The Best Suburbs In North America: 10 Places With Great Urbanism Outside the Core City

Today's video features -- suburbs! A typical "best suburbs in America" list would focus on things like "good" schools, low crime rates, tolerable traffic...you know, things the type of people who like suburban life tend to care about.

This channel always has a different take, though. Instead, I wanted to know -- what are the most URBAN suburbs? It really isn't an oxymoron. So I looked at suburbs with density, good urban fabric, good Walk and Bike Score ratings (citations below), and great transit.

The list, and the honorable mentions, end up being a lot of fun. Hope you enjoy!

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CityNerd background: Caipirinha in Hawaii by Carmen María and Edu Espinal (YouTube music library)

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[natsfan]

Key point about Arlington is that they fought in the 1970s to have Metro stations only half a mile apart. Metro wanted them much farther. It's really helped build up the density.

[roccoisdaman]

Hello!!!! I am a transit planner for the county of Arlington, Virginia! Glad to see us make the list. I specificity joined the team here because of the incredible transit-oriented development that has taken place here. Arlington’s lowest subdivision of jurisdiction is the county. There is no “city of Arlington.” The county manager is essentially the mayor. There is much more to the upzoned areas around metros than just Rosslyn. That density extends all the way to Ballston, on the west of the county. Similar development happened in both Pentagon and Crystal City. And now, the Columbia Pike in the south is being transformed in a similar manner (though not as dense because of the lack of metro stations along the route).

[jimbo]

On the topic of considering affordability: I would love to see a video on affordable walkable places since most walkable cities in North America tend to be super expensive.

[richardtaylor]

I love that you included 3 Boston suburbs on your official list plus honorable mention of Malden. Honestly, there are a few more such as Quincy. All these cities existed about the same time as Boston was founded. During the 1900’s, cities started to be annexed by Boston. Brookline was always well-to-do and decided against becoming part of Boston. A small strip of land was created so Brighton and Allston could be part of the contiguous Boston boundary. Many of Boston’s farther out suburbs were originally created around rail stations. Even places like Concord, Gloucester, and Rockport have nice walkable downtowns that are centered on their commuter rail stations. I live over 30 miles from Boston, but I can walk to my town’s train station and be in Boston in less than an hour.

[JSfilms]

Video suggestion: best waterfronts (whether it be river, lake or coast) for North American cities. Whenever I travel, one of the most charming and enduring elements of the urbanist experience is how the cityscape incorporates its natural water assets. Love your content, keep it up!

[ZackN]

One of the interesting phenomenons impacting this is the different ways that cities have or have not expanded their own borders. Philadelphia's absence from the list (and, I believe, Toronto's as well) has as much to do with the size of its physical borders as anything else. There are incredible neighborhoods within the current Philly city limits that don't count as suburbs (but indeed, some were developed as "street car suburbs") that are farther away from downtown Philly than Cambridge is from downtown Boston or Hoboken is from Manhattan.

[tylerjacobs]

Moving to Evanston is actually what sparked my interest in urban planning and development. I moved here after being born and raised in a very rural area and a stopover for 5 years in a typical sprawl suburb in the Chicagoland and the accessibility to everything here has literally been life changing.

[jonathanjackson]

Having visited Southern California recently, I can confirm that it's a place that has never fully let go of the 1970s.

[PatJDelaney]

As a Cambridge resident, seeing Somerville, Brookeline, and Cambridge came as 0 surprise. Lots of great comments about why Brookline isn't part of Boston (Cambridge did the exact same). I love living here and the fact that the area is getting more transit and more cycle infrastructure makes it even better with a bright future!

[susanjt]

I currently live in Arlington VA and have lived in Cambridge MA (and Belmont MA which is adjacent to Cambridge). Having also lived in more “traditional” suburbs in Ohio, I agree these “suburbs” have much more of a city vibe. They always felt much more urban to me and I considered living in these places as living in the city. In Cambridge I didn’t have a car and when I moved to Arlington from Ohio 6 years ago, I downsized to one car which I only use on average about once a week. Access to public transit in these areas is incredible and walkability is off the charts. I think of myself as a city girl at heart.

[WhatsOnTheOtherEnd]

Always happy to see BC / Vancouver making the mark! New West has had a ton of new development in the past decade, which revamped it from an "uhh I don't know about that" place to a "I'd love to buy a condo there" suburb. Lots of demand, great waterfront. One stop on the skytrain is seemingly "inside" a mall / shopping district and has a super cool feel to it.

[jojobear]

Brookline had the opportunity to be absorbed into the core city but voted against it in the late 19th century. I think this was one of the earlier examples of a wealthy independent municipality rebuffing urbanization. While Brookline is relatively dense, other wealthy suburbs immediately adjacent to Boston have specifically fought against having the T extended into their territory.

[bagenstb]

I lived carless in Boston for over a decade, and hardly noticed a difference when I went to Cambridge, Somerville, or Brookline. That combination really felt like one decent size city, not one small city with three suburbs next door. In fact, a lot of people called Cambridge & Somerville "Camberville" because no one really knew where one started and one ended. On the other hand, Natick (where I worked) definitely felt like a suburb when I went out there. Amazing what having good rail transit will do.

[Cub_E]

Just moved to Somerville from Colorado Springs a few months ago and it is an incredible place. Access is unreal. We live a two minute walk from Porter Square which you showed twice in the video! As a CO native I never really wanted to move east at all, but we have really fallen in love with Somervill, Boston, and New England in general!

[seanwilliams]

I knew Evanston would be on this list. As a native Chicagoan who's spent time in Evanston and Oak Park, I would have considered them roughly equal, but you brought up a great point about the university. That probably is the biggest difference between the two places.

[michaelengelhardt]

Thanks for including Arlington, VA. Have lived car free here for 5 years and love it!

[rmkeding]

I live in Evanston and get around car-free using the Purple Line and the bike lanes. Massive expansion of bike infrastructure planned. Also there are lots of new residential developments both midrise and highrise being constructed. Proximity to the lakeshore parks and beaches also a huge asset. Pretty much the ideal for what an American suburb should strive to be, in my view.

[teddymacrae]

Never ever ever in a million years did I think I'd see my home town (Coquitlam) in a citynerd video. I returned there for about a year in 2021 and I must say contrasting the old built form to the new, they have done a really good job of taking a typical 60s suburb and doing something with it.

[i-Sparki]

As someone who lives in the NYC metro, it's funny that a few cities never seem to be noticed: New Rochelle, White Plains, and Yonkers. All three are walkable and bikeable with transit running right through their downtowns (Metro-North) with Yonkers being served by 7 stations on 2 separate lines. Not only that but frequent bus service runs in all these cities too.

[AverytheCubanAmerican]

Yup, I don't consider Newark to be a suburb either. By the same definition, Jersey City would be a suburb too, but both Newark and Jersey City although being in the NYC metro, are cities on their own with significant amounts of people. They are too urban to be considered suburban imo. My mom's originally from Newark, we lived in Jersey City for a few years, and we're on Long Island now and if you told us Newark is as much of a suburb as Suffolk County, we'd laugh at you. Living in Jersey City, I enjoyed making little trips to Hoboken just to walk around and even go geocaching. It gets points added for me for being the birthplace of Frank Sinatra, and also because they still have the beautiful Hoboken Terminal which has been used in movies like Muppets Take Manhattan and Julie & Julia.

I'm glad Union City is an honorable mention. Union City is considered the Havana on the Hudson because of how culturally Cuban the place is (but unlike Miami Cubans, NY metro Cubans are left-leaning; like myself). So not only is the area perfect for commuting to places like having all those buses that cross through Union City while heading to the Lincoln Tunnel, the Bergenline shuttles that go to Newport mall in Jersey City, and the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail at Bergenline Ave, but is also culturally rich.