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There are neighborhoods in Chicago with populations that reach that high, just neighborhoods alone.
An example of this would be take the neighborhood of Lake View (92,000), plus South Lawndale (91,000), plus Rogers Park (65,000), and those three neighborhoods of the city of Chicago (just the city, not even the suburbs) make more population than the entire Springfield Metropolitan Area.
It still is a big city, with a Metropolitan Area of 1.3 Million people. Rochester is also 1.2 Million people. Those cities are pretty large. Comparatively nothing in Illinois besides Chicagoland is over a Million people. The next largest Metropolitan Area after Chicagoland in Illinois is Peoria with 373,000 people. That is very small, about less than a Million smaller than Buffalo.
I agree with you in most respects, but I think that adding up neighborhoods in Chicago to get to the 200,000 people population of Springfield is 1) not a good comparison and 2) disingenuous as of course a city of 2.9 million people is going to have areas that easily eclipse the population of 200,000. Everyone knows that Springfield is small, and it is one of the smaller capital cities in the country (although not the smallest). Of course the 3rd largest city in the country has little competition with the other 4 million people that live in the state. However, this situation still isn't unique to IL.
Second, and I know this is nit-picking, but the next largest metro in the state, after Chicago, is the Metro East at ~ 700,000 people. Even though St. Louis proper is in MO, it still is a metro a number of residents of S. IL identify with. I think IL would be a more balanced state if all of St. Louis were in IL, but of course it isn't.
Location: Austin, TX/Chicago, IL/Houston, TX/Washington, DC
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Maintainschaos
Second, and I know this is nit-picking, but the next largest metro in the state, after Chicago, is the Metro East at ~ 700,000 people. Even though St. Louis proper is in MO, it still is a metro a number of residents of S. IL identify with. I think IL would be a more balanced state if all of St. Louis were in IL, but of course it isn't.
Yeah I knew that part of the state was more heavily populated than anything else. But the thing about it was that I counted it as an extension of Saint Louis's area. It's definitely twice the size of Peoria but it is still quite small.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Maintainschaos
I agree with you in most respects, but I think that adding up neighborhoods in Chicago to get to the 200,000 people population of Springfield is 1) not a good comparison and 2) disingenuous as of course a city of 2.9 million people is going to have areas that easily eclipse the population of 200,000. Everyone knows that Springfield is small, and it is one of the smaller capital cities in the country (although not the smallest).
Yeah, Springfield, the thing about it is that it has very little influence over the state of Illinois even for a capital. Illinois is definitely not alone in this, the state of New Mexico, Washington, Oregon, Maryland can all claim the same.
States like Massachusetts, Georgia, Colorado, & Indiana all have one very powerful city, that is their state capital, their states economical capital, and their states absolute premier city without question.
With Arizona, Tucson is a bit of a distraction for Phoenix, along with some other cities that play 2nd to Tucson & Phoenix, otherwise it would have been the exact same situation as the states mentioned above like Georgia.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Maintainschaos
Of course the 3rd largest city in the country has little competition with the other 4 million people that live in the state. However, this situation still isn't unique to IL.
Hahaha that's Chicago for you. It has little competition from the Midwest in general when it comes to pure size alone.
Actually Chicagoland makes up 15% of the Midwest's population and contributes 20% of the regions overall Economic Output (GDP).
Oh I love Houston, prefer it way over Austin actually.
I just feel like Austin & Dallas are more popular inside & outside of Texas.
Just as many people hate Dallas and Austin as they do Houston. On the Same token just as many people love Houston as they do Dallas and Austin (If not more in the case of the latter). But this is not a like dislike thread, it is a most popular thread and Houston and Dallas are still more popular than Austin. The migration patterns show that
Yeah I knew that part of the state was more heavily populated than anything else. But the thing about it was that I counted it as an extension of Saint Louis's area. It's definitely twice the size of Peoria but it is still quite small.
Oh for sure. I always wonder what the state would be like if Peoria, Springfield, Champaign, Bloomington and Decatur were all combined in a central location. There'd be a nice sized population, the state capital, some good universities, a couple very large companies, and a pretty decently sized airport. IL would probably be better if this situation were the case, but it isn't.
Location: Austin, TX/Chicago, IL/Houston, TX/Washington, DC
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Maintainschaos
Oh for sure. I always wonder what the state would be like if Peoria, Springfield, Champaign, Bloomington and Decatur were all combined in a central location. There'd be a nice sized population, the state capital, some good universities, a couple very large companies, and a pretty decently sized airport. IL would probably be better if this situation were the case, but it isn't.
I looked at the commuter rate between Winnebago (Rockford) & Cook County, and my gosh, Chicago is only years away from swallowing up yet another Metropolitan Area whole and adding it into Chicagoland. Illinois is becoming more and more Chicago centric by the day, which in my opinion is not necessarily a good thing.
It needs to be more decentralized like you said. I think New York escapes a lot of the mess Illinois has by Buffalo & Rochester being decent sized big cities.
I think the state that has it worst would probably be either Massachusetts or Washington. With Massachusetts, the capital city is the largest city, and the main city. Boston in every possible way is the mirror of Massachusetts, its Metropolitan Area even makes up 27% of the states total land mass.
Other cities in Massachusetts are decent sized, but Boston is an all in one city.
Washington because Seattle's sprawl has reached Olympia, and Olympia is already apart of Seattle CSA with Tacoma & Bellevue. Meaning every major or influential area is now all in one Metropolitan Area for the entire state.
Actually Seattle CSA reminds me a lot of a smaller but more scenic version of Northern California.
San Francisco = Seattle
Oakland = Tacoma
Bellevue = San Jose
Olympia = Sacramento
I looked at the commuter rate between Winnebago (Rockford) & Cook County, and my gosh, Chicago is only years away from swallowing up yet another Metropolitan Area whole and adding it into Chicagoland. Illinois is becoming more and more Chicago centric by the day, which in my opinion is not necessarily a good thing.
I guess addition of Rockford would put Chicagoland over 10 million, then? Also, what is the next burb to be officially over 100k?
Other cities in Massachusetts are decent sized, but Boston is an all in one city.
Washington because Seattle's sprawl has reached Olympia, and Olympia is already apart of Seattle CSA with Tacoma & Bellevue. Meaning every major or influential area is now all in one Metropolitan Area for the entire state.
Oh, c'mon....give Spokane a little bit of credit!
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