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View Poll Results: Which place is better?
Atlanta 152 53.52%
New Orleans 132 46.48%
Voters: 284. You may not vote on this poll

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Old 10-29-2011, 10:51 PM
 
Location: Louisiana to Houston to Denver to NOVA
16,505 posts, read 26,083,316 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by grapico View Post
Urban Area does not include swamp land though that isn't built on.
I know. I'm not sure how they got those numbers.

 
Old 10-30-2011, 12:27 AM
 
Location: New Orleans
2,311 posts, read 4,922,580 times
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The contiguous portions of UA in New Orleans are basically the inhabited parts of Orleans Parish, the east and west bank suburbs of Jefferson Parish, Upper Plaquemines, a little bit of St. Charles, and most of inhabited St. Bernard. One area that can definitely be thrown out is St. Tammany as there is lake one way and swamp and lake another to get there. St. Tammany has 270k people, so that brings the total possible UA down to about 850k. Subtract a few outlying areas in Jefferson, St. Charles, Plaquemines, and to a lesser extent St. Bernard, and the 819k figure is probably accurate. The 1M number was likely accurate pre-storm.
 
Old 10-30-2011, 12:28 AM
 
Location: New Orleans, United States
4,230 posts, read 10,434,345 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by chiatldal View Post
New Orleans, LA Urbanized Area - ACS Demographic and Housing Estimates: 2007-2009

New Orleans urban area 2009 estimates is 813,859
I thought something was strange I mean the 2010 MSA is 1,167,764
I don't think the area is right too, The whole MSA is 3,755.2 sq. mi, that's the 1.1 million.

Jefferson Parish is 432,552 in 642 sq mi
Orleans Parish 343,829 in 180.6 sq mi

Where is the 1,009,283 in just 197 sq miles is coming from? I don't where wikipedia got that from.

Atlanta, GA Urbanized Area - ACS Demographic and Housing Estimates: 2007-2009

Then That's was the 2000 Atlanta urban area population, Atlanta Urban area was
4,141,323 in 1,962 sq miles 2009 estimates.
Let's see. The urban area only considers inhabited parts of a MSA. The MSA consists of entire counties/parishes. The majority of the cities in the New Orleans MSA cover less than 1/4 of their parish's total land area. Even with the 180.6 sq mi considered "land" in Orleans Parish only probably 80 sq mi of that is inhabitable and if you look at a map you can easily see that New Orleans "city" only covers between 1/4 and a little under 1/3 of Orleans Parish. New Orleans' largest suburb, Metairie, only has a land area of 22 sq mi. The next biggest, Kenner, is only 15 sq mi. Do the math and it comes together. Jefferson Parish as a whole may have a land area of 307 sq mi., but I'd be willing to bet that 80% of that is marsh. Jefferson parish is built to capacity with little room left suitable for development and it's largest populated area is barely over 20 sq mi.

Last edited by WestbankNOLA; 10-30-2011 at 01:29 AM..
 
Old 10-30-2011, 01:09 AM
 
Location: New Orleans, United States
4,230 posts, read 10,434,345 times
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Here are the land areas of New Orleans' most populous suburbs and most likely most of the ones that make up the urban area.

Metairie - 22 sq mi - 138,481
Kenner - 15 sq mi - 66,702
Slidell - 12 sq mi - 27,068
Chalmette - 8 sq mi - 16,751
Marrero - 8 sq mi - 33,141
Covington - 7 sq mi - 8,765
Harvey - 7 sq mi - 20,348
Mandeville - 6 sq mi - 11,560
Gretna - 4 sq mi - 17,736
River Ridge - 4 sq mi - 13,494
Westwego - 3 sq mi - 8,534
Harahan - 2 sq mi - 9,277

Suburbs - 98 sq mi - 371,857

New Orleans - 80-90 sq mi - 343,829

Total - 178-188 sq mi - 715,686

That would leave another 30-20 sq mi of census tract and another 100,000 people. Using the suburban numbers alone you've averaged over 3,000 people per square mile. Using that, another 30 sq miles would put you at 800,000 people in just about 200 sq miles. This is just me playing with the statistics, but they seem to add up to what was originally posted.

Last edited by WestbankNOLA; 10-30-2011 at 01:18 AM..
 
Old 10-30-2011, 01:20 AM
 
Location: Louisiana to Houston to Denver to NOVA
16,505 posts, read 26,083,316 times
Reputation: 13275
I knew you'd be here soon WBN.
 
Old 10-30-2011, 02:46 AM
 
4,819 posts, read 6,043,297 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by WestbankNOLA View Post
Let's see. The urban area only considers inhabited parts of a MSA. The MSA consists of entire counties/parishes. The majority of the cities in the New Orleans MSA cover less than 1/4 of their parish's total land area. Even with the 180.6 sq mi considered "land" in Orleans Parish only probably 80 sq mi of that is inhabitable and if you look at a map you can easily see that New Orleans "city" only covers between 1/4 and a little under 1/3 of Orleans Parish. New Orleans' largest suburb, Metairie, only has a land area of 22 sq mi. The next biggest, Kenner, is only 15 sq mi. Do the math and it comes together. Jefferson Parish as a whole may have a land area of 307 sq mi., but I'd be willing to bet that 80% of that is marsh. Jefferson parish is built to capacity with little room left suitable for development and it's largest populated area is barely over 20 sq mi.

Quote:
Originally Posted by WestbankNOLA View Post
Here are the land areas of New Orleans' most populous suburbs and most likely most of the ones that make up the urban area.

Metairie - 22 sq mi - 138,481
Kenner - 15 sq mi - 66,702
Slidell - 12 sq mi - 27,068
Chalmette - 8 sq mi - 16,751
Marrero - 8 sq mi - 33,141
Covington - 7 sq mi - 8,765
Harvey - 7 sq mi - 20,348
Mandeville - 6 sq mi - 11,560
Gretna - 4 sq mi - 17,736
River Ridge - 4 sq mi - 13,494
Westwego - 3 sq mi - 8,534
Harahan - 2 sq mi - 9,277

Suburbs - 98 sq mi - 371,857

New Orleans - 80-90 sq mi - 343,829

Total - 178-188 sq mi - 715,686

That would leave another 30-20 sq mi of census tract and another 100,000 people. Using the suburban numbers alone you've averaged over 3,000 people per square mile. Using that, another 30 sq miles would put you at 800,000 people in just about 200 sq miles. This is just me playing with the statistics, but they seem to add up to what was originally posted.
Thanks for clearing that up and props to New Orleans, because I was confused when I read that seriously, that's interesting all that is continuous, that all the Parish seats and cities around New Orleans abut each other to somehow come out less than 200 sq mi. Another thing I was looking about was New Orleans being the whole Orleans Parish, I knew not all the suburban parish were populated. I thinking maybe it did hold a million before Katrina in 2000. The data the posters was posting was base on 2000 UA which would explain the 800K population now.

Half of Atlanta urban area is not in cities but counties, And county seats are in middle of each county, many of them came up about the same time of Atlanta as satellite towns rather suburbs. Most areas between cities are inhabitable in which population came later and Georgia has strict annexing and incorporation laws, so a large number of people live directly under the county Gov. Like wise not all the population around metro Atlanta is cram against Atlanta.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/7/71/Atlanta-suburbs.png/360px-Atlanta-suburbs.png (broken link)

But that caught me off guard that the Parishes around Orleans, are basically large nature blanks, and that their entire population and county seats were planned off there approximation to New Orleans.
 
Old 10-30-2011, 10:40 AM
 
Location: roaming gnome
12,385 posts, read 28,372,317 times
Reputation: 5877
Yeah...just being in the two metro areas it is EASY to see the development differences. New Orleans is a pretty compact mid size metro with less amenities but all fairly easy to get to and concentrated. Atlanta is super super spread out giant metro with more amenities but everything is allover the place and you'll spend a lot of drive time doing things.
 
Old 10-30-2011, 10:47 AM
 
Location: Louisiana to Houston to Denver to NOVA
16,505 posts, read 26,083,316 times
Reputation: 13275
Quote:
Originally Posted by grapico View Post
Yeah...just being in the two metro areas it is EASY to see the development differences. New Orleans is a pretty compact mid size metro with less amenities but all fairly easy to get to and concentrated. Atlanta is super super spread out giant metro with more amenities but everything is allover the place and you'll spend a lot of drive time doing things.
One thing I won't miss about Houston.
 
Old 10-30-2011, 10:51 AM
 
Location: roaming gnome
12,385 posts, read 28,372,317 times
Reputation: 5877
Quote:
Originally Posted by annie_himself View Post
One thing I won't miss about Houston.
For somebody living and active life in the metros, I think a metro like New Orleans would let you do more things more often. Houston or Atlanta would let you do a wider variety of things over time but it would take time to accumulate. You aren't going to be able to pack the same type of fun weekend in loaded with different things in Atlanta/Houston as you would be in New Orleans due to the location of everything. If you are the type of person who likes variety and having ability to do amenities every once and awhile then Houston/Atlanta are your places to go. If you like to do a lot, but don't really care if it is "mainstream/high end" or "the best in the southeast" or "shopping variety" type stuff, but it is authentic and it's there and accessible, New Orleans is probably a better place.
I have heard New Orleans and Austin also are more lived in, community driven cities in the South, that just don't have all the amenities that a giant population can provide. I think this is easier said about New Orleans than Austin though. Austin to me is a hard place to seem to like, but I see why others like it. I'm more of a culture/history/diversity/food/architecture/vibe/pro sports snob (a city person)... don't really care for the whole live music/outdoor stuff/college vibe/fun in the sun which seems appealing to Austinites. I definitely prefer the blues/jazz to say indie rock.
Somebody told me once Austin felt like a giant Tallahassee or Athens... and that was just a very unappealing thought.

I'm not sure the south has a city that has both that feel, and the giant size though. I think somewhere like Chicago has both of these elements, not just b/c I am posting from there, just feel that way. In the south you seem to have either/or and have to pick one.

Last edited by grapico; 10-30-2011 at 11:27 AM..
 
Old 10-30-2011, 11:13 AM
 
Location: Louisiana to Houston to Denver to NOVA
16,505 posts, read 26,083,316 times
Reputation: 13275
Yes, half the night consists of driving if you're doing more than one thing. New Orleans is 100% community driven.
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