9th best downtown in the country? (largest, compared, place, bigger)

[NDFan]

Not Minny (it would be lucky to make it in the top 15)...ATL is top 10-15 IMO. Probably Pittsburgh or (if going out on a limb) Charleston

[the resident09]

Originally Posted by atadytic19

Yes, Philly still has a huge heft around the city And I'm my opinion a top 5 contender as stand alone cities go. As you can see places like Dallas, Boston and DC pass up Philly with the help of Fort Worth, Providence and Baltimore. We define cities nowadays in terms of regions but interesting that the top 5 above are all stand alone cities.

SF is kinda deceiving. Yes the CSA is over bloated but it's MSA is hindered by natural boundaries.

Looking at the inner 25 SQ miles of Chicago and that of DC shows how ridiculous the DC passing Chicago thread posted recently is. Chicago is still solidly in the#3 position as cores go.

Houston is a surprise as I thought it's Metro's core would be more similar to Dallas, but wasn't expecting it to be almost 1million larger. At 2.5m is Fort Worth the largest secondary metro division?
Edit: Anaheim metro division is a bigger secondary metro division. But Fort Worth metro division is bigger than Miami's metro division

Also surprised to see Phoenix almost even with Atlanta.

The DC metropolitan area is more populous than the Philadelphia metro, as a stand alone area without being "helped by Baltimore".

Philly does have it beat in urban downtown and urban area however.

[the resident09]

Originally Posted by MDAllstar

Fairfax County is not included on any of the calculations for DC. That’s another 1.1 million people not included. Then if you put in a 25 mile radius for Fairfax County, it only counts the County population of 1,148,433 people.

Exactly, from what I'm gathering the "center" of Fairfax county isn't considered within 25 miles of DC's center so it's simply not added. There is another population tool out there that actually just counts the raw population in the radius. Of course the DC area population can be minimized when you take out the largest county in the metro area. Using this exact tool if the county were added the population radius from DC's center in 25 miles would be 5.2 million and ahead of Philadelphia's and right behind Houston. I don't think any city on that list has its largest county's population removed from the total, but DC.

With regards to the poster about comparisons to Chicago, which I have always acknowledged as more urban and populous. DC is about 1 million away with 200 less sq miles.

Cook County Illinois-

1,635 sq mi = 5.2 million people


Mont Co. + Fairfax + PG Co. Washington DC+ Arlington+ Alex-

1,468 sq mi = 4.2 million

[YIMBY]

Originally Posted by NDFan

Not Minny (it would be lucky to make it in the top 15)...ATL is top 10-15 IMO. Probably Pittsburgh or (if going out on a limb) Charleston

Did you even look at the OP's criteria? Based on the criteria, Minneapolis is definitely in the top 15, possibly top 10.

1) Economic vitality (how important is the Downtown to the metro area): Over 160,000 people work in downtown Minneapolis and a number of companies have their national or regional headquarters located there. Target, U.S. Bancorp, Ameriprise Financial, Xcel Energy, Thrivent Financial are headquartered in downtown Minneapolis. Wells Fargo, RBC Wealth, and a number of others have their regional headquarters in downtown Minneapolis. National companies, including Amazon are growing their downtown offices (downtown Minneapolis is one of Amazon's 12 tech hubs).

2) Retail: While not the best, it's definitely improving with national and local options.

3) Dining: like most major downtown areas - there are plenty of options

4) Entertainment (theatres, festivals, Arena events): US Bank Stadium (NFL, X-Games, NCAA regional and national tournaments, large concerts), Target Center (NBA WNBA, and concerts), Target Field (MLB and large concerts), First Avenue, Fine Line, Orpheum Theatre, State Theatre, Pantages, Crowles, Guthrie, etc... There is something going on almost every day of the week.

5) Transit: Light-rail (blue and green lines), Northstar commuter rail, bike paths / lanes and plenty of bus routes

6)Overall Vibrancy: 160,000 workers, roughly 50,000 residents, numerous sports venues, concerts every night, decent shopping. It's not a 24-7 downtown, but outside NYC, most aren't, not even close.

Downtown Minneapolis is THE economic and entertainment hub of a metropolitan area of over 3.6 million people and for an entire region (upper Midwest) so enough with the, "lucky to make it in the top 15 nonsense."

[cpomp]

Originally Posted by the resident09

The DC metropolitan area is more populous than the Philadelphia metro, as a stand alone area without being "helped by Baltimore".

Philly does have it beat in urban downtown and urban area however.

I thought they were essentially equal. Difference of 100k or so.

[the resident09]

Originally Posted by cpomp

I thought they were essentially equal. Difference of 100k or so.

Yes, but the notion that DC's regions population needs Baltimore added to match Philadelphia is not true.

[kidphilly]

Originally Posted by the resident09

Exactly, from what I'm gathering the "center" of Fairfax county isn't considered within 25 miles of DC's center so it's simply not added. There is another population tool out there that actually just counts the raw population in the radius. Of course the DC area population can be minimized when you take out the largest county in the metro area. Using this exact tool if the county were added the population radius from DC's center in 25 miles would be 5.2 million and ahead of Philadelphia's and right behind Houston. I don't think any city on that list has its largest county's population removed from the total, but DC.

With regards to the poster about comparisons to Chicago, which I have always acknowledged as more urban and populous. DC is about 1 million away with 200 less sq miles.

Cook County Illinois-

1,635 sq mi = 5.2 million people


Mont Co. + Fairfax + PG Co. Washington DC+ Arlington+ Alex-

1,468 sq mi = 4.2 million

I ran Radius populations for 2, 5, and 25 miles from a zip in the core (19107 for Philly and DC 20500)


So at 2 (12.5 sq miles)
Philly: 211,691
DC: 179,011


At 5 (78.5 sq miles)
Philly: 934,760
DC: 703,252


at 25 (1,962.5 sq miles)
Philly: 4,728,522
DC: 4,578,801




all fairly close with Philly a little ahead on the measures




Philly:
Circular Area Profiles (CAPS) — 2010


DC:


Circular Area Profiles (CAPS) — 2010




Tool:
Circular Area Profiles (CAPS) — 2010

[mhays25]

2010 was an awfully long time ago. Seattle (city of) grew by 20% by 4/1/18, and a small radius would be much higher than that.

That said, our two-mile radius was 121,585, in 10 square miles. Figure something north of 150,000 by 4/1/18. The density was 12,153.

We did better in the one-mile radius, with a density of 18,437. That would have been in the 30,000 range probably in 2018, or maybe less.

[kidphilly]

Originally Posted by mhays25

2010 was an awfully long time ago. Seattle (city of) grew by 20% by 4/1/18, and a small radius would be much higher than that.

That said, our two-mile radius was 121,585, in 10 square miles. Figure something north of 150,000 by 4/1/18. The density was 12,153.

We did better in the one-mile radius, with a density of 18,437. That would have been in the 30,000 range probably in 2018, or maybe less.

best calculator I could find, not sure they will update until after the next full census

[kidphilly]

CAPS ACS - MCDC


This is updated as of 2018 (above found a link with the estimates) - updated data below


Added Seattle (98101 zip) - Very notable gains in the 1 mile especially




1 Mile
Philly 75,473
DC 66,985
Seattle 63,178


2 Mile
Philly: 218,453
DC: 196,620
Seattle 139,806


5 Mile
Philly: 944,983
DC: 768,196
Seattle: 426,559