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Location: Austin, TX/Chicago, IL/Houston, TX/Washington, DC
10,138 posts, read 16,032,687 times
Reputation: 4047
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Quote:
Originally Posted by killakoolaide
Philly has the third largest downtown, fourth largest media market, fourth largest urban area, is the largest college town in America (because essentially thats what philly is, a massive college town.) The single largest shopping/employment center in America(KOP). The Birthplace of the United States, has the oldest residential street in America. Home to the largest telecom company in the U.S.(comcast), has the largest fresh water port in the U.S., was the Birthplace of the Marine Corps, invented the stromboli, is where electricity was first "harnessed", and the list goes on. So I think its safe tho say Philly is a solid number 4.
And with or without Boston Philly would still exist, Philly was the second largest city in the British empire, while boston was just another coastal New England Town.
Quote:
Originally Posted by theoneandonlyLA
Read post #15 in this thread.
Can someone PLEASE explain to me where people are getting this "Beta" city nonsense from? LA has always been ranked an Alpha world city.
They update it every year or every two years or something like that, and the last time they updated their list GaWC placed LA as a Beta World City, falling from it's Alpha World City rank.
They update it every year or every two years or something like that, and the last time they updated their list GaWC placed LA as a Beta World City, falling from it's Alpha World City rank.
GaWC are very known to be a biased source though.
No, that's the thing. It's NEVER been a Beta city. You can go back and look at previous rankings - LA was always classified as an Alpha.
They update it every year or every two years or something like that, and the last time they updated their list GaWC placed LA as a Beta World City, falling from it's Alpha World City rank.
They probably did that because they finally got tired of Hollywood. LOL.
It never was! If you click on the links, they will take you to the GaWC website for the cities. They have previous years listed when they did the rankings, and LA was never a Beta.
Location: northern Vermont - previously NM, WA, & MA
10,743 posts, read 23,798,187 times
Reputation: 14635
As long as government keeps growwing the way it is, DC will firmly remain at # 4. Look how much the economy has come around since the mid 90's. It is also served by 2 international airports and 1 domestic. Combined with Baltimore in CSA terms has the 4th largest population.
Houston has potential, if it steps up with more mass transit (heavy rail, not glorified street cars), higher density growth and continues to grow as the energy capital. LA could be used as a model as it was pretty much the 90's when it realised it can not keep building freeway after freeway and have limitless sprawl. Sure in an ideal world the 405 freeway would be 20 lanes, but that's just not realistic. I think Houston has become modestly aware of this as trends are slowly starting to shift more focus on density and transiut. Technicly it is the 4th largest city but it doesn't live up to it, just in numbers of people residing within the city limits which is subjective as the Bay area, DC, DFW, Boston, & Philly all trump Houston with CSA statistics. Houston needs to find creative ways to attract more appeal to the city, as in "I'd love to live in Houston for the experience or affection for the place", instead of "I'm moving to Houston to find work." I admit I could be wrong and I'm sure there are those that love Houston, but relocating to Houston for work seems to be the concensus. Texas cities do have an economic climate to sustain economic growth in the coming decade ahead of us.
Last edited by Champ le monstre du lac; 05-20-2010 at 01:02 PM..
As long as government keeps growwing the way it is, DC will firmly remain at # 4. Look how much the economy has come around since the mid 90's. It is also served by 2 international airports and 1 domestic. Combined with Baltimore in CSA terms has the 4th largest population.
Houston has potential, if it steps up with more mass transit (heavy rail, not glorified street cars), higher density growth and continues to grow as the energy capital. LA could be used as a model as it was pretty much the 90's when it realised it can not keep building freeway after freeway and have limitless sprawl. Sure in an ideal world the 405 freeway would be 20 lanes, but that's just not realistic. I think Houston has become modestly aware of this as trends are slowly starting to shift more focus on density and transiut. Technicly it is the 4th largest city but it doesn't live up to it, just in numbers of people residing within the city limits which is subjective as the Bay area, DC, DFW, Boston, & Philly all trump Houston with CSA statistics. Houston needs to find creative ways to attract more appeal to the city, as in "I'd love to live in Houston for the experience or affection for the place", instead of "I'm moving to Houston to find work." I admit I could be wrong and I'm sure there are those that love Houston, but relocating to Houston for work seems to be the concensus. Texas cities do have an economic climate to sustain economic growth in the coming decade ahead of us.
If only the FTA was willling to build heavy rail from scratch nowadays. They are content with LRT funding right now. Commuter rail though is really wanted in the Houston region. I think heavy rail is coming to Houston one day but not soon. If Houston continues to increase in density, then there could be an opening.
Location: Austin, TX/Chicago, IL/Houston, TX/Washington, DC
10,138 posts, read 16,032,687 times
Reputation: 4047
Quote:
Originally Posted by Spade
If only the FTA was willling to build heavy rail from scratch nowadays. They are content with LRT funding right now. Commuter rail though is really wanted in the Houston region. I think heavy rail is coming to Houston one day but not soon. If Houston continues to increase in density, then there could be an opening.
Funny you mention that. I read that they're proposed and approved of heavy rail for Houston, but you're right it isn't sooner than it is later, it's in a long time from now. They'll start on it next decade.
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