Would You Consider Calling Seattle A "Big Town Or City"?

[Kalex]

I think I'd call it an average-size city. NYC/LA/Chicago are in a league of their own. Atlanta's actual city is not that big, it's just eaten up huge swaths of neighboring towns in suburban sprawl. But it definitely has far more people bc they count all of those unsuspecting towns into the empire . It doesn't seem necessarily smaller than a lot of other bigger cities I've been in. but then, most of those don't have much for public transportation either.
Coming from Montana it will probably seem plenty big. I came from Charlotte, which has its own IKEA (love that! and Seattle seems like an actual city where Charlotte is a big town.
whether or not it's your kinda place really depends on what you're looking for in a "big city"

I gotta say though - only in Seattle do people call them "mostly middle-class neighborhoods" when the cheapest house you can find is $500,000, and those are rare!

[GatsbyGatz]

A century ago, a city with Seattle's population would qualify as a "big city". Today, cities like NYC/Chi/LA dwarf Seattle's population, but what does that matter for Seattle? Seattle's economy is great, relatively speaking, and crime seems controlled. We could just as easily ask the question, "Does NYC/LA/Chi have an overpopulation problem?" Sustained population growth should be encouraged, but increasing population for the sake of increasing population results in under-employment. As someone who lived in Southern California's "Inland Empire," I witnessed the effects of unsustainable population growth and how it decimated the economy for a metro area of about 4 million people.

[UrbanAdventurer]

Lol, inland empire. There's no "there" there.

[hamellr]

26th largest city according to C-D with Portland at #28.

Wikipedia says #22. That is just the city itself. Add in the designated Metro area statistics and Seattle jumps to #15, with Portland up to #24.

So... Big City in my book.

[mrman78]

Funny thing is, it feels bigger than it is. I moved here from Houston, TX and it feels more like a big city here. Going from the 4th biggest city to the 22nd biggest didn't seem drastically different to me, ha. Houston is just spread out, so that's why it's huge. Seattle is more compact, but it feels more urban. I'm so much happier here!

[007jamesbond]

I grew up in Seattle and although Seattle has changed a lot and gotten a lot bigger, I still feel like Seattle is more of a big town than a city. When I think of a city, I think of Chicago or New York. Seattle will always be a big town to me.

[rlrsalem]

lost here is your 'from Montana' . While I have never been to Montana I have images that it must be rural even in the busyiest places. I'm from Ct and have relatives in Minnesota, my concept of small town is hardly theirs. That said, it has the challenges we from small towns object, heavy traffic, small lots, and too much ground light (not as grand viewing stars) IMHO

[RJ8089]

What a weird question. Of course Seattle is a "city"....in every way (traffic, skyline, population, urbanization, etc..) Seattle lost that big town feel in the early 1980's, if not 1970's. Seattle should be compared to Minneapolis....Denver.....Boston.......or even Dallas & San Francisco.

Portland is growing, but does not have the big city vibe like Seattle. Seattle will always be two steps ahead in everything.