Top 200 Most Influential USA Urban Areas (NOT City Proper) (quality, state, better)
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Status:
"See My Blog Entries for my Top 500 Most Important USA Cities"
(set 12 days ago)
Location: Harrisburg, PA
1,051 posts, read 979,963 times
Reputation: 1406
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Okay everyone thanks for all the great, insightful input! I appreciate it!
Honestly, after ~#70 this list becomes less reliable, less definitive, and less confident. Too many UAs become interchangeable. The definitions and assumptions about how the UAs should be separated and combined become increasingly integral in the outcome of the ranking. Ultimately that aspect does have some subjectivity involved. But, it still interesting and enjoyable to discuss! The list isn't set in stone, many UAs that are ranked near each other are interchangeable outside the Top 5 or 6 I would say.
You all can certainty keep adding comments and discussing this interesting topic, but I feel like I need a mental break from this project! (:
Thanks again and hope you enjoyed this little exercise! Don't take this ranking too seriously, it is just for fun/intellectual disdussion. I changed my mind about the rankings a million times (almost no exaggeration I've worked on this for months) and I probably still would change the list again! All of these UAs are in constant flux due to socioeconomic/political/random changes occurring constantly.
Here is my Final list for now:
1. New York City
2. Los Angeles
3. Chicago
4. Washington
5. San Francisco
6. Boston
7. Houston
8. Philadelphia
9. Atlanta
10. Dallas
11. Seattle
12. Miami
13. Minneapolis
14. Detroit
15. Denver
16. San Diego
17. Phoenix
18. San Jose
19. Baltimore
20. Charlotte
21. Las Vegas
22. St. Louis
23. Portland
24. Tampa
25. Austin
26. Orlando
27. Kansas City
28. Pittsburgh
29. Cleveland
30. Cincinnati
31. Nashville
32. Riverside
33. Sacramento
34. Columbus
35. New Orleans
36. Indianapolis
37. Raleigh
38. San Antonio
39. Milwaukee
40. Virginia Beach
41. Salt Lake City
42. Richmond
43. Honolulu
44. Jacksonville
45. Louisville
46. West Palm Beach
47. Buffalo
48. Bridgeport
49. Hartford
50. Providence
91. Savannah
92. Akron
93. Fayetteville, AR
94. Springfield, MA
95. Bakersfield
96. Harrisburg, PA
97. Trenton
98. Oxnard
99. Manchester, NH
100. Winston-Salem
101. Huntsville
102. Naples
103. Asheville
104. Santa Rosa
105. Lancaster, PA
106. Ann Arbor
107. Stockton
108. Mobile
109. Midland
110. Lansing
111. Palm Bay
112. Santa Barbara
113. Denton
114. Ogden
115. Palm Springs
116. Santa Cruz
117. Lexington, KY
118. Fort Collins
119. Jackson, MS
120. Augusta, GA
121. Pensacola
122. Provo
123. Daytona Beach
124. Monterey
125. The Woodlands
126. Fort Wayne
127. McKinney
128. Temecula
129. Corpus Christi
130. Scranton
141. South Bend
142. Santa Fe, NM
143. Reading, PA
144. Youngstown
145. Modesto
146. Davenport
147. Myrtle Beach
148. Charlottesville
149. Barnstable Town
150. Lafayette, LA
151. Gainesville
152. Green Bay
153. Wilmington, NC
154. Springfield, MO
155. Salem, OR
156. Key West
157. Lubbock
158. Atlantic City
159. Flint
160. Springfield, IL
161. Kalamazoo
162. Shreveport
163. Port St. Lucie
164. Canton
165. Fayetteville, NC
166. Santa Clarita
167. McAllen
168. Evansville
169. Olympia
170. Cedar Rapids
171. Fargo
172. New London
173. Montgomery, AL
174. York, PA
175. Kennewick
176. Victorville
177. Lancaster, CA
178. Amarillo
179. Thousand Oaks
180. Bremerton
181. Beaumont
182. Antioch
183. Greeley
184. College Station
185. Laredo
186. Bend
187. Rochester, MN
188. Bellingham
189. Appleton
190. Killeen
191. Jackson, WY
192. Columbus, GA
193. Vero Beach
194. Biloxi
195. Billings
196. Charleston, WV
197. Waco
198. Utica
199. Duluth, MN
200. Lake Charles
Runner-ups (not in order):
Redding, CA
Visalia, CA
Yakima, WA
Missoula, MT
Bozeman, MT
Prescott, AZ
Abilene, TX
Galveston, TX
Tyler, TX
Topeka, KS
Fort Smith, AR
Gulf Shores, AL
Destin, FL
Ocala, FL
Macon, GA
Hickory, NC
Hilton Head, SC
Spartanburg, SC
Hagerstown, MD
Huntington, WV
Erie, PA
State College, PA
Ithaca, NY
Binghamton, NY
Danbury, CT
Champaign, IL
Lafayette, IN
Bloomington, IN
Combined:
Newark, Jersey City, Paterson, Edison, Parsippany, New Brunswick, Yonkers, New Rochelle, Stamford with New York City
Long Beach, Anaheim, Santa Ana, Irvine with Los Angeles
Aurora, Gary, Naperville with Chicago
Germantown, Upper Marlboro, Bowie, Herndon, Manassas, with Washington
Oakland, Palo Alto, Berkeley, Concord, Vallejo with San Francisco
Camden, Wilmington, Malvern with Philadelphia
San Bernardino, Ontario, CA with Riverside
Fort Worth, Arlington, Plano with Dallas
Fort Lauderdale with Miami
St. Paul with Minneapolis
Dearborn, Warren, Livonia with Detroit
Aurora, Lakewood with Denver
Carlsbad, Vista with San Diego (SD city limits extend quite far north)
Mesa with Phoenix
St. Petersburg with Tampa
Round Rock with Austin
Henderson with Las Vegas
Elyria, Lorain, Parma with Cleveland
Boca Raton with West Palm Beach
Durham, Cary, Chapel Hill with Raleigh
Cape Coral, Punta Gorda with Fort Myers
Bradenton, North Port with Sarasota
Ventura, Camarillo with Oxnard
Bethlehem, Easton with Allentown
Nashua with Manchester, NH
High Point with Greensboro
Schenectady with Albany
Lake Forest, San Clemente, Laguna Beach with Mission Viejo
Murrieta with Temecula
Hershey, Carlisle with Harrisburg
Davis, Woodland with Sacramento
Princeton with Trenton
Odessa with Midland
Bonita Springs, Marco Island with Naples
Conroe with The Woodlands
Longmont with Boulder
Newburgh with Poughkeepsie
Bentonville, Springdale, Rogers with Fayetteville, AR
Tracy, Manteca, and Lodi with Stockton
Loveland with Fort Collins
Indio with Palm Springs
Wilkes-Barre with Scranton
Elkhart with South Bend
Palmdale with Lancaster, CA
Beloit with Rockford
Battle Creek with Kalamazoo
Spanish Fort, Daphne with Mobile
Winter Haven with Lakeland
Salinas with Monterey
Waterbury with New Haven
Melbourne with Palm Bay
Decatur, AL with Huntsville
Separated:
Bridgeport from New York City
Riverside/San Bernardino, Oxnard, Thousand Oaks, Mission Viejo/San Clemente, Temecula, Santa Barbara, Santa Clarita, Lancaster CA, Victorville, Indio/Palm Springs from Los Angeles
Baltimore from Washington
San Jose, Antioch from San Francisco
Providence from Boston
The Woodlands from Houston
Trenton from Philadelphia
Denton, McKinney from Dallas
Palm Beach County from Miami
Tacoma from Seattle
Boulder/Longmont from Denver
Tampa from Orlando
Akron, Canton, Cleveland are all separate
Dayton, Middletown, Cincinnati are all separate
Austin from San Antonio
Bridgeport, New Haven, Hartford, Springfield MA are all separate
Stockton from Sacramento
Winston-Salem from Greensboro
Thousand Oaks from Oxnard
Vero Beach from Port St. Lucie
Status:
"See My Blog Entries for my Top 500 Most Important USA Cities"
(set 12 days ago)
Location: Harrisburg, PA
1,051 posts, read 979,963 times
Reputation: 1406
Looking over my Final List (post #141 above), here is my final thought:
After #50, maybe #70, the list becomes garbage. I'm not sure it's really possible to rank smaller urban areas. I hope people realize that. Everything past #50, or maybe #70 is really just noise. I would not put any thought/faith/seriousness in the list after that.
After #70, and possibly even before that, I really feel the list becomes completely useless/garbage/noise.
Might be biased because I work in tech, but my thoughts:
5. San Francisco -- too low; has SF really influenced the world less than Chicago? I can't think of anything that has pushed other countries to develop STEM more than the competition from SV/SF. Also hard pressed to think of something developed in Chicago that is used by billions of people
9. Atlanta -- two low; Airbnb's 2nd HQ now, Microsoft & Google opening large offices, Facebook expanding
18. San Jose -- too low; SJ is one massive city with people from all over the world living there
Also, HQs heavily influence where people live and move for careers, so I do think they are important.
Might be biased because I work in tech, but my thoughts:
5. San Francisco -- too low; has SF really influenced the world less than Chicago? I can't think of anything that has pushed other countries to develop STEM more than the competition from SV/SF. Also hard pressed to think of something developed in Chicago that is used by billions of people
9. Atlanta -- two low; Airbnb's 2nd HQ now, Microsoft & Google opening large offices, Facebook expanding
18. San Jose -- too low; SJ is one massive city with people from all over the world living there
Also, HQs heavily influence where people live and move for careers, so I do think they are important.
Remember the criteria of the thread...
"Below is my months-long attempt at ranking the Top 200 USA *URBAN AREAS* by overall socioeconomic, financial, cultural, historical, and political influence."
Chicago is a tougher call, but I would still firmly place it ahead of San Francisco in all regards.
And back to Atlanta... First, Houston, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Dallas are all close, it does come down to a level of personal preference arguing between 7-10. BUT based on the criteria of the thread, Houston and Philadelphia have very strong cases to be placed ahead of Atlanta in all regards. Especially with your post regarding Airbnb and Facebook opening offices in Atlanta... so what...? All the cities in the top 10 are home to some of the worlds most influential companies.
I think the original order is very solid for the top 10.
Might be biased because I work in tech, but my thoughts:
5. San Francisco -- too low; has SF really influenced the world less than Chicago? I can't think of anything that has pushed other countries to develop STEM more than the competition from SV/SF. Also hard pressed to think of something developed in Chicago that is used by billions of people
9. Atlanta -- two low; Airbnb's 2nd HQ now, Microsoft & Google opening large offices, Facebook expanding
18. San Jose -- too low; SJ is one massive city with people from all over the world living there
Also, HQs heavily influence where people live and move for careers, so I do think they are important.
I have Chicago ahead of San Francisco but interesting comments and SF is closing the gap.
Regarding Atlanta, I currently have it 8th, but it's because is the de facto capital of the SE and current capital of Black America. Part of me wants to argue 7th because Atlanta holds the title of "the capital of the south" even with Houston and Dallas included. I also look at the direction of the population and GDP trends...Atlanta continues to close the gap on Philly. I see where one poster said that Philly's proximity to NYC gives it an advantage. Yet, it actually limits Philly's regional power but the NE love says otherwise.
Status:
"See My Blog Entries for my Top 500 Most Important USA Cities"
(set 12 days ago)
Location: Harrisburg, PA
1,051 posts, read 979,963 times
Reputation: 1406
Quote:
Originally Posted by g500
Looking over my Final List (post #141 above), here is my final thought:
After #50, maybe #70, the list becomes garbage. I'm not sure it's really possible to rank smaller urban areas. I hope people realize that. Everything past #50, or maybe #70 is really just noise. I would not put any thought/faith/seriousness in the list after that.
After #70, and possibly even before that, I really feel the list becomes completely useless/garbage/noise.
Ok so I'm going to walk back and reverse the above statement a bit. I don't think #70-#200 is entirely useless, I just think the issue is
1) the differences between the UAs becomes much smaller/more subjective the further down the list and
2) my list completely ignores the identity of secondary/tertiary cities already absorbed in larger UAs. For example (in no order) Newark, Jersey City, Oakland, Arlington VA, Alexandria, Long Beach, Fort Worth, Irvine, Ft. Lauderdale, Plano, St. Paul, Wilmington DE, New Brunswick, Gary IN (and many others) would all be in the Top 200 easily if they were being identified as such (ie not combined with their parent or primary city).
I just feel that these cities not being included somehow make further down the list less truthful in a sense. Like, these secondary/tertiary cities don't get any sort of recognition whatsoever, despite their brand identity, and so the list ends up kinda inflated or overstated. I still would not break them out separately as they are all part of larger UAs. It's just a limitation of the exercise, really. Newark, Jersey City, Oakland, Fort Worth, and Long Beach especially would all rank very high on the list, and one/some might be in the #30's on the list perhaps, again that is assuming we were NOT including them in a parent UA. Again, it's just a limitation of this exercise, and the UA measurement/assumptions.
I still think UA is the best and truest (most fair) measurement of city size, but it is not perfect due to multi-nodal UA's as well as secondary/tertiary cities with strong-identities.
91. Savannah
92. Akron
93. Fayetteville, AR
94. Harrisburg, PA
95. Trenton
96. Springfield, MA
97. Bakersfield
98. Oxnard
99. Manchester, NH
100. Winston-Salem
101. Huntsville
102. Naples
103. Asheville
104. Santa Rosa
105. Lancaster, PA
106. Ann Arbor
107. Stockton
108. Mobile
109. Midland
110. Lansing
111. Palm Bay
112. Santa Barbara
113. Denton
114. Ogden
115. Palm Springs
116. Santa Cruz
117. Lexington, KY
118. Fort Collins
119. Jackson, MS
120. Augusta, GA
121. Pensacola
122. Provo
123. Daytona Beach
124. Monterey
125. The Woodlands
126. Fort Wayne
127. McKinney
128. Temecula
129. Corpus Christi
130. Scranton
141. South Bend
142. Santa Fe, NM
143. Reading, PA
144. Youngstown
145. Modesto
146. Davenport
147. Myrtle Beach
148. Charlottesville
149. Barnstable Town
150. Lafayette, LA
151. Gainesville
152. Green Bay
153. Wilmington, NC
154. Springfield, MO
155. Salem, OR
156. Key West
157. Lubbock
158. Atlantic City
159. Flint
160. Springfield, IL
161. Kalamazoo
162. Shreveport
163. Port St. Lucie
164. Canton
165. Fayetteville, NC
166. Santa Clarita
167. McAllen
168. Evansville
169. Olympia
170. Cedar Rapids
171. Fargo
172. New London
173. Montgomery, AL
174. York, PA
175. Kennewick
176. Victorville
177. Lancaster, CA
178. Amarillo
179. Thousand Oaks
180. Bremerton
181. Beaumont
182. Antioch
183. Greeley
184. College Station
185. Laredo
186. Bend
187. Rochester, MN
188. Bellingham
189. Appleton
190. Killeen
191. Jackson, WY
192. Columbus, GA
193. Vero Beach
194. Biloxi
195. Billings
196. Charleston, WV
197. Waco
198. Utica
199. Duluth, MN
200. Lake Charles
Runner-ups (not in order):
Redding, CA
Visalia, CA
Yakima, WA
Missoula, MT
Bozeman, MT
Prescott, AZ
Abilene, TX
Galveston, TX
Tyler, TX
Topeka, KS
Fort Smith, AR
Gulf Shores, AL
Destin, FL
Ocala, FL
Macon, GA
Hickory, NC
Hilton Head, SC
Spartanburg, SC
Hagerstown, MD
Huntington, WV
Erie, PA
State College, PA
Ithaca, NY
Binghamton, NY
Danbury, CT
Champaign, IL
Lafayette, IN
Bloomington, IN
Combined:
Newark, Jersey City, Paterson, Edison, Parsippany, New Brunswick, Yonkers, New Rochelle, Stamford with New York City
Long Beach, Anaheim, Santa Ana, Irvine with Los Angeles
Aurora, Gary, Naperville with Chicago
Germantown, Upper Marlboro, Bowie, Herndon, Manassas, with Washington
Oakland, Palo Alto, Berkeley, Concord, Vallejo with San Francisco
Camden, Wilmington, Malvern with Philadelphia
San Bernardino, Ontario, CA with Riverside
Fort Worth, Arlington, Plano with Dallas
Fort Lauderdale with Miami
St. Paul with Minneapolis
Dearborn, Warren, Livonia with Detroit
Aurora, Lakewood with Denver
Carlsbad, Vista with San Diego (SD city limits extend quite far north)
Mesa with Phoenix
St. Petersburg with Tampa
Round Rock with Austin
Henderson with Las Vegas
Elyria, Lorain, Parma with Cleveland
Boca Raton with West Palm Beach
Durham, Cary, Chapel Hill with Raleigh
Cape Coral, Punta Gorda with Fort Myers
Bradenton, North Port with Sarasota
Ventura, Camarillo with Oxnard
Bethlehem, Easton with Allentown
Nashua with Manchester, NH
High Point with Greensboro
Schenectady with Albany
Lake Forest, San Clemente, Laguna Beach with Mission Viejo
Murrieta with Temecula
Hershey, Carlisle with Harrisburg
Davis, Woodland with Sacramento
Princeton with Trenton
Odessa with Midland
Bonita Springs, Marco Island with Naples
Conroe with The Woodlands
Longmont with Boulder
Newburgh with Poughkeepsie
Bentonville, Springdale, Rogers with Fayetteville, AR
Tracy, Manteca, and Lodi with Stockton
Loveland with Fort Collins
Indio with Palm Springs
Wilkes-Barre with Scranton
Elkhart with South Bend
Palmdale with Lancaster, CA
Beloit with Rockford
Battle Creek with Kalamazoo
Spanish Fort, Daphne with Mobile
Winter Haven with Lakeland
Salinas with Monterey
Waterbury with New Haven
Melbourne with Palm Bay
Decatur, AL with Huntsville
Separated:
Bridgeport from New York City
Riverside/San Bernardino, Oxnard, Thousand Oaks, Mission Viejo/San Clemente, Temecula, Santa Barbara, Santa Clarita, Lancaster CA, Victorville, Indio/Palm Springs from Los Angeles
Baltimore from Washington
San Jose, Antioch from San Francisco
Providence from Boston
The Woodlands from Houston
Trenton from Philadelphia
Denton, McKinney from Dallas
Palm Beach County from Miami
Tacoma from Seattle
Boulder/Longmont from Denver
Tampa from Orlando
Akron, Canton, Cleveland are all separate
Dayton, Middletown, Cincinnati are all separate
Austin from San Antonio
Bridgeport, New Haven, Hartford, Springfield MA are all separate
Stockton from Sacramento
Winston-Salem from Greensboro
Thousand Oaks from Oxnard
Vero Beach from Port St. Lucie
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