On 1/16/2016 7:31 PM, rbowman wrote:
On 01/16/2016 02:04 PM, Don Y wrote:
"A town of" is misleading. I grew up in a town of 20,000 -- the high
school
sat in the middle of a corn field. But, in a metro area of some several
MILLION! In the time it took me to drive to high school, I could have
headed
off for any of the surrounding "cities".

Technically Missoula is a first class city. The only larger city in Montana is
Billings, 340 miles to the east. Then there's Spokane, 200 miles to the west,
or Boise, 370 miles south.

At ~70K population, 24 sq mi?

Tucson (236 sq mi) 526K

The towns sharing a *border* with Tucson (that I can remember, off the top
of my head):
Catalina Foothills 50K
Casas Adobes 68
South Tucson 5
Tucson Estates 10
Flowing Wells 15
Vail 10
Littletown 1
Tanque Verde 16
Drexel Heights 24
=====
189K

Add places "nearby" (i.e., a few miles) like Marana, Oro Valley, Green Valley,
etc. and that's probably another 200K. I.e., that's just "commuting distance"
(I'll ignore the twits who commute to feenigs!)

Now:

I can't remember enough of the adjoining towns from Denver so I'll skip
that.

Boston (89 sq mi) 645K

With adjoining towns:
Cambridge 107K
Somerville 78
Revere 53
Chelsea 37
Watertown 32
Brookline 58
Newton 88
Needham 28
Dedham 24
Milton 27
Quincy 93
Everett 42
====
667K

Then:

Chicago (234 sq mi) 2719K

And, *adjoining* suburbs (this is a bit harder to remember so I'll only try for
the easy ones -- Vic can tell me what I've missed):

Skokie 65K
Evanston 75
Park Ridge 37
Niles 30
Elk Grove Village 33
Elmhurst 45
Oak Brook 8
Oak Lawn 56
Berwyn 56
Cicero 84
Des Plaines 59
====
548K

I won't tackle NYC... :

Note that the Boston metro area would fit *inside* the city limits of
Chicago so you actually have more locations (retail outlets) available
in a given distance. By contrast, Tucson is roughly the same size
as Chitown with 1/5th the population! And, once you're out of
the immediate vicinity, there's NOTHING 'til you get to feenigs!

If you can't find it 'in town' you're not likely to drive to a nearby city. 25
years ago I would go over to Spokane but in the last two decades the big box
stores have come to town, for better or worse. Now a trip to REI is a short
walk from work, not a 400 mile trek. Even at that the selection is limited
compared to the big city stores.

Here, I can wander through any of the (listed) adjoining towns without
really knowing when I've crossed into one. But, the distances get to
be pretty long and roadways poorly placed. E.g., I could drive from
downtown Boston out to Medford/Lexington/Dedham/etc. in less time than
I can get to the nearest *interstate* -- IN TOWN!

And, very few things are *made* here (contrast with Chicago) so I'm
really only looking for retail outlets, not manufacturers.

OTOH, pity the 500 souls who live in Picacho where the "big city"
is Eloy at 16K! :-/ (I wonder if they have a gas station, there?)