# Where you live **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 11, 2011, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-you-live/605820 "2011-12-11T12:46:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2011, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-you-live/605820/21 "2011-12-11T19:38:40Z")
> [@Mr.Accident](#): > > Our “town” consists of 2 gas stations, 2 liquor stores, 2 bars, a subway… > [@johnpost](#): > > can’t be that rural if you have a subway. > > are you actually in a village? > [@Jophiel](#): > > Perhaps I’m being whooshed but I assume that’s “capital S Subway” not the mass transit subway. > [@Mr.Accident](#): > > \*\* > Jophiel\*\* had it right. I meant the Subway sandwich shop, not a subway with trains. In my defense, I hadn’t been up long when I made my post. i’m a firm believer in letting no joke pass. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2011, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-you-live/605820/22 "2011-12-11T20:35:18Z")
We’re about three-quarters suburban, but not full-on suburbs (i.e., not in the Land of McMansions). ---
**Author:** ![Lacunae\_Matata](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lacunae\_Matata](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lacunae_Matata)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2011, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-you-live/605820/23 "2011-12-11T20:49:39Z")
> [@Pai325](#): > > Small college town surrounded by farms - so I’m not sure what you’d call it. If I had a basement, I’d ask whether you were hiding out in it! College town, population about 25,000 (up from about 15,000 when I was growing up here.) University enrollment of about 20,000 (up from about 4000 when I was growing up here.) I’m about .1 mile from being in the county vs in the city limits. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2011, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-you-live/605820/24 "2011-12-12T01:11:42Z")
If you go to [my twitter page](https://twitter.com/#!/theevilwriter) you can see a photo I took of a raccoon eating from the bird feeder and read posts about beavers felling trees into my road. So, uh, rural. ---
**Author:** ![sitchensis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sitchensis/32/4892_2.png) [@sitchensis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sitchensis)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2011, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-you-live/605820/25 "2011-12-12T01:18:53Z")
Small town is a very rural area. We only have about 30 miles of road and they don’t connect to anything. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2011, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-you-live/605820/26 "2011-12-12T01:20:42Z")
Central London. ---
**Author:** ![chiroptera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@chiroptera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chiroptera)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2011, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-you-live/605820/27 "2011-12-12T01:44:11Z")
Address says I’m in a city, taxes and services paid to a township, am on a dead-end road with fields and woods on and abutting my property and would have to drive (or walk/bike several miles) to a grocery store. We have wild turkeys, fox, raccoons, possums, deer, coyotes and rabbits all around but I’m not far from some densely-populated urban areas. So, technically urban, not truly rural but something in between. ---
**Author:** ![applebetty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4af34b/32.png) [@applebetty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/applebetty)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2011, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-you-live/605820/28 "2011-12-12T02:08:10Z")
Rural, because I can see other mailboxes from where mine is. You wouldn’t be wrong calling it “The Sticks”. ---
**Author:** ![phall0106](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/phall0106/32/5934_2.png) [@phall0106](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phall0106)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2011, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-you-live/605820/29 "2011-12-12T02:29:44Z")
Technically, it’s considered rural (according to the USDA), but we have public sewer and water (something VERY important to me when I was looking for a house to buy) and have several places to shop and eat in town. We even have several traffic lights. However, if I look out my front window, in between the houses across the street, I can see the pasture where cows are kept. On days when they’re in the ‘high pasture’ (by my neighbors) and the wind is right, I can even smell them. My town is about 45 minutes from Baltimore and 20 minutes from Harrisburg and another 20 from Lancaster–all fairly decent sized cities. ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2011, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-you-live/605820/30 "2011-12-12T03:41:08Z")
> [@enipla](#): > > Rural mountains. If you could call it rural. I’ve done some wandering since I returned to Colorado. I’m not certain where you live, but given the descriptions I’ve seen before, I think you are not “rural”, but are “no snowplows between 7 pm and 5 am”. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2011, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-you-live/605820/31 "2011-12-12T14:03:28Z")
We’re (very) nominally in the so-called Southern Suburbs of Cape Town, but really it’s more urban than suburban -5min into centre of town, semi-detached houses predominate, a high street with restaurants and the like. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2011, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-you-live/605820/32 "2011-12-12T14:13:02Z")
> [@Frank](#): > > I’ve done some wandering since I returned to Colorado. I’m not certain where you live, but given the descriptions I’ve seen before, I think you are not “rural”, but are “no snowplows between 7 pm and 5 am”. Hey Frank. Not sure what you mean. Since I don’t have neighbors, I can plow when ever I want. Let’s see. No mail delivery, no garbage pick up, the only utilities are elec and phone, no cable/DSL. The county does plow our road, but since it is a dead end and we are the only full time residents, we are not much of a priority. Sometimes I’ll just plow the road/s as well as my drive. ---
**Author:** ![Crotalus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crotalus/32/41_2.png) [@Crotalus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crotalus)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2011, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-you-live/605820/33 "2011-12-12T15:03:51Z")
I live in a small city (population 22,000) in a rural county. We have a mayor and city council, police and fire departments, city water and sewer, trash collection, a daily newspaper and public transportation. My house is about a half mile from the center of the city, and I see deer in my yard every dusk and dawn. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Il\_Palazzo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Lord\_Il\_Palazzo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Il_Palazzo)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2011, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-you-live/605820/34 "2011-12-12T15:23:13Z")
I live about five miles outside the Capital Beltway in Burke, VA. ---
**Author:** ![lindsaybluth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/90db22/32.png) [@lindsaybluth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lindsaybluth)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2011, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-you-live/605820/35 "2011-12-12T17:21:34Z")
Urban and I love it. Walking distance to bars (not terribly important) and restaurants and ethic groceries (hugely important). Better access to healthcare, libraries, coffee shops, theater… ---
**Author:** ![lazybratsche](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ba8739/32.png) [@lazybratsche](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lazybratsche)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2011, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-you-live/605820/36 "2011-12-12T18:02:35Z")
I’m not quite sure what counts as suburb vs exurb in the Northeast where I currently live. In the Midwest, the distinction seemed a bit clearer. Suburbs were mostly-residential towns that were continuous with the nearby urban center. I.e. if you drove from the suburbs to the city you wouldn’t ever see farms or large tracts of undeveloped land. Exurbs were small clusters of new housing developments way out in the middle of fuck nowhere. Usually exurbs didn’t even have much in the way of commercial areas either-- often just a strip mall with a grocery store, a gas station, and a few other little businesses. If you drove from the exurbs to the city center, you would pass through rural areas. But in the northeast, all of these distinctions aren’t quite so neat. For example, Cambridge is outside of Boston, but I can’t conceive of it as a suburb. Further out that direction, Lexington seems to fit my concept of suburb. But how do you classify Concord or any of the other towns that surround Boston? They’re far outside of Boston, with a fair bit of rural-looking areas in between. And in many cases they were historically independent towns which slowly fell under the influence of Boston as the larger city grew. ---
**Author:** ![missred](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/missred/32/14096_2.png) [@missred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missred)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2011, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-you-live/605820/37 "2011-12-12T18:17:20Z")
I meant to click ex-urb. ---
**Author:** ![missred](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/missred/32/14096_2.png) [@missred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missred)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2011, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-you-live/605820/38 "2011-12-12T18:23:46Z")
I meant to click ex-urb.:smack: The town that I live in is the county seat in the county just east of Nashville. Although there are commuters to Nashvegas (we even have a light rail station), a good share of our population of ~25,000 people work in the county. Farming is still big here (we have stockyards complete with regular livestock auctions). Even so, I’m only about half an hour from the airport in the city. The town in the western part of the county is definitely a suburb of Nashville, while the town in the eastern part of the county is pretty agrarian / arts community. There are a few scattered villages and unincorporated areas as well. ---
**Author:** ![kushiel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bbce88/32.png) [@kushiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kushiel)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2011, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-you-live/605820/39 "2011-12-12T20:01:36Z")
I live in a small city and I’d say I’m on the border between what would be called urban and suburban. 15 years ago it would have been the very edge of the city but then new suburban developments went up. ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2011, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-you-live/605820/40 "2011-12-12T20:03:11Z")
> [@enipla](#): > > Hey Frank. Not sure what you mean. Since I don’t have neighbors, I can plow when ever I want. I saw signs all over some of the minor highways (route 92 between Crawford and U.S. 50, for instance) that said the roads were not plowed between 7pm and 5am. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-you-live/605820.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-you-live/605820.md?page=3)