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Suburbs are suburbs anywhere in the country so obviously one isn't going to feel any bigger out there. Where DC, to me, feels larger than a place like Atlanta is when you're riding on the metro and can see the clusters of buildings that make up all the satellite cities around like Alexandria, Arlington, Tyson's, Silver Spring, etc which would be decent sized cities themselves in most other regions of the country. That, and the non-stop development to Baltimore make me feel that DC's MSA is larger than it is.
I've never equated density with how large a city is. I've gone to DC plenty of times, and I was even more surprised when I found out it had 8 million in it's area. Driving around Houston and seeing the masive freeways, horrible traffic, and huge buildings made me realize how huge Houston was. They both felt around the same size to me honestly.
Suburbs are suburbs anywhere in the country so obviously one isn't going to feel any bigger out there. Where DC, to me, feels larger than a place like Atlanta is when you're riding on the metro and can see the clusters of buildings that make up all the satellite cities around like Alexandria, Arlington, Tyson's, Silver Spring, etc which would be decent sized cities themselves in most other regions of the country. That, and the non-stop development to Baltimore make me feel that DC's MSA is larger than it is.
Some of that can be explained with DC's height restriction. In places like Atlanta and Houston, buildings in the center city can be as tall as they want, but in DC the high-rises are out in the suburbs rather than in the city center.
I love DC and like the fact that its beautiful memorials and monuments aren't hidden behind a bunch of skyscrapers.
I've never equated density with how large a city is. I've gone to DC plenty of times, and I was even more surprised when I found out it had 8 million in it's area. Driving around Houston and seeing the masive freeways, horrible traffic, and huge buildings made me realize how huge Houston was. They both felt around the same size to me honestly.
Metro wise, they feel the same way. City wise, DC feels bigger. Much more urban and much more dense than Houston or any other metro it's size.
Sorry that you didn't get a good tour of DC metro.
Me neither.
When I was actually in DC and riding METRO, it did, but out in the suburbs where I was staying, didn't feel much bigger than Houston at all. In fact, Houston's MSA is bigger than DC's MSA.
I'm thinking its the way it is setup. With the trees alongside the freeway, you don't see as much development as say, Houston, where there are not many trees alongside the freeway and you see everything.
Metro wise, they feel the same way. City wise, DC feels bigger. Much more urban and much more dense than Houston or any other metro it's size.
City wise it didn't feel bigger to me. I've never considered just because a city is more dense, that it feels bigger. I've been to DC atleast 5-6 times and we usually drive through the city. It feels about the same size as Houston.
You shouldn't judge by "feel". Commuters commute into DC everyday from WV, Frederick, Baltimore, Annapolis, Northern Virginia, parts of Pennsylvania, and Columbia area. MARC commuter trains bring them in by the thousands, and return them home in the afternoon. DC's MSA, like Milwaukee's, is wrong. MSA's follow county lines instead of actual suburb lines. Columbia, for example, is both a suburb of DC and Baltimore, but because it is in Howard county it gets counted as Baltimore. Following county lines is what causes the confusion over what DC's true MSA would be. The CSA is more accurate than the MSA. Baltimore is confusing as well. They added Washington to their airport name because they recognized a big chunk of their business is from Washington.
13. San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA -- 4,274,531
Once again, the state and the census disagree in the interim. One the census is actually taken however, the state is always proven right.
Anyway,
according to the State of California,
San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA -- 4,447,367
The CSA population is 7,666,877
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