# Where to mark the boundary between your city's centre and its suburbs



## Manila-X (Jul 28, 2005)

It's not like in US cities where you have a downtown, inner core, city centre or whatever you call it. But how would you mark the boundary that separates your city's centre and its suburbs. Which areas in your city would you consider the city centre or inner core or which areas would you consider suburb?










NOTE: This is an old map but this is the only one I can find with a good sample 

In HK for example, I consider the yellow area in the map to be the city centre. Areas outsides the yellow area are considered suburbs or "new towns". 

How about your city?


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## FREKI (Sep 27, 2005)

I need a clear deffinition for what you consider "city center" before I can do Copenhagen..

Actual city continues for many kms in many districts outside of what is called "city center" here..


In the meanwhile heres a pic of where I think the "city" ends and the suburban style residential housing begins...


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## Manila-X (Jul 28, 2005)

Mr_Denmark said:


> I need a clear deffinition for what you consider "city center" before I can do Copenhagen..
> 
> Actual city continues for many kms in many districts outside of what is called "city center" here..


This one is pretty complex. Usually the place I consider city centre is the traditional or historic core (including the CBD). Other than that, it can also consider the place where business, civic, economic and cultural activity are centred. The areas within the city centre are usually the most vibrant areas.

The areas I consider suburban are usually "new developments" especially those that have sprouted in the recent decade. These "development" can be residential, commercial or industrial.


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## FREKI (Sep 27, 2005)

Hmm... that still makes the districts of Copenhagen hover in mid air... they are normally 200-100 years old and has both commercial, industial and residential uses - they are densely populated and do also pack clubs and pubs - a downtown they are not.. but I guess the suburbanites would consider it "city center" or atleast something close enough for the deffirnition 

I guess my first map fits the bill close enough..


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## RawLee (Jul 9, 2007)

Inside red line is the city centre,between red and blue line are the outskirts of the city,outside of blue is...outside.










> This one is pretty complex. Usually the place I consider city centre is the traditional or historic core (including the CBD). Other than that, it can also consider the place where business, civic, economic and cultural activity are centred. The areas within the city centre are usually the most vibrant areas.
> 
> The areas I consider suburban are usually "new developments" especially those that have sprouted in the recent decade. These "development" can be residential, commercial or industrial.


We have no CBD,suburbs are outside city limits(blue line).


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## Xelebes (Apr 1, 2007)

Edmonton (yes, North American), the city centre is determined by the old boundaries of Edmonton before it started amalgamating: 111th Avenue from 124th Street to River and 124th Street to the river.


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## LordMandeep (Apr 10, 2006)




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## DiggerD21 (Apr 22, 2004)

It's not that easy for many european cities, because the transition from city centre to suburbs is fluent. Here is what I tried with Hamburg.









white line: municipal border (in Hamburg's case also the state border)
Red circle: city centre
yellow circle: central (inner) suburbs. They are often vibrant, have good public transport and high density.
blue circle: port and adjacent industry area
green, dotted circles: rural area, farmland
everything else within the municipal area: suburbs


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## PedroGabriel (Feb 5, 2007)

the mayor decided that the city ends by the motorways. It makes some sense, since that is a barrier built in the plain. the border was supposed to make the city denser especially undeveloped areas and protect the villages and countryside, but there's significant construction in the villages.hno:


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## PedroGabriel (Feb 5, 2007)

my town


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## wjfox (Nov 1, 2002)

For travel purposes, London is divided into zones. The city centre is Zone 1. Everything outside is generally considered suburbs.


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## Manila-X (Jul 28, 2005)

wjfox2002 said:


> For travel purposes, London is divided into zones. The city centre is Zone 1. Everything outside is generally considered suburbs.


That means, Canary Wharf is not within the city centre?


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## wjfox (Nov 1, 2002)

WANCH said:


> That means, Canary Wharf is not within the city centre?


Correct. It's in Zone 2.


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## Manila-X (Jul 28, 2005)

When I see, as some of the major cities expand, so are their city centres. Los Angeles is an example as the city's centre is extended beyond downtown.


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

Canary Wharf is in zone 2, so it is not in Central London. London's centre can be considered to be the City of London, which was the original settlement. Perhaps add the City of Westminster to it these days.

For Hong Kong, the yellow areas *are not* the only city centre areas. The posh residential areas on the south side of Hong Kong Island are definitely not suburban. Suburban is more geared towards the New Territories, which is partially due to historic and urban planning reasons. The New Territories were additional land leased by the British and used by the colonial government to decentralize the population through the new town policy, which is effectively a suburbanization trend.


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## Xusein (Sep 27, 2005)

It's not exactly clear-cut in North American cities either. There is a lot of overlap. 

Check out my small burg for example.

Everything in the black is downtown core, and urban neighborhoods are inside the blue. Everything outside the lines is either suburban or primarily industrial. I live near the boundary of being outside the urban area.

This does not correlate with city limits. There are a lot of "suburban" areas inside it, primarily on the Northwest and Southwest sides. On the other side, I added some places inside the urban core that are actually part of the suburbs, because of the fact that they aren't even suburban, like East Hartford center...which looks like any normal major area in the city.


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## Tombs (Sep 9, 2007)

*London*:












In transport terms, the blue area would be Zone 1, yellow area Zones 2 & 3, and the pink area zones 4-6. 

Zones 2 & 3 (yellow) are inner suburbs, because although they're predominantly residential areas, they're different from normal suburbs in being much more busy and lively. Anything after Zone 3 (pink) is where the line between London and the rest of England begins to blur, in my opinion.



---


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## gladisimo (Dec 11, 2006)

A simple one, I traced out the cit boundaries of SF, SJ and Oakland, of course there are areas within city limits that feel more suburban (almost all of SJ, for example) but common usage around here refes to the city limits anyway.


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## SE9 (Apr 26, 2005)

Tombs said:


> *London*:
> 
> 
> http://img401.imageshack.us/img401/732/londondiagramwb4.png
> ...


That Inner-London ring is to small in South London.... it extends into Zone 4 in some parts.


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## Justme (Sep 11, 2002)

hkskyline said:


> Canary Wharf is in zone 2, so it is not in Central London. London's centre can be considered to be the City of London, which was the original settlement. Perhaps add the City of Westminster to it these days.


I would agree that Canary Wharf is not in central London, but London's city center is certainly more than the square mile. The best definition is zone 1. When I go to Oxford Street to shop, I don't feel like I'm in the suburbs, I'm certainly in the city center.


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