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Whenever anyone wants to make an analogy about a big city, they say:
"well, this isn't NY, LA or Chicago...", or
"all the things to do in NY, LA, or Chicago..."
So, then, if you were to add a FOURTH CITY to that typical phrase, what would it be?
Philadelphia, for previously being 4th in population, and its historic value
Houston, for currently being 4th in population
Miami, for anchoring down that corner of the US
San Francisco, for being as dynamic and a favorite for visitors
I'm not tying to come off as a homer but its probably still Philly. Besides the Big 3, I just don't see any other city that would be ahead of Philly when comparing which cities feel the largest. Technically when using raw population numbers over miles in radius Philly is the 4th largest city, right behind Chicago when just using in raw population. Also the Philly MSA at 7000 sq. miles reaches over 7,000,000 people. That's more than any other metro besides New York, LA, and Chicago. So its pretty hard to go against Philly as feeling like the 4th largest city and region. I'm pretty sure many will agree.
Too many facts backing the inclusion of the Bay in the conversation of Top 3/4/5, so I'll just quote DANNYY from another thread.
Quote:
Originally Posted by DANNYY
Some information for the hell of it. Haha.
New York City is obviously # 1 in our country, DMV (in my opinion) gets the # 2 spot, and Bay Area gets the # 3 spot for exceptional performance. Chicago & Los Angeles have a bit of an old school economy, and are kind of obsolete per se compared to Bay Area & DMV, a lot of it has to do with innovation and creative class. Then there are the upstarts of Houston & Dallas that really are making large strides and of course Boston is and always has a presence.
Top 20 CSAs GMP/Per Capita Net 2008 $USD: 01. San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, CA (CSA) $67,111
02. New York-Newark-Bridgeport, NY-NJ-CT-PA (CSA) $64,474
03. Washington DC-Baltimore-Northern Virginia, DC-MD-VA-WV (CSA) $58,883
04. Boston-Worcester-Manchester, MA-RI-NH (CSA) $54,809
05. Houston-Baytown-Huntsville, TX (CSA) $54,662
06. Hartford-West Hartford-Willimantic, CT (CSA) $53,204
07. Chicago-Naperville-Michigan City, IL-IN-WI (CSA) $52,427
08. Seattle-Tacoma-Olympia, WA (CSA) $52,064
09. Denver-Aurora-Boulder, CO (CSA) $51,274
10. Philadelphia-Camden-Vineland, PA-NJ-DE-MD (CSA) $50,534
11. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Riverside, CA (CSA) $50,333
12. Dallas-Fort Worth, TX (CSA) $49,707
13. Minneapolis-St. Paul-St. Cloud, MN-WI (CSA) $49,304
14. Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Gainesville, GA-AL (CSA) $48,653
15. Detroit-Warren-Flint, MI (CSA) $48,586
16. Sacramento-Arden-Arcade-Yuba City, CA-NV (CSA) $48,364
17. Raleigh-Durham-Cary, NC (CSA) $47,235
18. Midland-Odessa, TX (CSA) $47,226
19. Austin-Round Rock-Marble Falls, TX (CSA) $46,998
20. St. Louis-St. Charles-Farmington, MO-IL (CSA) $46,042
Average Wage of All Classes:
Average Wage of Service Class:
Average Wage of Working Class:
Quote: The organization identified 222 metropolitan statistical areas with at least 15,000 students, based on U.S. Census Bureau standards, and then chose the top 75. It then ranked cities in four population categories, from the largest metro areas to small college towns. The rankings are based on 12 criteria in three general categories: academic environment (with an eye toward factors such as student diversity and degree attainment), quality of life (arts and leisure, cost of living, etc.) and professional opportunity (such measures as earning potential, unemployment rate, entrepreneurial activity). The index is "based on objective data that we get from the U.S. Census Bureau or the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics or the National Science Foundation, so it's not colored by the schools providing data or by surveys of students and professors," says Lynch.
Top 10 major metros areas (Populations over 2.5 million) 1. SanFrancisco
2. New York
3. WashingtonDC
4. Boston
5. Seattle
6. Baltimore
7. Los Angeles
8. San Diego
9. Minneapolis-St. Paul
10. Philadelphia Top 10 midsize metros (Population 1 million to 2.5 million) 1. San Jose
2. Austin
3. Raleigh, N.C.
4. Hartford, Conn.
5. Portland, Ore.
6. Pittsburgh
7. Salt Lake City
8. Rochester. N.Y.
9. Buffalo
10. Nashville Top 10 small cities (250,000 to 1 million)
1. Boulder, Colo.
2. Ann Arbor, Mich.
3. Bridgeport, Conn.
4. Trenton-Ewing, N.J.
5. Gainesville, Fla.
6. Madison, Wis.
7. Durham, N.C.
8. Santa Cruz, Calif.
9. Honolulu
10. Fort Collins, Colo. Top 10 college towns (under 250,000)
1. Ithaca, N.Y.
2. State College, Pa.
3. Iowa City
4. Ames, Iowa
5. Champaign-Urbana, Ill.
6. Charlottesville, Va.
7. Corvallis, Ore.
8. Bloomington, Ind.
9. Lawrence, Kan.
10. Logan, Utah
Source: American Institute for Economic Research
Number of Billionaires In Metropolitan Area:
01. New York City: 77 02. Bay Area: 44 03. Los Angeles: 35
04. Dallas-Fort Worth: 26
05. Chicago: 20
06. Miami-Fort Lauderdale: 19
07. Washington DC: 13
08. Houston: 13
Fortune 500 Companies Per Metropolitan Area (2010):
New York City: 71 Bay Area: 31
Chicago: 28
Houston: 25
Dallas–Fort Worth: 24 Los Angeles: 23
Minneapolis–St. Paul: 20
Washington DC: 17
Philadelphia: 14
Atlanta: 12
Boston: 12
Detroit: 12
Top Metropolitan Areas for Venture Capital Investment: 1. Bay Area: $698 Million
2. Boston: $314 Million
3. San Diego: $138 Million 4. Los Angeles: $108 Million
5. Research Triangle : $72 Million Source:http://www.fiercebiotech.com/press-r...ing-pricewat-0
Top 10 Largest tech Centers in USA: 01. San Jose: 100/100
02. Seattle: 46.4/100
03. Boston: 45.2/100
04. Washington DC: 41.8/100 05. Los Angeles: 40.2/100
06. Dallas: 21.8/100
07. San Diego: 19.3/100 08. Orange County: 17.7/100
09. New York City: 16.8/100 10. San Francisco: 16.1/100
(Top 25)
11. Philadelphia
12. Atlanta
13. Edison, NJ
14. Chicago
15. Toronto 16. Oakland
17. Minneapolis-Saint Paul
18. Denver
19. Montreal
20. Austin
21. Houston
22. Huntsville
23. Phoenix
24. Wichita
25. Bethesda, MD
List of Companies Headquartered in Bay Area (And their Respective Fields):
Advertising and Marketing
Ameredia
AKQA
Automattic
SALT Branding
Goodby, Silverstein & Partners
4delite
Total:6
Clothing & Apparel:
Gap, INC
Levi Strauss & Co.
Gymboree
Bebe
The North Face
Mountain Hardwear
JanSport
Marmot
Western Mountaineering
Total:9
Beauty:
Bare Escentuals
Total:1
Biomedical:
McKesson Corporation
Buck Institute for Age Research
Chiron
Genentech
Gilead Sciences
Total:5
Construction & Real Estate
AMB Property Corporation
Bechtel
Total:2
Electronics:
Dolby Laboratories
FusionStorm
OQO
Sega of America
Watkins Computer, Inc
AMD
Adaptec
Agilent Tech.
Anchor Bay Technologies
Apple Inc.
Adaptec
Applied Materials
Bay Imaging
Cisco Systems
E-mu Systems
Fujitsu Computer Products of America
Genesis Microchip
Hewlett Packard
Hitachi Global Storage Technologies
Hitachi Data Systems
Intel
JDS Uniphase
Integrated Device Technology
Logitech
LSI Corporation
Macrotron Systems, Inc.
Maxtor
Monster Cable Products
National Semiconductor
NetApp
Nvidia
Philips Lumileds Lighting Company
Rackable Systems
Rambus
Sanmina-SCI
SanDisk
Seagate Technology
Silicon Graphics
Solectron Corporation
Sony Optiarc America Inc.
Sun Microsystems
Supermicro
Super Talent
THX
Digidesign
Juniper Networks
Foundry Networks
Terayon
Xilinx
Total:49
Energy
Pacific Gas & Electric
Calpine Corporation
Chevron
Total:3
Entertainment:
Industrial Light & Magic
Lucasfilm
LucasArts
Electronic Arts
Kerner Optical
Netflix
Pandora
Pixar
Dreamworks Animation
Skywalker Sound
Lucasfilm Animation
Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc.
Total:12
Financial:
Bank of the West
Bank of the Orient
Charles Schwab
Esurance
First Republic Bank
Pegasus Aviation
Stone & Youngberg, LLC
ThinkEquity Partners, LLC
Thomas Weisel Partners
UnionBanCal Corporation and Union Bank of California
VISA
Wells Fargo & Co. and Wells Fargo Bank
WR Hambrecht + Co
Fisher Investments
Franklin Templeton Investments
PayPal
Robert Half International
Total:17
Food & Drink:
Ghiradelli
Adina World Beat Beverages
Anchor Brewing Company
Boudin Bakery
Del Monte Foods
Amadillo Willy's
Basic American Foods
Black Angus Steakhouse
C&H Pure Cane Sugar
Clif Bar
Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream
Häagen-Dazs
Jamba Juice
Jelly Belly
Odwalla
Peet's Coffee & Tea
PowerBar
See's Candies
Total:18
Internet:
BitTorrent Inc.
Blogspot
Craigslist
Digg
Flickr
Linden Lab
OpenTable
RarityGuide, Inc
Revision3
Salesforce.com
SixApart
Technorati
Twitter
TypePad
Whiskey Media
Wikimedia Foundation
Yelp, Inc.
YouNoodle
Zynga
Ask.com
eBay
Google
Yahoo!
YouTube
Facebook
Total:24
Media:
AllBusiness.com
Americana exchange
Bebo
CBS Interactive
Chronicle Books
CNET
Craigslist
Current TV
High Speed Productions
Juxtapoz
Thrasher
Dwell
LiveJournal
MacWorld Magazine
Mevio
Mother Jones Magazine
PC World Magazine
VIZ Media
Wired Magazine
XLR8R Magazine
University of California Press
Communication Arts
Total:19
Miscellany:
ABM Industries
Ammunition LLC
Blue Shield of California
Catholic Healthcare West
FusionStorm
Recology
Schlage
State Compensation Insurance Fund
URS
Total:9
Non-profit
Internet Archive
Room To Read
The Sierra Club
Wikimedia Foundation
Total:4
Professional Services:
Elanex
Onyx Research, Inc.
Total:2
Retail:
Good Vibrations
Gymboree Corporation
Williams-Sonoma, Inc.
Longs Drug Stores
Orchard Supply Hardware
Ross Stores
Safeway
Restoration Hardware
Walmart.com
Software
Adobe Systems
Autodesk
Business Objects
Intuit
McAfee
Mozilla
Oracle
Sybase
Symantec
VMware
Tibco
Total:11
Other:
Fireman's Fund Insurance Company
Total:1
Consumer Goods:
Clorox
Tesla Motors
Total:2
Healthcare
Kaiser Permanente
Total:1
Honestly people take a close look at some of these company names that are headquartered in the Bay Area. Names such as: VISA, PayPal, AMD, Nvidia (every computer gamer knows this), Chevron, Tesla (yes the car company), Lucas Films (Yes think Star Wars), Netflix (Los Angeles may have the larger Film Industry but you use Bay Area companies to rent movies! ), Dreamworks Animations (Yes, the same company that gives Los Angeles some might in movie production), SanDisk (Ever bought a flashdrive before?), Flikr (80% of the City-Data people use this to post pictures, its a Bay Area company), and so on and so forth.
Honestly look at the list, there is no way in Sam Hell (unless you live in Southland) that Los Angeles impacts you more than Bay Area (Unless you work at some movie theater), how many of you use a VISA Credit/Debit Card? It's a Bay Area company.
Point noted.
Also Port of Oakland, not as large as Port of Los Angeles but is definitely increasing in prominence faster than any other Port in the West Coast (besides Seattle).
Video Game Companies in America: 01. Bay Area: 140 02. Los Angeles: 100
03. Seattle: 72
04. Austin: 55
05. New York City: 50
06. Boston: 46
07. Chicago: 25
08. Dallas-Fort Worth: 24
09. Washington DC: 19
Honestly there is probably no industry in terms of economical diversity that is not present in the Bay Area, one of the most diverse economies in the country. The only thing not present in the Bay Area is the Seat to the Federal Government.
Clothing, Finance, Retail, Tech, Software, Hardware, Port, Automobile, Telecommunications, Food & Drinks, Banking, Video Games, Internet, Film Industry, Other Media, Agriculture, Airport, & anything else that can be named. And unlike Los Angeles, even in its own state it has a far larger connection with Sacramento (California's Capital) than any other Metropolitan Area.
Government Jobs Within City:
(Skipping the first 41 cities) 42. San Francisco-Oakland
(Skipping some till I get to Los Angeles on the list) 69. Los Angeles
Fortune Global 500 (2010): New York City-Newark-Bridgeport – 28 Chicago-Naperville-Michigan City – 10 San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose – 10
Minneapolis-St. Paul – 7
Houston-Bayton-Huntsville – 6
Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Gainsville– 5 Baltimore-Washington DC – 5
Boston-Providence – 5
Dallas-Fort Worth – 5 Los Angeles-Long Beach-Riverside– 4
Philadelphia-Wilmington – 5
Detroit-Warren- 4
That should do it for now. But really in terms of importance there's no argument for the Top 3 that I can statistically see. Top 5 are: New York City, Washington DC-Baltimore, Bay Area, Chicago, & Los Angeles for sure, but Top 3 are: New York, DMV, & Bay Area.
If we're talking about cities only, then I'll say Houston
If we're talking about metropolitan areas, then I'll say the Bay Area
If we're talking about concentration of power and influence, then we have to divide that up into categories as well. Political Power: Washington DC I think is in a class by itself in this regard.
Economic Power: Bay Area & Houston I think are after NY, LA and Chicago(and to be honest the Bay Area is probably more powerful economically than Chicagoland right now)
Cultural & Social Influence: That's a good question. I dont know right now cause cultural and social influence is so varied and could be derived from the arts, media, pop culture, fashion, music, food, literature, etc. ALSO we could also weigh the fact that some cities are hubs for different groups. Atlanta is known as a hub for influential and powerful African Americans, Miami is known as a hub for influential and powerful Latin Americans, Boston is known as a hub for intellectuals and scientists. Philadelphia and Boston are known for their historical significance(and it can't be overstated that both cities remain very important hubs of business and commerce)Even smaller cities are extremely powerful as far as the images the evoke, Las Vegas and New Orleans come to mind. And so on.
Also, there are many cities out there that perhaps do not have the stature of the larger Metros Ive already mentioned(as well as the big ones I didnt touch on, namely Detroit and Dallas) but are still formidable. Seattle, Denver and Minneapolis stick out as they are huge centers of business.
So this is not an easily answered question.
My admitted personal bias, coupled with data already shared by Rhymes with Best Coast, and even other data that could make the case even more compelling, lead me to say San Francisco(surprise surprise).
I even answered a poll question a while back when someone asked me what makes us, us.
Quote:
Originally Posted by 18Montclair
Quote:
Originally Posted by Airforced
Let ask a simple question?
What is San Franciscos level and what's required to be on that level?
Well, off the top of my head:
All of the following criteria at the exact same time:
Physical Features:
1. Incredible Climate that is neither too hot nor too cold year round.
2. Oceanfront, Hills and Mountains.
3. Extreme biodiversity of plants and vegetation.
Demographic Features:
1. Hyper racial, socio-economic and cultural diversity and diaspora throughout the region.
2. Highly cosmopolitan, educated and worldly population.
3. At least one quarter foreign born.
4. 1 Million+ persons of Asian & 1 Million+ perspons of Hispanic Descent.
5. No racial majority.
Urban Features:
1. Downtown is considered the de facto hub of culture, art, entertainment, shopping and dining for the surrounding 200-mile radius and closest 15 Million people.
2. Concentration of at least 500+ retailers & 1,000+ restaurants in Downtown area catering to all income groups.
3. A ratio of public transit usage per population close to 1:1
4. At least 50,000,000 square feet of office space in Downtown
5. At least 5 neighborhoods with more than 50,000+ persons per square mile
Economic Features:
1. At least 25 Fortune 500 Companies
2. At least 50 publically traded companies with revenue of $1 Billion+
3. Financial Companies headquartered there must have combined assets of at least $1 Trillion+
4. A metro region economy larger than $500 Billion
5. A Per Capita GDP(CSA) of $65,000+
6. At least one third of all households earn $100,000+ Annually
7. At least 1 of the Top 50 Universities in the World according to ARWU.
Lots of places meet many of these requirements and individually they arent that hard to come by, but I dont know of anywhere except the Bay Area that meets them all at the same time.
LOLjk
But Im not ignorant of the fact that many cities out there are incredibly influential, powerful and important as well.
DC due to its economic output and being the capital
SF/Bay Area due to its wealth, economic output, and social/cultural/technological influence
Boston as a bit more of a stretch, but arguable due to the importance of its educational and research institutions (collectively first in the world in nearly every category)
Philly has a lot of what SF and Boston has and narrowly beats them out in some categories, but is overall weaker. Houston is also comparatively strong in some categories, especially corporate presence with the Bay Area just barely beating out Houston by some metrics, but overall weaker when we start factoring political influence, education/research, etc.
Last edited by OyCrumbler; 03-03-2012 at 08:33 PM..
I didn't even think of this one. The population of DC itself is small. However, when you consider its function and the expanse of MD and VA suburbs and all the work that is done there, I would probably agree...but say that SF is then 5th.
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