Ex[Sub(urban)]

We were discussing in class how to make our blogs more interesting by branching out to other related topics. As an example, we discussed, for my blog, writing about the differences between urban, suburban, and exurban areas.

A good example of this would be Kansas City, Missouri.
Urban: Inner-city Kansas City (downtown, the Plaza, etc.).
Suburban: City limits touching Kansas City's (Lee's Summit, Grandview, N. Kansas City, Independence, etc.).
Exurban: Outer-Lying cities (Peculiar, Platte City, St. Joseph?).

These cities are often referred to as commuter towns - the inner city is often home to many jobs of the commuters from the suburbs. Exurbs developed during the 1970s, when many urban areas faced job losses and increased crime.

In the US, suburbs and exurbs often house the middle and upper classes. They're outside of the crime-ridden inner city and are at a short enough commute to not waste lots of gas money. In Europe, however, it's different. The suburbs are filled with crime and urban decay, while the inner cities are extremely expensive to live within.

Paris, for instance, brings in the most tourists per year in the world. In order to attract more tourists, the French government (in the 1950s) built housing projects in the nearby city of Nanterre. These huge buildings housed hundreds of immigrants from North Africa and Asia, while the native Parisian population enjoyed the beautiful city of Paris just across the Seine River.

I have an Algerian friend with an aunt who resides in a wealthier suburb of Paris. He often refers to Nanterre as, "Nonterre," which means, with bad French grammar, "No land."

This is a map of Paris and it's many, many suburbs. It gives me a headache.