You guys are really way too fixated on size. If population size was the prime determinant of everything, then cities like Lagos, Mumbai, and Jakarta are the biggest world cities of them all
I really don't understand this mentality of "bigger is better". Most of the time, bigger = more problems. If someone doesn't like San Francisco because its 'too small', then to be honest, let them think that way. I honestly want the Bay Area to have LESS people because traffic there is already extremely bad.
Los Angeles is the 2nd largest metro area in the country and the 2nd largest city. Look how much respect that's resulted in from this site
Alright, now I hope you guys know that the way MSA's and CSA's are determined is not only overlapping development (but is very important), but also commuting patterns. If 5% of a county's population commutes from one MSA to another MSA, they become a CSA. If 15% of commuters go from one county's MSA to another county's MSA, then they are consolidated into one MSA. That's how it works.
We won't know how commuting patterns changed until the next census, so technically, here's the data for commuting patterns before you guys get bent all out of shape.
Differences between the 1990 and 2000 Census Questionnaires
(County of Residence - County Outflow)
Wisconsin [Milwaukee]:
Millwaukee-Cook, IL: 940
Milwaukee-DuPage, IL: 112
Milwaukee-Lake, IL: 626
Milwaukee-McHenry, IL: 53
Milwaukee-Will, IL: 53
Milwaukee-Lake, IN: 21
Milwaukee-Kenosha, WI: 1,570
Milwaukee County Total Commuters [:]Milwaukee County, Wisconsin - Selected Economic Characteristics: 2006-2008 438,652
Milwaukee County to Chicago land: 3375
LESS THAN 1% of Milwaukee's commuters commute to Chicagoland! (in fact, its .007% of Milwaukee's commuters)
I realize there is more than one county in Milwaukee's metropolitan area, but its not even close to being one CSA, never mind one metro area. Unless someone shows me data saying otherwise, then Milwaukee and Chicago are probably going to remain two distinct metro areas for awhile. Unless the US census bureau changes the definition of an MSA or CSA. Unless something happened in the past 10 years that 20,000 people from Milwaukee have to commuter to Chicagoland all of a sudden. Somehow, I doubt that. In fact, Milwaukee didn't even send commuters to ALL of Chicagoland's counties (which is why it isn't present).
In fact, San Joaquin County has a bigger chance of being added as part of the Bay Area than Milwaukee being part of Chicagoland, even at 2000 census numbers.
San Joaquin County-Alameda: 19,954
San Joaquin County-Conta Costa: 3,669
San Joaquin County-Marin: 92
San Joaquin County- San Francisco: 1,194
San Joaquin County- San Mateo: 1,434
San Joaquin County- Santa Clara: 7,046
San Joaquin County-Solano: 459
San Joaquin County- Sonoma: 134
San Joaquin County total commuters (San Joaquin County, California - Selected Economic Characteristics: 2006-2008 269,040
San Joaquin County-Bay Area: 33,982
12.6% of San Joaquin County's commuters as of 2000 commuted to the Bay Area!
Milwaukee to Chicago (core) is the same distance as Stockton to San Francisco (core) as well.
Chicago-Milwaukee: 93.1 miles (
Chicago, IL to Milwaukee, WI - Google Maps)
San Francisco-Stockton: 83.0 miles (
San Francisco, CA to Stockton, CA - Google Maps)
Even better, I'll do Sacramento to the Bay Area
San Francisco-Sacramento: 87.9 miles (
San Francisco, CA to Sacramento, CA - Google Maps)
Sacramento County-Alameda: 1974
Sacramento County- Contra Costa: 1,370
Sacramento County- Marin: 267
Sacramento County- San Francisco: 1,359
Sacramento County- San Mateo: 671
Sacramento County- Santa Clara: 1,486
Sacramento County- Solano:3,233
Sacramento County- Sonoma: 294
Sacramento County total commuters: 616,702 (Sacramento County, California - Selected Economic Characteristics: 2006-2008)
Sacramento County-Bay Area: 10,654
1.7% of Sacramento County's commuters commute to the Bay Area!
Even Sacramento is more closely linked to the Bay Area (1.7% of commuters) than Milwaukee is to Chicagoland (0.007% of Milwaukee commuters).
Yes, things could have changed in 10 years, but we'll have to wait to see what that looks like. However, there's so much hubris on this page right now that I wanted to set the facts straight. Fact is: if Chicagoland gets to have 12.5 million people, then the Bay Area gets to have the same amount or perhaps even more. This may be due to the fact that the Bay Area is a stronger center of employment than Chicagoland is in its own region. However, within the Bay Area itself there are a LOT of job centers that compete with each other. The empirical evidence proves that.