Will New York ALWAYS be America's biggest city? (Philadelphia: zoning, move)

[Razor123]

I'm very surprised this hasn't been asked before. Will our lovely Big Apple ALWAYS be the country's largest city (by population)?? I know it has been since 1790, but will another American city overtake it?

[DoomDan515]

I doubt anytime soon. The second biggest city in America, Los Angeles, only has half the population of NYC.

[K.O.N.Y]

Not a chance. Each individual borough is as big as a BIG american city. Our smallest borough by population, staten island, is bigger than most cities we consider big in the united states. Brooklyn by itself is almost as big as chicago,americas third most powerful city.

[Fred314X]

Originally Posted by Razor123

I'm very surprised this hasn't been asked before.

To tell you the truth, I'm surprised you asked now! It's extremely unlikely that will happen--although to be fair, if anyone had asked the same question about Philadelphia at the time of the Revolution, people probably would have said the exact same thing.

[Kefir King]

I depends where the next waves of immigrants decide to settle. When the population of the U.S. hits half a billion, who can say.

A lot depends on whether NYC can remain the financial center of the world or drift into insignificance. When the jobs go, so do the people.

[tpk-nyc]

Cities in the US will never be built so densely again, not unless zoning laws are changed to remove mandatory parking requirements, which seems most unlikely. Regions might become larger, but they’re not what most people would call a city. LA County has over 9 million people, but it’s the size of Rhode Island; far too large to be a city.

[jjbradleynyc]

I'd predict maybe 80-100 years from now, Los Angeles will probably surpass NYC--if it continues to grow. However, the problem with LA and the continued sprawl and all that mess is that water access, pollution, and traffic continue to be huge problems. With that being said, LA if allowed to grow could surpass NYC, but that is assuming NYC doesn't continue to grow.
I'd say at least several generations would pass before New York fell to #2.

[Dport7674]

L.A. proper never will. The "L.A. area" might.

[mayorofnyc]

Originally Posted by K.O.N.Y

Not a chance. Each individual borough is as big as a BIG american city. Our smallest borough by population, staten island, is bigger than most cities we consider big in the united states. Brooklyn by itself is almost as big as chicago,americas third most powerful city.

^ This...plus the fact that the amenities cannot be beat. There's probably more stuff to do in Downtown Brooklyn on any given day than there is in almost every major metro area in the country.

[eek]

no. nobody wants to spend the money to build anything, whether or not it be infrastructure/mass transit that they actually need or something that hasn't been done yet.

we're too busy watching asia and europe do what we should do.