So You Think You Live in the City? This Map May Disagree
If you live in some parts of Northwest DC, you might be a suburbanite. And if you live as far out as Fair Lakes or Germantown, guess what? You're a city-dweller. This map, created by Dan Reed of Greater Greater Washington, using data from the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey, depicts which census tracts in our region are actually urban, and which are suburban. The cut-off point he used was 2,213 households per square mile, based on a survey conducted by the chief economist at Trulia, Jed Kolko. "What makes a place 'urban' or 'suburban' isn't just whether it sits on one side of a municipal boundary or another," Dan writes. "The distinction is about physical characteristics, like population density, the mix of uses, and how it's laid out." Dan lives in Silver Spring and took on this project after an argument in a bar. He may have proved his point statistically, but that doesn't mean district-dwellers are going to stop turning their noses up at their friends who live in Maryland and Virginia. [GGW]
