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I think to be more accurate he meant to say Oakland is a top 5 container port. Anyway, tonnage by itself proves to be a weird metric (look at the list of US ports ranked by tonnage and I bet your eyeballs pop). Most (in the industry) regard Ports of Oakland + Richmond + SF to be in the top tier, certainly behind LA/Long Beach, NY/NJ, and Houston, and right in line with Seattle/Tacoma, Norfolk, and Savannah. It's not called a "gateway city" for nothing
While I would never come so close to saying SF is the #2 for purposes of this thread, I do feel the need to correct you here. I strongly believe SF and the general Bay Area to be more diverse than DC or Boston. Here is what people fail to realize:
In addition to being the global leader in all things "tech" (though within the Bay Area you can bifurcate where the tech companies like to cluster depending on their largest focus), the Bay Area is the #2 life sciences/biotech behind Boston. Ok, so that is your 21st century industry cluster the area is most well known for.
But a lot of people also recognize the importance of the financial sector in the city. Keep in mind that both Bank of America and Wells Fargo come from SF, with the latter still HQ'd here (the former "left" in the 90s, but still occupies space in the city's tallest and maintains a huge presence in the city). But in addition to a large clustering of large banks ($100B+ in assets...I believe there ae 4-5 HQ'd in SF that have large regional presence in the western half of the US), there are staple names like Charles Schwaab, Visa, and Franklin Templeton that are based here. Not to mention a series of hedge funds and investment banks, PE firms, and the largest concentration of VC firms in the world.
Probably behind Tech/Biotech/Finance is the energy sector, which is quite large in SF/the Bay Area. Anyone who has driven around Richmond, Vallejo, and Martinez knows this. The Port of Richmond is one of the largest oil import ports in the country, and the number of refineries in the area is probably 3rd behind Houston and LA. Chevron (3rd largest company in America) is based in the area. There are lots of energy companies, as well (PG&E, #183 in F500), and Calpine shares HQ with Houston. The Bay Area leads the country in solar energy production/manufacture/research. The infamous Solyndra was based here.
Then behind energy is probably fashion/retail. Gap/Banana Republic/Old Navy. Pottery Barn/Williams Sonoma. Competitor Sur La Table. Levi Strauss. Gymboree. The list goes on... Marmot. North Face. ROSS Stores. Safeway. Walmart.com and Macy's.com. etc etc
Behind that is media/entertainment. The monopoly does not go to LA . Pixar. LucasArts/LucasFilm. Electronic Arts. DreamWorks Animation. Pandora. Sony Entertainment. Netflix. All based here.
Behind that is probably just the randoms - Kaiser Permanente, Virgin America, McKesson (#14 on F500), Clorox, Tesla Motors, Gensler, Del Monte Foods, etc etc etc.
Bottom line is the Bay Area is a HUGEEEEE diverse economy. One cannot grasp it until living here.
But as the center of the Bay Area, San Francisco is still by no means the #2 most important city in America. Definitely DC (and I would think DC is probably not *as* versatile as we give it credit for). It can be argued that DC is *the* most important city in America, and NYC is #2. But those two cities together are undeniably the 2 most important cities in this country. Without a doubt.
As far as all aspects of the industry, GAWC now ranks SF as the world's 3rd absolute financial center behind NY and London. Here is their latest ranking released last month:
Wrong. DC as an MSA also has a very strong Biotech/ Life sciences industry in fact stronger than anything Chicago is known for. Stop stripping credit for stereotypes and give it where it's due.
I was only naming the things that those cities are most known for. PS Chicago's financial might is more well known than DC's biotech industry(That's not to say DC doesn't have a biotech industry its just Chicago's finance is more well known)
What I'm saying is DC could definitively make a case for #1, which would bring NYC to #2, LA to #3.
I see you completely chose to ignore my post. I should have expected that you would not respond. I notice a pattern in the mindset of boosters here. Step 1. Bash any city other than the one you have a thing for. Step 2. Insult, ramble, rinse and repeat. Step 3. Be proven wrong time and time again. Step 4. Ignore the posts providing facts proving you wrong. You have now been provided a guide to being a troll. Have a nice day.
So I guess Lagos is better than New York City and LA because it much larger.
Lagos is smaller than NYC or LA, so no.
24 million in NYC metro
18 million in LA metro
17 million in Lagos metro
And obviously Lagos is a desperately poor city with a comparatively tiny economy relative to that of NYC or LA. We are talking population AND economy.
If Lagos were twice the size of NYC and LA, and had twice the economy of NYC and LA, then your analogy would make sense. But, given the reality, it's an absurd analogy.
24 million in NYC metro
18 million in LA metro
17 million in Lagos metro
And obviously Lagos is a desperately poor city with a comparatively tiny economy relative to that of NYC or LA. We are talking population AND economy.
If Lagos were twice the size of NYC and LA, and had twice the economy of NYC and LA, then your analogy would make sense. But, given the reality, it's an absurd analogy.
Exactly I made the same point earlier, Chicagoans need to realize they're only the big dogs in Midwest, SF bay area, DMV, DFW, and even Houston are and have been closing the gap, I would say that Chicago has dropped to 5th most important after NYC, DMV, LA, SF/bay.
Exactly I made the same point earlier, Chicagoans need to realize they're only the big dogs in Midwest, SF bay area, DMV, DFW, and even Houston are and have been closing the gap, I would say that Chicago has dropped to 5th most important after NYC, DMV, LA, SF/bay.
The poll would suggest that people think otherwise.
I'm not even sure whether the original intention was to compare cities (as the title suggests), UAs, MSAs, or CSAs.
The poll would suggest that people think otherwise.
I'm not even sure whether the original intention was to compare cities (as the title suggests), UAs, MSAs, or CSAs.
At any rate, the fact that the poster seems to think DC even remotely approaches (let alone surpasses) LA whether it be UA, MSA or CSA, certainly speaks for itself doesn't it?
The poll would suggest that people think otherwise.
I'm not even sure whether the original intention was to compare cities (as the title suggests), UAs, MSAs, or CSAs.
You guys keep saying "look at the poll", but this is an old thread, back when LA was seen even worse than now, had this poll been done recently on CD, LA would be running away with it. Either way Chicago still has to compete with the Bay area and DMV for population and economy, NYC and LA are head and shoulders above the rest in both categories.
I think to be more accurate he meant to say Oakland is a top 5 container port. Anyway, tonnage by itself proves to be a weird metric (look at the list of US ports ranked by tonnage and I bet your eyeballs pop). Most (in the industry) regard Ports of Oakland + Richmond + SF to be in the top tier, certainly behind LA/Long Beach, NY/NJ, and Houston, and right in line with Seattle/Tacoma, Norfolk, and Savannah. It's not called a "gateway city" for nothing
I did provide the list of ports ranked by tonnage and it doesn't really surprise me. The list is dominated by the Gulf ports which makes perfect sense to me and at any rate the poster I quoted was talking in terms of tonnage. Sure the Bay Area is a gateway as evidenced by the larger percent of international imports, but just in terms of raw numbers it doesn't seem very significant compared to other large metro areas. Can you elaborate more on what factors are considered when determining the importance of a port besides quantitative measures?
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. Pixar. LucasArts/LucasFilm. Electronic Arts. DreamWorks Animation. Pandora. Sony Entertainment. Netflix. All based here.
