Very interesting. I very much like the political demographic assessment of geographic place rather than the Democrats fixation on victim group categorization. One can live an hour away from two communities and find drastic differences in the life experienced of the people living in both communities. Charles Murray covered this well in his work comparing Belmont and Fishtown. Although Belmont isn't a real place, there are many similar comparisons throughout the US.
I find this sort of thing so facinating! I enjoyed the first two so much I subscribed as I want to comment here! However Saint. Louis County is actually not an Exurb but an Urban Suburb! I am guesing you confused it with Neighboring St. Charles or Jefferson Counties, which are classified as Exurbs in American Communities.
One additional thing to note about exurban counties is that while relatively affluant on average, home values are also lower then in most urban suburbs and most Exurb residents actually lack college degrees. Many manufacturing plants and warehouse facilities have moved to the exurbs in recent decades, while many (disproportionatally well off) working to lower middle class residents have moved there from inner suburbs in particular in recent decades.
Finally, Exurbs in The American Communities project aren't just true exurbs, but also many smaller isolated metropolitan areas or large micropolitan areas with similer demographic and social chericteristics as most true exurban counties. There are also many counties in many other community types such as Graying America, African American South, Working Class Country, Hispanic Centers, etc etc that are also exurban in terms of density, location and economic function for larger metro areas as well.
Thanks for the kind words, Samuel! And good catch, that should have been St. Charles County -- it's now updated.
And yes, the community types aren't perfect, and I think ACP would acknowledge as much. My sense is they chose the ones they thought were *most* applicable to a given county.
Interesting stuff. I do find it curious that they consider Larimer CO as an exurb. The place is dominated by Colorado State would seem to fit the college town model. I suppose there are some that commute to Denver now that housing prices have been Californicated but that is more common in Boulder which is considered a college town.
I suspect that is because this goes by county as a whole, and the college isn't as dominant county wide as it might seem at first. Note that Exurb counties in the American Communities project include many small isolated metro areas that have similer demographic, economic and other chericteristics as the majority of true Exurbs, but are not actual exurbs in terms of commuting to a large nearby metro.
Likewise, many true exurb dominated counties (in terms of density, location and commuting patterns) are also not clasified as Exurbs by the ACP because they fit strongly in terms of demographics or other charicteristics into other catigories, such as Graying America, African American South, Hispanic Centers, Working class Country etc etc.
Also keep in mind that actual counties often contain urban centers, older and newer suburbs, exurbs etc all within the same county in differant areas to some extent. While I live in an "Urban Suburb" county, where I actually live is basically a lower to mid density industrial commuter town in far exurbia. I can hear cows and goats and roosters down the street from my bedroom on a regular basses!
Actually it's a lot more then that. The county also has large manufacturing, logistics and of course tourism componants as well. Larimer County could certianly also be called a college town (County) but it is also definately an exurb for Denver. But these are overlapping (in many casses) catigories and again, Exurb in ACP's clasification scheme is based on the county's many charicteristics and not limmited only to true exurbs (in terms of commuting, location etc.), -nor encompasing nearly all of them. Imstead, the American Communities project picked what it felt was the best clasification for each county when a county could fit in more then one catagory. Ft Collins is home to less then half of Larimer County's population.
CSU indeed dominates the local area and is the biggest part of Ft. Collins economy, but it does not actually dominate Larimer County as a whole, which is home to more then 359,000 residents and has a large amount of commuting both to and from nearby counties, including to and from within the Denver metro area. More importantly, CSU Ft. Collins, while it is a major univirsity 34,000 students, is also a major commuter (as well as local!) school so many students and workers commute from out of the county while Ft. Collins itself is home to nearly 170,000 residents and has a more diversified local economy then one might think.
All of which is true of Boulder county too. Perhaps more of the local industry has direct ties to the university than is the case in Larimer. I knew that there was a light manufacturing base in Larimer but again, Boulder. I think much of the flat part of Boulder has been paved so ag has faded away. I contend that the giant brewery presence in Larimer should count toward college town status. :>)
Yes, up to a point that is true, but I suspect it is much less true of Boulder, which is a small county truly dominated by the city of Boulder which is much more intensly college dominated compared to Ft. Collins. Again, it's all relarive and they had to pick a catagory for each county. I think this comes off as mistaken to some because they really prioritize (and are just more aware of) important universities and clusters of college students and college educated professionals over other aspects of rhe economy and population, ware-as The American Communities project was truly trying to treat all sectors of the economy and public equally in their annalyses based on available data.
One unrelated note, is that in terms of support for abortion rights, most American voters actually have a moderate position favoring restrictions/limmits but not bans or near bans. The percentage of "pro choise" voters you referance in this series is actually the percentage of voters who are at least slightly closer to favoring abortion being always legal under any circumstsnces then to it being fully banned. But to be clear, the majority of US voters still do NOT favor the now dominant Democratic Party position of near unrestricted abortion acess, even if most are now closer to it then to its extreme opposite of full abortion bans. And in much of the Southern US, actual voting on this issue (as apposed to potentially biased voter survays) suggests that at least in much of the Deep South the opposite is true.
I am really enjoying this series. Very interesting, thank you!
Very interesting. I very much like the political demographic assessment of geographic place rather than the Democrats fixation on victim group categorization. One can live an hour away from two communities and find drastic differences in the life experienced of the people living in both communities. Charles Murray covered this well in his work comparing Belmont and Fishtown. Although Belmont isn't a real place, there are many similar comparisons throughout the US.
I find this sort of thing so facinating! I enjoyed the first two so much I subscribed as I want to comment here! However Saint. Louis County is actually not an Exurb but an Urban Suburb! I am guesing you confused it with Neighboring St. Charles or Jefferson Counties, which are classified as Exurbs in American Communities.
One additional thing to note about exurban counties is that while relatively affluant on average, home values are also lower then in most urban suburbs and most Exurb residents actually lack college degrees. Many manufacturing plants and warehouse facilities have moved to the exurbs in recent decades, while many (disproportionatally well off) working to lower middle class residents have moved there from inner suburbs in particular in recent decades.
Finally, Exurbs in The American Communities project aren't just true exurbs, but also many smaller isolated metropolitan areas or large micropolitan areas with similer demographic and social chericteristics as most true exurban counties. There are also many counties in many other community types such as Graying America, African American South, Working Class Country, Hispanic Centers, etc etc that are also exurban in terms of density, location and economic function for larger metro areas as well.
Thanks for the kind words, Samuel! And good catch, that should have been St. Charles County -- it's now updated.
And yes, the community types aren't perfect, and I think ACP would acknowledge as much. My sense is they chose the ones they thought were *most* applicable to a given county.
Interesting stuff. I do find it curious that they consider Larimer CO as an exurb. The place is dominated by Colorado State would seem to fit the college town model. I suppose there are some that commute to Denver now that housing prices have been Californicated but that is more common in Boulder which is considered a college town.
I suspect that is because this goes by county as a whole, and the college isn't as dominant county wide as it might seem at first. Note that Exurb counties in the American Communities project include many small isolated metro areas that have similer demographic, economic and other chericteristics as the majority of true Exurbs, but are not actual exurbs in terms of commuting to a large nearby metro.
Likewise, many true exurb dominated counties (in terms of density, location and commuting patterns) are also not clasified as Exurbs by the ACP because they fit strongly in terms of demographics or other charicteristics into other catigories, such as Graying America, African American South, Hispanic Centers, Working class Country etc etc.
Also keep in mind that actual counties often contain urban centers, older and newer suburbs, exurbs etc all within the same county in differant areas to some extent. While I live in an "Urban Suburb" county, where I actually live is basically a lower to mid density industrial commuter town in far exurbia. I can hear cows and goats and roosters down the street from my bedroom on a regular basses!
Larimer has an ag component that gets services out of Ft. Collins so perhaps that but CSU dominates
Actually it's a lot more then that. The county also has large manufacturing, logistics and of course tourism componants as well. Larimer County could certianly also be called a college town (County) but it is also definately an exurb for Denver. But these are overlapping (in many casses) catigories and again, Exurb in ACP's clasification scheme is based on the county's many charicteristics and not limmited only to true exurbs (in terms of commuting, location etc.), -nor encompasing nearly all of them. Imstead, the American Communities project picked what it felt was the best clasification for each county when a county could fit in more then one catagory. Ft Collins is home to less then half of Larimer County's population.
CSU indeed dominates the local area and is the biggest part of Ft. Collins economy, but it does not actually dominate Larimer County as a whole, which is home to more then 359,000 residents and has a large amount of commuting both to and from nearby counties, including to and from within the Denver metro area. More importantly, CSU Ft. Collins, while it is a major univirsity 34,000 students, is also a major commuter (as well as local!) school so many students and workers commute from out of the county while Ft. Collins itself is home to nearly 170,000 residents and has a more diversified local economy then one might think.
All of which is true of Boulder county too. Perhaps more of the local industry has direct ties to the university than is the case in Larimer. I knew that there was a light manufacturing base in Larimer but again, Boulder. I think much of the flat part of Boulder has been paved so ag has faded away. I contend that the giant brewery presence in Larimer should count toward college town status. :>)
Yes, up to a point that is true, but I suspect it is much less true of Boulder, which is a small county truly dominated by the city of Boulder which is much more intensly college dominated compared to Ft. Collins. Again, it's all relarive and they had to pick a catagory for each county. I think this comes off as mistaken to some because they really prioritize (and are just more aware of) important universities and clusters of college students and college educated professionals over other aspects of rhe economy and population, ware-as The American Communities project was truly trying to treat all sectors of the economy and public equally in their annalyses based on available data.
One unrelated note, is that in terms of support for abortion rights, most American voters actually have a moderate position favoring restrictions/limmits but not bans or near bans. The percentage of "pro choise" voters you referance in this series is actually the percentage of voters who are at least slightly closer to favoring abortion being always legal under any circumstsnces then to it being fully banned. But to be clear, the majority of US voters still do NOT favor the now dominant Democratic Party position of near unrestricted abortion acess, even if most are now closer to it then to its extreme opposite of full abortion bans. And in much of the Southern US, actual voting on this issue (as apposed to potentially biased voter survays) suggests that at least in much of the Deep South the opposite is true.