Is Chicago really smaller than LA? (Cleveland: low income, house, unemployment rate)

[mjbruns]

It says LA is bigger but I know I have read elsewhere that it's not. I don't see of how Chicago can be smaller than LA. It has a bigger skyline. There are many things I see with Chicago that indicates that it's bigger.

[via chicago]

this is a pointless exercise as all cities define their boundaries differently and arbitrarily. LA is twice the number of square miles of Chicago (500 vs 250) and includes areas that would be considered suburban by Chicago standards. the only thing really worth focusing on is broader metropolitan trends, unemployment rate, wage growth, COL, housing availability, crime, etc.

san francisco is 50 square miles, it will never have the population of Chicago or LA. that dosent mean it is or isnt a growing city, or doing worse economically than anywhere else. looking at total population is too overly simplistic to guage the economic health of anywhere.

LA is also historically a sprawled city built during the auto age, so simply judging it based on its skyline is also, overly simplistic.

[frimpter928]

No Chicago is not bigger than in LA in population nor in physical size.

LA has double the population in it's metro, and one million more people (and some change) within city limits.

I suggest Googling Chicago and LA city information to gather the information you are seeking. It's all very factual, so not much to discuss.

[Chicago_Person]

L.a. is bigger.

Chicago has more pockets of dense areas so it can feel bigger. Chaotic, etc.

L.a. feels similar throughout the whole city.
Not super suburban, but not super dense.

[OyCrumbler]

Chicago has the larger central core / greater downtown area than Los Angeles, but is a smaller metropolitan area. Los Angeles as a city and region essentially splits a lot of its urbanity among multiple nodes while Chicago carries a lot in a single central node. Chicago could probably do with developing some stronger urban secondary business districts though.

Or another way to say it is on foot or bike, Chicago feels much larger than LA when you are in their respective downtowns. In a car though, LA feels much larger than Chicago as you can keep driving for quite a while and still see a lot of development.

[smegmatite]

just use google to find your answer

[Chicagoland60426]

Yes, to the question.

Chicago has a more urban CBD, but a few miles south and west of it, you start to see some vacant lots. LA doesn't really have that, not even in the hood/low income areas. Also, LA has at least a couple of neighborhoods that are higher in ppsm density than most(if not all) of the 77 community areas in Chicago.

[andrew61]

Originally Posted by mjbruns

It says LA is bigger but I know I have read elsewhere that it's not. I don't see of how Chicago can be smaller than LA. It has a bigger skyline. There are many things I see with Chicago that indicates that it's bigger.

Skyline comparison isn't necessarily a reliable guide to which city is bigger. I do remember that during a visit to LA, I found its downtown rather sleepy and underwhelming compared to Chicago's. That's one reason why, as another poster said, Chicago can "feel" bigger.

It's worth noting that Chicago was at its peak population at a time when it didn't really have much of a skyline compared to today. Before about 1960 or so, Cleveland's tallest building was taller than anything in Chicago even though Chicago was bigger. Chicago's skyline has grown even as its population has shrunk.

[edsg25]

It’s Chicago’s own damned fault. We should have gotten involved with the politically strong San Fernando Valley secession movement a while back (let’s call it Fernand-ex). If SFV had left Los Angeles, the seond city would be the second city agan

Is Chicago bigger than LA? hel no, but I would like to put that one on n perspctve

Both Boston and San Francisco are each below one million residents but are more big city than House n, Dallas,

[Chicago_Person]

Yeah..
To the person that mentioned san Francisco.
Now that city feels like new york.

But it's technically less than half the size of chicago.