How far do the suburbs extend?

[ZachariahDaMan]

I was wondering how far you guys thought to the west, south, and north it goes until it's no longer considered the suburbs.

[RustTown]

It's about commuting patterns, not really all that subjective at all.

[Zissou]

I think the answer is, too far.

[Allan]

Well, my parents live in Grand Blanc Township. Most of their neighbors commute to places like Auburn Hills & Troy. There is a huge building frenzy, though it has slowed down in the last year or so due to the economy. I don't think many people consider it to be part of Metro Detroit, but the sprawl of Flint & Detroit is definitely mingling together up that way.

[wolverine]

Well looking at general population clusters... I would say Waterford would be about the bleeding edge of Detroit's northern sprawl.

Some like to consider Ann Arbor as a suburb of Detroit. If they do, that would be the farthest west Otherwise, the Detroit metropolitan area ends in Canton. Anything further is a ribbon of rural land separating Ann Arbor and Canton.

Technically a city or region is a suburb if a greater part of the population relies on its core city for jobs and services. Although people do commute to Detroit for work, the majority of the city relies on its own businesses and corporations for jobs and shopping. It's self sufficient enough not to be a suburb. It could be argued that some places that reside between two major cities could be a suburb of either one. As LMich said, you have to look at commuting patterns.

It's kind of funny how on some forums people bicker about this topic, when in actuallity, there's really nothing to debate about. By looking at literal definitions, everything is black and white.

[Allan]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that Fenton and Grand Blanc are the exceptions when it comes to Genesee County's commuting patterns.

Let's avoid the "Ann Arbor is/isn't a suburb of Detroit" debate though, ok? LOL.