Why Do Suburbs Face Distinctive Challenges?

Annexation
Annexation, by definition, is the process of legally adding land area to a city. Land can only be annexed to a city only if a majority of residents in the affected area vote in favor of doing so. Previously, people embraced annexation because during the nineteenth century, annexation offered better service to peripheral residents such as water supply, sewage disposal, trash pickup, paved streets, public transportation, and police and fire protection. However, people now prefer to organize their own services and wish to live near a large city, but not necessarily part of it so they reject annexation.

City
There are different types of urban settlements, which are city, urbanized area, and metropolitan area. A city is often characterized as a legal entity because it has been legally incorporated into an independent, self-governing unit. A city has locally elected officials, the ability to raise taxes, and the responsibility for providing essential services.

Centralized City
In the United States, a city surrounded by the suburbs is sometimes called a central city.

Urbanized Area
An urbanized area is characterized as a continuously build up area because it consists of a central city and its contiguous build up suburbs where population density exceeds 1,000 persons per square mile. About 70% of the U.S. population lives in urbanized areas, including the 30% in central cities and 40% in the surrounding area.

Metropolitan Statistical Area
However, this method for measuring the functional area of a city is not perfect, One problem is that some MSAs includes extensive non-urban land area, such as Sequoia National Park in California.

Micropolitan Statistical Area
As of 2008, the United States had 574 micropolitan statistical areas, most of which are found in the southern and