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Scott Foden
Professor Hoffmann
Intellectual Traditions
February 2, 2016

Towns and Cities

Even though cities and urban areas take up less than three percent of land throughout the

United States, over seventy five percent of Americans live in or around the city (Cox). Cities

have been growing ever since America was founded, but towns still occupy far more land than

cities. With cities constantly on the rise and more people leaving small towns every year, it

seemed reasonable to look at the symbiotic relationship between towns and cities. First off, what

is technically defined as a city? A city is technically defined as a place of greater size,

population, or importance, than a town or village. For this paper, places will be considered cities

if the state considers them to be a city or if the village/borough is within a city. As for towns,

places that will be considered towns are places that the state considers to be a hamlet, village, or

town. Even though villages and hamlets are technically different from towns, it seemed

reasonable to put both hamlets and villages into the same category as towns because hamlets and

villages are smaller than towns. The goal of viewing this symbiotic relationship is to show the

importance of small rural towns. Even though cities are constantly on the rise, factors such as

land, and lower level education help show why small towns are critical for the development of

large metropolitan cities. Towns may have less appeal to Americans, but rural towns are essential

for the survival and prosperity of cities.

To show the symbiotic relationship between cities and towns, I decided to focus on some

of the biggest global cities within America. The paper will mostly consist of facts from the cities

of Boston, New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago. These cities are considered to be some of

the biggest cities in America, with New York City having a population of approximately eight
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million and Los Angeles having a population of about four million. Chicago also has a

population of three million while Boston has a population of about seven hundred thousand

(Largest Cities in the United States by Population). Even though these cities are extremely

populated, they also are defined as global cities. New York City is home to the world's largest

stock exchange and is also home to the most college students compared to any other city, well

Boston has the largest medical research programs in the country. Overall, these cities are some of

the most influential places in America, so it deemed essential to observe these cities and the

towns nearby while studying this symbiotic relationship.

The first factor that I decided to look at is land and real estate. Large metropolitan cities

are some of the most expensive places in the world and it is almost impossible to get a cheap

place somewhere. In a place like Boston, on average, someone with a million dollars can buy

about 2092 square feet and in New York City and Los Angeles a million dollars can buy someone

about 2300 square feet (Kiersz). After looking at these prices I researched the average price for a

square foot in nearby towns close to these cities. After doing the calculations, a million dollars

can get someone over double the square feet they can get in the city. In the town I grew up in

which is twenty minutes away from Boston, a million dollars can buy someone on average 4500

square feet and towns fifteen minutes away from Boston such as Danvers and Beverly people

can buy about 4000 square feet. New York had even more of a drastic difference between real

estate prices. In the town West Milford, NJ which is only forty minutes away from the city,

people can get 8850 square feet of land with a million dollars and in Huntington, NY people can

get 6100 square feet of land. Even though some people can afford to live in the city, many people

do not have the money to buy an apartment or pay rent in the city. Also, even if someone can buy

an apartment in the city, in places such as Boston or New York people sometimes have to pay a
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couple hundred dollars a month to park their car. With nearby towns offering cheaper

opportunities for housing it gives people the opportunity to work in the city while living away

from the city in a cheaper area.

Even though towns help cities with land and real estate, cities are essential for people that

live in towns and want to work. In cities throughout America, over a hundred thousand people

commute into the city every single weekday for work. Boston, New York, and Los Angeles are

considered to be the worst cities in America for commuting. On any given weekday,

approximately 787,000 people commute to Boston (Conti), 608,000 people commute to New

York City(Roberts), and 471,000 people commute to Los Angeles (471,000 Workers Commute

into Los Angeles County, Calif., Each Day). With that many people driving into the city every

single day, it is clear why cities are essential for towns. Cities employ hundreds of thousands of

people and are also essential for large companies. World-wide companies such as International

Business Machines (IBM) and Pepsi have their headquarters in New York City and companies

such as Walgreens and Boeing have their headquarters in Chicago, Illinois. With large companies

such as these ones employing over thousands of people, it is essential for their headquarters to be

at a common meeting place that everyone can make it to. Even though commuting to the city is

considered to be one of the worst experiences in the world, cities help to employ the people that

live in towns around the city.

Another large aspect of the relationship between towns and cities is education. In almost

every town in America, a lower level school can be found such as an elementary, middle school,

or high school. Towns are perfect for children that are learning the basics to education and are

learning grades one through twelve. Towns help children get the ground basis for education

because the schools are close to the students so they can live at home while in school. Although,
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cities are essential for students when it comes to post-secondary education. With post-secondary

education becoming more common, it is more essential that colleges lie in the cities. After

graduating from high school, people find more specific schools that relate to the career they want

to pursue and that is why colleges in the city are essential so that way it is a place everyone can

get to. To test out this statement, I decided to track the amount of colleges in cities compared to

towns in states such as Illinois, New York, and Massachusetts and found that colleges were far

more prevalent in cities compared to towns. After researching where every college is in the state

of Illinois I found out that seventy-six colleges were in the city while twenty-one colleges were

in towns. That means that seventy-eight percent of colleges within the state of Illinois were in

cities instead of towns. Boston and New York shared similar statistics as well. Out of the one

hundred twenty-two colleges that I tracked in Massachusetts, about seventy percent of colleges

lied in cities. New York has one hundred and nineteen colleges in cities compared to the fifty-

eight that are in towns. Also, New York City single handedly holds over fifty colleges. After

looking at this information, it is clear why both towns and cities are essential for educational

purposes. Towns are the easiest way for students to receive lower forms of education. With

generally an easy commute and public transportation provided by public schools, it is reasonable

why students should get their lower education in local towns. Although, once students have to

pursue a specific pathway and career, cities give students the opportunity to pursue the career of

their choosing.

The last feature that I studied closely is farming throughout towns and cities. To find out

where farms were in certain states I attempted to search throughout Google Maps finding all of

the farms in certain states. Even though all of the farms did not appear, the farms that sold their

food at their own farm tended to appear. The first state that was investigated was Massachusetts,
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and the statistics helped prove that towns are essential. I recorded twenty major farms in the state

of Massachusetts and a hundred percent of those farms lied in towns instead of cities. In Illinois,

I only counted twenty major farms as well but over sixty five percent of the farms lied in towns.

Towns are essential for farmers to grow their crops, especially in a place such as Illinois which is

the leading producer of corn, soybeans, and swine. The land in which farmers grow crops on is

essential for cities to survive.

After looking at the facts, it is clear why urbanization is not always a good thing. There

are negative factors that people think of when it comes to urbanization such as pollution,

violence, and physical inactivity, but people also seem to forget that urbanization leads to a

decrease in rural towns, which is something that is essential to America. Without town's, people

that could not afford to live in urban areas would have nowhere to live at a cheap price. Also,

food would not be able to be grown in large proportions at a cheap price and fresh and local food

would be harder to access. Towns and cities share an incredibly strong symbiotic relationship,

and even though urbanization is always on the rise, rural towns is what keeps cities alive and

successful.

Works Cited

471,000 Workers Commute into Los Angeles County, Calif., Each Day." The United States

Census Bureau. N.p., 05 Mar. 2013. Web. 02 Feb. 2017.

Conti, Kathleen. "Boston Commute Is as Congested Now as It Was 10 Years

Ago."BostonGlobe.com. N.p., 17 Sept. 2015. Web. 02 Feb. 2017.

Cox, Wendell. "How Much of the World Is Covered by Cities?" How Much of the World Is

Covered by Cities? | Newgeography.com. N.p., 23 July 2010. Web. 02 Feb. 2017.

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Kiersz, Andy. "Here's How Much Real Estate A Million Dollars Buys You In Every Major US

City." Business Insider. Business Insider, 11 Mar. 2014. Web. 02 Feb. 2017.

Largest Cities in the United States by Population." Ballotpedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Feb. 2017.

Roberts, Sam. "Commuters Nearly Double Manhattans Daytime Population, Census

Says."Nytimes.com. N.p., 3 June 2013. Web. 2 Feb. 2017.