Wow, D.C.'s MSA is within 163,590 people of Houston's MSA...Wasn't expecting that!

[(-)]

Originally Posted by gwillyfromphilly

It all depends on the commuter rates of a suburban county between Baltimore and Washington DC that commutes to both cites at 25% workforce. I don't know the name of that county but I know its in Maryland and it is the county that links Baltimore and Washington DC at the CSA level.

howard county

[(-)]

Originally Posted by Bluefly

I've never understood this competition for city size. The City of Houston, for example, can just keep expanding its borders and, wha la!, it jumps up to be the whatever biggest city in the country! No need to point out that what is "city" for Houston would be suburbia for most other cities, especially one like DC bound by the federal law to never expand beyond 100 sq miles (if only we could get Arlington back...)

Then you look at the MSA comparisons, and that's kind of an arbitrary number based on sprawling populations. It almost encourages sprawl to get as much territory into the MSA so city boosters can boast about how big their .... region is.

All seems kind of silly and misguided.

people don't really understand this. they are simple and like to compare 1 to 1. the fact is the city of houston is over 600 square miles. in contrast, the city of dc is less than 90 square miles. if they wanted to do a proper comparison they would have to compare a 600 square mile radius surrounding dc with the city of houston. if that were the case dc would undoubtedly be one of the top 4 cities with regard to population. hell, 3 of the immediate counties surrounding dc have populations of 1 million or nearly 1 million, pg, moco, and fairfax.

[slowlane2]

And what's this nonsense about Tysons Corner having a bigger Downtown than Atlanta? It's just another suburban office edge city.[/quote]

80,000 employees work around Tysons Corner (source: Wikipedia). Furthermore, Tysons Corner has replaced Rockville, as the current reference point destination listed on entrance signs to the Beltway's Inner Loop, all over Fairfax County.

[terrence81]

Originally Posted by NOVAsMexican

does anyone here have an opinion on when or whether or not DC and Baltimore become one giant metro area?

In some ways this has already happened. I've met people who commute between the DC and Baltimore suburbs. I know a guy in Anne Arundel county commuting to Chevy Chase (he hates it) and I know a guy commuting from Columbia to Laurel so it happens already. There are buses that go from Howard county to DC.

I still would say that the cities of DC and Baltimore will always remain seperate entities though.

[terrence81]

Originally Posted by slowlane2

And what's this nonsense about Tysons Corner having a bigger Downtown than Atlanta? It's just another suburban office edge city.

80,000 employees work around Tysons Corner (source: Wikipedia). Furthermore, Tysons Corner has replaced Rockville, as the current reference point destination listed on entrance signs to the Beltway's Inner Loop, all over Fairfax County.[/quote]

Actually its more like 100,000 workers in Tysons. That's why the traffic is so bad going in that direction. It really is like another downtown. I hate Tysons but one can't deny that it is indeed bigger than downtown Atlanta with more workers and money. So it certainly isn't nonsense.

[DCforever]

Why would we want to compare ourselves to Houston? Ugh

[bmorefella]

Anne arundel and howard county are more closely related to baltimore, not d.c. !!! D.c. Msa is high because pg moco and fairfax!!!

Originally Posted by s. Elm street

i got different numbers than that when i added up the counties and independent cities in the washington dc msa.

washington dc msa:
- district of columbia: 601,723
- calvert county, md: 88,737
- charles county, md: 146,551
- frederick county, md: 233,385
- montgomery county, md: 971,777
- prince george's county, md: 863,420
- arlington county, va: 207,627
- alexandria county, va: 139,966
- clarke county, va: 14,034
- fairfax county, va: 1,081,026
- fauquier county, va: 62,203
- loudoun county, va: 312,311
- prince william county, va: 402,002
- spotsylvania county, va: 122,397
- stafford county, va: 128,961
- warren county, va: 37,575
- fairfax, va: 22,565
- falls church, va: 12,332
- fredericksburg, va: 24,286
- manassas, va: 37,821
- manassas park, va: 14,273
- jefferson county, wv: 53,498
total: 5,578,470

the counties that are more affiliated with washington dc like anne arundel county, md & howard county, md are actually apart of baltimore msa. Saint marys county, md is apart of another micropolitan area and not in washington dc msa. Washington dc has come a long way, no doubt and it edged out miami/fort lauderdale msa & atlanta msa this us census but it still has a long way to philadelphia msa & houston msa.

[(-)]

Originally Posted by NOVAsMexican

does anyone here have an opinion on when or whether or not DC and Baltimore become one giant metro area?

baltimore is to dc, what china is to america. while eventually the space in between the two cities will fill in (i think it's almost there along 295), the two cities will, for the foreseeable future be night and day.

things that will keep the two from becoming one giant metro area include:

culture - dc and baltimore are culturally worlds apart. dc is more rich vs. poor, baltimore is more black vs. white. dc is an international player, baltimore is a regional player.

money - baltimore is "value" town when compared to dc. meaning that baltimore has benefited from people being priced out of dc but still wanting to live in an urban, major, city. also, employers pay significantly less in baltimore than they do in dc for the same job. basically the folks who live in the middle of the two cities benefit the most as they can generally receive dc pay and pay baltimore housing prices.

[chris72]

Originally Posted by NOVAsMexican

does anyone here have an opinion on when or whether or not DC and Baltimore become one giant metro area?

twenty years

[slim04]

Originally Posted by (-)

baltimore is to dc, what china is to america. while eventually the space in between the two cities will fill in (i think it's almost there along 295), the two cities will, for the foreseeable future be night and day.

things that will keep the two from becoming one giant metro area include:

culture - dc and baltimore are culturally worlds apart. dc is more rich vs. poor, baltimore is more black vs. white. dc is an international player, baltimore is a regional player.

money - baltimore is "value" town when compared to dc. meaning that baltimore has benefited from people being priced out of dc but still wanting to live in an urban, major, city. also, employers pay significantly less in baltimore than they do in dc for the same job. basically the folks who live in the middle of the two cities benefit the most as they can generally receive dc pay and pay baltimore housing prices.

I agree. Some people refer to this area as the Washington/Baltimore Metro Region, but people from the suburbs of Baltimore will never refer to themselves as from Washington. It's sort of like Newark/NYC; SF/Oakland/San Jose; Orange County/LA. There is no separation between those areas, but they remain distinct areas with separate identities, culture, media markets, etc.