It's both but I consider it a suburb.

I believe Eric is correct...“Alexandria = city, Kingstowne = suburb”

Both. The City of Alexandria (Alexandria is an "independent city" rather than a county or other unincorporated area, as defined by the Virginia constitution) is a suburb of Washington, D.C.

As Pete points out, Alexandria is clearly a city. However, it is also a classic streetcar suburb (at least, everything but the West End) as described in the Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streetcar_suburb

Alexandria is a mix of urban and suburban. It's become more urban during the past two decades as the density of development has increased, and more people can now walk to stores, restaurants, etc. But the majority of people still depend on their cars to get places. We are very much a bedroom community, in which most residents go elsewhere to work each day. We have some top-notch restaurants and retail stores and a few noteworthy cultural institutions (Torpedo Factory, Alexandria Symphony Orchestra), but no major museum. I see us as a small-scale city hosting a large, suburban-oriented bedroom community.

I agree with Pete and Steve: Alexandria is a city, with it's own rich history, character and governance, that is part of the larger surburban region around the nation's capital. While Del Ray is a neighborhood in Alexandria, it often feels to me like a small town in and of itself, not far from a big city, which is one of the many reasons why we love it.

substantial part of a major metropolis, and people have to accept that, but they think they live in Smallville

The City of Alexandria is a City, although it is not the same as Washington, D.C. or Baltimore City. It has its own uniqueness, now if we could just get the developers to realize we are Olde Towne for a reason, not New Town, or New City!

I think it depends on who you ask. If you live in Alexandria, you're more likely to say it's a city, whereas DC dwellers would laugh and insist it's a suburb. It is what you make it!

Here's a quote from an article in Atlantic Cities which discusses this exact question. I think it sums it up for me pretty well:

"to live in the city is to take a kind of risk, while to live in suburbia is to avoid it. Cities are amazing places because, in exchange for all their downsides – crime, noise, congestion, metal detectors – there is always the possibility of stumbling upon a bar or a person or an idea that doesn’t exist in less cacophonous places. But you have to accept that risk. Alexandria, I secretly suspect, has never asked this of me."

http://www.theatlanticcities.com/arts-and-lifestyle/2012/05/pseudo-suburbanists-dilemma/2098/

We moved from Herndon - south of the toll road. That was suburbs, nearly exurbs. You had to drive to get anyplace. Del Ray is more like a small town, and even Old Town has that flavor. I love that Del Ray has local businesses and it really has a personality unlike anywhere else in the DC Metro area. Where else will you fond an honest to goodness hardware store, with knowledgeable staff that treats you like you are the most important customer? And, I love that there are NO chain restaurants along Mt. Vernon. Local flavor, small town feel. Del Ray.

When traveling, if someone asks, I first say I live in Alexandria, Virginia. If they look puzzled, I tell them we are just over the river, southwest of DC. That is for a geographical point of reference. Alexandria is very much a city, and a pretty well run one for the most part. I miss the days when Vola Lawson was city manager. I never think of Alexandria as a suburb of DC, because we have a town center and well established council, mayor, managers and plenty of citizens groups. The burbs, to me, are areas that sprung up mainly for cheaper housing, with no town centers and no walkable shopping areas.

It's a mixture of suburban and town centers. It's getting more "semi-urban" areas, but they will never be large enough or dense enough to qualify as truly urban. At least not in my life time.

Del Ray is a town within the City of Alexandria. There are definitely suburbs in the larger Alexandria (like most of the communities outside the beltway)... but Del Ray does not really fit the burb mold.

Excellent link Lindsey. Thank you.

Just like many cities, Alexandria has "burroughs". That term is not used here in this area, but it should be because we have so many of them. Whether it's Del Ray, Seminary Ridge, Old Town, Belle View, Fort Hunt, or many of the other areas that are communities within themselves, they really are burroughs. It's like you pass from one to another to another without even realizing it. In New England, they are quaint enough to post signs to identify which burrough you are entering. I noticed that on Route 1, there are now signs identifying those specific neighborhoods. It would be quaint if the city would consider posting such nicely architected signs to do the same. Arlington has several to identify the "section" that one is in - off Lorcom Lane is "Maywood" and there's "The Rose District", etc. Alexandria is BIG and people don't realize just how big it is. And explaining to them that 1/2 of it is in Fairfax County, some of it is "The City of Alexandria" versus Alexandria, inside or outside the beltway. That's why I keep a fold up map with me to give the info visually. It helps visitors and newcomers understand just how big and confusing we are :)

D.C. certainly has it's share of burroughs and it's a fraction of the size we are.

Re: the confusion over "suburb" and "suburban."

Suburbs of major urban centers (themselves usually "cities") can be towns, other cities, counties, or other types of areas. Just like Cambridge, Mass., is a city of 105,000 and is a "suburb" of Boston, Alexandria is a city of 145,000 and is a "suburb" of Washington DC. So is Arlington, a county of 220,000, and Fairfax County (over 1,000,000) and Fairfax City, an independent city that is the seat of the same-named county that it's not part of (Virginia makes it interesting, that's for sure), and Huntington, an unincorporated area in "the Alexandria section of Fairfax County" a phrase often used by the Washington Post. Certainly these are urban suburbs and differ from suburbs farther away from the urban center that they all surround, but that would be expected, given how long these inner suburbs have existed and their proximity to the urban center.

"Suburban" brings to mind areas of tract housing, shopping centers, and dependence on cars, and just as certainly, many suburbs fit that description, particularly those farther from the urban core. But in the future, those, too, may urbanize and even become towns or cities (which remain political definitions). Witness attempts today to do that with Tysons Corner--to remake a strip-mall car-dependent "area" into a city.

Unless we live in the city after which our metropolitan areas are named, we live in the "suburbs." But they may not be "suburban."

As David Brooks would say, it's an "inner-ring suburb" http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/04/magazine/our-sprawling-supersize-utopia.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm

Is it a poll if I have to fill-in-the-blank? City.

I do not understand how anyone can walk around old town and call Alexandria a suburb.

Neither. I just say I'm from Alexandria, just outside DC. Suburb or city doesn't seem to matter.

I feel like Alexandria is a small town. However, all things are relative. If you come from almost anywhere else in Virginia, Alexandria is a city. If you ask anyone who lives in DC, Alexandria is a suburb.

For me, as someone who used to live in the West End - which looks like a city from afar but is certainly more like a suburb - but now lives in Del Ray - which certainly has more of a small town feel - I feel like Alexandria is a mix of communities.

"I noticed that on Route 1, there are now signs identifying those specific neighborhoods. It would be quaint if the city would consider posting such nicely architected signs to do the same."

The City of Alexandria doesn't need signs to signify where you are, because Alexandria knows what it is, and people know when they are there. Unlike Fairfax County, 1/2 of which calls itself "Alexandria", although it is not. It does this because it otherwise has no identity, and have developed the landscape so that one place looks just like any other. I was reading a periodical recently that referenced a new office building in Alexandria. Unsure of where it was, I googled the address. It was west of Springfield outside the beltway. It was outside of Springfield, and most definitely not anywhere near Alexandria.

In other words, the suburbia of Fairfax County is whatever it is, and they need signs to make up their identity, because they really have none.