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Notes -
I know what a towhouse is. I meant that they provide sufficient density to count as urban. Brooklyn brownstones are townhouses, and it's definitely not a suburb of Manhattan.
Well, that depends on what percentage of the housing is composed of townhouses, right? The mere fact that OP lives in a townhouse does not mean that his community is not suburban. See my links to townhouses for sale in Simi Valley, which is clearly suburban
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I think whether or not a townhouse is suburban or not has more to do with its location and surroundings than it does with the type of housing. In the US ‘townhouse’ developments are common housing for the poor and working class in the suburbs (eg. one sees many in outer Queens and Brooklyn). In the previous user’s case they’re more affluent and so these townhouses tend to be semi-dense planned neighborhoods built by a single developer in the suburbs but designed with some limited walkability within the complex.
Technically a large Brooklyn brownstone is a townhouse but for various reasons (including most saliently lack of any off-street parking) they tend to be much denser than townhouse developments built from the late 20th century onwards.
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