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Raleigh and the Triangle are generally considered a great area, and I (from six weeks last summer) liked it enough. But...
Raleigh is a good candidate because it has a CSA of 2 million, but its population is split into three primary cities and a bunch of suburbs. So Raleigh itself does not feel like the center of other 2 million + metros. Standing alone, it feels more like a Birmingham, ABQ, Omaha, etc. than it does a Charlotte.
Ok that makes sense from a CSA POV. But as a city with around 450k and a metro with around 1.5mil, it's downtown seems pretty big and lively what I've seen. Is it not? Or is it exaggerated?
Arlington, which barely has anything close to public transportation. Probably some other boomburbs, but Arlington has the distinction of being the second largest and being represented in the name of the metro, Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington.
From an economic standpoint, Orlando is way beneath it's weight for such a massive metro. Other then that it offers amenities on par with a similar sized metro.
orlando is the only big metro in fl that isn't tied to the beaches and actually has a somewhat higher gdp than tampa despite being smaller. its done a lot to attract tech, high the highest percentage of immigration from asia and actually has a commuter rail line. (with another rail connection u/c to miami)
i almost think of it as a mini/young atlanta in a way, it certainly wants to become more than what it currently is, and that's more than can be said for tampa/jax.
- San Jose
- Fresno
- Indianapolis
- Birmingham, AL
- Atlanta--for its size
- San Diego--take away the beaches and weather and you get Bland Diego. Actually a disappointing city, IMO.
Honorable mention: Orange County--I like the place, but for a county of 3,000,000, it's still slowly developing its own identity separate from L.A. That said, it still has a diverse array of neighborhoods and cities, a great mix of cultures, and one of the best job markets on the West Coast.
A lot of this depends on perspective. You have to consider how a place compares to other regional peers around the same size. It wouldn't make sense to compare Dallas to Philly and then say Dallas punches below its weight. Despite being similar in size, one is a modern sunbelt city built during the age of the automobile and the other is a classic, urban city. Sunbelt cities have to be compared with other sunbelt cities and urban cities have to be compared with other urban cities.
In terms of cities that actually punch below their weight, Oklahoma City takes the cake on this. It's peers - Jacksonville, Louisville, Memphis, Richmond, and Birmingham pretty much blow it away in every aspect (though Birmingham is somewhat debatable). It also compares unfavorably to places like Omaha, Albuquerque, and Tulsa. For a metro area closing in on 1.4 million, you have to compare it with metro areas half its size - around 700,000 - for it to even be a fair comparison.
Other cities in a similar situation are places like Jackson, MS. It doesn't compare well to Little Rock, Baton Rouge, Mobile, and Knoxville. For large cities, I would say Phoenix. I really like Phoenix myself, but I would be lying if I said it compared well with other metro areas of 4.5 million people. It compares nicely with other metro areas in the 2.5 to 3.5 million population range.
Detroit punches below its weight, but given its economic circumstances and history its kind of a unique situation. In Florida, a lot of people seem to say that Jacksonville punches below its weight but I always thought that about Tampa. I haven't been there in 15 years though so I probably need to revisit before making that call.
Formal, yes. But Arlington doesn't even have certain basic factors to truly call itself its own city, yet.
The city needed to get BOTH Dallas and Fort Worth to give them a small city bus that doesn't even make that many stops.
That was sort of my point, although I just define city based on size. Despite Arlington's size, large enough to be included in the metro's name, it can barely function as a city.
That was sort of my point, although I just define city based on size. Despite Arlington's size, large enough to be included in the metro's name, it can barely function as a city.
Ah. I see.
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