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I think in 50 - 100 years, these will be in the "major city" categories in the US (over 500k in the city, and a metro of over 2 million+):
Huntsville, Alabama
Clarksville, Tennessee
Murfreesboro, Tennessee
Greenville, South Carolina
Lexington, Kentucky
San Angelo, Texas
Flagstaff, Arizona
Roanoke, Virginia
Wilmington, North Carolina
San Angelo is an interesting choice. My dad was briefly stationed there (Goodfellow AFB) and it’s absolutely in the middle of nowhere but a cool city with growth potential. With two new interstate highways (I-14 & I-27) planned to route through the area they could very well promote a lot of economic development.
If a city isn't already on the map by now, it likely never will be.
Raleigh-Durham-Cary is one of the few small cities that has the prerequisites to make the transition to a major US city. Give it 30 years, and it will be the most relevant southern city.
Raliegh boomed pretty big in the 2010s. Raliegh is pretty attractive toward young professionals and college students.
- Allentown, PA
- Augusta, GA
- Boise, ID
- Grand Rapids, MI
- Greenville, SC
- Knoxville, TN
- Madison, WI
- Mobile, AL
- Sioux Falls, SD
I think Rapid City has more to offer but I would say Sioux Falls and Rapid City both grow, whole state might see growth in east and west parts of the state.
Only one on here I question is Allentown. PA is that bad of a state poor and run down towns all over state…
Also Michigan is tough because of the weather but I was looking at West Michigan and it is beautiful if weather isn’t to cold or snowy.
Bellingham, WA. It's got conventionally beautiful ocean/mountain scenery, and it's not far from Seattle, so it could become an ideal location for workers there who telecommute or rarely have to go into their offices and don't want to pay Seattle rents, just like what's starting to happen in Bend, OR. And it's still pretty affordable for a West Coast city.
When looking up places to move I noticed Bellingham and around there is MUCH MORE APPEALING then Seattle, as someone who hates major cities that area is right size, and anywhere in western Washington for most part would be amazing it’s just that nice there but I would never go to western Washington for politics plus way to expensive…. Same thing with Oregon way to expensive to even be worth Oregon…. And then Portland becoming a dump it’s ashame.
A lot of the suggested cities are either too large already, or already connected to a large Metro. I don't think either is what the OP intended all those years ago.
When I think of cities the size that I think that the OP intends, I think of Ft. Collins, Wilmington (NC), Asheville, Charlottesville, Pueblo, Santa Fe, Reno, Cedar Rapids, etc.
Now, will any of these sorts of places become considered a major city? I don't know about that. We'd have to wait 40 years to find out.
Raleigh is the sort of city that has changed its status within that amount of time. It went from 150K municipal (400,000 metro) in 1980 to 465K municipal (1,335,000 metro) in 2017. I don't know that any of these cities will do something like this going forward because the USA's growth isn't what it used to be, and the trend is for the larger metros to keep taking the lion's share of the growth going forward.
Maybe some city/metro in either Texas or Florida can do it since those two states are growing astronomically? Tallahassee? Midland? Tyler? Pensacola? Lubbock?
Reno would become a midsize city if the amount that can be built there was able to support the growth. That area is already built up pretty heavily for what it can do, same situation with Salt Lake City.
Raleigh is the city that's most likely on it's way to becoming a major city
For areas that currently have a MSA under 1 million that have the best chance
Grand Rapids, MI (already at 1 million)
Tuscon, AZ
Greenville, SC
Huntsville, AL
Colorado Springs
Augusta, GA
Provo, Utah
Good list, and yes SLC is already pretty much maxing out Provo will be next. Don’t forget St George Utah in southwest part of the state about 2 hours from Vegas and pretty close to Zion national park and other nice areas, will have to have its own identity and maybe more isolated but I think that can be appealing to a lot of people these days.
Good list, and yes SLC is already pretty much maxing out Provo will be next. Don’t forget St George Utah in southwest part of the state about 2 hours from Vegas and pretty close to Zion national park and other nice areas, will have to have its own identity and maybe more isolated but I think that can be appealing to a lot of people these days.
St. George is desolate and extremely LDS, and a retiree hotspot. Where will the water come from to feed its growth? Provo is basically a suburb of SLC and much of its growth is because the SLC Valley is filling up. Utah is in a precarious situation because of drought and lack of water.
NWArkansas is one of the most certain bets missed by all. Two hit on part of it, but it is defined as Bentonville, Springdale, Rogers and Fayetteville. Fast growing with three major corporations and its a university area in pretty setting. It is faster growing then Little Rock cited by many in the same state.
It is around 550k population and grew at a rate of almost 25% over the past decade.. I can see it breaking 1M by 2050 and it will keep on soaring
I forgot a major element necessary for sustainable growth the western US does not have. Water in abundance.
So its humid unlike SW USA where drought conditions reign and I contend will kill growth in that part of the country during the next few decades. PNW does not suffer this fate so perhaps I should have said SWUSA not the west.
Tysons Corner is a zip code not a City. I used to work there. Columbia is legit.
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