Top 10 U.S. Cities (employment, school, quality of life)

[lammius]

Only 30 driving miles from East Windsor to the east end of the Outerbridge Crossing on Staten Island... We're splitting hairs here.

[TheRealAngelion]

Splitting hairs indeed. Let's get back to people's top 10 lists

[tahiti]

Originally Posted by TheRealAngelion

Splitting hairs indeed. Let's get back to people's top 10 lists

Wow - I'm going to turn to you now to make sure we stay 100% on topic. There are few posts today you may want to take a look at - be sure to reprimand them, k? GMAFB.

[mpope409]

Originally Posted by KerrTown

These are the most important cities from most important to least:

1. New York (of course)
2. Washington, DC (government)
3. Los Angeles (size)
4. Chicago (comeback kid)
5. Houston (New Chicago)
6. Atlanta (sunbelt)
7. Seattle (culture)
8. Boston (historical)
9. Philadelphia (historical)
10. San Francisco (historical)

I just noticed you put that. Houston is not the new Chicago. Houston is the new Houston.

[streetcreed]

Honestly, those not from Ohio may not realize this, but Columbus really has begun to pass Cleveland in the major city catagory. That is in all areas, but things that "newer" post world war two high growth cities dont have, like a HUGE classical art museum, or massive bridges.

But columbus is moving ahead in gentrification, urban condo towers, lifestyles, theaters, local art production, fashion, mix of incomes existing, and economic power. Columbus is ahead of Richmond, Columbus is actually a decent sized city and metro. Downtown Columbus' boundaries and central city size (50 sq miles) is on par with other cities, and is actually a little more developed than Charlotte.
And Columbus fine dinning scene is one of the tops in the midwest now, when a chef opens a new restaurant Columbus has been the place in Ohio for the past 5 years.

[M TYPE X]

Chicago is an important anchor, just like Los Angeles or Houston. It was never in danger of Clevelandization.

Originally Posted by streetcreed

Honestly, those not from Ohio may not realize this, but Columbus really has begun to pass Cleveland in the major city catagory. That is in all areas, but things that "newer" post world war two high growth cities dont have, like a HUGE classical art museum, or massive bridges.

But columbus is moving ahead in gentrification, urban condo towers, lifestyles, theaters, local art production, fashion, mix of incomes existing, and economic power. Columbus is ahead of Richmond, Columbus is actually a decent sized city and metro. Downtown Columbus' boundaries and central city size (50 sq miles) is on par with other cities, and is actually a little more developed than Charlotte.
And Columbus fine dinning scene is one of the tops in the midwest now, when a chef opens a new restaurant Columbus has been the place in Ohio for the past 5 years.

Cleveland will always have more character than Columbus.

[KerrTown]

Originally Posted by mpope409

I just noticed you put that. Houston is not the new Chicago. Houston is the new Houston.

Actually that is an allusion to the rise of Chicago. After the Civil War/Great Fire it grew very rapidly; so rapidly in fact that it became the second largest city (proper) in the United States within 50 years. (Rapidly may be an understatement; it may be the wrong word to describe Chicago's rise as a world city.) It would drop to third place after World War II.

They are both similar because they are located on swamps and they were incorporated the same year. The only reason that Houston is not as urban as Chicago is because of its location in the Southern USA. The south is very agricultural and stayed that way until the 1970's during the sun belt migration. I saw Chicago: City of the Century on PBS' American Experience and it describes Chicago's beginnings and its rise. I linked to the transcript but feel free to look at the rest of the site throughly.

One quote from part I: "Chicago was a fur trading post out on the rim until the 1830s. It had no church or schoolhouse. It did have a fort, Fort Dearborn, and three taverns. The Sauganash Hotel was the most raucous. It was run by Mark Beaubien, part French, part Indian. 'I play de fiddle like de debble,' he would say, 'an I keeps hotel like hell.'"

Notice it is rowdy like Houston. For comparison here is the history of Houston.

Two paragraphs read: "The first business opportunity for the city vaporized when a businessman's uncle,[attribution needed] who was considering relocating his carriage making business, witnessed violence in a Texas saloon.[citation needed] He left the state never to return.

Lawlessness, diseases, and financial difficulties prompted Houstonians to put an end to their problems. And so, they wanted to make a Chamber of Commerce just for the city. A bill had been introduced on November 26, 1838 in Congress that would establish this entity. President Mirabeau B. Lamar signed the act into law on January 28, 1840. This move could not have come sooner; some creditors had already cut off some Houston businessmen, and there were numerous yellow fever outbreaks, including an 1839 outbreak that killed about 12 percent of its population."

In modern times, they are the biggest cities in the U.S. and they have some of the tallest skyscrapers (a Chicago invention) in the country. They both share some personality traits covered here.

[ajf131]

My choices of the top ten cities probably would be the ones that are almost always talked about all over the world. I think that New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, Atlanta, Miami, Houston, Dallas, and Los Angeles and I'd also need to fit San Francisco in here too and possibly Seattle. I'd pick any ten of these cities. Top 20 I would also include Cleveland, Cincinnati, Detroit, St. Louis, Minneapolis, Denver, Pittsburgh, Kansas City, Baltimore, and D.C. and Columbus.

[ajf131]

If this had been 100 years ago St. Louis would have been in the top ten cities overall in the U.S. Back then St. Louis and Chicago were both competing head to head for the position of the capital city of the Midwest. Sadly the men in the big chairs of St. Louis decided not to grow the city any larger and let Chicago become the capital of the Midwest. Both these cities I think do play a certain top role in the U.S. even today because they are both essentially a lot of commerce passes through these cities from all over the U.S., though St. Louis obviously does not have one of the biggest roles unlike Chicago. Maybe one day my great city of St. Louis will be able to make up for the mistake of allowing Chicago to become the capital city of the midwest....i should probably dream on though cause we gotta get four times larger first lol.

[scirocco22]

I still think Seattle should be higher on everybody's list. Are we forgetting Microsoft and its international influence? (Bill Gates and Paul Allen?)

There are also a host of other companies based in the area. To name a few: Starbucks, Amazon.com, Costco, Washington Mutual, Nordstrom, Safeco, RealNetworks, PACCAR, R.E.I, Eddie Bauer, Nintendo of America, Expedia, Alaska Air Group, Speakeasy, Zillow.com. The list could go on but these are the most identifiable nationally and internationally.

Seattle is also an important gateway for Asian commerce.

I think those of you who left Seattle off your lists are in all likelihood not located on the west coast and probably still think of it as a back-woods town with little significance tucked away in a corner of the country.

Thanks.

--'rocco