The Big 4 of American Cities (NYC, LA, Chicago, etc...) (California, living, better)

[the resident09]

Originally Posted by ParaguaneroSwag

Let me say it again incase you didn't hear me the first time... It's not the same. Regardless of the CSA and MSA grouping. There's more studies outside of just these two.

That's great. Maybe you could provide some insight on things that I've asked up thread that the others couldn't answer. Like what goes on within the city proper of SF, or what institutions, organizations etc. there based in the city, make it more worthy of the "Big 4" ahead of NY, LA, Chicago, and DC?

[cdw1084]

[quote=wanderer34;63262930]Not sure if you're black but recently Atlanta has been known as the "black gay mecca" in addition to being a "black mecca". I haven't seen so many man purses until you check out some of the pictures of Atlanta. You do have gays everywhere in the country, even the rural parts, but Atlanta does take the cake. The most famous LGBT person in Atlanta (although he hasn't come out the closet yet) is Tyler Perry. I'm not judging the LGBT community in any way but I'll admit that it's been too flagrant to the point where I feel other places in the South (NC, FL) are just better places if you want to raise a family.

Originally Posted by MarketStEl

Philadelphia did grow about 5% this past decade, which is good news, but our contemporaries like Boston, DC, and SF have been growing at a faster rate, which is the frustration of being a Philadelphian: we don't really have a more robust local economy than those cities. Once you don't have a robust economy, you can't create jobs, and when the jobs aren't there, people leave, plain and simple.

Detroit, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, and St. Louis were giants when the manufacturing sector was king of the economies in America during the 1920's to as late as the 1970's, despite the latter four cities not hitting the million mark in terms of population. When those factories closed and moved to either cheaper locales and even out of this country was when the population of those cities declined.

Philadelphia had a steel mill at one point, textiles, railroads, and was (and still is) a major port. When the steel and textile mills closed down was when you started to see a lot of the similar conditions that the aforementioned cities are still suffering from. Philadelphia is on an upswing nowadays, but with the shift from manufacturing to a service and tech industry, it's too late for Philadelphia to even maintain a dominant position as a Top 10 city or economy.

Atlanta and Miami are now being chatted as one of the major cities even though both cities are well below 500K while Houston, Dallas, and even San Antonio are chugging forward towards being major cities in their own rights. In the 1950's having 1 million people did give cities prestige but with the rising number of cities like Columbus, Charlotte, and Jacksonville nearing that mark, that 1 million mark won't hold the same weight that it did during the 20th century.

Atlanta can easily hold 1 million people if it chose to further densify but the problem is that Metro Atlanta sprawls in all directions to Alabama, Athens, and even sprawling closer to Macon. Miami is essentially landlocked from the Atlantic Ocean to the Everglades so it has no choice but to move north to south. I still see Miami having an advantage due to it's location as the closest American city to the Caribbean and Latin America, as well as the diversity in the Arab, Jewish, and negligible Euro and Afro-Caribbean populations in comparison to Atlanta. Except for the Miami accent, the diversity reminds me more like Boston, NYC, and Philadelphia than it does a typical Southern city. And let's not forget about the growing number of consulates in Miami and the growing number of international destinations that fly out of MIA.

Metro Atlanta does not sprawl into Alabama.

[wanderer34]

Originally Posted by cdw1084

Metro Atlanta does not sprawl into Alabama.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combin...tistical_areas

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlant...atistical_Area

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chambers_County,_Alabama

Yes it does. There's a reason why AL was added to the Atlanta CSA. If you don't believe me, ask the US Census why Chambers County, AL has been added to the Atlanta CSA.

[ParaguaneroSwag]

Originally Posted by wanderer34

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combin...tistical_areas

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlant...atistical_Area

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chambers_County,_Alabama

Yes it does. There's a reason why AL was added to the Atlanta CSA. If you don't believe me, ask the US Census why Chambers County, AL has been added to the Atlanta CSA.

Atlanta doesn’t sprawl into Alabama. CSAs don’t have to sprawl to be counties. They just need a commute pattern of 15% between eachother. And it doesn’t have to be to the central city. Especially in 2022, many people willingly travel for 30-60 minutes.

[wanderer34]

Originally Posted by ParaguaneroSwag

Atlanta doesn’t sprawl into Alabama. CSAs don’t have to sprawl to be counties. They just need a commute pattern of 15% between eachother. And it doesn’t have to be to the central city. Especially in 2022, many people willingly travel for 30-60 minutes.

I didn't mean to say continuous sprawl. I meant that Atlanta extends all the way to Chambers County, AL and I apologize for my grammar but that trip from Chambers County, AL to Atlanta is 93.8 miles and takes up to 90 minutes depending on how the traffic is going to and from Atlanta. Either way, without a rail link to Chambers County, I just couldn't see myself commuting to Atlanta from Chambers County.

[atadytic19]

1. New York
- Capital of the world
- U.S. Financial Capital
- Logistics
- Manufacturing

2. Washington
-U.S. Capital

3. Los Angeles
- Cultural Capital
- Logistics

4. San Francisco Bay Area
- Technology Capital

5. Chicago
- Commercial Hub of the U.S.
- Secondary Financial powerhouse
- Secondary Manufacturing Powerhouse
- Logistics(O'Hare airport #1 in value of goods among all ports )

6. Boston
- Biotechnology Capital
- Higher Education Powerhouse

7. Houston
- Energy Capital of the world
- #1 Manufacturing/ Industry (Industry Insider)
- Logistics (highest value of trade after NY, Chicago and LA, and ranked #2 overall after NY)

8. Philadelphia
- Pharma Powerhouse
- Biomedical Hub

9. Miami
- not sure what to put here. May be more important to Latin America (Banking and such)

10. Atlanta
- not sure. It's airport trade isn't as high as others
- Cultural Hub

11. Dallas - Fort Worth
- not sure, it's airport trade isn't as notable as others
- it's big

12. Seattle
-Secondary Tech Hub
- Logistics Hub

I think Seattle has a bigger claim to being in the top 10 than the 3 preceding it. I think they are just larger and I don't know if that alone makes them more important.

Also I never imagined that the value of Trade through O'Hare would exceed that of the port of Los Angeles.
Atlanta and DFW are regional big shots. Their central location makes them easily accessible to a large portion of the US. They are Secondary Logistics hubs in that they play a bigger role in distribution rather than actual trade such as that from O'Hare, Port of LA, Port of Houston or even the Port of Savanah. ATL and DFW airports each handled about 60B in goods last year ( less than airports in Cleveland and Anchorage).

I also ranked Houston ahead of Dallas and Atlanta because it is #1 in the US for industry. New York is a distant second and Chicago a more distant 3rd. It's a beast in terms of chemical manufacturing, fertilizers, machinery, fabricated metals, food. Houston makes a good case for being on an even tier with Boston in that Houston is the leader in Energy, Manufacturing and top tier for Trade and Logistics.

DFW is so hard to place. It's like grandma used to say, a Jack of all trades, but master of none. It's really difficult for me ranking DFW and Atlanta lower than Seattle because of the size difference but Seattle does well in a variety of Key Industries.

[ParaguaneroSwag]

In the above post, I’d add intellectual capital for Boston. I’d add culture hub for Miami and San Francisco.

[atadytic19]

Intellectual capital would fall under Education and I don't think Boston would be THE Intellectual capital like SF is for Tech, NY is for Finance or Houston is for energy.
SF, NY and to a lesser extent Philadelphia place strong challenges.

As far as cultural hubs please explain more.
I only listed culture for LA because it spans so many genres.

I might be short changing Miami in terms of national importance so I would appreciate more insight.

[elchevere]

Miami would be a financial hub (international and increasingly domestic), international trade (Caribbean & South America), and cruise capital of the world.

Originally Posted by atadytic19

Intellectual capital would fall under Education and I don't think Boston would be THE Intellectual capital like SF is for Tech, NY is for Finance or Houston is for energy.
SF, NY and to a lesser extent Philadelphia place strong challenges.

As far as cultural hubs please explain more.
I only listed culture for LA because it spans so many genres.

I might be short changing Miami in terms of national importance so I would appreciate more insight.

[KerrTown]

Houston. The other three cover the other cardinal directions: NYC-East, L.A.-West, Chicago-North. So logically, Houston is the city for the South. Also it is a coastal city like the others (and the only major southern one).