Can small towns have suburbs?

[Noneck_08]

Was just woundering how big does a city have to be to have suburbs. Iv'e seen many small cities and towns that have large communties/developments connected to them. If any one is familiar with High Point, it is begaining to absorb Thomasville. But yet T-ville is a large independent city(23,000) so could High Point actually put T-ville as a suburb or T-ville just be a big bedroom city. But back to the point there are many small town that are benifeting of smaller communties(1-3000 range) so could all this be considered suburbs?

[krazeeboi]

I guess it would depend on how we define "suburb." Is a suburb simply a significantly smaller municipality in close proximity to a much larger one? Must it come into existence sometime after the larger municipality, and if so, how much longer? Must it be primarily characterized by sprawl? I'm not really knowledgeable about this so somebody help me out.; I'm just thinking out loud.

[teshadoh]

Easy answer - sure, small towns can have suburbs.

[bobliocatt]

Yes, my hometown of Winter Haven, FL (pop. 30,000) has several suburbs around it in the 10,000 population range.

[Spartan]

A suburb is a nearby area or municipality that has strong economic ties to a core area. It can still have some individual funcitonality, but usually most people commute to the core area.

A small town example is that of Bluffton, SC. Bluffton is a town of 1,275 people. The area around it has about 10k- so it is essentially a suburb of 10k. It is a rapidly growing suburb of the resort town of Hilton Head Island. Most of its residents work on HHI.

[Blazer85]

I would have to agree that smaller cities can have suburbs. For example, in Birmingham, there is a suburb called Gardendale. Gardendale has about 15,000 people. On the outskirts have Gardendale sits Mount Olive, a smaller town of about 4,000 people. Mount Olive doesnt have much of any retail sector at all, but Gardendale does. Mount Olive is almost completely residential while Gardendale is moderately independent (though still dependent upon Birmingham).

[nashvol85]

I would call Spring Hill and Thompson's Station suburbs of Franklin more than Nashville in some cases. Spring Hill is kind of a suburb or Franklin and Columbia...of sorts.

[brewerw]

It seems like Clarksville is eating at Hopkinsville. If youve ever been to dowtown H'town its building are almost totaly abandonded. Clarksville is growing at a much faster rate.

[rantanamo]

I think they exist. Marshall, Tx's workforce is served by the small towns around it in East Texas. Those people also look to Marshall for shopping and entertainment. An example of something smaller is Jefferson, Texas(~2500 people). There are several unincorporated communities that actually have names around Jefferson. These people, in addition to its own residents make up the workforce of Jefferson(mainly tourism, logging, city services and Blackburns). People commute from the communities and single homes out in nowhere to these workplaces.

[dgreen]

It seems like Clarksville is eating at Hopkinsville. If youve ever been to dowtown H'town its building are almost totaly abandonded. Clarksville is growing at a much faster rate.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I was stationed at FTCKY back in '93. The Clarksville area has grown so quickly.

[cityboi]

I think small towns can have them but they are typically called "bedroom communities" as oppose to suburbs which is used to call a small community outside of a large city.