Why isn't Jacksonville considered urban?

[jaxlvr_24]

It seems like JAX gets the short end of the stick in the national media because we are not considered an urban area. This article in Slate says that "it's a stretch to call some of these areas "urban", when referring to Jacksonville, Fla.

What does it take to get some respect?

[Urban_Legend]

hahaha....

Well I don't know if they're talking about density, but Jacksonville isn't a very dense city. At least when compared to some of the others on that list. Jacksonville is only at like 1,000,000+ people and growing. There's enough room in Duval County to hold ALOT more.

On that note, I hope that Duval sets some kind of limit to how far out they can sprawl. In South Florida, the development boundaries are actually forcing developers to build up!

[asonj23]

Jacksonville has its share of urban areas, but it definitely does lack in overall density. This has a lot to do with its population spread from one end of the county line to another. This is partly blamed on the city/county consolidation in the 60's and the 25-30 year trend toward suburban living. Now that people are starting to realize the benifits of urban living, Jax's denisty is quickly rising. Density being a key measurement of urbanity.

[gt7275a]

Looking at the list (http://www.dhs.gov/interweb/assetlibrary/FY06_UASI_Eligibility_List.pdf) it seems that it is not the urban area for each city rather the actual city limits (with the 10 mile buffer). Notice that the Los Angeles area identifies each incorporated area specifically (the visible exception being the National Capital Region which doesn't specify much at all).

Compared to these other areas JAX does seem to be, overall, one of the more non-urban areas listed but I believe that is just because of the nature of the city limits. One thing not mentioned in the Slate Column is the number of military installations in Jacksonville and Honolulu (where Kansas City came from is still beyond me though). Right now I am still trying to figure out why San Diego and Las Vegas are no longer eligible.

[asonj23]

Our core area is pretty dense (i.e. the CBD, Springfield, Riverside, etc). The thing that would lower our numbers is the fact that the city limits are shared with the county line adding a ton of undeveloped area into the calculations.

[Charleston native]

The people make that claim, yet they actually neglect to mention an important fact: the city limits of Jax almost encompass an entire county! This fact alone should negate the negative connotations of the city not being "urban". With having over 700 square miles, the city can naturally expand and provide suburbs.

However, I've read of many different density projects being done in Jax, so those should quiet the urban Jax detractors in a few years.