Is it common to think that Austin is bigger than San Antonio? (Houston: credit, university)

[JJG]

Originally Posted by malcorub16

Here you go, more updated photos.

That's STILL not an updated photo of Austin...

EDIT: people already pointed that out

[riaelise]

I visit SA often though living in the Austin MSA and I feel that the downtown area of SA is larger than Austin's. And in all honesty, despite the dated buildings SA has always been preferred by me over downtown Austin. I just love the culture, history and vibe of SA and despite being a tourist trap, I find the riverwalk to be a stroke of civil engineering genius. SA is a very unique city.

[LocalPlanner]

Originally Posted by riaelise

I visit SA often though living in the Austin MSA and I feel that the downtown area of SA is larger than Austin's. And in all honesty, despite the dated buildings SA has always been preferred by me over downtown Austin. I just love the culture, history and vibe of SA and despite being a tourist trap, I find the riverwalk to be a stroke of civil engineering genius. SA is a very unique city.

It's easily the most "charming" of Texas' large city downtowns.

[Austinite101]

Originally Posted by NBTX11

Skylines have nothing to do with whose bigger. That just means they built more towers, that's it. That's literally it. One city decided to build more buildings. Skylines come in all shapes and sizes. Large cities like San Antonio and Phoenix haven't built that many of them, whereas Austin has. But, I have always known that SA was bigger than Austin. Going off a skyline alone is a very poor way to judge city size.

You could have a city of 100,000 decide to build a bunch of 50 story towers. Does that make them a big city???

No one said it’s what makes a city bigger. The question was why do people feel that Austin is the bigger city. And a major contributor to that, in my opinion, is because the skyline is taller and denser. Most regular everyday people couldn’t name the 10 largest cities in the United States, let alone their order of size. Heck, I bet a massive chunk of Texans couldn’t list the 5 or 6 largest cities in the state in their order.

But I bet you anything there’s a strong correlation between the size and height of a city’s skyline with how large a normal person perceives that city’s population to be.

[dallasboi]

Originally Posted by Austinite101

No one said it’s what makes a city bigger. The question was why do people feel that Austin is the bigger city. And a major contributor to that, in my opinion, is because the skyline is taller and denser. Most regular everyday people couldn’t name the 10 largest cities in the United States, let alone their order of size. Heck, I bet a massive chunk of Texans couldn’t list the 5 or 6 largest cities in the state in their order.

But I bet you anything there’s a strong correlation between the size and height of a city’s skyline with how large a normal person perceives that city’s population to be.

Uhh...Yes they would..The Big 6 is obvious to Texans.

[Trainwreck20]

Originally Posted by dallasboi

Uhh...Yes they would..The Big 6 is obvious to Texans.

Yeah, although I did have to think about the order a bit - I usually think of the size of an area by its metro. Fort Worth and Austin are withing 100k, which I wouldn't have guessed off-hand. And San Antonino is bigger than Dallas, which I might have put the other way if I hadn't been looking up stuff on this thread.

[CosmicAries]

Easy.

1. Houston
2. San Antonio
3. Dallas
4. Austin
5. Fort Worth
6. El Paso.

[NBTX11]

Originally Posted by Austinite101

No one said it’s what makes a city bigger. The question was why do people feel that Austin is the bigger city. And a major contributor to that, in my opinion, is because the skyline is taller and denser. Most regular everyday people couldn’t name the 10 largest cities in the United States, let alone their order of size. Heck, I bet a massive chunk of Texans couldn’t list the 5 or 6 largest cities in the state in their order.

But I bet you anything there’s a strong correlation between the size and height of a city’s skyline with how large a normal person perceives that city’s population to be.

Virtually all Texans know that Houston, San Antonio, Dallas, Austin, Fort Worth, and El Paso are the 6 largest cities in Texas. I didn't even look up populations when writing this either.

Aslo, some people may PERCEIVE city size to be based on a skyline, however, what I said was that was a POOR way to decide city size. Very poor. Literally some cities have decided to build more buildings than other cities. That has zero to do with how big they are. I can name tons of cities that are smaller that have impressive skylines, and tons of bigger ones that have smaller skylines. Take a look at Phoenix, for example. Phoenix has 5 million people, metro, and they have hardly any towers. Are they any less improtant, or perceived as less important or smaller.

[malcorub16]

Originally Posted by NBTX11

Are they any less improtant, or perceived as less important or smaller.

In contrast, cities like San Francisco are smaller in population/landmass with a more impressive population than bigger cities like say San Antonio, Ft. Worth and Jacksonville.

[NBTX11]

Originally Posted by malcorub16

In contrast, cities like San Francisco are smaller in population/landmass with a more impressive population than bigger cities like say San Antonio, Ft. Worth and Jacksonville.

Yes, my point is simply this. Looking at a skyline and judging a cities size based off that, is one of the poorest ways to judge a city size. I could give countless examples. Fort Worth has a weak skyline for a city of it's size. But Ft. Worth is a very large city. El Paso has hardly any towers. I mean El Paso could build 100 50 story towers in the next 10 years, did they suddenly become a big city? Austin decided to build some, great for them, but they didn't suddenly become a 7 million person metro.

Personally, I like both San Antonio and Austin's skylines. Austin is sleek and modern, and SA is classic and looks wonderful also. SA has some great buildings like the Tower Life. I didn't once think man, Austin must be 5x bigger than SA, simply by looking at a skyline. Maybe someone else did. SA will never have a lot of towers, because they don't want buildings overpowering the Alamo and Riverwalk. Does that make them less important or smaller.