]

I live in Media and don't own a car. Yes, it's great, but if you don't hush, word will get out and my rent will go through the roof.

[@averageuser7883]

A lot of people get of at the Ardmore stop instead of going into Philly which always stood out to me.

[@frankmerrill2366]

Wow, I wrote down Media as one of my guesses! (I live in Chicago; 77 years old.) Media IS DEFINITELY COOL and I was very pleasantly surprised my first visit there only about four years ago because I wasn't expecting a gem. There were twelve places on my guess list, and only one got mentioned: Royal Oak and Dearborn MI, Evanston IL, Davis, Burlingame, University City MO, Marietta GA, Ybor City FL, Media, Jersey City, Oak Park IL, West Hollywood. Trimmed down from what had been 16 or 17.

[@Swampzoid]

I lived in downtown Decatur, GA and yeah, right downtown is walkable for a few blocks from the main street but soon it turns into suburban sprawl. The Marta is only good for going to the airport. I'd choose Midtown Atlanta which is somewhat walkable but most of it surrounds the huge and lovely Piedmont Park.

[@szurketaltos2693]

The video isn't about most walkable neighborhood though.

[@timothylolley6302]

I had no problem getting around when I lived in Decatur. You can walk to the Publix in Avondale from the marta station. I would also regularly walk along DeKalb avenue on that string of land that is like a half park half rail right of way hybrid. Also there is an absolute ton of fantastic food right there in downtown. The only thing it needs is a grocer. And like I said you can get there from Marta. If they wouldn't have killed the clairmont light rail line Decatur would be the most connected area in the metro.

[@deargodwhyme]

@@timothylolley6302RIP Baby Kroger 🥺

[@jonhowe2960]

@@timothylolley6302 As an Atlanta resident, I'm afraid to ask why the line was killed 🤔

[@zombiekidcrazy]

I was shocked about that one of too lol. I live in midtown but I often go to the DeKalb Farmers market and Walmart in Decatur and I have to drive through miles of suburban homes to reach the market lol. I think I've only been to downtown Decatur once but even then, ATL I think has more neighbors that could be considered walkable imo

[@Killer-SeveN]

I sincerely hope you enjoy your time here in ATL, looking forward to hearing your impressions on Decatur, GA.

[@stephensaucier7582]

Watch out! Charlotte is on track for another light rail line and a commuter train line! That transit score might just get up in the 30s or 40s in the next decade...

[@67Neisha]

I was surprised not to see Silver Spring, MD on this list, downtown Silver Spring has a walk score of 92 and great transit

[@saad_ghannam]

Last time I was this early Detroit had over a million residents

[@Maelkes]

I lived in Decatur, GA for seven years and moved recently. Definitely saw a lot of improvements made in bikeability around the downtown area. For the longest time, I got around the area on a bike which progressively got easier. Yes, improvements can be made and there was a plan to connect the Lindbergh - Avondale/Decatur via light rail but as far as I understand it, homeowners along North Decatur road were opposed to that project. I would personally be interested to see that stretch could be connected via Gondolas as I imagine gondolas could bypass some of the engineering and land acquisition challenges.

[@comedyhost]

Love living in Tempe. Coming from a medium sized city with no infrastructure, it is night and day here

[@kathrynstemler6331]

Tempe saved my impression of the Phoenix area on my recent mid/south west road trip.

[@frankmerrill2366]

I SO NEED to explore Tempe!

[@TheKelly1951]

Avoid Tempe unless you like six months of 100°

[@ninja_boy]

Wooo Davis mentioned! I went to UC Davis and used only a bike all four years. Easiest city to bike around that I've ever been to.

[@frankmerrill2366]

I don't bike AT ALL, and I couldn't help but notice how over-the-top "bike friendly" Davis is, when I visited. Wow. Also has been on my list of favorite small[-ish] towns/cities since.

[@GOd2Star]

Growing up in San Mateo County was an incredible privilege.

[@sssdddkkksss]

What's the difference between suburb and satellite town for you? Like Gastonia to Charlotte, or Davis to Sacramento - that sort of distance here in the UK would be considered a satellite town, where some residents live there as commuters to the main metro centre, but most do there own thing locally. Watford is an example of this in London.

[@angellacanfora]

Norfolk, Virginia will also one day be the most swimmable city in the coming years.

[@colormedubious4747]

That's what Al Gore said about Miami a quarter of a century ago. Still waiting for it -- but not holding my breath.

[@johnmcmahon5225]

The beach at Virginia Beach looks exactly the same as it did in the 1980s. This is due to dredging and putting sand on the beach, but it's nowhere near being underwater.

[@pavelow235]

Has the "sky is falling" narrative ever helped humanity?...being honest here.

[@johnmcmahon5225]

Norfolk is absolutely not a suburb of VAB. Walking and cycling are great in Virginia Beach. It's flat, and there are sidewalks and trails everywhere since it's a tourist town. There's a bike trail along the 3 mile long boardwalk!

[@angellacanfora]

@@johnmcmahon5225 For the record, I’m an ex-Virginian who happens to like VA Beach.

[@mikehawkins4752]

I live near downtown Decatur. It's definitely the best spot in the Atlanta area. I can walk to 2 Marta stations and take them to the airport or downtown Atlanta. Plus, it's a liberal haven. I can't wait to get your take.

[@massvt3821]

Somerville should have made your list. Very urban , with entire streets made up of triple -decker homes, and also served by 3 subway lines --Green, Orange and Red. In fact, i don't know how it didn't meet your criteria..

[@paganphoenixguitar]

I used to live there for a while - biking-wise it’s unbeaten, even living in NYC now I miss how I could rely on my bike to do everything. However, the two most frustrating aspects of living there were 1. Poor crosstown transit access. The train lines only went into and out of Boston proper (also incredibly unreliable), and the buses were infrequent and slow. That’s a Boston metro wide issue but definitely detracted from the experience of getting around. 2. The reliance on the “squares” as centers of businesses and entertainment. This one is a little more nebulous, but is honestly prevalent across New England. Basically, almost all restaurants, stores, bars etc.. are concentrated in a town square which are interlinked by bike lanes/transit. The negative aspect of this is that getting to any convenience (pharmacy, grocery store, transit) often requires a 10-20 min walk. Living in NYC now, I appreciate how you can find a convenience store or bodega on literally every block for everyday necessities

[@notmyname9625]

Seriously i feel like brookline could have made the list too

[@arifshahabuddin8888]

I lived in Somerville near Inman Square in Cambridge decades ago. Both cities are very walkable, full of amenities and fun to live in. I think what handicapped Somerville and Cambridge is that Boston itself is a very walkable city with interesting neighborhoods and good transportation. If Somerville was near a major city that did not have these qualities, it very well may have come out as one of the best "suburbs." So, the overall question is: What suburbs are so much better than their major hub city that they provide a better urban experience than the city itself. Somerville, Cambridge, Newton, Quincy, Brookline and a few other proximate suburbs to Boston are very nice but Boston is pretty nice too.

[@Peter-sv4mk]

But like Cambridge, it's not a suburb.

[@notmyname9625]

@@Peter-sv4mk they might not seem like suburbs but by definition they absolutely are. That is the whole point of the video. Its suburbs that are more like a city than most cities

[@jarkatmu]

At 4:10 your praise for Santa Clara's "Downtown" is far too generous. The City had a downtown "main street" along Franklin Street but razed the entire thing during the 1960's redevelopment era. Check it out on Historic Aerials - you can see the historic downtown fabric become a menagerie of parking lots and strip malls. During the same era, Sunnyvale's Murphy Street was also truncated to its current block-long state in favor of an indoor shopping mall, which has since been demolished. Mountain View demolished some of its downtown too, but the destruction was less comprehensive than its neighbors to the south. I think it's an interesting pattern - the further up the Caltrain corridor you get from San Jose, the less car-dependent places seem to become.

[@pontifexcrocdylus2716]

Our little downtown in Garden Grove, CA is getting better. I can walk to everything I need and bicycle to work in another up and coming place, Santa Ana. We're getting connected via streetcar next year!

[@frankmerrill2366]

Does that mean the transit in and out of places like Santa Ana will finally GET REAL??? I noticed that too much of the transit there shuts down like 6PM or something. When I was briefly exploring the possibility of moving to SoCal (though I somewhat prefer NorCal, but utter unaffordability was a foregone conclusion), I was looking at Orange County, thinking how cool it would be to go to some fun play or event or festival in Hollywood or WeHo or downtown or Glendale or something, and take the train back around 10PM or so. NOPE, that wasn't happening. (I ended up in Chicago, where THERE ARE 24-hour trains, and some major 24-hour buses.)

[@pontifexcrocdylus2716]

@@frankmerrill2366 it's a start

[@Geotpf]

​@@frankmerrill2366Transit in Los Angeles County (LA Metro), in general, runs much later than transit in Orange County (OCTA), including some buses that run 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

[@ericfielding2540]

Fun fact: Decatur, Georgia was the original main city in that part of Georgia back in the early 19th century. The leaders of Decatur decided that they did not want those noisy and smelly trains in their city, so the main train station and switching yard was located about 7 miles to the west. The train center was first called Terminus but later changed to Atlanta.

[@frankmerrill2366]

I love these bits of knowledge!

[@erynpimentel915]

It’s crazy that so many of these were from California, I would expect more to show up in places like New England

[@chrisvangelder7674]

It’s a lot easier to beat San Jose or San Diego than it is to beat Boston

[@braystar1782]

The cities in New England are walkable with good transit which is why their suburbs did not make the cut.

[@AMPProf]

You mean New england Megalopolis

[@JohnKennethHuszagh]

I briefly had an apartment in Santa Monica as the pandemic began. Was ridiculously cheap for what it was, and it was the closest I had ever lived to a grocery store, or a coastline. And I'm saying that as a child of the Chicago North Shore and an alum of a college in Boston.

[@johnegan5967]

Massachusetts native here. Somerville, MA was 40 years ago considered a dump, but now it's a trendy city. Its urban core has lots of trendy restaurants. Very popular for heterosexual young people who have money. Very accessible to Boston. Neither are very affordable though

[@ind3lble300]

“Heterosexual Young people“? What are you even saying with this lol

[@joebehrdenver]

Plenty of gay dudes (source: my friends) live in Somerville too, John.

[@ecurewitz]

Somerville doesn’t care if you’re gay or straight

[@Devki24]

The only people I know who live in Somerville are gay men lol

[@Secretname807]

Boston is interesting because the northern part of the city is fairly dense, while much of the southern part is much more suburban. But there are cities to the west and north (Cambridge, Somerville, Everett, Revere, Malden, Chelsea) that would be considered part of the city proper anywhere else.

[@frankmerrill2366]

Brookline so totally feels like part of Boston.

[@Secretname807]

@@frankmerrill2366 The northern part

[@ShonnMorris]

National City??? As a resident of San Diego, I'd argue that La Mesa is more walkable then NC, especially in it's core such as around Spring St.. La Mesa also doesn't have any of those wide boulevards like Mile of Cars way or National City blvd. Two trolley lines pass through La Mesa; the green line and the orange line.

[@Goadfish1729]

It doesn't have a transit score, but East Lansing, MI meets the criteria for sure. Lansing is 46 walk, 34 transit, and 55 bike. EL is 54 walk and 80 bike. MSU has a big transit hub and a ton of service into the neighborhoods. I'm sure the list would be longer if you looked at smaller core cities with college suburbia, simply because the core city scores so low.

[@drewhickox8568]

Great video! I'm wondering if you've ever been to Arlington, VA. The metro on the north side (orange line) has generated a ton of TOD in the last 40-50 years in a corridor that was well suited for it. It's the smallest county in the country having originally been part of DC and a very walkable transit oriented community. Anyway I love your channel and I bet you'd love Arlington!

[@saratemp790]

I haven't been in Arlington in a while, but it used to be just like some tallish skyscrapers in the center, and then some suburban houses around it. Has it improved?

[@frankmerrill2366]

It's not the smallest U. S. county at all. Just as Arlington is a county (because of an unusual rule that Virginia has, allowing a city of more than 10,000 people to choose to become a separate county), Virginia has quite a few of these micro-counties which are sometimes considerably fewer than 25,000 people. Franklin is a stellar example of this. That, and ones like Buena Vista, Poquoson, Galax, Chase City, Quantico, etc. cover less land area than Arlington. There are only a handful of these outside of Virginia that I can think of, which have had the arrangement for at least 100 years: Baltimore, Carson City, Saint Louis, San Francisco. There may be one or two more I'm forgetting. Indianapolis and Marion County are thought to be synonymous, but Marion County also includes at least Speedway and Beech Grove (which I believe are both enclaves). Likewise Jacksonville and Duval County but which also has at least Jacksonville Beach, a separate municipality (and I think a couple more - Neptune Beach?).

[@Jliske2]

7:05 i can comment on Decatur, having been there a few times. sounds about right. Decatur is VERY walkable as far as places in Atlanta go; I always felt comfortable going there on MARTA

[@isaiahnych1]

Evanston IL could make this list. Honorable I would say

[@AMPProf]

I laugh bet we could coun all Chicagoland as 'Megatropolis Midwest, dat der is Sciansseeeee"

[@mai_komagata]

im so happy my city got the close call/honorable mention at the beginning :D I do find it CRAZY that Cambridge got a better transit score than Somerville. Somerville has 1 redline stop proper, another redline stop at the city border, an orange line stop (and a second one on the border) and 5 green line stops. Cambridge has 4 redline stops a green line stop. I guess im not considering bus coverage, though. With the red line being under speed restrictions it makes it hard to take the t around cambridge.

[@legatus_newt]

Denver has a "suburb" called Glendale which is just a neighborhood "enclave / exclave" . It's an enclave within Denver and an exclave of Arapahoe county. It avoided being swallowed up by Denver via a vote and has looser zoning restrictions making it the densest municipality in the State of Colorado. It is quite walkable and very small but somehow manages to be completely hostile to bike infrastructure and they don't like the lime / lyft rental bikes or scooters operate within the city limits. It's a weird place.

[@alechagen6291]

CityNerd should really check out this place. It's a suburb, that's not a suburb, that literally has one single family house in the entire city, but that house is derelict and empty. It's "libertarian" while being surrounded by Denver that is supposedly "progressive." But bars can stay open until 4 AM, the grocery stores have the best liquor stores, and the mayor's wife owns the flagship str1p club. Only downside is there's no Cheesecake Factory.

[@frankmerrill2366]

@@alechagen6291 And probably no Culver's either, so what's it good for at all? lol

[@croatia0728]

Decatur is more like a neighborhood of Atlanta, like it may technically have its own municipality but its definitely considered part of the city and not a suburb by most people

[@joebehrdenver]

Have taken the BBB to The Getty several times! Great service.

[@laszlogreen2567]

Could you make a video comparing changes in the last 10-15 between the sunbelt cities and rustbelt cities to look into why people are moving south and what planners are doing for multimodal transit vs cars to attract people to their city?

[@TheHalfSum]

not many of these cities are suburbs and are more inner parts of major urban cores. Calling Cambridge and Somerville a suburb is like calling Brooklyn a suburb

[@sayimjustadreamer]

💯

[@subjekt5577]

Yup,.just a matter of not getting annex. Boston and SF are the worst at that. Its like if the 5 boroughs were still seperate or if la was just the city or if Ballard didnt get annexed by seattle or if philly was still just center city

[@letitiajeavons6333]

Boston never consolidated. Philadelphia and New York did.

[@TheHalfSum]

​@@letitiajeavons6333 irrelevant to my point.

[@GeorgeOneEleven]

You're right, but I am not going to fault CityNerd here since this is more just a flaw in how we colloquially use the term "suburb" in general to mean a smaller city within a greater urban metro area. Even in the case of Tempe and Phoenix, both were founded independently of each other and simply grew into each other.

[@alexcornwell1255]

Salisbury is in the charlotte metro technically. It has pretty good walk and bike. The only transit would be the amtrak to uptown. Home of food lion and cheerwine!

[@macxgeek]

Every first ring suburb of every city over a certain size in California

[@PASH3227]

Yep. Pasadena, Santa Monica, Long Beach, and Culver City all have higher walking and biking scores than LA and only slightly weaker transit scores, except Santa Monica.

[@brandontaraku6081]

@@PASH3227A major reason why LA’s is lower is because it contains the entire San Fernando valley (and some of the mountainous regions surrounding it). Honestly if LA didn’t annex the valley, it would have a way higher walk score and would probably be similar or higher than these surrounding cities.

[@robgronotte1]

I wonder if the walk scores include anything about how realistic walking is apart from pure distance. Walking anywhere in the Las Vegas and Phoenix areas during the summer isn't really feasible for longer than a few blocks, and many parts of San Francisco is so hilly that most people aren't going to be able to walk very far.

[@GirtonOramsay]

Most of the old portions of the San Diego suburbs along the trolley lines are more walkable and slightly more affordable than SD. I live in another one with higher walk score, and it's pretty fine withoit a car if you live near the bones of Main Street. Trolley is very reliable to get into the city and just ebike to my actual destinations.

[@JudgeDee7]

Areas along the trolley lines are not walkable and have poor urban fabric lol, like Broadway in Chula Vista or the orange line or green line, the walkable suburbs of San Diego like North Park or South Park or City Heights have no good transit connections to downtown.

[@GirtonOramsay]

@@JudgeDee7 north and south parks are San Diego, not suburbs in the slightest. By American standards, I would consider National City and Chula Vista (west of 805), La Mesa, and El Cajon. By walkable, it just means that you can reasonably reach a supermarket or other important shopping destinations, even if the walk is miserable and along a stroad.

[@JudgeDee7]

​@@GirtonOramsay They're more walkable than actual middle of nowhere suburbs but yeah, none of those places are the best walking experience. Just wish there was more rapid transit in the densest parts of the city.

[@GirtonOramsay]

@@JudgeDee7 It would be great to make the 215 into an actual BRT with separated bus lanes, but we can dream haha

[@Skipping2HellPHX]

11:00 Tempe is a tale of two towns. North of US-60, college town with bike lanes, rail transit, and tree shaded sidewalks. South of US-60 stroads, lifted trucks, and schools where 2/3 of the land is covered by parking lots.

[@marksandyc]

After Hoboken made the top spot in your last suburb video, I was surprised not to see it in this list. Probably too small to count in your methodology? Definitely think all three ratings with score above the average NYC area.

[@szurketaltos2693]

I'd be surprised if it beat NYC for transit, agree on the other two scores. Actually we can look it up, and yeah NYC transit score is way higher. 89 vs 74.

[@buatsretep]

Seeing a bunch of comments here about Cambridge and Somerville not actually being suburbs of Boston, which I 100% agree with as someone who grew up in an actual Boston suburb and live in Cambridge now. I've always been curious if there really are other comparable urban areas in the US that have so many separate municipalities generally understood by locals to actually be functionally (in terms of mobility) one city. Another interesting wrinkle here for Boston is there is an entire, once independent, region of the city (West Roxbury) that I believe is less dense and urbanized/urbanist than either Cambridge or Somerville. Perhaps there's a future video topic here? Not sure if there's a way to turn it into a top 10 list but at least some exploration of cities that annexed neighbors versus ones that didn't (and perhaps even looking at annexation of some but not all neighbors like Boston did with Allston, Brighton, Dorchester, and Roxbury; LA vis a vis Culver City and Santa Monica comes to mind a well) and what it actually means in practice, especially how it impacts the planning process, to have municipal boundaries cutting through one generally urbanized area.

[@dorn4931]

The entire Fox River Valley from Aurora to Elgin deserves a shoutout

[@Who8mydamnoreos]

All I remember is driving while I lived there, the train goes to the city but there is not transport up and down the valley

[@charlienyc1]

And they have better transit, walk & bike scores than Chicago? They sure are pretty, but...

[@AMPProf]

DAT DER IT'S A THING DER OH JA DAT DER

[@kait112]

I'm not at all surprised to find those Northern California/Bay area cities on the list - my husband's family and some of my own all live there and we visit often. We could never afford the home prices there, but the suburbs themselves are very walkable and bikeable, not to mention the fact that the weather is the most temperate in the whole country. They're putting on their coats and complaining if it dips below 50 degrees. My brother-in-law lives in Mountainview and bikes everywhere he goes. Can't wait for the next video more focused on that area!

[@marleysmith100]

Norfolk is absolutely not a suburb of Virginia Beach. Historically, Norfolk was the biggest city in Hampton Roads and several of the surrounding counties formed as independent cities so that they could not be annexed by Norfolk. Most of those cities (Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, Suffolk, etc.) became destinations for white flight. Virginia Beach and Chesapeake are both suburbs of Norfolk and are both coincidentally the #1 and #2 largest cities in Virginia by population, but are also the #3 and #2 (another suburb Suffolk is #1) largest cities by land area. Norfolk, by comparison, is much smaller, but is much denser and the geographical center. The whole area is a mess. Basically imagine if downtown Manhattan was the only remaining burough of NYC, while everything else became separate cities. Maybe Queens/Brooklyn/Long Island would have a larger population, but it would be incorrect to say that Manhattan is a suburb of Queens/Brooklyn/Long Island.

[@Titoroski187]

Heck! The 1980 census had Norfolk as the largest city in VA! It was the largest in VA from the 1960s until 1980 something. Crazy stuff