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Miami and San Diego are good comparisons (similar to why Seattle and Boston is good). Both are the southern end of each coast, high Hispanic populations, direct access to Latan-America, famous for its beaches.
Location: That star on your map in the middle of the East Coast, DMV
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Quote:
Originally Posted by the resident09
How bout a ranking of them all combined rather than a side by side comparison.
1. New York
2. Los Angeles
3. SF/DC take your pick
4. DC/SF take your pick
5. Boston
6. Philadelphia
7. Seattle
8. Portland.
9. Baltimore
10. San Diego
That puts all but one of the Bos-Wash cities in the top 6, with the bottom 4 being all pretty close.
My inclusion of San Jose is as a part of SF.
I'm going to re-rank my top 10 both coasts and separate SF/SJ:
1. New York
2. Los Angeles
3. DC
4. San Francisco/Oakland
5. Boston
6. Philadelphia
7. Seattle
8. San Jose
9. San Diego
10. Portland
11. Baltimore
This of course is not counting the rest of the East Coast south of DC, in which case some cities would get bumped.
With that said I'd say regarding most similar you'd have to say:
All make sense, I really don't think that Philly has an equivalent, but for the sake of argument we could compare to San Diego. If we're expanding to the whole East Coast however, Miami.
It might help to know how the cities rank amongst each other.
GDP
East Coast | West Coast
1. New York City: $1,717,712 | Los Angeles: $1,043,735
2. Washington: $529,990 | San Francisco: $500,710
3. Philadelphia: $444,975 | Seattle: $356,572
4. Boston: $438,684 | San Jose: $275,293
5. Atlanta: $385,542 | Phoenix: $242,951
6. Miami: $344,882 | San Diego: $231,845
7. Baltimore: $192,178 | Portland: $171,772
8. Charlotte: $174,029 | Riverside: $157,931
9. Pittsburgh: $147,367 | Sacramento: $126,352
10. Tampa: $146,349 | Las Vegas: $112,288
11. Orlando: $132,448 | Honolulu: $67,495
*I included Nevada and Arizona as west coast so that there would be more major cities, and Las Vegas and Phoenix are not super far away form the ocean anyway.
Sacramento is the DC of the west coast. California, the 9th largest economy in the world, and Sacramento is the Capitol of it. Sacramento has a lot of white collar gov't middle to upper income salaries.
Sacramento sits next to two rivers with the Delta/Wetlands just south of it. Sacramento is a west coast city, but not actually on the coast; DC is an east coast city, but not on the actual coast.
Philly-Baltimore-DC similar to a SF-Oakland-Sacramento.
Sacramento is the Baltimore of the west coast, similar size city and metro, both less glamorous of their coastal sisters and brothers. Both have lots of history, pride, and character.
Oakland is the Baltimore of the west coast, similar size city, both very african-american, both have a lot of rough looking neighborhoods, both less glamorous of their coastal sisters and brothers.
California is the 5th largest economy in the world right ahead of France, and the U.K. California also produces 2/3rd's of the countries fruits and vegetables, and exports 23% of it overseas this is often overlooked as California is important for many things, but this IMO is the most important.
California is the 5th largest economy in the world right ahead of France, and the U.K. California also produces 2/3rd's of the countries fruits and vegetables, and exports 23% of it overseas this is often overlooked as California is important for many things, but this IMO is the most important.
The bay is also the world capital of Technology. I would compare SF to Manhattan
LA - NYC (for obvious reasons)
SD - Philly (smaller brother to the South that gets overlooked and misunderstood a lot)
SF - DC (second most important city on either coast)
Oakland - Baltimore (rougher neighbor in the same region)
Las Vegas - Miami (party capitals of their respective coast and a popular cheaper resettlement option for LA and NYC respectively)
Seattle - Boston (smaller, more compact educated tech hubs)
Phoenix - Atlanta (large Sunbelt suburban resettlement city for LA and NYC respectively)
Denver - Raleigh (liberal and educated resettlement city for LA and NYC respectively that was previously in a red state and is turning blue...or already blue in the case of CO and NC will take a bit longer)
Boulder - Ithaca (cold city further north that attracts a lot of students from LA and NYC respectively)
Aspen - Stowe (never been to Stowe, but from what I understand it's popular winter destination for the east coast wealthy)
Santa Fe - Asheville NC (small artsy mountain town)
Orange County CA - NJ (diverse dense suburban commuter zone)
The Portland OR - Pittsburgh doesn't work, but idk if anything would work for those two besides each other. Closest thing I got is inland river city with lots of hills outside downtown.
If we can consider the following as west/coast:
Honolulu - New Orleans (both feel like another country, though both are waaaayyyyy different in almost every way...but neither really belongs in the US that much)
Alaska - Maine (super outdoorsy and cold and northern)
Obviously some of these are stretches and play off each other in a snowballing fashion.
LA - NYC (for obvious reasons)
SD - Philly (smaller brother to the South that gets overlooked and misunderstood a lot)
SF - DC (second most important city on either coast)
Oakland - Baltimore (rougher neighbor in the same region)
Las Vegas - Miami (party capitals of their respective coast and a popular cheaper resettlement option for LA and NYC respectively)
Seattle - Boston (smaller, more compact educated tech hubs)
Phoenix - Atlanta (large Sunbelt suburban resettlement city for LA and NYC respectively)
Denver - Raleigh (liberal and educated resettlement city for LA and NYC respectively that was previously in a red state and is turning blue...or already blue in the case of CO and NC will take a bit longer)
Boulder - Ithaca (cold city further north that attracts a lot of students from LA and NYC respectively)
Aspen - Stowe (never been to Stowe, but from what I understand it's popular winter destination for the east coast wealthy)
Santa Fe - Asheville NC (small artsy mountain town)
Orange County CA - NJ (diverse dense suburban commuter zone)
The Portland OR - Pittsburgh doesn't work, but idk if anything would work for those two besides each other. Closest thing I got is inland river city with lots of hills outside downtown.
If we can consider the following as west/coast:
Honolulu - New Orleans (both feel like another country, though both are waaaayyyyy different in almost every way...but neither really belongs in the US that much)
Alaska - Maine (super outdoorsy and cold and northern)
Obviously some of these are stretches and play off each other in a snowballing fashion.
These are pretty good-if you count San Diego/Tijuana as a metro (and I'm not sure why you wouldn't), the Philly analogy becomes much stronger. I"ve never been to Virginia, but I"m sensing there could be a Long Beach comparison with one of their cities outside of the beltway.
A big overlooked metro on the west coast is Sacramento. Also don't forget the inland empire-maybe all the cities between NY and BOS that don't fit into either's metro could be the east coast inland empire.
San Diegans absolutely do not want to be Miami. It has low paying jobs, high crime rates, low education, shallow culture, and excessive coastal development with limited open space. Out of fear of becoming Miami, San Diegans vehemently oppose coastal high-rise development (height limit is 30ft). Miami is literally the poster child of what San Diego doesn't want to be.
San Diego wants to be the tropical/temperate version of Seattle, Vancouver, or Boston. High paying jobs, good universities, and large tech scene, but with a better climate that can also attract decent tourism.
Miami wants to be the tropical New York. I assure you that is the opposite of San Diegans' image of their city.
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