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Yes, LA is a great air hub, congrats( lol), but as far as business in this day and age, it's about relevance and being necessary.
The following in an excerpt from an article written by of the biggest pro-SoCal demographers around.
Quote:
Not long ago Los Angeles, North
America’s second-largest metro area,
saw itself as a potential rival to New
York and a legitimate world city.
Hollywood is nearly synonymous with
the American entertainment industry
and is by far the world’s largest in
terms of revenue and influence. Last
year the industry enjoyed exports of
almost $15 billion.
But L.A.’s share of entertainment
employment is shrinking and its
former second industry, aerospace,
has declined significantly, losing over
90,000 jobs since the end of the Cold
War. Several key companies have
decamped from the metro area in
recent years — Nissan, Occidental
Petroleum, Toyota — for more
business-friendly places.
The situation is arguably worse in
Chicago, which ties for 20th. The
Windy City first rose to world
prominence after overcoming rival St.
Louis in the late 19th century. It
boasts one of the world’s most diverse
economies, but has not developed
strong dominance in any industry.
Chicago is an also ran in media and
technology and, outside of
commodities, is no longer a major
global financial center.
The big winner today is the Bay Area,
which overwhelmingly dominates the
list of technology leaders; not only is
the metro area home to a glittering
array of tech standouts, companies
based elsewhere in the U.S., and in
other countries, feel compelled to site
operations there. Even a penny
pinching retailer like Wal-Mart is
growing its Silicon Valley presence.
Your reliance on the sheer size of LA, while simultaneously refusing to acknowledge the fact that the Bay Area is heads and shoulders above LA as far as influencing the global economy NOW is laughable.
And in a thread about US states, who the hell cares what people in Turkey think?
Here's a heat map highlighting usage of the term "The City"
San Francisco clearly owns that image in California, sorry to disappoint ya. lol
I think regardless of the pros and cons of SoCal vs the Bay Area, you have to go with GaWC on this. Los Angeles is an alpha world city. San Francisco is an alpha- city.
What don't you understand, 18Montclair? Yes, SF is growing. It may one day be CA's #1 city. But today, right now, at this very second, there is no contest. LA is the obvious #1 city of CA. LA might be slowing and SF might be growing. However, SF has some catching up to do and LA is by no means even close to losing its label as one of the top global cities. It's a higher tier in ever way. Larger airport, larger port, larger GDP, larger population. How can a city with a smaller population, smaller GDP, less relevant airport, and less relevant port be the premier city of the state?
Air hub is important because it shows where air traffic and travel is needed. Clearly airline companies see the need for a larger hub and more business in LA than SF. LA is where the profits are.
LA and LBC harbor are the two top largest ports in the Western Hemisphere. Combing the LA and Long Beach ports gives the harbor area I believe the 8th largest port in the entire. You're willing to say that means nothing also?
Companies are feeling compelled to open offices in SF. Meaning they didn't before. Supporting the idea that LA was and still is the premier city of CA, with the chance of SF taking over way far down the line.
And as for the city I can't even believe you would take it to that level. Maybe it's because the only places that actually call their cities "The City" are NYC and SF, and apparently Chicago. In NorCal, people say they live in the city or they're going to hang out in the city tonight. In LA, we say we live in the valley, or the westside, or downtown, or the south bay. Saying you live in "the city" in LA would be stupid because it's a massive city 4x the population and I don't even know how much larger geographically. Manhattan is "the city" basically. Not Queens or the Bronx. So saying you live in the city is easy there too. Notice how on that map SF and NYC are the only two that do that? Yeah. Irrelevant talking point again.
Please. Give up 18. Nobody is on your side. You're basically trolling right now.
Last edited by jessemh431; 04-19-2015 at 11:05 PM..
According to this, LA is so powerful that it belongs in its own separate region. While the "Left Coast" might be growing faster and end up with a larger GDP than LA in 2023, think about it. That includes other major cities like Seattle and Portland. So the only way for SF to outdo LA is if it were to include Seattle and Portland in its population and GDP. Even still, its population is smaller and its GDP is marginally larger.
All I really see is 18Montclair at least showing / citing reasons as to his belief, whether valid or not to this thread (I think some of them are quite valid per the OP). While he might not be going about it in the most respectful manor (per usual), at least he isn't just basically saying "nuh uh" like almost everyone responding to him. Most of those responding to him are going primarily off of how they feel (which isn't necessarily a bad thing, as I'm not entirely sure what the parameters of this thread are), and extrapolating their feelings on to some sort of majority (beyond the CvC majority, which clearly disagrees with him). Many replies basically boil down to - "Ask anyone in the world, they will say LA!" - which is a silly notion but if that is what this thread is about, some hypothetical popularity contest, then so be it. LA wins in a landslide or whatever.
If this thread is not about some sort of name recognition, popularity / public opinion and the first city you think about!!!!1111, then as a homer I don't see why a case can't be made for SF. The first line in the OP mentions the financial hub, would that not be a point for SF? Importance is also mentioned, importance can be subjective but could an objective (and/or subjective) case not be made for SF there as well (each is more important than the other in many things, and everyone has their own rating system for which of these individual things are more important than others)? Also from the OP: the capital, most visited & most populous. Neither city is the capital and LA would get the other two.
Either way, as is often the case, everyone is just going off their own set of rules is all. And as is human nature, people generally have very little wiggle room when it comes to their stance.
All I really see is 18Montclair at least showing / citing reasons as to his belief, whether valid or not to this thread (I think some of them are quite valid per the OP). While he might not be going about it in the most respectful manor (per usual), at least he isn't just basically saying "nuh uh" like almost everyone responding to him. Most of those responding to him are going primarily off of how they feel (which isn't necessarily a bad thing, as I'm not entirely sure what the parameters of this thread are), and extrapolating their feelings on to some sort of majority (beyond the CvC majority, which clearly disagrees with him). Many replies basically boil down to - "Ask anyone in the world, they will say LA!" - which is a silly notion but if that is what this thread is about, some hypothetical popularity contest, then so be it. LA wins in a landslide or whatever.
If this thread is not about some sort of name recognition, popularity / public opinion and the first city you think about!!!!1111, then as a homer I don't see why a case can't be made for SF. The first line in the OP mentions the financial hub, would that not be a point for SF? Importance is also mentioned, importance can be subjective but could an objective (and/or subjective) case not be made for SF there as well (each is more important than the other in many things, and everyone has their own rating system for which of these individual things are more important than others)? Also from the OP: the capital, most visited & most populous. Neither city is the capital and LA would get the other two.
Either way, as is often the case, everyone is just going off their own set of rules is all. And as is human nature, people generally have very little wiggle room when it comes to their stance.
I think a case for the Bay Area can be made. It does well on a per capita basis, at least better than Los Angeles (because LA is more of a hub for immigrants and low-skilled workers) but still can't reach Los Angeles' magnitude due to its sheer size.
Sure size isn't everything, but in this case I believe it makes the difference.
According to this, LA is so powerful that it belongs in its own separate region. While the "Left Coast" might be growing faster and end up with a larger GDP than LA in 2023, think about it. That includes other major cities like Seattle and Portland. So the only way for SF to outdo LA is if it were to include Seattle and Portland in its population and GDP. Even still, its population is smaller and its GDP is marginally larger.
And I know it's technical since the Bay Area functions as a region, but in a straight head-to-head city matchup, that's even more of a case for Los Angeles (although I already think it's already a crystal clear win for Los Angeles going by metro area).
A lot of the time, a state's largest city is not always the best!
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