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New York is a definite yes.
Toronto and San Fran are high probability nos for the time being.
DC is a probable no but the US center of government gives it some boost.
Mexico City and LA are high probability yesses behind NYC.
Chicago is ahead of Toronto and San Fran but not in my top 3.
NY, Mexico City, and LA for me.
I had to go with the “Megacity” trio: NY, DF, LA.
It seems everyone agrees on NY and most also agree on DF too. IMO, those 2 are solid. It was the 3rd spot I had trouble with. I was between LA and TO. I was thinking TO to get the main city of each of the big 3 NA countries, but it didn’t feel right putting TO above LA. I thought it was better to ignore borders and just look at the cities more as individuals.
Location: That star on your map in the middle of the East Coast, DMV
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Originally Posted by Calisonn
By CSA LA is almost twice the size of Chicagoland, a very seamless connected CSA in less land than Chicagoland I might add, so NOLA wasn't that off.
Yea but LA is a lot of fluff honestly. Like there's an extra almost 5 million from Riverside- San Bernadino that boosts its population and honestly nothing else. I give it props here solely on mega-city status, not on actual percentage of output compared to the others. The output of the LA region drops off massively in comparison to all these other cities which have much consistency with their economies and so forth. One quarter of the LA region is basically a bedroom community for immigrants and lower income families as such.
Even in LA proper, and the immediate metro, it could be argued for LA as one of the most fun and amenity filled yes, but really there aren't as many important institutions or things going on there than most of the other cities involved here. The buildings you look up and point to when walking around NYC, DC, or Chicago are vastly more important and pertinent to the ongoing successes and managing of this country than buildings you would point to in LA.
I get the sense that walking around NYC the Federal Reserve or NYSE building or UN headquarters are more important than the Los Angeles Film School.
I get the sense that the White House, Capitol, FBI, or the IMF or the World Bank or the 177 embassies in DC etc. are more significant than Capitol Records Headquarters.
I get the sense that the Chicago Board of Trade building has much more prominence and pertinence to the country and continent than LA Live.
I'm by no means saying that LA has no pertinent institutions, but when comparing to the others it simply is does not match on that level. If we are keeping this to simple size and total economy LA has to be top 3, but I like to dig deeper than that.
LOL Horribly limited list in the poll. And why the worship of New York? Must have been put together by someone from NY. Weird to see Mexico City included, and often.
I'd never live in any of those cities in that list.
I would go with these respective pairs out of all of the options given and in "roughly" this order;
01. New York-Mexico City-Los Angeles (the megacity trio)
02. New York-Mexico City-Washington DC (the all about geopolitical importance and influence trio)
03. New York-Mexico City-Toronto (the largest cities of their respective countries trio)
04. Mexico City-Washington DC-Ottawa (the administrative capitals of their respective countries trio)
5A. New York-Washington DC-San Francisco Bay Area (the globally influential trio)
5B. New York-Los Angeles-Chicago (the iconic American trio)
06. New York-Washington DC-Toronto (seems to be the next best fit)
Interested in hearing which trifecta could make the best case out of them all though. The trio of cities in #4 (Mexico City-Washington DC-Ottawa) is the only combination that doesn't include New York and has some legitimacy. The other combinations without New York are not very realistic IMO.
I disagree. I would rank Los Angeles as the more important city in the US/NA. New York is bigger and older for sure, and remains an important center of global finance, but when was the last time NY was a trend setter in social, cultural, technological/medical, artistic, etc. endeavors. Over the last few decades the "Center of the Universe" has shifted from NY to California.
New York is a definite yes.
Toronto and San Fran are high probability nos for the time being.
DC is a probable no but the US center of government gives it some boost.
Mexico City and LA are high probability yesses behind NYC.
Chicago is ahead of Toronto and San Fran but not in my top 3.
NY, Mexico City, and LA for me.
I disagree. I would rank Los Angeles as the more important city in the US/NA. New York is bigger and older for sure, and remains an important center of global finance, but when was the last time NY was a trend setter in social, cultural, technological/medical, artistic, etc. endeavors. Over the last few decades the "Center of the Universe" has shifted from NY to California.
My $0.02. Please be polite if you disagree.
I think you’re alone in that. I think you’re underselling Mexico City as well as a strong case can be made to rank it above LA for NA rankings. It seems you’re already anticipating everyone to disagree given your last sentence. California is the hub for tech (and not even LA, but Silicon Valley) but NY is the hub everything else you listed except Medical which I don’t really think has one main hub.
When was the last time??? I don’t really know how to answer that... I don’t mean this in a rude way but I honestly thought you were trolling until your last sentence. I guess the most recent Fall NYFW would be the most obvious answer.
I think you’re alone in that. I think you’re underselling Mexico City as well as a strong case can be made to rank it above LA for NA rankings. It seems you’re already anticipating everyone to disagree given your last sentence. California is the hub for tech (and not even LA, but Silicon Valley) but NY is the hub everything else you listed except Medical which I don’t really think has one main hub.
When was the last time??? I don’t really know how to answer that... I don’t mean this in a rude way but I honestly thought you were trolling until your last sentence. I guess the most recent Fall NYFW would be the most obvious answer.
I would agree with you that NYC is the #1 in the US due to it's size and influence over global finance, and I personally chose Mexico City and DC as the other two North American cities for influence of political power (plus Mexico city is like if LA and DC were the same city for Mexico)
That said, I do think that he may have a point. California and maybe even LA has a bigger day to day cultural influence over most Americans than NYC.
When I think about my day to day life and that of most Americans, the city and neighborhood I live in look more like something from California than New York. The computer I use, the iPhone, the TV shows, movies (for the most part) are products of California (even if NBC, HBO, ABC etc are technically based in NYC.) The car I drive, while not a product of either state, is more of a result of the California culture than NY culture.
NYC went from a manufacturing city that made stuff for everyone to a financial services and luxury based economy. NYC just doesn't product much stuff anymore, it mainly provides services. While lots of people have 401Ks, most don't follow fashion week, and the museums and opera of NYC are more just amenities for people that live there than cultural trendsetters.
Even the exception proves the rule: Hamilton was unique as a Broadway play in that it went mainstream, most don't. Even some of the most famous shows set in NYC were filmed in California (The fountain in "Friends" is actually in LA)
Transplants that move to cities Californicate them, they don't make them "Little Queens," The sprawl out into "Little Orange Counties"
Even for cities that are densifying do so in a more west coast style than east coast way. The parts of Denver, SLC, Houston,Dallas or Atlanta That are infilling look more like Berkeley, San Diego, San Jose of even LA than Brooklyn. It's a different more west coast street car type Urbanism. Besides, if you are trying to do sprawl repair and fill in missing teeth, you will look at another sprawl place that has had success doing that.
Of course this isn't to say that NYC isn't impactful on American culture, it is, although in alot of ways it has become more of iconic and symbolic image as "The Big City" rather than having the same sort of influence it might have had 50-100 years ago. American Pop culture has shifted to the west coast even if they still like to set movies and TV shows in NYC and many if not most watch the ball drop in NYC on NYE.
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