Yeah - for a person who is adjusted to only living in big cities then sure. However, Buies Creek is 30 minutes away from the downtown of a city. It is not rural by almost anyone else's definition.
It'd be like saying Atherton, CA is rural because it's a "smaller" town of 7k people. Ignoring that it's within a 8 million population metro and within 30-45 minutes of a 1 million population sprawling city (San Jose) and another 800k+ densely populated one (San Francisco).
I've never lived in any big city. Literally never. Not even close, always 20+ minutes away from the major city.
The thing is: suburbia itself is a network of smaller cities. Buies Creek has no "smaller city" near it. Buies Creek IS the city.
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To continue your Atherton example... Atherton is a suburb of ___Palo Alto___, not a suburb of San Fran. It is a brisk 4-mile bike-ride from Atherton to Palo Alto and back, you don't even need a car if you live in Atherton and commute to Palo Alto.
There's NOTHING walking or biking distance to Buies Creek, NC. Rural is more about "distance from nearest metro".
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Buies Creek NC is 40-minutes to Raleigh. This is rural by my experience. True, Buies Creek NC is "less Rural" for people who are used to 2-hour drives (Coulee City to Spokane), but a 40-minute drive away from a big city is Rural by most people's definition of Rural.
lol - this is so disconnected from how anyone who lives a truly rural lifestyle would think of it.
20 minutes is a joke! Living multiple hours away is considered more standard.
Its less about population size and more about distance from the urban center. Coulee City is a 2-hour drive from a major city (Spokane), while Buies Creek is maybe a 40-minute drive from a major city (Raleigh).
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From MY perspective, both Buies Creek and Coulee City are rural.
But from the perspective of someone who lives in Coulee City, they probably think Buies Creek is suburban (since it is commute-distance from a city).