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A city can be major for its state, major regionally, and major nationally, major globally, or can be a combination of the four or all four. I think the most pure major cities are cities that are all four----->big deals statewide, regionally, nationally, and globally...
I think it's important to note the separate distinctions...
That established, I think there are at least 11 cities here that check the global box:
New York, Washington, Boston, Philadelphia
Houston, Dallas, Atlanta, Miami
Los Angeles, San Francisco
Chicago
The most conservative and strict "major city" list has to include at minimum these 11. That said, there's a spate of Western cities where I'm not quite sure if their global stature---->Seattle, Phoenix, San Diego, Denver; and two Midwestern cities in Detroit and Minneapolis. If I had to make a firm guess, I'd add Seattle only to the global list, so that would be a dozen cities on my strictest major city list...
But my list isn't that strict and I think cities of national relevance matter more in this conversation. It's not really important whether foreigners who've never been here can identify a place, but if a city has a large domestic reputation, it's a major city...
To add cities that are clearly domestically relevant, I add every city that has a current MSA of 2 million people, save the contrived IE MSA, and possibly includes the outlier of New Orleans. If I had to make a firm commitment though, I'd say Nola isn't a major city, and would grant the core cities of the 34 MSAs above 2 million (besides IE) as major cities...
We have 34 major cities in the US...
We have a number of "almost major" cities here. This is where I'd place New Orleans. Raleigh is a big deal statewide and in the southeast regionally but not quite nationally. Same thing for Salt Lake, big deal in Utah and the interior West but not quite nationally. Ditto for Milwaukee and Providence and many other cities, and cities that would be grander if not attached to larger, more notable cities (Newark, Fort Worth, Oakland, San Jose are all major cities in their states and regionally)...
I count 34 major cities, in this order:
Houston, Dallas, Atlanta, Miami, Charlotte, Austin, Orlando, Nashville, Tampa, San Antonio
Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Denver, San Diego, Phoenix, Portland, Las Vegas, Sacramento
Chicago, Minneapolis, Detroit, St Louis, Cincinnati, Kansas City, Indianapolis, Columbus, Cleveland
New York, Washington, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Pittsburgh
San Jose easily of KC, Indy, Sacramento, SA, Baltimore, Portland because of its High Tech pedigree. Its the center of Silicon Valley
I think to be a major city, you need ***at least 2-3*** of the following requirements generally:
3 million metro area
At least 2 pro sports teams (MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL, maybe MSL)
International airport that is a hub for at least one airline
1-2 major universities
Nexus for a particular industry.
This is my admittedly subjective list.
Major cities
NY
Chi
LA
SF
DC
PHI
Det
Boston
Miami
Houston
Dallas
Atlanta
Denver
Seattle
Phoenix
SD
Minneapolis
Borderline Major
KC
StL
Milwaukee
Cleveland
Cincinnati
Indianapolis
Baltimore
Portland
Pittsburgh
San Antonio
Nashville
Charlotte
Las Vegas
Not Major City
Columbus, Oh
New Orleans
San Jose
Providence
Louisville
Orlando
Memphis
Oklahoma City
Tampa
El Paso
Jacksonville
Tulsa
Wichita
Buffalo
Sacramento
San Jose easily of KC, Indy, Sacramento, SA, Baltimore, Portland because of its High Tech pedigree. Its the center of Silicon Valley
SJ is the only one of these cities that is not the central city of its own metropolis abd never has been. Oakland has more of a brand than SJ so there's two cities in it's metropolis that overshadow SJ...
Many people don't liken Silicon Valley specifically to SJ, they liken it to The Bay or SF to a lesser extent...
Sacramento doesn't have this issue. It's the primary city of its metropolis, and of its region, and is the center of activity for that. The capital of state government...
Sacramento is less of a major city to you than San Jose, but Sacramento has the larger and more robust transportation infrastructure across the board that typifies a major city (rail, air, interstate)...
Sacramento is the primary city for well over 4 million Californians from Redding to Stockton and east to the Nevada border. Regionally its the largest city between Portland and The Bay and you don't hit another larger city due east for three states (Denver). Nationally its known as the capital of the largest economy in The Union and while its profile is lesser than that of LA and The Bay in general, it doesn't have a lesser profile than San Jose specifically...
All that said I could see adding SJ as another "major" city to my list, to make 35 evenly, but I don't think of SJ as more of a major city than Sac!
Denver is major for the mere fact that it is the main major city in the mountain region.
It's nearing 3 million metro population. All major sports teams. Major international airport (top 3-5 US traffic)
I will die on this hill that MSA and CSA for Denver is misrepresented. Denver metro should include Boulder, that puts it around 3.3 million. Weld County is part of the CSA, although Larimer County isn't and it's the same distance from Denver as Greeley is. I think a better understanding of the areas population should reflect those three factors.
Another 700k people added to 3.3 million puts the area at 4 million which is think is a better reflection of how the region functions.
I will die on this hill that MSA and CSA for Denver is misrepresented. Denver metro should include Boulder, that puts it around 3.3 million. Weld County is part of the CSA, although Larimer County isn't and it's the same distance from Denver as Greeley is. I think a better understanding of the areas population should reflect those three factors.
Another 700k people added to 3.3 million puts the area at 4 million which is think is a better reflection of how the region functions.
Good insight...
Denver is a major city regardless of how one chooses to define it, there's no rational argument for it not being a major city...
SJ is the only one of these cities that is not the central city of its own metropolis abd never has been. Oakland has more of a brand than SJ so there's two cities in it's metropolis that overshadow SJ...
Many people don't liken Silicon Valley specifically to SJ, they liken it to The Bay or SF to a lesser extent...
Sacramento doesn't have this issue. It's the primary city of its metropolis, and of its region, and is the center of activity for that. The capital of state government...
Sacramento is less of a major city to you than San Jose, but Sacramento has the larger and more robust transportation infrastructure across the board that typifies a major city (rail, air, interstate)...
Sacramento is the primary city for well over 4 million Californians from Redding to Stockton and east to the Nevada border. Regionally its the largest city between Portland and The Bay and you don't hit another larger city due east for three states (Denver). Nationally its known as the capital of the largest economy in The Union and while its profile is lesser than that of LA and The Bay in general, it doesn't have a lesser profile than San Jose specifically...
All that said I could see adding SJ as another "major" city to my list, to make 35 evenly, but I don't think of SJ as more of a major city than Sac!
From my perspective, it's six in San Jose's hand, half a dozen in Sacramento's. I wouldn't dare suggest an actual pecking order, but both are arguably sitting at the same table with Jacksonville, Kansas City, Virginia Beach, Fort Worth, Providence, Tampa, and San Antonio.
Some cities are so widely known that they are capable of standing alone in a dateline, without the name of a state for additional reference. A list of domestic cities that stand alone in datelines follows. The norms that influenced the selection were the population of the city, the population of its metropolitan region, the frequency of the city’s appearance in the news, the uniqueness of its name, and experience that has shown the name to be almost synonymous with the state of nation where it is located.
ATLANTA
BALTIMORE
BOSTON
CHICAGO
CINCINNATI
CLEVELAND
DALLAS
DENVER
DETROIT
HONOLULU
HOUSTON
INDIANAPOLIS
LAS VEGAS
LOS ANGELES
MIAMI
MILWAUKEE
MINNEAPOLIS
NEW ORLEANS
NEW YORK
OKLAHOMA CITY
PHILADELPHIA
PHOENIX
PITTSBURGH
ST. LOUIS
SALT LAKE CITY
SAN ANTONIO
SAN DIEGO
SAN FRANCISCO
SEATTLE
WASHINGTON
Stories from all other U.S. cities should have both the city and state name in the dateline, including KANSAS CITY, Mo., and KANSAS CITY, Kan. For example,
ANN ARBOR, Mich.
SACRAMENTO, Calif.
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