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What cities have a much more important role than their population would indicate? What cities feel and act much larger than they are? These are the first ones that come to mind for me.
1. Charlotte (hard to believe its under 2m MSA with all the attention it gets)
2. Salt Lake City
3. Las Vegas
4. Austin
5. Indianapolis
If you mean "smaller metros", than I agree with some of the above mentioned areas. But the OP says "smaller cities", so I take that to mean cities with a fairly low population but a fair amount lot of clout. That would include places like Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Cincinatti, and Tampa.
1. Savannah - One of the busiest container ports in the country and a major tourism draw, but the metro can't crack 400,000
2. Charleston for similar reasons
3. Austin - Major IT industry hub and university city, but still relatively small (although that's changing)
4. Sault Ste Marie, Michigan - At one point one of the most important strategic places in the world, and still has a population under 20,000. It also in an international border city and the terminus of one of America's most important interstates (I-75).
5. Hartford, CT - Only 1.2 million, but a major international industry hub (insurance). One of the richest cities in the world.
6. Seattle. It's a big city, but compared to many of its peers (Phoenix, Tampa, etc) it is just hugely more important. Major international gateway, importance as a manufacturing and shipping city, and a huge IT hub.
1. Savannah - One of the busiest container ports in the country and a major tourism draw, but the metro can't crack 400,000 2. Charleston for similar reasons
3. Austin - Major IT industry hub and university city, but still relatively small (although that's changing)
4. Sault Ste Marie, Michigan - At one point one of the most important strategic places in the world, and still has a population under 20,000. It also in an international border city and the terminus of one of America's most important interstates (I-75).
5. Hartford, CT - Only 1.2 million, but a major international industry hub (insurance). One of the richest cities in the world.
6. Seattle. It's a big city, but compared to many of its peers (Phoenix, Tampa, etc) it is just hugely more important. Major international gateway, importance as a manufacturing and shipping city, and a huge IT hub.
Also,
Huntsville, Alabama. (space)
Rochester, Minnesota (Medical)
Branson, Missouri (Entertainment)
Los Alamos, New Mexico (Science)
Raleigh/Durham, North Carolina (Technology)
Sioux Falls, South Dakota (Finance)
McAllen/Brownsville, Texas (Border commerce and Agriculture)
Also,
Huntsville, Alabama. (space)
Rochester, Minnesota (Medical)
Branson, Missouri (Entertainment)
Los Alamos, New Mexico (Science)
Raleigh/Durham, North Carolina (Technology)
Sioux Falls, South Dakota (Finance)
McAllen/Brownsville, Texas (Border commerce and Agriculture)
What is important about Green Bay? The football team?
What is important about Green Bay? The football team?
You could add higher education to Raleigh-Durham.
Yes, the fact that it has a major league sports team gives a global impression that it a large metro area. Most people in the world have heard of it.
As for Higher Education, there are about a thousand small towns that would be disproportionately important above their population for that reason, including Slippery Rock Pennsylvania, Moscow Idaho, and my favorite, Pippa Passes, Kentucky.
What cities have a much more important role than their population would indicate? What cities feel and act much larger than they are? These are the first ones that come to mind for me.
1. Charlotte (hard to believe its under 2m MSA with all the attention it gets)
2. Salt Lake City
3. Las Vegas
4. Austin
5. Indianapolis
Do you agree with these? What others?
Indianapolis does a wonderful job punching above its weight for a city its size.
especially considering you have alot of competition within 3 hours away.
Indy even competes with Chicago for Economic Development/Sporting Events/Tourism etc.
Talk about wow. Indy is 5X smaller than Chicago and yet it has some serious competition with the city.
Heck last year Indy tried to get CME group which owns the Chicago Board of Trade and the Mercantile Exchange to move to our city and set up its Headquarters and Electronic Trading operations.
World Class Indianapolis is also being talked about at the local level. How can we build a World Class Indy?
Naptown no more. Indy is here to stay
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