Reading the paper this morning, I also learned a new word (for me): exurb.
Exurbs are rural communities that, due to proximity, are becoming suburbs of a major urban area. Exurbs tend to be populated by people that work in the city and bring their capital home to spend on local services. Exurbs are commonly viewed as the only rural communities which are benefiting from the rural exodus. These communities tend to be highly competitive.
I wonder if Huntly, IL falls in this definition.
Over time, exurbs
evolve(damned Pokemon fucks!) morph into suburbs. Once, Poway was an exurb. It’s definitely suburbia now, it even has its own angsty punk rock band to prove it. Ditto anyplace cvk’s parents have ever lived. The next question is, what do you call a city which was a city unto itself, but then devolves into a suburb when a larger city’s suburbia grows to encompass it? (Witness: Rockford, Elgin, Aurora, Joliet, and eventually Kenosha.)