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Old 04-28-2014, 05:22 PM
 
Location: Philadelphia
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Red John View Post
Don't know what order but would imagine these would be the tops in North America when taking Mexico City and New York out of the picture. I'm doing by the configuration of urban area / metropolis rather than just the city proper.

Guatemala City (Gautemala), San Jose (Costa Rica), Panama City (Panama), Havana (Cuba), Montreal (Quebec, Canada), San Francisco (United States), Chicago (United States), Los Angeles (United States),Toronto (Canada), Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic), Puebla (Mexico), Managua (Nicaragua), San Salvador (El Salvador), Santiago (Dominican Republic), Leon (Mexico), San Juan (Puerto Rico).

I don't discriminate between first world, developing world, or third world environments when the question is straight forward "what is the most urban cities in North America when excluding New York and Mexico City".

Yeah, I agree many of those cities should be included (I really want to see Havana) but not San Jose, CR in my experience. Philadelphia is more urban than some others too IMO.
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Old 04-28-2014, 05:47 PM
 
Location: Medfid
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Red John View Post
Don't know what order but would imagine these would be the tops in North America when taking Mexico City and New York out of the picture. I'm doing by the configuration of urban area / metropolis rather than just the city proper.

Guatemala City (Gautemala), San Jose (Costa Rica), Panama City (Panama), Havana (Cuba), Montreal (Quebec, Canada), San Francisco (United States), Chicago (United States), Los Angeles (United States),Toronto (Canada), Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic), Puebla (Mexico), Managua (Nicaragua), San Salvador (El Salvador), Santiago (Dominican Republic), Leon (Mexico), San Juan (Puerto Rico).

I don't discriminate between first world, developing world, or third world environments when the question is straight forward "what is the most urban cities in North America when excluding New York and Mexico City".
By what stretch of the imagination is Puebla, Mexico or Leon, Mexico more urban than Boston?

Even if your taking the outside-of-downtown area into account, this is Leon, here's some Puebla, and here is Boston

The majority of the Central American cities on that list couldn't hold a candle to places like Boston and Philadelphia in terms of urbanity!

Managua!!?? San Salvador!!?? Seriously!?!
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Old 04-28-2014, 05:47 PM
 
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So how does San Juan rank against Santo Domingo(or Havana) in terms of urbanity? I've never been to Cuba or the Dominican Republic.

Actually that might be an interesting comparison for city vs. city, but it'd have to be done on the Americas forum I suppose.
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Old 04-28-2014, 05:59 PM
 
Location: Cambridge, MA/London, UK
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 2e1m5a View Post
Yeah, I agree many of those cities should be included (I really want to see Havana) but not San Jose, CR in my experience. Philadelphia is more urban than some others too IMO.
I have to agree on the San Jose point. I never spent a ton of time there, but it seemed desolate in certain areas, but still pretty urban and vibrant in others, but not hyper urban like alot of these places mentioned.

There are quite a few places mentioned on Red John's list that I have not personally visited, so not comment either way.
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Old 04-28-2014, 07:22 PM
 
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Guatemala City (Gautemala), San Jose (Costa Rica), Panama City (Panama), Havana (Cuba), Montreal (Quebec, Canada), San Francisco (United States), Chicago (United States), Los Angeles (United States),Toronto (Canada), Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic), Puebla (Mexico), Managua (Nicaragua), San Salvador (El Salvador), Santiago (Dominican Republic), Leon (Mexico), San Juan (Puerto Rico).

The mere fact that you have to add the country where these cities are located says a lot about their (un)importance to the world.
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Old 04-28-2014, 07:29 PM
 
437 posts, read 625,104 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by tocoto View Post
Guatemala City (Gautemala), San Jose (Costa Rica), Panama City (Panama), Havana (Cuba), Montreal (Quebec, Canada), San Francisco (United States), Chicago (United States), Los Angeles (United States),Toronto (Canada), Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic), Puebla (Mexico), Managua (Nicaragua), San Salvador (El Salvador), Santiago (Dominican Republic), Leon (Mexico), San Juan (Puerto Rico).

The mere fact that you have to add the country where these cities are located says a lot about their (un)importance to the world.
So I guess SF, Chicago, and LA are unimportant as well huh since when did this thread become about importance
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Old 04-28-2014, 07:31 PM
 
Location: Toronto
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Quote:
Originally Posted by tocoto View Post
Guatemala City (Gautemala), San Jose (Costa Rica), Panama City (Panama), Havana (Cuba), Montreal (Quebec, Canada), San Francisco (United States), Chicago (United States), Los Angeles (United States),Toronto (Canada), Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic), Puebla (Mexico), Managua (Nicaragua), San Salvador (El Salvador), Santiago (Dominican Republic), Leon (Mexico), San Juan (Puerto Rico).

The mere fact that you have to add the country where these cities are located says a lot about their (un)importance to the world.
What an odd thing to say... He put the country beside every city he listed... I don't think he was doing it because he inferred that nobody knew that L.A was in the U.S or than Panama City was in Panama or that they aren't important

Anyway only 4 of these cities (L.A, Chicago, Toronto and S.F) are Alpha class global cities but that doesn't make them by default the most urban...
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Old 04-28-2014, 07:47 PM
 
Location: Cambridge, MA/London, UK
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Quote:
Originally Posted by fusion2 View Post
Anyway only 4 of these cities (L.A, Chicago, Toronto and S.F) are Alpha class global cities but that doesn't make them by default the most urban...
It definitely doesn't make a city any less or more urban, but it is an interesting way of finding cities that most likely belong in the conversation.

In N. America:

Alpha ++ : NYC
Alpha +: Chicago
Alpha: Toronto, LA, Mexico City, SF, DC
Alpha - : Miami, Boston, Dallas, Atlanta, Philadelphia

But as you said there are tons of cities that would knock some of the above off the list. I saw some similarities in Panama City and Miami for example, but PC is WAY more urban than Miami, despite not being on the same level as the ranking above.
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Old 04-28-2014, 08:06 PM
 
Location: Medfid
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dispo4 View Post
So I guess SF, Chicago, and LA are unimportant as well huh since when did this thread become about importance
I think the point that the poster was getting at (and I agree with him/her) is that if you walked up to a random stranger in Sydney Australia and said "Managua is one if the 10 most urban cities in North America, don't you agree?", they'd probably look at you strangely and ask "wtf is Managua?"
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Old 04-28-2014, 08:08 PM
 
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I forgot Philadelphia, thank you for the addition, to all of the above posters.
Quote:
Originally Posted by iAMtheVVALRUS View Post
By what stretch of the imagination is Puebla, Mexico or Leon, Mexico more urban than Boston?

Even if your taking the outside-of-downtown area into account, this is Leon, here's some Puebla, and here is Boston

The majority of the Central American cities on that list couldn't hold a candle to places like Boston and Philadelphia in terms of urbanity!

Managua!!?? San Salvador!!?? Seriously!?!
Like I mentioned, I don't discriminate against cities because of it's country's socioeconomics. A place is either urban or it is not. Period. I'm sorry it doesn't fit your definition of urban, perhaps you were thinking urbanity is something exclusive to only the high-income world?

Puebla is geographically contained by mountains on all of it's sides.

This has led to it having a higher consistent density over a much greater area than anything that can be conjured up by Greater Boston, frankly speaking. In terms of both structural density and population density.

Puebla on streetlevel, when you don't cherry pick bottom of the rung neighborhoods (like you did):

One.

Two. (Bandera Angelopolitina)

Three. (La Gitena)

Four. (Reforma - Juan de Palafox)

Five. (Portal Hidalgo)

Six. (Poniente)

I could keep going on with pictures from legit historical neighborhoods (that are older than some of those in Boston's generally speaking) but this should be your job. You took the burden to question it's urbanity, burden is on you to do the proper research, in my opinion.

Puebla, a dense metropolis of 2.7 million people, that lives in the shadows of Mexico City. Has greater consistent structural and population density than all of Greater Boston, in addition to having more walkable and urban neighborhoods than Greater Boston (outside of Boston's small core), because well, it's not in the sprawlerific United States, for better or worse not everyone has the socioeconomics to afford the luxuries of a six or eight cylinder personal vehicle. So pedestrian life, mopeds, scooters, and bikes have to do en masse (urban friendly personal transportation / for narrower streets / more cost efficient).

When you say "most Central American cities cant hold a handle to Boston", speak for yourself. I've been to Boston several times in the last two years, and love going there, as it's a great city for the United States but a large AND urban one it is not (by global standards). It has a pretty fine core (for America, anyways) but just when you think things are getting good, the city ends, abruptly, in the most small town manner there is. The drop off of density in Greater Boston, when I drove there from Washington (through the suicidal traffic corridor that is Connecticut) is stark drop off. It never ceases to leave me with the impression "what the (expletive), where the heck did the city go? Am I on the set of Amityville Horror in the woods!?".

Philadelphia is a big city, it's urban expanse shadows for a longer length/diameter in every direction. Easily noticeable and outside of the 4-5 mile core, it feels a great bit denser and larger than Boston.

None of this makes Boston a lesser city by the way, but you're confusing being one of the top ten most urban in sprawling United States to being one of the top ten most urban in North America. I simply disagree, only my opinion, if you think Boston is like third or fourth place in ALL of North America, have at that opinion. Wont be changing mine though.

Last edited by Trafalgar Law; 04-28-2014 at 08:19 PM..
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