Population required to be a "real city"? (safe, metro area)
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When I think of real cities I think of the NE+Mid Atlantic and the midwest. SF Bay Area and LA are real too. Most cities in the south are so spread out that they seem to look country to me. Charlotte and Jacksonville look country except downtown. Atlanta seems real but again, only 400K something people living in 132 sq miles. Most major cites in the south are like large towns not cities. I wouldn't call Houston a city just a very large town/suburb.
So I guess Dallas, Miami, Austin, Nashville, New Orleans aren't real cities either. You should come down and visit because I know for a fact that these are all real cities.
Anything less than 5 million people is not a real city. Disagree with me? You're a jealous small town hillbilly.
Atlanta, Boston, San Francisco, and Seattle (all of which are right at 5 million or under) are every bit the cities that Los Angeles, Miami, and NYC are. They all offer major sports teams, have IKEAs, are major ports/transportation hubs, economic powerhouses, and major draws for tourists and immigrants. Just because it's not a global alpha-plus city doesn't mean it's not a real city. It's almost the exact same thing, just on a slightly smaller scale. Sometimes, less can actually be more.
When I think of real cities I think of the NE+Mid Atlantic and the midwest. SF Bay Area and LA are real too. Most cities in the south are so spread out that they seem to look country to me. Charlotte and Jacksonville look country except downtown. Atlanta seems real but again, only 400K something people living in 132 sq miles. Most major cites in the south are like large towns not cities. I wouldn't call Houston a city just a very large town/suburb.
I can't really speak for the rest of your post, but I have to agree with the last sentence. Houston is the prime example of a massive population living close to each other, but not creating anything of substance. I just cant bring myself to calling it a real city. I still remember the first time I went to Montrose (which is apparently a nice part of town) and getting the distinct feeling that I was in some ramshackle small town. Crumbling sidewalks, cheap street lights strung from telephone poles, parking lots haphazardly placed between buildings. It's shockingly bleak. I now understand that all if the money down there is spent on the insides of buildings and people there just don't care about aesthetics.
I don't completely agree because the pedestrian-centric "hipster" fad is relatively recent and prior to it people would have had no problem saying an auto-centric city was a "real city." Asheville, NC is much as you describe Berkeley. It's dense, organic, funky, and draws people, but I would still call it a town.
Pedestrian-centric is hipster and recent??? Have you ever left the US???
I can't really speak for the rest of your post, but I have to agree with the last sentence. Houston is the prime example of a massive population living close to each other, but not creating anything of substance. I just cant bring myself to calling it a real city. I still remember the first time I went to Montrose (which is apparently a nice part of town) and getting the distinct feeling that I was in some ramshackle small town. Crumbling sidewalks, cheap street lights strung from telephone poles, parking lots haphazardly placed between buildings. It's shockingly bleak. I now understand that all if the money down there is spent on the insides of buildings and people there just don't care about aesthetics.
I would say Village 1-20,000, town 20,000-50,000, small city 50,000-150,000, city 150,000-500,000 big city 500,000 +
According to IL law, a municipality can call itself a city or village (never a town) with no restriction on population, though at this time there are no villages over 100,000. Either can be divided into wards.
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