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Las Vegas feels smaller than its population suggests. It now has over 500,000 people in the city limits almost as much as Washington DC yet feels much smaller and less urban. The area is actually very compact and not as sprawling as people believe, compared to cities like Atlanta, Charlotte and Nashville.
Memphis has 600,000 in the city but feels much smaller.
New Orleans, Atlantic City, Charleston WV and Huntington WV all feel larger than their populations suggest. NO's post Katrina population is only 400,000 now.
a) Cities that feel less urban than their population indicates..
-Phoenix. It definitely takes the cake for being a big city (5th largest city; 12th largest metro) that feels much more suburban than its population indicates. Its downtown has little foot traffic and the skyline is smaller than that of cities a fraction of its size.
-Atlanta. The city's skyline is not too shabby, but for being the anchor of the south (8th largest metro), it is a surprisingly quiet sunbelt town in terms of foot traffic.
b) Cities that feel more urban than their population would lead you to believe..
-Boston. This small and compact city (city pop: 609,000) is only the 10th largest metro in the nation, but its population density rivals that of Chicago's.
- San Francisco. Although it is the second densest city in the nation, its city population is actually a lot less than some realize (pop: 809,000)
San Francisco? A city with almost a million people, in a CSA of almost 9 million?
Quote:
Originally Posted by jayp1188
I would say the following cities seem smaller than they are.
Phoenix, AZ
Atlanta, GA
Charlotte, NC
Austin, TX
Indianapolis, IN
Milwaukee, WI
San Antonio, TX
As for cities that seem bigger than they are, I would say:
Rochester, NY
Des Moines, IA
San Francisco, CA
Minneapolis, MN
Portland, ME
Charleston, WV
Cities that feel more urban than their population would lead you to believe..
-Boston. This small and compact city (city pop: 609,000) is only the 10th largest metro in the nation, but its population density rivals that of Chicago's.
Wicked understated. To be fair, he posted this in 2009.... how about an update.....
a good 30 sq mi of continuous dense highrise, mid-rise, rowhouse, Lab & office development in the Metro across Boston, Cambridge, Somerville and Chelsea.... and big TOD expensions are underway in Everett & Malden holding up the rear. The numbers increase over the next 4~5 years... also; not all 3 decker neighborhoods are created equal.... along our heavy rail transit lines; dense "triple" clusters are the norm over extensive areas of the metro; especially north of the Charles.... Huge housing projects are ramping up in Roxbury, Dorchester, South Boston, East Boston, Allston and Brighton. >5,000 units are planned for Cambridge (alone) over the next 4-6 years.....
pop density;
Cambridge Total *(incl total coll students) 26,648/sq mile (111,654 residents + 60,000 students)
Somerville 18,868/ sq mi
Cambridge pop 17,160/ sq mi (111,654 + 450 grad student residents)
Chelsea 16,036.8/ sq mi
Boston 14,149/ sq mi (July 2017 updated)
a good 30 sq mi of continuous dense highrise, mid-rise, rowhouse, Lab & office development in the Metro across Boston, Cambridge, Somerville and Chelsea.... and big TOD expensions are underway in Everett & Malden holding up the rear. The numbers increase over the next 4~5 years... also; not all 3 decker neighborhoods are created equal.... along our heavy rail transit lines; dense "triple" clusters are the norm over extensive areas of the metro; especially north of the Charles.... Huge housing projects are ramping up in Roxbury, Dorchester, South Boston, East Boston, Allston and Brighton. >5,000 units are planned for Cambridge (alone) over the next 4-6 years.....
pop density;
Cambridge Total *(incl total coll students) 26,648/sq mile (111,654 residents + 60,000 students)
Somerville 18,868/ sq mi
Cambridge pop 17,160/ sq mi (111,654 + 450 grad student residents)
Chelsea 16,036.8/ sq mi
Boston 14,149/ sq mi (July 2017 updated)
When you add Cambridge, Somerville, + Chelsea to Boston,
the number eclipses 900,000 w/ density of over 14,000/ sq mi....
ostensibly equal to San Francisco in size, population, pop density and total office sq ft.
Actually regarding Miami, it's not above 500,000 by itself.
Miami: 463,347 @ 35.87 m2 or 12,917 ppl/m2. Adding Miami Beach to the east and Hialeah to the northwest of the city totals 795,327 @ 64.95 m2 or 12,245 ppl/m2.
I can cherry pick some other small & dense communities to tweak that total and density, but this provides a pretty good idea.
- Midland/Odessa, TX
- Merced, CA
- Reno, NV
- Flagstaff, AZ
Small Towns/Cities that feel Urban:
- Ann Arbor, MI
- Ithaca, NY
- Asheville, NC
- Santa Barbara, CA
Flagstaff is smaller in population (either city or urban area) than Ann Arbor or Santa Barbara. I do think many East Coast cities have a larger feel than their populations suggest, but this is partly a product of small city limits and a dense core.
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