Comments by "Laurence Fraser" (@laurencefraser) on "What is a suburb?" video.

  1. See, this whole idea is a bit weird to me, because in common usage Here, a suburb is literally just a sub unit of a city. There's no confusion, a city has suburbs, a suburb can't have cities, and if it's Not part of a city it isn't a suburb, it's a town. (Or township, if it's a sign post, a shop or two, a church and a petrol station in the middle of the countryside, not even always on the same road.) Cities get their own local governments (towns and surrounding countryside get grouped together into districts instead), and generally have universities, ports, cathedrals, stadiums, and other such major infrastructure. Generally in different suburbs. Towns generally don't. Admittedly, most cities have a "central business district", often labeled as as "(city name) central" or something like that on maps which show suburbs, which isn't usually refered to as a suburb (except collectively with the others), but nor is it the city. Of course, most of the suburbs started life as entirely separate towns, too, so they generally have their own, if lesser, 'down town' equivalents (not that we usually call them that). Of course, there is the slight oddity of farmland immediately around cities sometimes falling under their jurisdiction, and greenbelts often include farmland too, mixed in with the parks and reserves. Part of the city (and even of a suburb, usually) administratively, but no one would claim you were In the city while standing on such farmland unless it was in part of the greenbelt that had city on both sides of it (not always the case, cities not being circular), and even then, only sort of. The joys of dialects and diverse systems, I guess.
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