Quote:
Originally Posted by westak
Yes, NEO is a mess from a definition standpoint. Right now, I'm at work in the Akron Urban Area, and I also live in the Akron Uban Area. My coworker in the office next to me works in the Akron Urban Area and lives in the Cleveland Metro Area simultaneously, while other coworkers live and work in the Akron Urban Area and the Canton Metro Area simultaneously. That being said, I agree entirely that they are all separate Urban areas. Having family in Lorain/Elyria I agree with that separation as well. The countless times I've stayed in Lorain County, I've never felt like I was staying in Cleveland; it felt like its own adjacent area to Cleveland.
|
The point is, that's not objective. It's your opinion. There is no scientific rule stating Cleveland, Lorain and Akron are urban areas. That's simply a convention. In fact, if I'm not mistaken, the US Census Bureau itself acknowledge that.
CSA is usually heavily criticized here. MSA are spared way more than it should. And UA is taken as some scientific measure whereas in fact it's incredibly inconsistent.
But sure, one might want to regard Cleveland and Akron as separated metro areas just because (and I fail to see why: metro areas might be polycentric), however to split them you'll have to use completely arbitrary lines in a map. Be it for the MSA, be it for the UA, both following administrative borders. If one wants be "scientific", we can see clearly the urbanized areas on the northern areas of Summit County seems much more a continuation of Cleveland sprawl than Akron's. Same for Portage County.
Things are so interconnected that it's pointless to try to chop this region around just because they have more than one "famous" city. More to the point: why Anaheim is Los Angeles and Ontario is not?