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136-768: Framingham ( / ˈ f r eɪ m ɪ ŋ h æ m / ) is a city in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts , United States. Incorporated in 1700, it is located in Middlesex County and the MetroWest subregion of the Greater Boston metropolitan area. The city proper covers 25 square miles (65 km) with a population of 72,362 in 2020 , making it the 14th most populous municipality in Massachusetts. Residents voted in favor of adopting

272-465: A Super Stop & Shop just north of Route 30. It now includes the original area plus parts of Old Connecticut Path., Concord St. (Route 126), and Speen St. north of Route 30. Because of the size and complexity of this area, Framingham and Natick cooperatively operate it as a single distinct district with similar zoning . The area is one of the largest shopping districts in New England . The area

408-624: A 2006 Massachusetts Historical Commission Preservation Award in the Restoration and Rehabilitation Category. In addition, several retail and housing projects involving the Arcade Building and the former Dennison Building Complex are in the planning stages or under construction. The business section on the West Side of Framingham runs primarily along Route 9, starting at Temple St., and is dominated by two large office/industrial parks:

544-577: A central area containing buildings with special economic, political, and religious significance. Archaeologists refer to this area by the Greek term temenos or if fortified as a citadel . These spaces historically reflect and amplify the city's centrality and importance to its wider sphere of influence . Today cities have a city center or downtown , sometimes coincident with a central business district . Cities typically have public spaces where anyone can go. These include privately owned spaces open to

680-665: A central authority. The term can also refer either to the physical streets and buildings of the city or to the collection of people who dwell there and can be used in a general sense to mean urban rather than rural territory . National censuses use a variety of definitions – invoking factors such as population , population density , number of dwellings , economic function, and infrastructure – to classify populations as urban. Typical working definitions for small-city populations start at around 100,000 people. Common population definitions for an urban area (city or town) range between 1,500 and 50,000 people, with most U.S. states using

816-461: A central point. This form could evolve from successive growth over a long time, with concentric traces of town walls and citadels marking older city boundaries. In more recent history, such forms were supplemented by ring roads moving traffic around the outskirts of a town. Dutch cities such as Amsterdam and Haarlem are structured as a central square surrounded by concentric canals marking every expansion. In cities such as Moscow , this pattern

952-517: A charter to transition from a representative town meeting system to a mayor–council government in April 2017, and the municipality transitioned to city status on January 1, 2018. Before it transitioned, it had been the largest town by population in Massachusetts. The city has one of the largest Brazilian American populations in the United States, with a considerable Brazilian presence since

1088-552: A combination of these. Societies that live in cities are often called civilizations . The degree of urbanization is a modern metric to help define what comprises a city: "a population of at least 50,000 inhabitants in contiguous dense grid cells (>1,500 inhabitants per square kilometer)". This metric was "devised over years by the European Commission , OECD , World Bank and others, and endorsed in March [2021] by

1224-523: A compromise, proclaiming the day as Patriots' Day . In April 1975, Concord hosted a bicentennial celebration of the battle, featuring an address at the Old North Bridge by President Gerald Ford . Concord has a remarkably rich literary history centered in the 19th century around Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882), who moved there in 1835 and quickly became its most prominent citizen. A successful lecturer and philosopher, Emerson had deep roots in

1360-620: A continuous urban landscape called urban agglomeration , conurbation , or megalopolis (exemplified by the BosWash corridor of the Northeastern United States .) The emergence of cities from proto-urban settlements , such as Çatalhöyük , is a non-linear development that demonstrates the varied experiences of early urbanization . The cities of Jericho , Aleppo , Byblos , Faiyum , Yerevan , Athens , Matera , Damascus , and Argos are among those laying claim to

1496-430: A distinctive elite social class, but it should indeed be considered a city based on a functional redefinition of urban development. In particular, Jenné-Jeno featured settlement mounds arranged according to a horizontal, rather than vertical, power hierarchy, and served as a center of specialized production and exhibited functional interdependence with the surrounding hinterland. More recently, scholars have concluded that

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1632-403: A financial downturn after the closure of these facilities during the late 1980s. An influx of Hispanic and Brazilian immigrants helped to revitalize the district starting in the early 2000s. Along with Brazilian and Spanish oriented retail shops, there are restaurants, legal and financial services, the city offices and library, police headquarters, a performing arts center, and the local branch of

1768-477: A grid plan with specialized districts used across the Hellenistic Mediterranean . The urban-type settlement extends far beyond the traditional boundaries of the city proper in a form of development sometimes described critically as urban sprawl . Decentralization and dispersal of city functions (commercial, industrial, residential, cultural, political) has transformed the very meaning of

1904-665: A group of Nipmuc men went to the Eames family homestead to demand that they return a stolen corn harvest. Although the historical record is unclear as to the exact details, this would result in an outbreak of violence between the Nipmuc men and the Eames family, where Mary Eames and five children were killed. As more settlers moved to the town, it would be named Framlingham after Thomas Danforth's hometown in England. Over time, Thomas Danforth strenuously resisted petitions for incorporation of

2040-511: A key role in both the economy and government. Late antique cities in the East were also undergoing intense transformations, with increased political participation of the crowds and demographical fluctuations. Christian communities and their doctrinal differences increasingly shaped the urban fabric. The locus of power shifted to Constantinople and to the ascendant Islamic civilization with its major cities Baghdad , Cairo , and Córdoba . From

2176-706: A large increase in population and housing. Much of the housing constructed during that time consisted of split-level and ranch-style houses. Framingham is known for the Framingham Heart Study , as well as for the Dennison Manufacturing Company, which was founded in 1844 as a jewelry and watch box manufacturing company by Aaron Lufkin Dennison , who became the pioneer of the American System of Watch Manufacturing at

2312-666: A large segment of the Brazilian population has come from the single city of Governador Valadares . Framingham's Home Rule Charter was approved by voters on April 4, 2017, and took effect on January 1, 2018. On that date, Yvonne M. Spicer was inaugurated as Framingham's first mayor. Elections are held in November of odd-numbered years, to elect a full-time mayor serving a four-year term, and an 11-member city council comprising nine district members serving two-year terms, and two at-large members serving four-year terms. The mayor replaced

2448-470: A manner indistinguishable from the American pronunciation of the word "conquered." In the local dialect of Greater Boston , it is frequently heard with the [ər] in the second syllable replaced by [ ʏ ] ( [ˈkɒŋkʏd] KAHN -kəd ). According to Concord's 2016 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, the principal employers in the town are: Concord and West Concord stations are served by

2584-531: A minimum between 1,500 and 5,000 inhabitants. Some jurisdictions set no such minima. In the United Kingdom , city status is awarded by the Crown and then remains permanent. (Historically, the qualifying factor was the presence of a cathedral , resulting in some very small cities such as Wells , with a population of 12,000 as of 2018 , and St Davids , with a population of 1,841 as of 2011 .) According to

2720-588: A new MathWorks facility. Sealtest had a manufacturing facility in Framingham which was used by Breyers from 1964 to 2011 The downtown area is between Memorial Square, formed by the intersection of Concord St. and Union Ave., to the north, and its mirror intersection at the junction of Irving St. and Hollis St. on the south end. The area is bisected by Waverly St. (Route 135) and the MBTA Commuter Rail tracks. The anchoring structure of Downtown

2856-478: A police department. The Framingham School Department can trace its roots back to 1706, when the town hired its first schoolmaster , Deacon Joshua Hemenway. Although Framingham had its first schoolmaster, it did not get its own public school building until 1716. The first high school, the Framingham Academy, opened its doors in 1792; however, this school was eventually closed due to financing issues and

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2992-703: A privileged elite among towns having won self-governance from their local lord or having been granted self-governance by the emperor and being placed under his immediate protection. By 1480, these cities, as far as still part of the empire, became part of the Imperial Estates governing the empire with the emperor through the Imperial Diet . By the 13th and 14th centuries, some cities become powerful states, taking surrounding areas under their control or establishing extensive maritime empires. In Italy, medieval communes developed into city-states including

3128-495: A rule cannot produce their own food and therefore must develop some relationship with a hinterland that sustains them. Only in special cases such as mining towns which play a vital role in long-distance trade, are cities disconnected from the countryside which feeds them. Thus, centrality within a productive region influences siting, as economic forces would, in theory, favor the creation of marketplaces in optimal mutually reachable locations. The vast majority of cities have

3264-580: A small cabin near Walden Pond , where he wrote Walden (1854). After being imprisoned in the Concord jail for refusing to pay taxes in political protest against slavery and the Mexican–American War , Thoreau penned the influential essay "Resistance to Civil Government", popularly known as Civil Disobedience (1849). Evidencing their strong political beliefs through actions, Thoreau and many of his neighbors served as station masters and agents on

3400-654: A strip mall named Shoppers World. There are also seven hotels and two car dealerships located within the Triangle. In addition to retail properties, there are large office developments in the area including several companies headquartered in the triangle; the world headquarters of TJX is at the junction of Route 30 and Speen St, as is the main office of IDG and IDC . The American Cancer Society has an office in Framingham. A Carling Brewery began operations in 1956, ending in 1975. Their buildings later housed Prime Computer and Boston Scientific before demolition in 2018 for

3536-549: A super-wealthy elite living in gated communities and large masses of people living in substandard housing with inadequate infrastructure and otherwise poor conditions. Cities around the world have expanded physically as they grow in population, with increases in their surface extent, with the creation of high-rise buildings for residential and commercial use, and with development underground. Urbanization can create rapid demand for water resources management , as formerly good sources of freshwater become overused and polluted, and

3672-423: A temple. A minority viewpoint considers that cities may have arisen without agriculture, due to alternative means of subsistence (fishing), to use as communal seasonal shelters, to their value as bases for defensive and offensive military organization, or to their inherent economic function. Cities played a crucial role in the establishment of political power over an area, and ancient leaders such as Alexander

3808-499: A vote of 265 to 272. The ban on selling water in polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles of one liter or less passed in 2012 by a vote of 403 to 364, and a repeal effort in April failed by a vote of 621 to 687. According to the United States Census Bureau , the town has a total area of 25.9 square miles (67 km ), of which 24.9 square miles (64 km ) is land and 1.0 square mile (2.6 km ), or 3.75%,

3944-567: A workers' town associated with the pyramid of Senusret II , and the religious city Amarna built by Akhenaten and abandoned. These sites appear planned in a highly regimented and stratified fashion, with a minimalistic grid of rooms for the workers and increasingly more elaborate housing available for higher classes. In Mesopotamia, the civilization of Sumer , followed by Assyria and Babylon , gave rise to numerous cities, governed by kings and fostered multiple languages written in cuneiform . The Phoenician trading empire, flourishing around

4080-529: Is also notable for its progressive and environmentalist politics, becoming in 2012 the first community in the United States to ban single-serving PET bottles. The area which became the town of Concord was originally known as "Musketaquid", situated at the confluence of the Sudbury and Assabet rivers. The name was an Algonquian word for "grassy plain", fitting the area's low-lying marshes and kettle holes . Native Americans had cultivated corn crops there;

4216-530: Is served by one Interstate and four state highways : Park and ride services: Framingham's economy is predominantly derived from retail and office complexes. There are scatterings of small manufacturing facilities and commercial services such as plumbing, mechanical and electrical expected to be found in communities of its size. Framingham has three major business districts within the city, The "Golden Triangle", Downtown/South Framingham, and West Framingham. Additionally, there are several smaller business hubs in

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4352-399: Is served by: Framingham has a public, educational, and government access (PEG) cable TV channel and local origination television station called Access Framingham (formerly FPAC-TV), that airs on Channel 9 Comcast , Channel 3 RCN and Channel 43 Verizon . Residents can create and produce their own television programs that reflect the personality of the community, and have them cablecast on

4488-517: Is still clearly visible. A system of rectilinear city streets and land plots, known as the grid plan , has been used for millennia in Asia, Europe, and the Americas. The Indus Valley Civilization built Mohenjo-Daro , Harappa , and other cities on a grid pattern, using ancient principles described by Kautilya , and aligned with the compass points . The ancient Greek city of Priene exemplifies

4624-576: Is the city hall, The Memorial Building. From 2015 to 2016, the whole area underwent a multimillion-dollar reconstruction of the intersection of Union Ave. and Concord St. that replaced the traffic circle with a signal-controlled intersection. Additional lights were installed at the Irving St./Hollis St. intersection, while older signals in the area were upgraded. All sidewalks in the area were to be replaced, lighting upgraded, and new amenities such as seating and bicycle racks were also installed. The project

4760-478: Is the city's physical and historic center. Formed at the junctions of Worcester Rd. (Route 9) , Pleasant St. (Route 30), High St., Main St. and Edgell Rd. the dominating presence is Framingham State University . The school has several thousand students, about one third of whom live on campus. In the late 1960s, MassHighway replaced the intersection with an overpass, depressing Route 9 below the local roads, and destroying

4896-420: Is the most urban continent, with four-fifths of its population living in cities, including one-fifth of the population said to live in shantytowns ( favelas , poblaciones callampas , etc.). Batam , Indonesia , Mogadishu , Somalia , Xiamen , China , and Niamey , Niger , are considered among the world's fastest-growing cities, with annual growth rates of 5–8%. In general, the more developed countries of

5032-475: Is water. The city of Lowell is 13 miles (21 km) to the north, Boston is 19 miles (31 km) to the east, and Nashua, New Hampshire , is 23 miles (37 km) to the north. Massachusetts state routes 2 , 2A , 62 , 126 , 119 , 111 , and 117 pass through Concord. The town center is near the confluence of the Sudbury and Assabet rivers, forming the Concord River , which flows north to

5168-605: The Los Angeles Times characterized the ban as "born of convoluted reasoning" and "wrongheaded." Some residents believed the ban would do little to affect the sales of bottled water, which was still highly accessible in the surrounding areas, and that it restricted consumers' freedom of choice. Opponents also considered the ban to unfairly target one product in particular, when other, less healthy alternatives such as soda and fruit juice were still readily available in bottled form. Nonetheless, subsequent efforts to repeal

5304-615: The Battles of Lexington and Concord that followed; one of those men was wounded. In the years before the American Civil War , Framingham was an annual gathering-spot for members of the abolitionist movement. Each Independence Day from 1854 to 1865, the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society held a rally in a picnic area called Harmony Grove on Farm Pond near what is now downtown Framingham. At

5440-567: The Concord River . The area that became the town of Concord was originally known as Musketaquid , an Algonquian word for "grassy plain." Concord was established in 1635 by a group of English settlers; by 1775, the population had grown to 1,400. As dissension between colonists in North America and the British crown intensified, 700 troops were sent to confiscate militia ordnance stored at Concord on April 19, 1775. The ensuing conflict,

5576-455: The MBTA 's Fitchburg Line . Yankee Line provides commuter bus service between Concord and Boston. Concord's sister cities are: Concord is featured in the 2012 video game Assassin's Creed 3 , the 2020 video game Assassin's Creed Valhalla and the 2015 video game Fallout 4 . The video game Walden, a game , based on Henry David Thoreau's Walden, is set in the town. Scenes from

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5712-693: The Merrimack River in Lowell. Gunpowder was manufactured from 1835 to 1940 in the American Powder Mills complex extending upstream along the Assabet River. Local government consists of a five-member executive Select Board and a legislature utilizing open town meeting . On the federal level, Concord is part of Massachusetts's 3rd congressional district , represented by Lori Trahan . The state's senior ( Class I ) member of

5848-603: The Republic of Venice and the Republic of Genoa . In Northern Europe, cities including Lübeck and Bruges formed the Hanseatic League for collective defense and commerce. Their power was later challenged and eclipsed by the Dutch commercial cities of Ghent , Ypres , and Amsterdam . Similar phenomena existed elsewhere, as in the case of Sakai , which enjoyed considerable autonomy in late medieval Japan. In

5984-546: The Social Security Administration . Several Asian and Indian stores and restaurants add to the rich ethnic flavor of the area, and many small businesses, restaurants and automotive-oriented shops line Waverly St. from Natick in east to Winter St. in the west. In 2006, the Fitts Market & Hemenway buildings façades underwent a restoration project; these newly renovated structures received

6120-555: The Three Sisters (squash, corn, beans) in the nearby hills. The ancient Native trail later known as the Old Connecticut Path also ran through this area. During the initial period of colonization of the region by Puritan settlers, the Nipmuc suffered a rapid decline in population due to the introduction of foreign infectious diseases to which they had no immunity and violence related to settler colonialism. Many of

6256-654: The Underground Railroad . The Wayside , a house on Lexington Road, has been home to several authors. It was occupied by scientist John Winthrop (1714–1779) when Harvard College was temporarily moved to Concord during the Revolutionary War. The Wayside was later the home of the Alcott family (who referred to it as "Hillside"); the Alcotts sold it to Hawthorne in 1852, and the family moved into

6392-947: The United Nations ... largely for the purpose of international statistical comparison". The word city and the related civilization come from the Latin root civitas , originally meaning 'citizenship' or 'community member' and eventually coming to correspond with urbs , meaning 'city' in a more physical sense. The Roman civitas was closely linked with the Greek polis —another common root appearing in English words such as metropolis . In toponymic terminology, names of individual cities and towns are called astionyms (from Ancient Greek ἄστυ 'city or town' and ὄνομα 'name'). Urban geography deals both with cities in their larger context and with their internal structure. Cities are estimated to cover about 3% of

6528-496: The United States Census Bureau , the city has an area of 26.4 square miles (68.5 km), of which 25.1 square miles (65.1 km) is land and 1.3 square miles (3.4 km) (4.99%) is water. As of the census of 2010, there were 68,318 people, 26,173 households, and 16,535 families residing in the city. The population density was 2,732.7 inhabitants per square mile (1,055.1/km). There were 27,529 housing units, of which 1,356, or 4.9%, were vacant. The racial makeup of

6664-739: The United States Senate is Elizabeth Warren . The junior ( Class II ) senator is Ed Markey . At the 2020 census, there were 18,491 people, 7,295 housing units and 6,439 families residing in the town. The population density was 714.0 inhabitants per square mile (275.7/km ). The average density of housing units was 282.0 per square mile (108.9/km ). The racial makeup of the town was 82.94% White , 2.61% African American , 6.18% Asian , 4.55% Hispanic or Latino (of any race), 0.02% Native American , 0.02% Pacific Islander , 1.02% from other races , and 6.86% from two or more races. There were 6,439 families, of which 35.98% had children under

6800-505: The Uruk period . In the fourth and third millennium BC , complex civilizations flourished in the river valleys of Mesopotamia , India , China , and Egypt . Excavations in these areas have found the ruins of cities geared variously towards trade, politics, or religion. Some had large, dense populations , but others carried out urban activities in the realms of politics or religion without having large associated populations. Among

6936-636: The battles of Lexington and Concord , were the incidents (including the shot heard round the world ) that triggered the American Revolutionary War . A rich literary community developed in Concord during the mid-19th century, centered around Ralph Waldo Emerson . Emerson's circle included Nathaniel Hawthorne , Louisa May Alcott and Henry David Thoreau . Major works written in Concord during this period include Alcott's novel Little Women , Emerson's essay Self-Reliance , and Thoreau's Walden and Civil Disobedience . In this era,

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7072-730: The civilization of Djenne-Djenno was likely established by the Mande progenitors of the Bozo people . Their habitation of the site spanned the period from 3rd century BCE to 13th century CE. Archaeological evidence from Jenné-Jeno, specifically the presence of non-West African glass beads dated from the third century BCE to the fourth century CE, indicates that pre-Arabic trade contacts probably existed between Jenné-Jeno and North Africa. Additionally, other early urban centers in West Africa, dated to around 500 CE, include Awdaghust , Kumbi Saleh ,

7208-524: The commune ( in France and Chile ; or comune in Italy). Concord, Massachusetts Concord ( / ˈ k ɒ ŋ k ər d / ) is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts , United States. In the 2020 census , the town population was 18,491. The United States Census Bureau considers Concord part of Greater Boston . The town center is near where the Sudbury and Assabet rivers join to form

7344-427: The government workers . (This arrangement contrasts with the more typically horizontal relationships in a tribe or village accomplishing common goals through informal agreements between neighbors, or the leadership of a chief.) The governments may be based on heredity, religion, military power, work systems such as canal-building, food distribution, land-ownership, agriculture, commerce, manufacturing, finance, or

7480-538: The knowledge economy . A new smart city paradigm, supported by institutions such as the RAND Corporation and IBM , is bringing computerized surveillance , data analysis, and governance to bear on cities and city dwellers. Some companies are building brand-new master-planned cities from scratch on greenfield sites. Urbanization is the process of migration from rural to urban areas, driven by various political, economic, and cultural factors. Until

7616-491: The public-access television cable TV channels. Framingham High School has a student-run television station, FHS-TV, that broadcasts locally; "Flyer News", its morning news program, has won 11 National High School Emmy Awards. The City of Framingham operates the Government Channel shown on Comcast channel 99, RCN 13/HD613, and Verizon 42. The Government Channel operation provides programming sponsored by or for

7752-564: The service economy and public-private partnerships , with concomitant gentrification , uneven revitalization efforts , and selective cultural development. Under the Great Leap Forward and subsequent five-year plans continuing today, China has undergone concomitant urbanization and industrialization and become the world's leading manufacturer . Amidst these economic changes, high technology and instantaneous telecommunication enable select cities to become centers of

7888-535: The " Global North " remain more urbanized than the less developed countries of the " Global South "—but the difference continues to shrink because urbanization is happening faster in the latter group. Asia is home to by far the greatest absolute number of city-dwellers: over two billion and counting. The UN predicts an additional 2.5 billion city dwellers (and 300 million fewer country dwellers) worldwide by 2050, with 90% of urban population expansion occurring in Asia and Africa. Megacities , cities with populations in

8024-539: The "functional definition", a city is not distinguished by size alone, but also by the role it plays within a larger political context. Cities serve as administrative, commercial, religious, and cultural hubs for their larger surrounding areas. The presence of a literate elite is often associated with cities because of the cultural diversities present in a city. A typical city has professional administrators , regulations, and some form of taxation (food and other necessities or means to trade for them) to support

8160-568: The 1854 rally, William Lloyd Garrison burned copies of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, judicial decisions enforcing it, and the United States Constitution . Other prominent abolitionists present that day included William Cooper Nell , Sojourner Truth , Wendell Phillips , Lucy Stone , and Henry David Thoreau . During the post-World War II baby boom , Framingham, like many other suburban areas, experienced

8296-532: The 18th century), Ile-Ifẹ̀ (70,000 to 105,000 inhabitants in the 14th and 15th centuries), Niani (50,000 inhabitants in 1400 AD) and Timbuktu (100,000 inhabitants in 1450 AD). In the West, nation-states became the dominant unit of political organization following the Peace of Westphalia in the seventeenth century. Western Europe's larger capitals (London and Paris) benefited from the growth of commerce following

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8432-420: The 18th century, an equilibrium existed between the rural agricultural population and towns featuring markets and small-scale manufacturing. With the agricultural and industrial revolutions urban population began its unprecedented growth, both through migration and demographic expansion . In England , the proportion of the population living in cities jumped from 17% in 1801 to 72% in 1891. In 1900, 15% of

8568-461: The 1980s. Prior to European colonization , the region around Framingham was inhabited by the indigenous Nipmuc . They lived in settlements established alongside the Washakamaug ("eel fishing place") or what is today called Farm Pond. The Nipmuc people used game management techniques through the hunting of deer and beaver, fishing in ponds and streams, as well as established growing areas for

8704-579: The 2017 comedy film Daddy's Home 2 were filmed at Concord scout house. Parts of the 2019 film Little Women were shot on the Concord River . Jane Langton 's Homer Kelly murder mystery novels are largely set in Concord. Her 1964 novel 'The Transcendental Murder' was described in the Boston Globe in 1975 as 'a hymn to Concord, its history, its houses, its hallowed ground, its people and patriots, and its ghosts (Emerson and Thoreau)'. Italian director Lucio Fulci 's 1981 horror film The House by

8840-406: The 26,173 households, 31.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 48.2% were headed by married couples living together, 10.8% had a female householder with no husband present, and 36.8% were non-families. 28.4% of all households were made up of individuals, and 10.0% were someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.47, and the average family size

8976-718: The 30th and 18th centuries BC. Mesoamerica saw the rise of early urbanism in several cultural regions, beginning with the Olmec and spreading to the Preclassic Maya , the Zapotec of Oaxaca, and Teotihuacan in central Mexico. Later cultures such as the Aztec , Andean civilizations , Mayan , Mississippians , and Pueblo peoples drew on these earlier urban traditions. Many of their ancient cities continue to be inhabited, including major metropolitan cities such as Mexico City , in

9112-750: The 9th through the end of the 12th century, Constantinople , the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire , was the largest and wealthiest city in Europe, with a population approaching 1 million. The Ottoman Empire gradually gained control over many cities in the Mediterranean area, including Constantinople in 1453 . In the Holy Roman Empire , beginning in the 12th century, free imperial cities such as Nuremberg , Strasbourg , Frankfurt , Basel , Zürich , and Nijmegen became

9248-517: The Alcotts are buried on Authors' Ridge in Concord's Sleepy Hollow Cemetery . The 20th-century composer Charles Ives wrote his Concord Sonata ( c.  1904–1915 ) as a series of impressionistic portraits of literary figures associated with the town. Concord maintains a lively literary culture to this day; notable authors who have called the town home in recent years include Doris Kearns Goodwin , Alan Lightman , Robert B. Parker , and Gregory Maguire . In 1849, Ephraim Wales Bull developed

9384-566: The Andes, the first urban centers developed in the Norte Chico civilization , Chavin and Moche cultures, followed by major cities in the Huari , Chimu , and Inca cultures. The Norte Chico civilization included as many as 30 major population centers in what is now the Norte Chico region of north-central coastal Peru . It is the oldest known civilization in the Americas, flourishing between

9520-1027: The Blocks Pre-School. The school district's main offices are located in the Fuller Administration Building on Flagg Drive with additional offices at the King School on Water Street. The city also has a regional vocational high school and one regional charter school . Framingham is also home to several private schools, including Summit Montessori School, the Sudbury Valley School , one parochial school , one Jewish day school, and several specialty schools. Since 1998, when Framingham began upgrading its schools, it has performed major renovations to Cameron, Wilson, McCarthy, Fuller and Framingham High School . Two public school buildings that were mothballed due to financial issues or population drops have been leased to

9656-410: The Board of Selectmen as the chief executive, and the City Council replaced Representative Town Meeting as the legislative body. The mayor and at-large-councilors are limited to a maximum of three consecutive terms in office and district councilors are limited to six consecutive terms in office. The School Committee has ten members: one elected from each of the nine districts, serving two-year terms, and

9792-465: The City of Framingham. Commission meetings are cablecast live to inform residents and encourage participation in local government. Some of the programming provided, keeps residents abreast of road closings, construction updates, recycling efforts, public safety information, and special events in the community. The Government Channel is committed to making local government more accessible to all residents. In

9928-518: The Concord grape") Concord grape spread worldwide, bringing him up to $ 1,000 a cutting, but he died a relatively poor man. The inscription on his tombstone reads, "He sowed—others reaped." On September 5, 2012, Concord became the first community in the United States to approve a ban on the sale of water in single-serving plastic bottles. The law banned the sale of PET bottles of one liter (34 U.S. fl oz) or less starting January 1, 2013. The ban provoked national controversy. An editorial in

10064-932: The Framingham Industrial Park on the north side of Route 9 and another park on the south side, both on the Framingham/Ashland/Southborough border. Bose , Staples and Applause have their world headquarters in these parks, as does convenience store chain Cumberland Farms ; in addition, Netezza , Genzyme , Capital One , CA Technologies , ITT Tech and the local paper, The MetroWest Daily News , all have major facilities there. Two of Framingham's seven major auto dealerships are also in West Framingham. The large tracts of multi-story apartment and condominium complexes line both sides of Route 9 from Temple St. to

10200-529: The Great founded and created them with zeal. Jericho and Çatalhöyük , dated to the eighth millennium BC , are among the earliest proto-cities known to archaeologists. However, the Mesopotamian city of Uruk from the mid-fourth millennium BC (ancient Iraq) is considered by most archaeologists to be the first true city, innovating many characteristics for cities to follow, with its name attributed to

10336-592: The Hemenway School in Nobscot. Saxonville is the home of the former Roxbury Carpet Company mill complex buildings (originally powered by the adjoining Sudbury River ), now an industrial park, and is one of the city's historical districts. Framingham is served by MetroWest Medical Center (formerly Framingham Union Hospital, which also includes Leonard Morse Hospital campus in Natick ) The City of Framingham

10472-522: The Metrowest Jewish Day School (at the former Juniper Hill Elementary) and Mass Bay Community College (at the former Farley Middle school). Several schools that were no longer being used were sold off, including Lincoln, Roosevelt, and Washington. Framingham has three colleges, including Framingham State University and Massachusetts Bay Community College 's Framingham Campus. Framingham is approximately halfway between Worcester,

10608-410: The Nipmuc people in the area. During this time, Nipmuc leader Tantamous , who lived on Nobscot Hill and who resisted Christianization by the English, was arrested with his family members and other Nipmuc men by the colonial government in 1676 for what the colony deemed treason and they were incarcerated on Deer Island . He would escape, be recaptured, and later hung on Boston Common. In January 1676,

10744-581: The Nipmuc people were forced into praying towns including nearby Natick. The first European settler in the area was John Stone who established a farm on the west bank of the Sudbury River in 1647. In 1660, Thomas Danforth , an official of the Bay Colony received a grant of land at "Danforth's Farms" and began to accumulate over 15,000 acres (100 km). Between 1675 and 1676, King Philip's War created great tensions between English settlers and

10880-767: The Route 30 Mall (1970), an AMC Framingham 15 , the Framingham Mall (1978, rebuilt 2000), and Lowe's (formerly the Verizon Building, 2006). Complementary developments in Natick include the Natick Mall (1966, rebuilt in 1991, expanded 2007 & renamed Natick Collection), Sherwood Plaza (1960), Cloverleaf Marketplace (1978), and the Home Depot . In 1994, Shoppers' World was demolished and replaced with

11016-538: The adjacent Orchard House in 1858. Hawthorne dubbed the house "The Wayside" and lived there until his death. The house was purchased in 1883 by Boston publisher Daniel Lothrop and his wife, Harriett, who wrote the Five Little Peppers series and other children's books under the pen name Margaret Sidney . Today, The Wayside and the Orchard House are both museums. Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, and

11152-480: The age of 18 living with them, 62.98% were married couples living together, 22.4% had a female householder with no spouse present, 12.4% had a male householder with no spouse present, and 28.42% were non-families, and 24.59% of all households were made up of individuals. The average family size was 3.18. 25.1% of the population were under the age of 18, 4.2% from 18 to 24, 25.8% from 25 to 44, 28.4% from 45 to 64, and 16.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age

11288-536: The ancient capital of Ghana, and Maranda , a center located on a trade route between Egypt and Gao. The dissolution of the Roman Empire in the West was connected with profound changes in urban fabric of western Europe. In places where Roman administration quickly weakened urbanism went through a profound crisis, even if it continued to remain an important symbolic factor. In regions like Italy or Spain cities diminished in size but nevertheless continued to play

11424-464: The athletic, artistic, spiritual, and political life of the polis. Rome was the first city that surpassed one million inhabitants. Under the authority of its empire , Rome transformed and founded many cities ( Colonia ), and with them brought its principles of urban architecture, design, and society. In the ancient Americas , early urban traditions developed in the Andes and Mesoamerica . In

11560-403: The ban have failed in open town meetings . An effort to repeal Concord's ban on the sale of plastic water bottles was resoundingly defeated at a Town Meeting. Resident Jean Hill, who led the initial fight for the ban, said, "I really feel at the age of 86 that I've really accomplished something." Town Moderator Eric Van Loon didn't even bother taking an official tally because opposition to repeal

11696-430: The basis of the new town, called "Concord" in appreciation of the peaceful acquisition. The battles of Lexington and Concord were the first military engagements of the American Revolutionary War . On April 19, 1775, 700 British Army troops led by Lieutenant-Colonel Francis Smith marched from Boston to Concord to confiscate a cache of arms stored in the town. Unbeknownst to them, Patriot leaders had moved most of

11832-407: The benefit of mitigating the urban heat island effect, especially in cities that are in warmer climates. These spaces prevent carbon imbalances, extreme habitat losses, electricity and water consumption, and human health risks. The urban structure generally follows one or more basic patterns: geomorphic, radial, concentric, rectilinear, and curvilinear. The physical environment generally constrains

11968-634: The cache elsewhere. 150 Patriot minutemen from local towns, who had been forewarned of the Army's march by Samuel Prescott on April 18, quickly mustered and confronted the British in Lexington . Though who fired the first shot is unknown, a firefight broke out and the British fired a volley at the Americans before dispersing them with a bayonet charge , killing eight. The British proceeded into Concord and dispersed into company-sized formations to search for

12104-527: The cache. At 11:00am, 400 minutemen engaged 100 British troops at the Old North Bridge , leading to a number of casualties on both sides and forcing them to fall back and rejoin the Army's main force. After the British completed their search for the cache in Concord, they marched back to Boston, but were constantly attacked by minutemen in hit-and-run attacks, suffering more casualties before reaching Charlestown, Boston . The minutemen then blockaded

12240-399: The city was 71.9% White , 5.8% Black , 0.3% Native American , 6.3% Asian , 0.1% Pacific Islander , 10.9% from some other race , and 4.6% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 13.4% of the population (4.7% Puerto Rican , 1.8% Guatemalan , 1.5% Salvadoran , 1.1% Dominican , 0.9% Mexican , 0.6% Colombian , 0.3% Peruvian ). (Source: 2010 Census Quickfacts) Of

12376-621: The commercial center of Central Massachusetts, and Boston, New England's leading port and metropolitan area. Rail and highway facilities connect these major centers and other communities in the Greater Boston Metropolitan Area. The closest airport with scheduled international passenger traffic is Boston's Logan International Airport , 25 miles (40 km) from Framingham. Worcester Regional Airport , about 27 miles (43 km) away, began scheduled flights to Fort Lauderdale and Orlando in November 2013. Framingham

12512-520: The core of larger metropolitan areas and urban areas —creating numerous commuters traveling toward city centres for employment, entertainment, and education. However, in a world of intensifying globalization , all cities are to varying degrees also connected globally beyond these regions. This increased influence means that cities also have significant influences on global issues , such as sustainable development , climate change , and global health . Because of these major influences on global issues,

12648-542: The early Old World cities, Mohenjo-daro of the Indus Valley civilization in present-day Pakistan , existing from about 2600 BC, was one of the largest, with a population of 50,000 or more and a sophisticated sanitation system . China's planned cities were constructed according to sacred principles to act as celestial microcosms . The Ancient Egyptian cities known physically by archaeologists are not extensive. They include (known by their Arab names) El Lahun ,

12784-484: The emergence of an Atlantic trade. However, most towns remained small. During the Spanish colonization of the Americas, the old Roman city concept was extensively used. Cities were founded in the middle of the newly conquered territories and were bound to several laws regarding administration, finances, and urbanism. The growth of the modern industry from the late 18th century onward led to massive urbanization and

12920-535: The film Don't Look Up , directed by Worcester, Massachusetts native Adam McKay and starring Academy Award winners Jennifer Lawrence , Leonardo DiCaprio and Meryl Streep , were shot in Framingham. City Historically, city dwellers have been a small proportion of humanity overall, but following two centuries of unprecedented and rapid urbanization , more than half of the world population now lives in cities, which has had profound consequences for global sustainability . Present-day cities usually form

13056-812: The first millennium AD, the Khmer capital of Angkor in Cambodia grew into the most extensive preindustrial settlement in the world by area, covering over 1,000 km and possibly supporting up to one million people. West Africa already had cities before the Common Era , but the consolidation of Trans-Saharan trade in the Middle Ages multiplied the number of cities in the region, as well as making some of them very populous, notably Gao (72,000 inhabitants in 800 AD), Oyo-Ile (50,000 inhabitants in 1400 AD, and may have reached up to 140,000 inhabitants in

13192-440: The form in which a city is built. If located on a mountainside, urban structures may rely on terraces and winding roads. It may be adapted to its means of subsistence (e.g. agriculture or fishing). And it may be set up for optimal defense given the surrounding landscape. Beyond these "geomorphic" features, cities can develop internal patterns, due to natural growth or to city planning . In a radial structure, main roads converge on

13328-875: The historic village hall , the Jonathan Maynard Building (a former school, now a part of the Framingham State University campus which houses the Danforth Art Museum ), the Framingham History Center (formerly the Framingham Historical Society and Museum), several banks, a Chinese restaurant, the American Medical Response paramedic station and McCarthy Office Building. The village of Nobscot, at

13464-495: The ideal grape. Early ripening, to escape the killing northern frosts, but with a rich, full-bodied flavor, the hardy Concord grape thrives where European cuttings had failed to survive. In 1853, Bull felt ready to put the first bunches of Concord grapes before the public and won a prize at the Boston Horticultural Society Exhibition. From these early arbors, the fame of Bull's ("the father of

13600-485: The industrial parks. These buildings represent the majority of Framingham's multi-family dwellings, and along with the business complexes, helped create a large network of support services on the West Side: a supermarket, dozens of restaurants and pubs, hotels and a large day-care facility all are in the two-mile (3 km) section of Route 9 from Temple St. to Ashland . The Framingham Centre Common Historic District

13736-800: The international community has prioritized investment in sustainable cities through Sustainable Development Goal 11 . Due to the efficiency of transportation and the smaller land consumption , dense cities hold the potential to have a smaller ecological footprint per inhabitant than more sparsely populated areas. Therefore, compact cities are often referred to as a crucial element in fighting climate change. However, this concentration can also have some significant negative consequences, such as forming urban heat islands , concentrating pollution , and stressing water supplies and other resources. A city can be distinguished from other human settlements by its relatively great size, but also by its functions and its special symbolic status , which may be conferred by

13872-471: The intersection of Water St., Edmands Rd. and Edgell Rd. near Nobscot Hill , and the Pinefield/Saxonville villages, located where Concord St., Water St., and Central St. intersect, are home to several small office buildings, strip malls and gas stations. in 2016, the town moved its satellite branch of the public library named for Christa McAuliffe from Saxonville to a new facility across from

14008-472: The land surface of the Earth. Town siting has varied through history according to natural, technological, economic, and military contexts. Access to water has long been a major factor in city placement and growth, and despite exceptions enabled by the advent of rail transport in the nineteenth century, through the present most of the world's urban population lives near the coast or on a river. Urban areas as

14144-590: The legality of the town providing funds for a private school. The first town-operated high school opened in 1852, and has been in operation continuously in numerous locations throughout the town. Framingham has 14 public schools which are part of the Framingham Public School District. These include Framingham High School , three middle schools (Walsh, Fuller, and Cameron), nine elementary schools (Barbieri, Brophy, Dunning, Hemenway, King, McCarthy, Potter Road, Stapleton, Harmony Grove), and

14280-473: The local indigenous tribes . Bulkeley was an influential religious leader who "carried a good number of planters with him into the woods"; Willard was a canny trader who spoke the Algonquian language and had gained the trust of Native Americans. They exchanged wampum , hatchets, knives, cloth, and other useful items for the six-square-mile (16 km ) purchase from Squaw Sachem of Mistick , which formed

14416-475: The longest continual inhabitation . Cities, characterized by population density , symbolic function, and urban planning , have existed for thousands of years. In the conventional view, civilization and the city were both followed by the development of agriculture , which enabled the production of surplus food and thus a social division of labor (with concomitant social stratification ) and trade . Early cities often featured granaries , sometimes within

14552-515: The mayor, who serves as a tenth member and may only vote to break a tie. The Board of Library Trustees and the Board of Cemetery Trustees have also elected positions serving for four-year terms, with half the membership elected at alternating municipal elections. The Charter provides for an automatic review of the Charter five years after its adoption and periodically thereafter. The city maintains

14688-406: The median income for a family was $ 101,078. Male full-time workers had a median income of $ 61,659, versus $ 54,714 for females. The per capita income for the city was $ 38,917. About 7.5% of families and 11.2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 12.7% of those under age 18 and 9.4% of those age 65 or over. Brazilian immigrants have a major presence in Framingham. Since the 1980s,

14824-497: The multi-millions, have proliferated into the dozens, arising especially in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Economic globalization fuels the growth of these cities, as new torrents of foreign capital arrange for rapid industrialization, as well as the relocation of major businesses from Europe and North America, attracting immigrants from near and far. A deep gulf divides the rich and poor in these cities, which usually contain

14960-635: The narrow land accesses to Charlestown, initiating the siege of Boston . Poet Ralph Waldo Emerson subsequently described the shot fired by the minutemen at the Old North Bridge in his 1837 poem " Concord Hymn " as the " shot heard round the world ". In 1894, the Lexington Historical Society petitioned the Massachusetts State Legislature to proclaim April 19 "Lexington Day"; Concord countered with "Concord Day". Governor Frederic T. Greenhalge opted for

15096-458: The nearby Waltham Watch Company . His brother Eliphalet Whorf Dennison developed the company into a sizable industrial complex which merged in 1990 into Avery Dennison , with headquarters in Pasadena, California , and active corporate offices in the town. In 2000, Framingham celebrated its Tercentennial . Framingham soon rose to become the largest town in Massachusetts, commonly referred to by

15232-509: The now-ubiquitous Concord grape at his home on Lexington Road, where the original vine still grows. Welch's , the first company to sell grape juice, maintains a headquarters in Concord. The Boston-born Bull developed the Concord grape by experimenting with seeds from some of the native species. On his farm outside Concord, down the road from the Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne and Alcott homesteads, he planted some 22,000 seedlings before producing

15368-411: The now-ubiquitous Concord grape was developed in Concord by Ephraim Wales Bull . In the 20th century, Concord developed into an affluent Boston suburb and tourist destination, drawing visitors to the Old North Bridge , Orchard House and Walden Pond . The town retains its literary culture and is home to notable authors, including Doris Kearns Goodwin , Alan Lightman and Gregory Maguire . Concord

15504-425: The people of Framingham as "The largest town in the country." Framingham had attempted to become a city on three prior occasions 1993, 1997, and 2013, all of which were rejected by the people of Framingham. However, on January 1, 2018, Framingham became a city and Yvonne M. Spicer was inaugurated as its first mayor, thus becoming the first popularly elected African-American female mayor in Massachusetts. According to

15640-618: The philosopher Amos Bronson Alcott (1799–1888), the father of Louisa May Alcott (1832–1888). A native Concordian, Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) was another notable member of Emerson's circle. This substantial collection of literary talent in one small town led Henry James to dub Concord "the biggest little place in America." Among the products of this intellectually stimulating environment were Emerson's many essays, including Self-Reliance (1841), Louisa May Alcott's novel Little Women (1868), and Hawthorne's story collection Mosses from an Old Manse (1846). Thoreau famously lived in

15776-500: The public as well as forms of public land such as public domain and the commons . Western philosophy since the time of the Greek agora has considered physical public space as the substrate of the symbolic public sphere . Public art adorns (or disfigures) public spaces. Parks and other natural sites within cities provide residents with relief from the hardness and regularity of typical built environments . Urban green spaces are another component of public space that provides

15912-810: The rise of new great cities, first in Europe and then in other regions, as new opportunities brought huge numbers of migrants from rural communities into urban areas. England led the way as London became the capital of a world empire and cities across the country grew in locations strategic for manufacturing . In the United States from 1860 to 1910, the introduction of railroads reduced transportation costs, and large manufacturing centers began to emerge, fueling migration from rural to city areas. Some industrialized cities were confronted with health challenges associated with overcrowding , occupational hazards of industry, contaminated water and air, poor sanitation , and communicable diseases such as typhoid and cholera . Factories and slums emerged as regular features of

16048-526: The rivers were rich with fish and the land was lush and arable. The area was largely depopulated in 1633 by an epidemic of smallpox , a disease likely to have been introduced to the New World by European explorers and settlers. In 1635, a group of English settlers led by Rev. Peter Bulkley and Major Simon Willard received a land grant from the General Court and negotiated a land purchase with

16184-543: The route to Worcester, Massachusetts . In Framingham, those spies stopped at Buckminster's Tavern. They watched the town militia muster outside the building, impressed with the men's numbers but not their discipline. Though "the whole company" came into the tavern after their drill, the officers remained undetected and continued on their mission the next day. Gage did not order a march along that route, instead ordering troops to Concord, Massachusetts , on April 18–19. Framingham sent two militia companies totaling about 130 men into

16320-698: The same location as Tenochtitlan ; while ancient continuously inhabited Pueblos are near modern urban areas in New Mexico , such as Acoma Pueblo near the Albuquerque metropolitan area and Taos Pueblo near Taos ; while others like Lima are located nearby ancient Peruvian sites such as Pachacamac . From 1600 BC, Dhar Tichitt , in the south of present-day Mauritania , presented characteristics suggestive of an incipient form of urbanism. The second place to show urban characteristics in West Africa

16456-507: The south half of the old Center retail district. The remaining half houses several small stores, restaurants, realtors and legal offices. The old Boston and Worcester Street Railway depot, on the east side of the center, was converted into a strip mall in the early 1980s and houses the Center Postal Station (01703) and several small stores. The center is rounded out by One and Two Edgell Rd. (two small retail/office buildings),

16592-656: The spring of 2016, the town of Framingham was one of the settings for the film Patriots Day about the Boston Marathon bombing , starring Mark Wahlberg , John Goodman , Kevin Bacon , J.K. Simmons , Michelle Monaghan , Alex Wolff , Melissa Benoist and a cameo appearance by former athlete David Ortiz . In spring 2009, Framingham was also used for the film The Company Men , starring Ben Affleck , Chris Cooper , Kevin Costner , and Tommy Lee Jones . Large parts of

16728-489: The term and has challenged geographers seeking to classify territories according to an urban-rural binary. Metropolitan areas include suburbs and exurbs organized around the needs of commuters , and sometimes edge cities characterized by a degree of economic and political independence. (In the US these are grouped into metropolitan statistical areas for purposes of demography and marketing .) Some cities are now part of

16864-406: The town, which was officially incorporated in 1700, following his death the previous year. Why the "L" was dropped from the new town's name is not known. The first church was organized in 1701, the first teacher was hired in 1706, and the first permanent schoolhouse was built in 1716. On February 22, 1775, the British general Thomas Gage sent two officers and an enlisted man out of Boston to survey

17000-561: The town: his father, Rev. William Emerson (1769–1811), grew up in Concord before becoming an eminent Boston minister, and his grandfather, William Emerson Sr. , witnessed the battle at the North Bridge from his house, and later became a chaplain in the Continental Army. Emerson was at the center of a group of like-minded Transcendentalists living in Concord. Among them were the author Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804–1864) and

17136-412: The turn of the first millennium BC , encompassed numerous cities extending from Tyre , Cydon , and Byblos to Carthage and Cádiz . In the following centuries, independent city-states of Greece , especially Athens , developed the polis , an association of male landowning citizens who collectively constituted the city. The agora , meaning "gathering place" or "assembly", was the center of

17272-446: The urban landscape. In the second half of the 20th century, deindustrialization (or " economic restructuring ") in the West led to poverty , homelessness , and urban decay in formerly prosperous cities. America's "Steel Belt" became a " Rust Belt " and cities such as Detroit , Michigan, and Gary, Indiana began to shrink , contrary to the global trend of massive urban expansion. Such cities have shifted with varying success into

17408-400: The villages of Framingham Center, Saxonville, Nobscot, and along the Route 9 corridor. The Golden Triangle was originally a three square mile district on the eastern side of Framingham, bordered by Worcester Rd. (Route 9), Cochituate Rd. (Route 30), and Speen Street in Natick . In 1993, the area began to expand beyond the borders of the triangle with construction of a BJ's Wholesale Club and

17544-534: The volume of sewage begins to exceed manageable levels. The local government of cities takes different forms including prominently the municipality (especially in England , in the United States , India , and other British colonies ; legally, the municipal corporation ; municipio in Spain and Portugal , and, along with municipalidad , in most former parts of the Spanish and Portuguese empires) and

17680-523: The world's population lived in cities. The cultural appeal of cities also plays a role in attracting residents. Urbanization rapidly spread across Europe and the Americas and since the 1950s has taken hold in Asia and Africa as well. The Population Division of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs reported in 2014 that for the first time, more than half of the world population lives in cities. Latin America

17816-543: Was Dia , in present-day Mali , from 800 BC. Both Dhar Tichitt and Dia were founded by the same people: the Soninke , who would later also found the Ghana Empire . Another ancient site, Jenné-Jeno , in what is today Mali , has been dated to the third century BCE. According to Roderick and Susan McIntosh, Jenné-Jeno did not fit into traditional Western conceptions of urbanity as it lacked monumental architecture and

17952-414: Was 3.03. As of 2010, 20.9% of the population were under the age of 18, 9.8% were from 18 to 24, 30.0% were from 25 to 44, 25.8% were from 45 to 64, and 13.6% were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38.0 years. For every 100 females, there were 93.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 90.8 males. In 2017, the estimated median income for a household in the city was $ 84,050, and

18088-433: Was 42 years. For every 100 females, there were 100.3 males. For every 100 women aged 18 and over, there were 101.8 men. At the time of the 2020 census , the median household income was $ 184,086. About 2.5% of the population was below the poverty line, including 1.7% of those under age 18 and 1.1% of those aged 65 or over. The town's name is pronounced by its residents as / ˈ k ɒ ŋ k ər d / KONG -kərd , in

18224-483: Was formed with the construction of Shoppers World in 1951. Shoppers' World was a large open air shopping mall, the second in the US and the first east of the Mississippi River . The mall drew many other retail construction projects to the area, including Marshalls (1961, rebuilt as Bed Bath & Beyond 1997), Caldor (1966, Rebuilt as Wal-Mart in 2002), Bradlees (1960s, rebuilt as Kohl's in 2002),

18360-411: Was scheduled to begin in 2012 but has been delayed to 2014–2015. Further delays pushed the project into 2015 due to needed electrical utility upgrades and replacement. South Framingham became the commercial center of the town with the advent of the railroad in the 1880s. It eventually came to house Dennison Manufacturing and the former General Motors Framingham Assembly plant, but the area underwent

18496-406: Was so overwhelming. It appeared that upwards of 80 to 90 percent of the 1,127 voters in attendance raised their ballots against the repeal measure. The issue had been bubbling in Concord for several years. In 2010, a ban approved in a town meeting, which wasn't written as a bylaw, was rejected by the state attorney general's office. In 2011, a new version of the ban narrowly failed at a town meeting by

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