[nrr]

I think you might be reading stricter definitions into some words than I intended.

If Everett, WA; Renton, WA; and North Charleston, SC, are not urbanized areas, what are they?

If a factory with a ZIP code in San Antonio, TX, isn't in a city, where is it?

Going closer to home for me: is Red Bud, IL, not a city? Hecker? Freeburg? Mascoutah? Belleville?

That city job I wrote about was not in St. Louis.

[vel0city]

I can see our miscommunication here. I feel we need more resolution between the binary of urban and rural.

Where I grew up we'd have the neighbors cows wander into our yard and eat our plants when they got out. The Census defined it as urban.

So when I see Renton, WA and you ask if it's "urban", well yeah I'd agree it's urban by the census and limited binary choices. Is it "urban" like San Francisco or Manhattan or even Seattle? Not even close, it's far from that still. It's almost all single family detached homes.

[nrr]

I don't disagree that more resolution is needed, but we do need to start somewhere when it comes to what truly is rural.

For me, the occasional farm interspersed between single-family homes (or the occasional subdivision of single-family homes interspersed between farms, same deal), strip malls, and Boeing Field (or, in my case, Scott AFB) isn't it. That's merely the outskirts of town.

Alternatively, if you have any chance at all of being reached by anything other than a 50 kW AM radio station from a major city like KMOX, you're probably some semblance of urban.

Similarly, if you can have mail delivered to your street address and not merely a shared delivery point, you're probably some semblance of urban.

Densely urban? No, absolutely not.