Chicago: Closer in stature to Boston or New York? (best, compared, America)
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And please by metro area. I know their CSA’s have a clear winner but Providence isn’t Boston, Laconia isn’t Boston. And while pretty much irrelevant to NYC’s overall size, New Haven isn’t New York.
1. Urban Footprint: New York
2. Cultural Influence: erhh Boston maybe.
3. Arts: Boston
4. Economic Influence: Chicago is probably closer to Boston here.
NY is #1, Chicago is #3-4, Boston is #5-6, and there is a big drop between 1 and 2 on most influential cities. So Chicago is definitely closer to Boston than NYC. I think every city outside LA is closer to Boston over NYC in influence.
Neither of these. I think Chicago rather is very similar to Toronto. Both are surrounded by the lake, both are financial centers of a particular region and both exert strong “regional” influence to the economy of North America.
No. No city is similar to or even close to the influence or depth of NYC. New York City is the center of the universe. She is really one of a kind city, the best of the best in absolutely every field.
Neither of these. I think Chicago rather is very similar to Toronto. Both are surrounded by the lake, both are financial centers of a particular region, both exert strong regional influence in North America.
No. No city is similar to or even close to the influence or depth of NYC. New York City is really one of a kind city, the best of the best in absolutely every field.
I dont think Toronto was what he was asking. I think he was asking NYC vs Boston, since I hear alot Chicago is like the child of NYC and Boston. I mean its about midway in size, its clean like Boston, architecturally significant like NYC, Skyscrapers like Manhattan, gridded like NYC, but then just not to the extremes of NYC in some things like Financial services and economics.
And NYC isnt top in Biotech, Bioengineering, Life Sciences, Aviation, Physical Sciences/Research, Medical Research, Medical Technology and Biochemistry fields. Most of those go to SF or Boston.
Not sure I have an answer to this, but I do often see parallels between Boston and Chicago neighborhoods. "Quaint" neighborhoods that surround downtown, and a clear delineation between residential neighborhood and commercial areas. I feel like Gold Coast and Back Bay, for example, have for more in common than Greenwich/West Village.
Contrary to that, Chicago's downtown/loop feels way more like Midtown Manhattan than Boston's core.
As far as the criteria:
Cultural influence
NYC>Chicago>Boston
Arts
NYC>Chicago>Boston
Economic influence
NYC>Chicago>Boston
Pretty straightforward. Taking scale into consideration, Chicago is closer to Boston than NYC. No debate there.
Closer to Boston
Urban footprint
Chicago msa 9.5 mill
Boston msa 4.9 moll
Nyc msa 18 mill
Cultural influence
Nyc>>>>>>>>>>>>> Chicago>>Boston
Arts - very debatable for all three depending on area
Economic influence
Nyc>>>>>>>>>Chicago>>>Boston
In terms of how a city feels I think it’s more on the % basis than absolute difference. Probably because area is a quadratic on relation to radius.
Like Cleveland has 850,000 people more than Buffalo and feels much larger. The Boston/Houston/DC/Dallas tier has a much larger absolute population difference but all feel about the same size because on a % basis they are all like within 25% of each other.
So I think Chicago being double the size of Boston and half the size of New York places it kind of in the middle.
But since Boston has the Merrimack Valley (and other large mill town) which has significant cities separated by basis calmly the forest from central Boston I think it’s central core urban expanse feels a bit further from Chicago’s than Chicago’s does of New York.
Plus Chicago’s core ~30 sq miles feels like a grand city. Newbury Street is quaint while Michigan Ave is Grand. The Boston Common is quaint. Grant Park feels Grand. I feel like in no point does Boston really feel like a massive world city, while Chicago does in places.
The only place where this isn’t true is the T vs the L. The T feels as if not more crowded than the L.
A city's importance and influence might track its CSA more than UA or MSA. CSA is more relevant to workforce, corporate locations, sports teams, media market, and so on. A city's brand can be influenced by its whole region, even while the urban core (3 square miles or 300) gets the most attention. On the flip side, the strength of satellite attention-getters is a factor, with Boston's CSA satellites including largely independent cities that simply share workforces.
From the CSA perspective, it's something like (iirc) 22, 10, 8. That suggests Chicago is more like Boston. If you adjust for major competing cores, it might really work more like 20, 9, 6 (wild guess).
That's probably close to the cities' respective influence. We probably give Chicago too much credit because of its huge downtown concentration. I'm talking more economically than culturally.
In terms of how a city feels I think it’s more on the % basis than absolute difference. Probably because area is a quadratic on relation to radius.
Like Cleveland has 850,000 people more than Buffalo and feels much larger. The Boston/Houston/DC/Dallas tier has a much larger absolute population difference but all feel about the same size because on a % basis they are all like within 25% of each other.
So I think Chicago being double the size of Boston and half the size of New York places it kind of in the middle.
But since Boston has the Merrimack Valley (and other large mill town) which has significant cities separated by basis calmly the forest from central Boston I think it’s central core urban expanse feels a bit further from Chicago’s than Chicago’s does of New York.
Plus Chicago’s core ~30 sq miles feels like a grand city. Newbury Street is quaint while Michigan Ave is Grand. The Boston Common is quaint. Grant Park feels Grand. I feel like in no point does Boston really feel like a massive world city, while Chicago does in places.
The only place where this isn’t true is the T vs the L. The T feels as if not more crowded than the L.
You’re speaking more about a feel created because of tall buildings...based on the criteria how iis Chicago closer to nyc than Boston on culture, art and economy? Would love to hear it
You’re speaking more about a feel created because of tall buildings...based on the criteria how iis Chicago closer to nyc than Boston on culture, art and economy? Would love to hear it
On the Economy is unquestionably Boston.
In terms of arts/culture, Chicago is seen as generic big city for the Midwest kind of setting. For a show to be set in Boston, DC or Miami for example the show has to be about those cities. Something like Mike and Molly or Chicago Med is just a random TV show which Chicago as a backdrop. Compared to Cheers which is about Boston Same thing with Mean Girls vs Good Will Hunting. Chicago got a 3.5 year long run of Wicked while basically every other city gets touring productions it’s not uncommon for their to be a Chicago company. So I think it those ways it’s closer to NYC than Boston. (Not to say Chicago and NYC don’t have shows about them)
In terms of high culture Boston and Chicago are close. Same with sports all the cities have basically top tier teams in recognizability
So it’s pretty close.
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