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When considering each MSA's reputation, I'm assessing a combination of its importance, economy, quality of life, recent progress, and future outlook. Population helps, but it's not the be-all-end-all in terms of reputation or importance.
PENNSYLVANIA
1. PHILADELPHIA
Obviously Philadelphia is the largest, wealthiest, most diverse and most important MSA in Pennsylvania. City government reform, though gradual, is well underway, and will only enhance the city's potential in the future.
2. PITTSBURGH
A generation ago, Pittsburgh was the first major U.S. city to be thrown away, but now it's the first major U.S. city to be recycled, emerging stronger than ever with a diverse and highly-skilled economy.
3. HARRISBURG
Being the state capital lends it some extra gravity, and it has a surprising amount of diversity for a medium-sized MSA in Pennsylvania. Logistically, it's in a great place too, being an hour and a half to two hours from Philadelphia, New York, Baltimore and Washington DC.
4. ALLENTOWN/BETHLEHEM
Situated an hour north of Philadelphia and an hour west of New York, Allentown/Bethlehem is the fastest-growing MSA in Pennsylvania, and has significant potential to be absorbed by the Northeast megalopolis.
5. LANCASTER
Lancaster is the epicenter of Pennsylvania Dutch Country, and has always been viewed pretty favorably as a place to live. It's growing pretty briskly too, with over 500,000 people now living in Lancaster County.
6. YORK
York is Lancaster's grittier twin brother, and its southern fringe near the Maryland state line has become an exurban cluster for Baltimore thanks to Pennsylvania's more lax land use laws. Still, it has strong bones, and is home to a large Harley-Davidson plant.
7. SCRANTON/WILKES-BARRE
Both Scranton and Wilkes-Barre are a bit too far from New York and Philadelphia to enjoy a large degree of spillover from either city, so change is happening more slowly there than anywhere else in eastern Pennsylvania.
8. ERIE
Sometimes it's easy to forget that Erie is in Pennsylvania, being a Great Lakes city with a built environment more similar to Cleveland and Buffalo. Still, being the only lakefront city in the state is a definite plus, and gives it extra potential to become a destination.
9. STATE COLLEGE
This is Pennsylvania's college town, and it's located right smack-dab in the center of the state. It is rather isolated, though, and there's no telling yet if the Penn State/Jerry Sandusky scandal will have a long-term negative effect on its reputation.
10. READING
Reading is a bit of an outlier, being a majority-Hispanic city in the Northeast, but it also suffers from scary levels of poverty, and the population growth hasn't brought much economic growth along with it. Expect it to be absorbed by the Philadelphia MSA soon.
11. WILLIAMSPORT
The smallest and most isolated MSA in Pennsylvania is Williamsport, which remains relevant due to the Little League World Series and the discovery of the Marcellus Shale gas field, which has brought energy jobs to the region.
12. ALTOONA
Altoona is the least diverse MSA in the entire United States, with a stagnant economy and a somewhat isolated setting in the mountains. The nearest MSAs are Johnstown and State College, neither of which are very large.
13. JOHNSTOWN
If there's a "redneck" city in Pennsylvania, then it's Johnstown, which has had a declining population for almost 100 years, a free-falling economy for over 60 years, and a decidedly lower-middle-class lifestyle.
I'd do a list for Georgia right now if I wasn't so tired and foggy from the medicine I've been taking. Maybe somebody from Georgia can do it for me in the interim. If not, then I'll do it soon. In the meantime, rank the MSAs in your state by their reputation using the factors I listed above.
Tennessee's are more or less in order of population, with the exception of the bottom 3. Jackson is a larger and more established city than Morristown or Cleveland. And I wouldn't say that either of those two is doing so strongly in the other categories to overtake the importance factor.
1. Nashville
2. Memphis
3. Knoxville
4. Chattanooga
5. Tri Cities (technically a CSA)
6. Clarksville
7. Jackson
8. Cleveland
9. Morristown
1. Minneapolis/St Paul - The big city of the state by a wide margin. It is the economic, financial and cultural hub of Minnesota and a large swathe of land beyond.
2. Duluth - It is economically depressed and kind or run down but it has so much soul. It has interesting people, giant hills, a big port on the largest lake in the world and real wilderness on its' doorstep. It has its' own culture and is a one of a kind place in America. The port at the end of the world.
3. Rochester - It has a high standard of living and decent growth. It is a one industry town but when the one industry is the Mayo Clinic that is not a bad thing to be. A good place to raise a family. It is a bit bigger than Duluth but it is also kind of sterile and boring.
4. St Cloud - These are the people who send Michele Bachmann to Congress.
For Georgia, Atlanta and Savannah are tops for different reasons. Because they play different roles, it's difficult to say who's #1 and #2 but for the sake of this discussion I'll just put them in the same top tier.
After this it's Augusta which gains most of its notoriety (outside the state) for the Masters.
Then it's Columbus and Macon, which don't really have any special or unique general appeal.
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Texas
