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In the real world..like the world that actually matters-Medicine, Innovation, Research, Venture Capital, Technology Politics, Business, Real Estate, Money/incomes/wealth, Education-Boston is #6.
I have no idea what would make Atlanta #6. Rappers, CNN, Coke, Georgia Tech and Emory. Don’t see to do it. It’s the only major city in an otherwise economically irrelevant area (Piedmont South). It has not nearby cities as competition except Nashville and that’s 250 miles away.
Can anyone present a decent argument for Atlanta over Boston, Aries?
Last edited by BostonBornMassMade; 03-22-2020 at 10:24 PM..
Can anyone present a decent argument for Atlanta over Boston, Aries?
Um, yes:
Quote:
Originally Posted by cdw1084
It's tough between Atlanta and Boston. I can see a fair argument for both. I am going with Atlanta because it's the de facto capital of an entire region.
Quote:
Originally Posted by cdw1084
I'll chime in. Atlanta's influence and dominance over the SE plays a role in it's overall importance. Atlanta also contains the strongest cultural influence out of these cities. (AA). Currently, many people consider the city the black mecca and Black Hollywood as well. Because of those reasons, Atlanta has a strong argument for 6 and should not be lower than 8 because people can argue Boston and Houston as well.
The city that I want to hear about is Philadelphia.
Quote:
Originally Posted by cdw1084
The African American population may not make up the majority, but Atlanta's impact on the culture cannot be undervalued. The African American culture plays a significant role in the American society despite AA only making up 13% of the population. Also, The African American culture also goes abroad...take a trip to South Korea, Japan and several Western European countries to see how the urban style clothing and music appears in the street in those countries.
Atlanta also benefits from being the premier city in the SE without competition.
As for GDP, that along, doesn't make a city more important than another one. Atlanta has continued to close the gap on Philly in both GDP and population. Also, out of all of the cities mentioned in this poll, Philadelphia is the most stagnant city and despite the comeback story, the numbers do not indicate such. I think at one point in time, Philly was the 2nd most important city in the nation, but at this point, It's tough to see how it's ahead of Boston, Atlanta, Houston and Dallas.
The city that I want to hear about is Philadelphia.
Duderino gave you a broad outline; I'll fill in some of the details.
Boston has the college-town rep; Philly has the numbers - there are actually more students attending college here than in the Boston area. Philly's top universities - Penn, Drexel, Temple, Villanova, St. Joseph's - are relative latecomers to the top ranks of academe, and together they don't have the firepower of Harvard and MIT, but its small liberal-arts colleges (in the 'burbs) - Bryn Mawr, Haverford, Swarthmore - are just about the most highly regarded in the country.
As has been hinted, this city is also a biomedical research and healthcare hub on par with Boston but in its shadow. The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania usually ranks among the nation's 10 best, and the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia - the oldest pediatric hospital in the country - usually ranks #1 or #2. The Wilmington area (Wilmington being a satellite city that is part of the Philadelphia CSA) is home to several large pharma firms (not to mention DuPont and its spinoff Chemours in chemicals), and there are a few others headquartered (or co-headquartered, in GlaxoSmithKline's case) in the core metro too.
The city is also a hub for the legal profession, with its top law firms - Ballard Spahr, Morgan Lewis, Drinker Biddle, a few others - in the upper ranks of the AmLaw (American Law Journal) 100. The "Philadelphia lawyer" was an archetype for many years.
The birthplace of the electronic computer squandered its lead in that field, but it does have a tech sector - small in comparison to Boston's, but with a rapidly growing tech ecosystem. Comcast NBCUniversal is the 800-pound gorilla, but it too supports an ecosystem around it as well as the one that's rising around other firms.
And it's home to the nation's largest family of mutual funds, Vanguard (nosing out Boston-based Fidelity).
The thing that I think keeps it from being a solid No. 7 (I picked it in this poll, but would agree with the general assessment of Boston as #6) in the eyes of many is: It has long been a slow-growth region, and for the last half of the 20th century, its core city was on a Rust Belt growth trajectory. The core city's reversal of fortune is indeed very recent, and as such, many may not have recalibrated their assessment of this city.
I have no idea what would make Atlanta #6. Rappers, CNN, Coke, Georgia Tech and Emory. Don’t see to do it. It’s the only major city in an otherwise economically irrelevant area (Piedmont South).
While I also lean towards Boston as #6 and the Bos-Wash corridor is undoubtedly the most important economic region in the nation, this doesn't make the Piedmont South economically irrelevant by comparison. At this very moment, there's a critically important agency in the region that we are relying on to help us through this unprecedented situation we're all in.
Not one of those people is from Boston except Wahlberg that’s why they don’t rep it like that.
They’re as much from Boston as Donald Glover or Migos are from Atlanta. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
And of course Atlanta proper’s borders are 3x larger. Damon, the Afflecks, and Kaling are from Cambridge. Krasinski is from Newton. So those 5 at least grew up pretty darn close to the city limits.
Duderino gave you a broad outline; I'll fill in some of the details.
Boston has the college-town rep; Philly has the numbers - there are actually more students attending college here than in the Boston area. Philly's top universities - Penn, Drexel, Temple, Villanova, St. Joseph's - are relative latecomers to the top ranks of academe, and together they don't have the firepower of Harvard and MIT, but its small liberal-arts colleges (in the 'burbs) - Bryn Mawr, Haverford, Swarthmore - are just about the most highly regarded in the country.
As has been hinted, this city is also a biomedical research and healthcare hub on par with Boston but in its shadow. The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania usually ranks among the nation's 10 best, and the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia - the oldest pediatric hospital in the country - usually ranks #1 or #2. The Wilmington area (Wilmington being a satellite city that is part of the Philadelphia CSA) is home to several large pharma firms (not to mention DuPont and its spinoff Chemours in chemicals), and there are a few others headquartered (or co-headquartered, in GlaxoSmithKline's case) in the core metro too.
The city is also a hub for the legal profession, with its top law firms - Ballard Spahr, Morgan Lewis, Drinker Biddle, a few others - in the upper ranks of the AmLaw (American Law Journal) 100. The "Philadelphia lawyer" was an archetype for many years.
The birthplace of the electronic computer squandered its lead in that field, but it does have a tech sector - small in comparison to Boston's, but with a rapidly growing tech ecosystem. Comcast NBCUniversal is the 800-pound gorilla, but it too supports an ecosystem around it as well as the one that's rising around other firms.
And it's home to the nation's largest family of mutual funds, Vanguard (nosing out Boston-based Fidelity).
The thing that I think keeps it from being a solid No. 7 (I picked it in this poll, but would agree with the general assessment of Boston as #6) in the eyes of many is: It has long been a slow-growth region, and for the last half of the 20th century, its core city was on a Rust Belt growth trajectory. The core city's reversal of fortune is indeed very recent, and as such, many may not have recalibrated their assessment of this city.
Excellent post (both of you).
To add, and as you know, Philadelphia's abundance of cultural institutions is among the best I have seen in the United States, and among the best in North America.
Not to diminish Atlanta, Houston or Dallas, but it seems many posters from those cities are attempting to brush over or diminish Philadelphia's prominence as a major powerhouse in the economy, law, healthcare, education, history, culture, food, etc. Essentially even (in my mind) with Boston, just less in the front lines.
Heck Duderino mentioned the sizable gap GDP gap with Atlanta and it was quickly brushed over by a pro-Atlanta poster.... That is only one measure of prominence, but its still a big fact. I read pages of Houston posters mentioning how important GDP is, yet, when it comes to another city, its not relevant... go figure.
I think Philly's overall importance isn't as easily recognized because it doesn't serve as the hub of its larger region (that would be NYC) and it's not number one in any particular industry/category except for maybe early U.S. history and even then, it would be tied with Boston for most. Philly's importance is due to it being a strong second or third in several categories across the board so it's not as easy to make an argument for it compared to several other cities.
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(both of you). 
