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Simple question, I'm classifying "peer cities" as those cities with similar population and/or size of economy as Richmond peers...
Richmond in '21 had an estimated population of ~1.324 million, and an estimated GDP of ~$99 billion. The following cities are all in range of Richmond in one or both categories; I'm listing alphabetically:
Bridgeport, Buffalo, Hartford, Jacksonville, Louisville, Memphis, Milwaukee, New Orleans, Oklahoma City, Providence, Raleigh, Salt Lake City, Virginia Beach/Norfolk...
Where do you currently rank Richmond within this group of cities, and why? Where do you see Richmond's near future going, say next 3-5 years?
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Well I have made a hobby of ranking cities, and I would place Richmond with the bolded among its peer cities:
Bridgeport, Buffalo, Hartford, Jacksonville, Louisville, Memphis, Milwaukee, New Orleans, Oklahoma City, Providence, Raleigh, Salt Lake City, Virginia Beach/Norfolk...
I feel like Raleigh, Louisville, and maybe? Memphis are the best fit as far as peer cities go.
I was in Richmond for a day this September, and did a guided tour of the city. It was really neat. My observations:
1. Richmond has an amazing skyline, really impressive.
2. There is so much history (Edgar Allen Poe, Patrick Henry). A few cobblestone streets downtown (not called cobblestone though, but something else, they were in fish scale / scallop pattern). A lot of the city was destroyed during and after the Civil War, sadly. The Union army occupied Richmond afterwards.
3. I did not see one single Confederate flag anywhere, nor any references to the Confederacy anywhere. Hands down the biggest shocker of our trip. I am from Pennsylvania my whole life, and expected to see stars and bars all over Richmond, seeing as it was the capital of the Confederacy. Heck, I even see the Confederate flag flying in PA sometimes or decaled on cars/license plates (baffling).
4. The Fan District was my favorite, along with the area surrounding/ adjacent to the Capitol Building.
5. A lot of new development / redevelopment with modern
looking apartments. Kinda sad, but it is better than old decaying factories (which had been torn down - lot of old tobacco plants). My only criticism of Richmond is that some parts did not feel cohesive for this reason with so many modern apartment buildings randomly mixed in. Richmond definitely felt more like a city of distinct neighborhoods in some ways.
6. Was surprised how much Jewish heritage Richmond has. Must be one of the bigger areas for Judaism in the whole South (outside of South Florida, maybe DC/Atlanta/Houston/Dallas which are each obviously much larger than Richmond).
7. The James River was beautiful. You are high up looking down at it - it was very wide with all kinds of sweeping runs and islands. Some decaying pillars from old bridges remain. The water almost meandered and there was not one hard and fast flow since there were so many islands, rocks, and manmade objects (a dam?, pillars) breaking up the flow. Was really cool. An area of downtown Richmond was once a big canal / port for ships that they filled-in with land for development.
8. Lot of old houses packed closely. Not many rowhouses, or really any rowhouses for that matter, like you see in old northern cities.
9. A few homeless people downtown (I think only saw maybe a half dozen)?. A generally pretty clean city. Not a lot of litter or graffiti.
10. People like to sticker signs and mailboxes. I saw a sticker on a light pole advertising Asheville, NC with like a cartoon stoner/hipster guy on the sticker.
11. I was there on a Saturday morning and it was pretty sleepy tbh.
12. I really enjoyed Richmond. Really nice city. Glad we stopped to visit it.
13. I visited Louisville in 2005 (as a kid, but I was obsessed with cities then too), and I would say from what I can remember it was strikingly similar to Richmond.
14. Also I had to pay a toll of like 20 cents to enter Richmond, which was truly... random lol
Richmond has a bright future, I could see it continuing to prosper. The entire Mid-Atlantic region and the Commonwealth of Virginia is doing really well economically. Richmond has its own identity and is benefitting greatly as it is tied in with Washington DC region.
Richmond MSA’s GDP is at this point in 2022 likely smaller than Wake County (Raleigh) despite covering 5 times more area. Durham County is larger than any component Richmond MSA county (over 30% larger than Henrico). As part of our annual tradition on these, here I am to provide context for you. You are welcome.
For further context, Apple’s new billion dollar campus will be less than 4 miles from Durham County. The Triangle functions as a single region economically.
Richmond MSA’s GDP is at this point in 2022 likely smaller than Wake County (Raleigh) despite covering 5 times more area. Durham County is larger than any component Richmond MSA county (over 30% larger than Henrico). As part of our annual tradition on these, here I am to provide context for you. You are welcome.
You didn't actually answer the question, though...
I keep posting this but it doesn't seem to matter to folks. There is no point in bringing up how large Richmond's MSA is when a million people live in Richmond, Henrico and Chesterfield alone. I don't get why that keeps being repeated like it takes 5,000 square miles for Richmond to reach it's MSA numbers. That's stupid. Richmond doesn't sprawl into infinity. Once you are outside of the core counties these are just sparsely populated areas that really don't have any other MSA to be lumped into other than Richmond. Richmond, Chesterfield and Henrico have a million people in 774 square miles. That's is smaller than Wake alone. Richmond isn't pulling in far flung numbers to inflate it's self, which is what seems to be implied here. Raleigh and Rich also have the same GDP per Capita. Just want to provide further context.
People in NC really new to get out more.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Raleigh has overtaken Richmond with regards to GDP but until recently Richmond’s was larger. There probably isn’t much daylight between the two metros even now.
Raleigh is growing faster than Richmond but Richmond is also growing and still has the larger per capita GDP. Stop taking the local marketing materials as gospel. Raleigh isn’t nearly as impressive as you think it is, it’s actually pretty unremarkable (higher education notwithstanding, the area is pretty amazing in that regard).
I keep posting this but it doesn't seem to matter to folks. There is no point in bringing up how large Richmond's MSA is when a million people live in Richmond, Henrico and Chesterfield alone. I don't get why that keeps being repeated like it takes 5,000 square miles for Richmond to reach it's MSA numbers. That's stupid. Richmond doesn't sprawl into infinity. Once you are outside of the core counties these are just sparsely populated areas that really don't have any other MSA to be lumped into other than Richmond. Richmond, Chesterfield and Henrico have a million people in 774 square miles. That's is smaller than Wake alone. Richmond isn't pulling in far flung numbers to inflate it's self, which is what seems to be implied here. Raleigh and Rich also have the same GDP per Capita. Just want to provide further context.
If it helps you contemplate, Chesterfield, Henrico, and Richmond are about 30% smaller GDP than Wake County. Wake + Durham is about 40% bigger than the entirety of Richmond MSA’s GDP. Richmond packs a punch, but it’s on a different tier to the Triangle.
Richmond’s peers would be New Orleans, Memphis, Jacksonville, OK City. Not Salt Lake for similar reasons as the Triangle.
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