SD overtaken in population (Los Angeles, San Diego: new construction, college, place to live)

[sdlife619]

Hey forum, have you guys read up on the UT today about SD getting beat in population by Dallas? The numbers are small only by 600 people, so Dallas is ranked 8th largest city in the country, while SD sits at 9th place.

Here's the full story

San Diego dips in rankings


I truly believe that Dallas is attracting loads of people from elsewhere that are looking for cheaper place to live. Dallas is a fine city that has life, it actually feels more like a real city than San Diego does. I can understand why people are flocking to Dallas from across the country. SD has become just way too expensive for the average family, you have to have loads of money to survive in this town or to live happily. We also don't have a bunch of corporate companies lined up here like they have in Dallas. Many jobs in SD are low paying service work. You could probably work a at McDonalds in Texas, and still makes ends meet.

[kettlepot]

"City Feel" isn't really determined by the population within the boundaries of a city but by the metropolitan area's population. City population can be greatly effected by the ease with which cities can annex neighboring land or communities. Metro population is less open to political manipulation.

On that score San Diego has been beaten by a lot more cities than those on the list. Our Metro population is only 17th nationally. As for our metro population, our national ranking is on a steady downward slope as well. Since MSAs are determined using county lines, San Diego will only have the population of San Diego county in its MSA. It will never be allowed to incorporate Temecula and Murrietta into the MSA because Los Angeles already has Riverside county.

Oh well, that doesn't change the fact that San Diego is a nice place to live. It has a healthy revitalizing urban core, natural beauty, and plenty of suburban sprawl for those who like that kind of thing.

[jksouthbay88]

Ohh man
Bigger is better for me

[Encinitan]

Originally Posted by sdlife619

Hey forum, have you guys read up on the UT today about SD getting beat in population by Dallas? The numbers are small only by 600 people, so Dallas is ranked 8th largest city in the country, while SD sits at 9th place.

Here's the full story

San Diego dips in rankings


I truly believe that Dallas is attracting loads of people from elsewhere that are looking for cheaper place to live. Dallas is a fine city that has life, it actually feels more like a real city than San Diego does. I can understand why people are flocking to Dallas from across the country. SD has become just way too expensive for the average family, you have to have loads of money to survive in this town or to live happily. We also don't have a bunch of corporate companies lined up here like they have in Dallas. Many jobs in SD are low paying service work. You could probably work a at McDonalds in Texas, and still makes ends meet.

The less, the merrier, that's what I say. Keep on going to Texas and Arizona and Washington and anywhere else.

[MrNiceGuy06]

Originally Posted by Encinitan

The less, the merrier, that's what I say. Keep on going to Texas and Arizona and Washington and anywhere else.

[sdurbanite]

Originally Posted by kettlepot

"City Feel" isn't really determined by the population within the boundaries of a city but by the metropolitan area's population.

Exactly! A city's population doesn't stop at it's boundaries. The entire metro population is what really matters.

Atlanta, for example, is the 33rd largest city in the country, but 8th largest metro area. As kettlepot said, SD ranks 17th. FYI, Dallas is the 4th largest metro in the country.

I could care less that we dropped a notch. I'm more concerned about the quality of people who live here than quantity. Of the 10 largest cities, SD has the highest percentage of people with college degrees at 40%. Dallas, on the other hand, is a paltry 27%. And let's not forget that SD is routinely one of the safest big cities in the country.

[esmith143]

Originally Posted by sdurbanite

Of the 10 largest cities, SD has the highest percentage of people with college degrees at 40%. Dallas, on the other hand, is a paltry 27%.

Although, if you expand the list to the top 25, it will be soundly beaten by Seattle at 53%, San Francisco at 50%, and Austin at 43%.

I can understand why people are flocking to Dallas from across the country.

Partly it's due to the fact that Dallas has plenty of room to grow (farmland for hundreds of miles in three directions), and San Diego is locked in between the ocean and a bunch of suburbs. Even during the boom, the only two areas with significant amount of new construction within city boundaries were Carmel Valley and downtown. And the housing bust practically paralyzed new construction, whereas Dallas kept expanding.

[sdurbanite]

^^^Ok, let me rephrase it then, among cities with over 1 million people, SD has the highest percentage of residents with college degrees at 40%. That's something to brag about....

[SEAandATL]

I don't think San Diego will get overtaken anymore any time soon since there is a big gap to the #10 city, San Jose which has 300,000 less people than S.D. After that, Detroit is #11, San Francisco is #12, and then Jacksonville, Indianapolis, and Austin.

List of United States cities by population - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[esmith143]

Good point.

#10 San Jose and #12 San Francisco are also locked in between other cities, water, and government land. They are not going anywhere. Not unless they manage to "merge" with some of their neighbors. #11 Detroit is only going down. Austin has a shot at overtaking SD, but the gap is really big (1.28m vs. 760k) and that will take a while.

On the other hand, Philadelphia has been shrinking steadily, it might eventually get smaller than San Diego.

All other cities in the top 10 are either too big for any hope of catching up (LA, Chicago), or located, like Dallas, in the middle of nowhere, suggesting that they will keep growing (San Antonio, Phoenix).