California is home to the rugged Sierra Nevada, bucolic vineyards, wave-stroked beaches - and the most densely urbanized areas in the nation. That's the finding of the U.S. Census Bureau, which on Monday reaffirmed a counterintuitive truth: The cities of the West, barely considered cities at all by many East Coast pundits, often are more densely populated than such skyscraping metropolises as New York and Chicago. Los Angeles is the nation's most densely urbanized area, with a population of nearly 7,000 people per square mile. The 3.28 million people living in and around San Francisco and Oakland are runners-up, with a density of 6,266 people per square mile. San Jose places third, with a density of 5,820 people per square mile and a population within its urbanized area of 1.66 million. These numbers are shaped by commute patterns and geographic features rather than municipal boundaries. But they make sense to people who see in them an affirmation of how the West Coast has evolved since the 1800s.
[Read More...]