Why the massive rural/urban divide?

[minionofmidas]

Yes, he did. A Texas accent is much easier to pronounce when drunk than a Northeastern one.

Same goes for a Frankfurt accent vis-a-vis standard German, by the way.

[minionofmidas]

No idea about exurbs/inner suburbs split but I think rural - suburban - urban is roughly 20-55-25 or 17-58-25.

[minionofmidas]

Ah, here's teh official Census 2000 data.

Urban/rural and metropolitan/nonmetropolitan population
 
URBAN AND RURAL
 
Urban
 222,360,539
 79.0
 
of which: - In urbanized area
 192,323,824
 68.3
 
(of which: In central place
 109,705,763
 39.0
 
Not in central place
 82,618,061
 29.4)
 
- In urban cluster
 30,036,715
 10.7
 
(of which: In central place
 22,844,647
 8.1
 
Not in central place
 7,192,068
 2.6)
 
Rural
 59,061,367
 21.0
 
of which: - Place of 2,500 or more
 4,089,599
 1.5
 
 - Place of 1,000 to 2,499
 4,989,152
 1.8
 
 - Place of less than 1,000
 3,821,336
 1.4
 
 - Not in place
 46,161,280
 16.4
 
INSIDE AND OUTSIDE METROPOLITAN AREA
 
In metropolitan area
 225,981,679
 80.3
 
of which: - In central city
 85,401,127
 30.3
 
- Not in central city
 140,580,552
 50.0
 
(of which: - Urban
 114,885,009
 40.8
 
[of which: In urbanized area
 105,628,220
 37.5
 
In urban cluster
 9,256,789
 3.3]
 
Rural
 25,695,543
 9.1)
 
Not in metropolitan area
 55,440,227
 19.7
 
of which: - Urban
 22,695,347
 8.1
 
(of which: - In urbanized area
 2,708,887
 1.0
 
- In urban cluster
 19,986,460
 7.1)
 
- Rural
 32,744,880
 11.6

[minionofmidas]

Officially. But that includes a number of small towns and a number of incorporated areas of suburban character as urban.

[minionofmidas]

Do exurbs count as suburbs or rural areas?

I suppose most of them count as suburbs, some (unincorporated ones, that the Census hasn't gotten around to count as Census Designated Places yet) count as rural, and many that once were independent smaller cities/towns that have been drawn into the commuter ring are probably counted as urban...
Notice that 40% of the "rural" population is within metro areas, though.

[minionofmidas]

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Yeah, that includes me.

I can't picture an exurb. Any photos online?

If people in your "rural" community in Loudoun County are mostly commuters, you should probably just look out of the window.

[minionofmidas]

The one is a marketing term that Al rails against, the other is an ugly neoword.

[minionofmidas]

Calling residences like that "rural".

[minionofmidas]

It somewhat depends on how the area feels...
How do these 20 acres look? Do they all look alike? Post us some description, Philip.

[minionofmidas]

So basically, you're living in an urban millionaire's ghetto not too far from where the inner city ends and the suburbs begin.

Okay, not really. But a core part of the definition of rural as vs suburban, apart from "not too closely linked in with the city", is that even though it's not actually largely agricultural (since otherwise you wouldn't find many rural areas left in the US), it still looks somewhat as if it might be.

Another question: What are the houses like? How old are they? Are they mostly all the same age?

[minionofmidas]

So basically, you're living in an urban millionaire's ghetto not too far from where the inner city ends and the suburbs begin.

Okay, not really. But a core part of the definition of rural as vs suburban, apart from "not too closely linked in with the city", is that even though it's not actually largely agricultural (since otherwise you wouldn't find many rural areas left in the US), it still looks somewhat as if it might be.

Another question: What are the houses like? How old are they? Are they mostly all the same age?

Pretty much all new. Not everyone around here is rich though. The main attraction to the place is the countryside atmosphere, at a location close enough to the city to not feel so isolated.

Uh - anyone who can afford a 20 acre holding in an area already discovered by developers, is rich by my definition.
(And just checking ... did that all-new housing replace any earlier housing? If not, congrats, you're definitely exurban and not rural by any measure except perhaps dumb old population density.)

[minionofmidas]

20 acres is app.8 hectar. Basically Philip lives in a very large park with some dividing walls.

[minionofmidas]

A lot of people are getting this wrong. Where you live does NOT determine how you vote. How you VOTE determines where you live. This is a totally new phenomenon in American culture and it's NOT a positive development for the social cohesion of the nation. And I say that as someone who is very guilty of this behavior himself.

I agree with you, actually. THere's definitely a strong dose of that, and it is (in part) new.

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Numbers?
I'm doubtful about that one because Fulton Co seems actually is voting less democrat than the Black middle class side of the Atlanta suburbia by now ... which tells me that at least part of North Atlanta (what they call it again? Wheeler?) must be voting its class and race.

[minionofmidas]

But Dazzle, in Sweden urban areas are more conservative and rural areas more socialist.

Because Sweden's rural areas couldn't survive without subsidies?
The "ah, we'll just make the pie bigger" fallacy Daz describes would obviously work only in massive growth areas ... nothing to do with population density. Which sort of explains why rural East Iowa and West Wisconsin don't vote Rep either.
Other rural areas (in the excluding people like Philip sense) , then, would be voting Republican for different reasons entirely.

[minionofmidas]

There are many poor people in the city who don't participate in the city's wealth because they have little to offer in the way of skills to give them any value in the job market.

The wealthy in New York or elsewhere also lack 'skills' - they don't need them.

It depends how you define wealthy, and how you define skills.