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Also look at the central 50 square miles of Los Angeles-if it hasn't surpassed San Francisco in density already its about to.
Paris (which is as landlocked as St. Louis) is 40 square miles with a population well over 2 million.
That and the fact that SF is surrounded by water make their 18,000 ppsm pretty much just a cool story bro in my book.
Geography plays roles in density at times. Look at Manhattan, SF, Boston etc. L.A. has no density tracts that match SFs or any cities I mentioned. Not to mention SF has the 2nd largest percentage of park area in its city limits and still is thousands of people per square mile more than Boston which is 3rd place. L.A. is not on the list. It's famous for medium density.. You take the core 30sq miles of LA compared to SF and its a blowout. I love LA but I have been having to speak truth about it lately.
Speaking of which, does anyone happen to have density growth numbers handy?
It would be very interesting to see actual data on how much denser each city mentioned in this thread is actually becoming over time to get a sense of trajectory.
There was a post of the 2018 estimates thread and Boston/DC/SF are all between 1600 and 1675 in that order while obviously Philly is much lower at +445. That’s the huge city limits makes the raw numbers untenable issue. Philly grew by 59,000 vs 77K for Boston and SF and 100K for DC but is falling way behind in Density. But I think if Philly was 47 sq miles it would be the densest or at least on par of the 4.
Geography plays roles in density at times. Look at Manhattan, SF, Boston etc. L.A. has no density tracts that match SFs or any cities I mentioned. Not to mention SF has the 2nd largest percentage of park area in its city limits and still is thousands of people per square mile more than Boston which is 3rd place. L.A. is not on the list. It's famous for medium density.. You take the core 30sq miles of LA compared to SF and its a blowout. I love LA but I have been having to speak truth about it lately.
Cherry picked tiny tracts or 30 square miles of a 47 square mile city is another cool story.
Rhodes compared San Francisco's density statistics with what he dubbed "Central LA," a S.F.-sized superimposition on the City of Angels. "The surprising result? San Francisco and the 'city' of central LA (a subset of the larger municipality) are equal in population density over those 47 square miles, with about 837,000 people in both cities (all of SF and the core of LA). Not only that, but the LA core has about 85% as many jobs as San Francisco does, making it a substantial center of employment."
I personally think Miami will hit 18,000 ppsm. The U.S is slowing down growth wise though and because of that, unless laws change in certain states, I don't see any other city having a chance of touching SF besides Miami.
I visited my hometown of Seattle a couple of days ago. My gawd, the skyline is "thick". As in buildings filling in almost every gap. Mostly Amazon development, but added hotel, apartments, offices in between. Seattle is not a winner with height at this point, but the density is hugely improved as of late Spring 2019.
Miami is climbing the density ranks the fastest of the cities that follow SF, but it's not close enough to threaten it. Even so, it has to get past Boston first. I suspect that it's already passed Chicago and Philly in municipal density.
I visited my hometown of Seattle a couple of days ago. My gawd, the skyline is "thick". As in buildings filling in almost every gap. Mostly Amazon development, but added hotel, apartments, offices in between. Seattle is not a winner with height at this point, but the density is hugely improved as of late Spring 2019.
As impressive as Seattle's city population growth has been the past 20 years, it would need to double again to reach San Francisco's current density. Imagine 1.5 million people in Seattle's current footprint vs. 750k today.. That would be a really densely packed city and some industrial and port properties would have to be re-purposed for housing. It can certainly be done but a lot of subways would have to be built in order for people to get around because the current transportation has too many choke points on the roads.
As impressive as Seattle's city population growth has been the past 20 years, it would need to double again to reach San Francisco's current density. Imagine 1.5 million people in Seattle's current footprint vs. 750k today.. That would be a really densely packed city and some industrial and port properties would have to be re-purposed for housing. It can certainly be done but a lot of subways would have to be built in order for people to get around because the current transportation has too many choke points on the roads.
Isn't like 75% of residential neighborhoods in Seattle zoned for single-family homes? That seems like the largest barrier.
Does anyone have the density numbers for the inner 30 or so square miles of say SF, DC, Bos, Sea, Philly?
Weighted population density is also a factor. For ex:
Location: That star on your map in the middle of the East Coast, DMV
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Originally Posted by DC4ever
Does anyone have the density numbers for the inner 30 or so square miles of say SF, DC, Bos, Sea, Philly?
Weighted population density is also a factor. For ex:
DC will always appear lower due to the National Mall and how massive that land mass is. Really the "city" part of DC's density numbers could keep up with most of them if the Mall wasn't a factor, but it is, and also is what makes DC equally or more unique than some of the others. The density is strong in DC, but doesn't get the credit it should on paper because it has the largest amount of national park space per capita out of these cities.
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