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Riverside is a fraud metro. Only an MSA due to accounting guidelines by the OMB.
I don’t know if I’d call it a fraud metro, but the Inland Empire certainly is a weird beast? Most is an extension of Los Angeles, but a decent portion is the exurbs of San Diego. You also have the mountain communities where the lake and ski resorts are, and desert communities like Palm Springs. Because county lines are used for metros, it runs all the way to the Nevada and Arizona borders. This is a silly measurement, and the IE really should be broken into, and/or added to multiple MSAs.
The area in and around Riverside could stand on its own though. It has a solid 1M in population, a legit international airport (busier than cities like Buffalo, Memphis, OKC), and several highly ranked universities. Not to mention NASCAR and multiple minor league teams.
I stand corrected. The site I looked at had them included, but others do not. I have heard of Falmouth and Chatham that are included. I just don't know why I've never heard of Barnstable.
The Falmouth road race is famous in the international running community.
It must be a really fascinating historical quirk as to why the city is called "Barnstable" and not "Hyannis". Both are villages within the larger town, but Hyannis is where the grand chunk of *stuff* is in.
I imagine it was founded as Barnstable first, and then Hyannis grew in size much later. Kind of like with Newbury and Newburyport, but in that case Newburyport split off as a separate entity from Newbury while Hyannis stayed consolidated with Barnstable.
Besides the ones you already listed, Provincetown is another famous place that is in the Barnstable MSA.
I too was not familiar with Anniston AL until I drove past in on I 20. I noticed it because there are sizeable mountains surrounding it in an area I didn’t otherwise know had them
Anniston is actually home to Alabama's highest peak, Mt Cheaha.
I don’t know if I’d call it a fraud metro, but the Inland Empire certainly is a weird beast? Most is an extension of Los Angeles, but a decent portion is the exurbs of San Diego. You also have the mountain communities where the lake and ski resorts are, and desert communities like Palm Springs. Because county lines are used for metros, it runs all the way to the Nevada and Arizona borders. This is a silly measurement, and the IE really should be broken into, and/or added to multiple MSAs.
The area in and around Riverside could stand on its own though. It has a solid 1M in population, a legit international airport (busier than cities like Buffalo, Memphis, OKC), and several highly ranked universities. Not to mention NASCAR and multiple minor league teams.
The Inland Empire is the main reason I don't like judging cities by MSA, since it's so obviously unfair, and I think the urban area is a more accurate measurement to use. This pushes the area from the #13 spot all the way down to 22 but still larger than other popular western cities like Vegas and Portland, which is weird.
Using the UA rankings also makes Miami the fourth largest city in the country, which sounds right.
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