And it has rendered largely useless the helicopters that many big companies keep for ferrying executives from urban meetings to suburban outposts and back.

In Scarsdale alone, an orthopedic practice, an Italian restaurant, a home furnishings store and a men's clothier are among the Manhattan businesses with suburban outposts.

It's a particular problem at Jaleo's suburban outpost in Bethesda, Md., which is situated in a busy strip of restaurants and shops.

Now it is counting on affordable housing to help propel it into a new role as the latest suburban outpost of Los Angles, 100 miles to the south.

There are many places to gauge the stresses on this unlikely suburban outpost of New York City, marked by 6 a.m. traffic jams and look-alike subdivisions.

While some suburban outposts established themselves outside the orbit of big metropolitan areas, many older suburbs neared their physical limits of outward growth and matured into cities.

Underlying the drive for a ward system is anxiety over development, which is transforming Putnam County from a rural haven into a suburban outpost.

Brokers say the area's buyers tend to be Russian immigrants, many of whom consider Manhattan Beach the suburban outpost of Brighton Beach.

It's there, in a suburban outpost of the village of Philadelphia, that this former insurance underwriter makes a living by selling refrigerator magnets that depict historical markers.

Farmland for centuries, the town became a suburban outpost of Manhattan in the 1960's, when Interstate 84 was built.