What would you consider to be the largest suburb in America?

[bing101]

North Hempstead, NY is as big as Stockton,Ca it has 225k people and its listed as a town.

Woah if North Hempstead  and Hempstead towns in New York state were to merge then we'd have a city that could carry the population of San Jose, Ca

[empirestate]

We keep circling back to what the OP considers as a suburb, but the thread subject is "What would you consider to the the largest suburb in America?".

On the other hand, the body of the OP does say "what city", so that would let Hempstead out. But that pretty much takes the whole of NYS out of the running, because in most of the state a "suburb" is almost always a town. The suburbs of Rochester are Brighton, Irondequoit, Penfield, Greece, etc.–all towns. Sure, there are some villages peppered in here and there, but they actually stand out as little municipal islands amidst the suburban fabric. The NYC metro is actually oddball by this convention, because it does have so many incorporated villages surrounding it, and because towns have a much lower identity level downstate. Even in Suffolk County, where much less of the area is incorporated than Nassau or Westchester, suburb names tend to be names of hamlets (unincorporated places).

As for Yonkers, although it's the fourth largest city in the state and has its own downtown core, it very much functions like a suburb. The eastern parts are sprawly, and the western parts are like a railroad town. It feels more like a sixth borough than a satellite city, and the adjacent city of Mount Vernon feels like a sub-borough of Yonkers (or even of the Bronx). New Rochelle and White Plains, by contrast, feel more detached.

On the other hand, Mesa, AZ.

[SteveG1988]

Canada, a loft over a great party.

[bassoon1986]

As far as population proportion to the city it's a suburb of, I'd think I'd almost have to nominate Metairie, LA, despite its unincorporated status.

I guess I don't understand the unincorporated thing, especially when you can have a Metairie address. Or does unincorporated have more to do with having no elected officials?

[Pete from Boston]

As far as population proportion to the city it's a suburb of, I'd think I'd almost have to nominate Metairie, LA, despite its unincorporated status.

I guess I don't understand the unincorporated thing, especially when you can have a Metairie address. Or does unincorporated have more to do with having no elected officials?

It is not a chartered, organized are with its own municipal government.  Sub-town places ("census-designated places") have a lot of names that don't correspond to a governmnent–the Mets officially play in "Flushing, New York," for example, but Flushing hasn't been an incorporated town since NYC absorbed it in 1898.  In other states (outside of the Northeast) areas with no local government, only county government, are considered unincorporated.

Mailing address is really almost meaningless–you could have your mail addressed to Hamburglar, LA, and as long as the zip code is right, the mail should get to you.

[empirestate]

As far as population proportion to the city it's a suburb of, I'd think I'd almost have to nominate Metairie, LA, despite its unincorporated status.

I guess I don't understand the unincorporated thing, especially when you can have a Metairie address. Or does unincorporated have more to do with having no elected officials?

That's all there is to it–not even elected officials, but any officials at all. Unincorporated areas simply have no government other than what's already in place over the larger area. So in Louisiana, unincoporated places have no government below the parish level. In NYS terminology, unincorporated areas have no government beyond that of the town.

[roadman65]

What about Arlington, VA (the county that everyone is misconceived as a city) being a large suburb of DC?  Being a county without any municipal type of governing body you could hardly call it a satellite city.  Plus most of its residents work in DC and even though has Roslyn and Crystal Cities which have office buildings, hardly a center core downtown by definition.

[bing101]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brookhaven,_New_York

Brookhaven, NY has a population size of 486,040


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fresno,_California

This town is close to the Population size to the city of Fresno.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesa,_Arizona
Mesa,AZ as mention could be a case between Suburb and city.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glendale,_Arizona

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandler,_Arizona

These other cities are counted as Phoenix suburbs.

[bing101]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hayward,_California
Close Proximity to Oakland at 150k people

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fremont,_California
Close Proximity to San Jose at 220k people.

[jeffandnicole]

As far as population proportion to the city it's a suburb of, I'd think I'd almost have to nominate Metairie, LA, despite its unincorporated status.

I guess I don't understand the unincorporated thing, especially when you can have a Metairie address. Or does unincorporated have more to do with having no elected officials?

It is not a chartered, organized are with its own municipal government.  Sub-town places ("census-designated places") have a lot of names that don't correspond to a governmnent–the Mets officially play in "Flushing, New York," for example, but Flushing hasn't been an incorporated town since NYC absorbed it in 1898.  In other states (outside of the Northeast) areas with no local government, only county government, are considered unincorporated.

Mailing address is really almost meaningless–you could have your mail addressed to Hamburglar, LA, and as long as the zip code is right, the mail should get to you.

If you use your last name *or* house number, and the 9 digit zip code (12345-6789), it should get to you.  Everything else is unneeded.

[cpzilliacus]

Plus most of its residents work in DC and even though has Roslyn and Crystal Cities which have office buildings, hardly a center core downtown by definition.

For the purposes of travel demand forecasting, those areas of Arlington County are considered part of the regional downtown (and many office buildings are tall enough that they would be unlawful in the District of Columbia, so worker density potentially is higher than what can be found in D.C.).