Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Status:
"See My Blog Entries for my Top 500 Most Important USA Cities"
(set 7 days ago)
Location: Harrisburg, PA
1,051 posts, read 977,160 times
Reputation: 1406
Advertisements
I was going to make two separate polls (Georgia poll, Alabama poll), but decided to throw all four together into one poll to see what happened.
If you had to rank the four peer cities - Huntsville, Mobile, Augusta GA, and Savannah by overall influence (socioeconomic, political, cultural, logistic, historical), what order would you choose (starting with the most influential first)?
You can weight the above-mentioned factors however you prefer, but I personally tend to consider economic and political factors the most important.
I will let you the voters decide which definition to use for defining "city" in this comparison/context. I suggest urban area or metropolitan statistical area (MSA). But you can use city proper or combined statistical area (CSA) if you prefer.
Huntsville - Probably the strongest/most robust/dynamic economy of the four cities in this poll. Hub of northern Alabama and the southern Appalachia regions. Home of NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (6,000 total employees, one of NASA's largest and most important centers) where the Saturn V rocket and Spacelab were developed. Apollo, the ISS, Hubble Telescope, James Webb Space Telescope, Space Launch System (SLS) and cutting-edge rocket and launch technology were and also continue to be major projects at this facility. Wernher von Braun and his team of German scientists conducted incredible research here. Incredible technology comes from this facility. Nearby Redstone Arsenal established in 1941 is a major US Army post that developed/develops ballistic missiles and has over 36,000 government employees/civil servants. Home to the FBI's operational support headquarters. UAH - The University of Alabama in Huntsville with 10,000 students and very high level of research activity. Also there is Cummings Research Park the second largest research park in the United States and the fourth largest in the world. Toyota and Mazda have large auto manufacturing/assembly plants in the area. Huntsville Symphony Orchestra is Alabama's oldest continuously operating professional symphony orchestra. It is one of the world’s leading science and technology business parks. Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant located in nearby Athens AL is the second (or first) most powerful nuclear plant in the USA. Much of Huntsville's development and stratospheric rise has occured post-WW2 (prior to WW2 it was a small town). The MSA has 503k which includes Decatur, Alabama which is just shy of 26 miles away from Huntsville. MSA grew 17.8% from 2010-2020, and 2.24% 2020-2021. 287k urban area population in 2010 (did not include Decatur which had 70k).
Mobile - Major commercial hub in the Gulf Region, anchoring Mobile Bay. An important shipping and container port city (12th busiest port nationally by tonnage). Home of Mardi Gras, having hosted the first annual Mardi Gras celebration in 1703. USS Alabama Battleship museum. French and Native American history. Located at the Mobile-Tensaw River Delta (Mobile River formed by the confluence of the Alabama and Tombigbee Rivers). Rich in biological diversity, Mobile Bay Wetland. One of the largest cities of the Confederacy (historically important). Neatly urban, gridded form, and probably the "biggest city" feel of the four cities in this poll. Has tall skyscrapers downtown (one nearly 700 feet tall) and wide highways (I-10). Has the Southern District of Alabama Federal Courthouse, also has an FBI Field Office. Has 428k in the MSA (which does not include nearby and fast-growing Baldwin County Alabama (larger than Rhode Island). Mobile is one of the weirder MSAs in that it only comprises one single county (Mobile County is quite geographically large). Mobile MSA is a more mature area only growing 0.4% from 2010-2020, but slightly lost population by a rate of 0.46% from 2020-2021. Nearby Baldwin County (which again is not included with Mobile's MSA) grew by a whopping 27.2% from 2010-2020. Baldwin County is home to Gulf Shores/Foley (big beach / entertainment venue). Basically, Mobile MSA does not include nearby Daphne, Fairhope, or Spanish Fort in Baldwin County which are only 10-15 miles away bht cut-off by the river delta even though they can be easily accessed by crossing the I-10 bridge. Mobile city does have quite a bit of grit / industrial vibe. Mobile seems like a smaller, younger sibling of New Orleans in many ways. 326k Urban Area population in 2010 (did not include Daphne which had 57k, nor Foley/Gulf Shores which was not yet defined as an urban area). Tim Cook, Apple's CEO for over 10 years,and successor to Steve Jobs, is from Mobile.
Augusta, GA - home of the Master's Golf Tournament which attracts 200k visitors annually. Membership at Augusta National is widely considered to be the most exclusive in the sport of golf around the world. Woodrow Wilson Boyhood Home (Woodrow Wilson grew up in Augusta and lived there from ages 2-14). Located two hours from Atlanta on I-20, straddling Georgia and South Carolina. MSA has 615k, and is 3,932 square miles just by its physical land area not including water area (which is very large/generous to the MSA population). Grew 10.6% from 2010-2020, and 0.81% from 2020-2021. Big city proper limits that are synonymous (identical) with Richmond County, GA after a 1995 referendum to consolidate the City of Augusta and Richmond County as one entity. Club Car (major golfcart manufacturer) is headquartered here. Augusta University has 9,300 students. Home of Fort Gordon, with 30,000 employees, also which has the United States Army Cyber Command. Augusta seems to have an affordable COL. 387k urban area population in 2010.
Savannah - Oldest city in Georgia (1713). Charming, beautiful tourist destination city attracting millions of visitors to see its well-preserved Historical District, rich history, architecture, cobblestone streets, and unique parks. Important Atlantic port city (23rd busiest by tonnage). Served as a British provincial capital. Along with Mobile was also one of the largest cities during the Confederacy, and served as a slave auction (436 men, women, children, and infants were sold over the course of two days in Savannah on March 2-3, 1859). One of the only cities left standing during Sherman's famous 'March to the Sea," preserved and given as a Christmas present to Abraham Lincoln in 1864. Big cotton and naval store exporter during the 19th-early 20th centuries. Provided the course for sailing competition during the 1996 Summer Olympics. Forrest Gump was set and filmed in Savannah. Has 410k in its MSA. Grew 16.5% from 2010-2020, and 1.29% from 2020-2021. Tybee Island, GA is less than 18 miles from Savannah. Hilton Head Island, SC appears to be nearby on a map, but takes nearly an hour due to the coastal geography. Nearby Fort Stewart covering 280k acres is the largest Army installation east of the Mississippi River. 261k urban area population in 2010.
Final disclosure: I really do feel these four make excellent peers of each other. They are all pretty close in stature/influence, and probably share a ton of similarities.
I am only labelling Augusta, GA with its state abbreviation to avoid any confusion with the capital of Maine (a small town). Otherwise Augusta, GA is the obvious Augusta in the USA due to its much larger size than any other Augusta.
Also, I could have included Montgomery AL, Columbus GA (GA's #4 city IMO), and Macon GA, but I did not want the polling to get too crowded. Everytime you add another city it the number of polling options get increasingly larger, as it is a factorial function (!).
Status:
"See My Blog Entries for my Top 500 Most Important USA Cities"
(set 7 days ago)
Location: Harrisburg, PA
1,051 posts, read 977,160 times
Reputation: 1406
Forgot to add (edit timed-out): Savannah is the hub of Georgia's Lower Coastal Plain, a subregion that encompasses the lowest-lying areas of the Atlantic coastal plain in the state, containing barrier islands, marshes, and swampy lowlands, as well as flat plains and low terraces.
Savannah also has a pretty decent-sized commercial airport, especially given it is located in a state utterly dominated by the world's busiest airport, Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport ATL.
By 2019 enplanements per FAA records:
Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport 1,356,660
Huntsville International Airport 580,932
Augusta Regional Airport 300,598
Mobile Regional Airport 297,544
Aside from its history, Savannah has a lot going for it currently. It actually has a strong aerospace presence as well. With 10,000 employees in the area, Gulfstream is the largest manufacturer in Georgia. After LA/Long Beach and NYC/NJ, the Savannah port is 3rd largest container port in the country, is the fastest growing in the country, and is continuing to aggressively expand. Because of the port, the city is one of the top industrial markets in the country. There are 32,000 total active military personnel within 45 miles of Savannah. Savannah is the fastest growing MSA in Georgia and attracts 15 million visitors a year, and and has an incredible dining scene. It also has a thriving film industry, and a strong presence of colleges/universities including the Savannah College of Art and Design, one of the top art schools in the world.
Savannah is currently the second largest port on the east coast after New York.
Alabama punches above its weight in amount of federal research dollars. It's primarily Huntsville and UAB. Payoffs include putting a man on the moon.
Mobile is a bit more behind the scenes, but its more of an important infrastructure auxiliary city. For example, Mobile is a second access point to the Mississippi River water system from the Gulf when there are issues that block getting shipping through New Orleans. Otherwise, it currently is more of a shipbuilding/planebuilding city. Its historic importance gets a bit underplayed (It had river access to most of the important Native American tribes in the southeast back in the day, so it was important for diplomacy. It was also controlled by France, Britain, and Spain at various points.). Like most of Alabama, the biodiversity aspects of the area get underplayed nationally (most biodiverse state east of the Mississippi), and near Mobile is the most biodiverse part of Alabama.
Augusta might have the Masters, but it doesn't really have mush else historically that distinguishes it. Cybersecurity could me more of an association in the future, but it's really too recent to tell.
socioeconomic: Huntsville has the largest gdp at more than 30 billion, annually. The Huntsville region is the fastest growing of the bunch by population and job growth. Huntsville is the largest city in Alabama by municipal population. The region has a strong and growing black small business climate.
political: not sure
cultural: Savannah. The epitome of southern gentility and deep south vibes. No other city on the list matches Savannah's cultural influence.
logistic: Huntsville is more centrally located and close to another fast growing region.
In terms of economical influence, Huntsville and I dont think the others are even a close 2nd.
Governmental influence, probably also Huntsville just because of NASA but its still not a ton.
Historical influence, Savannah for sure.
Cultural influence, also Savannah.
Georgia Ports, with Savannah as its hub, along with other port-related businesses account for over 496,700 jobs and $122 billion in revenue. That's pretty significant economic influence.
Montgomery and Columbus need to be added for better balance.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
