• gmtom@lemmy.worldEnglish
    52·
    2 days ago

    As a non American, putting Chicago top 3, on the same level as NY or LA is wild. San Francisco is probably the only other city that’s on the same as those 2. Chicago is more on the level of Seattle, Houston, Boston, Philadelphia etc. where I’ve heard of them and they’re big cities, but thats all they are, cities.

    • vrek@programming.devEnglish
      12·
      3 days ago

      I did a business trip there once. One of the few places I really didn’t enjoy. Maybe it was the area I was in since I found out there was a run down strip club a few doors down from the hotel, getting dinner was like a few miles away but that was 3 hours in traffic. I think I was in far north west corner of Houston.

      • xistera@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        2·
        2 days ago

        I had the same experience. I was sent to Houston to help another facility for a few weeks. I could see the building I was going to work in from my hotel window directly across the freeway. It took me 45 minutes to drive there because of the traffic on the frontage roads next to the freeway.

    • neidu3@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      5·
      3 days ago

      If it’s any comfort, it’s the first city this random dork on the other side of the world thought of.

      …for a given value of “great”. It’s the only city I’ve visited that somehow manages to be a long distance away from itself.

    • TheTechnician27@lemmy.world
      English
      141·
      3 days ago

      It definitely goes NYC, LA, Chicago, SF.

      DC doesn’t get on there because DC is a one-trick pony. It’s the seat of power for the federal government, at which point you may as well be saying that Sacramento makes top three major cities in California. NYC, LA, and Chicago have the first, second, and third-most populous MSAs (DC is 7th) and have a lot going for them individually.

      Unlike the San Francisco Bay Area, its CSA with Baltimore etc. that makes it #3 lacks a coherent identity and presence. DC is still populous and does that one trick really well (and has value as a tourist attraction), so it is fighting with DFW for the fifth spot, imo, but probably goes somewhere below it just because unlike in many national capitals (Paris, Moscow, Jakarta, etc.), an outsize chunk of people who live there do so just to work for/around the government.

      • megopie@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
        2·
        3 days ago

        SF is also a one tick pony, and that one trick relies heavily on infrastructure built in the DC area. Namely Ashburne VA, which is basically the beating heart of the internet in the US. Arlington and Silver-spring as well are massively important as the headquarters of many important companies.

        The federal government and companies closely associated with it are by far the largest sector of the US economy.

      • ramble81@lemmy.zipEnglish
        21·
        3 days ago

        Eh, you could easily swap out SF with DFW, Houston, Atlanta, Seattle… hence why the 4th city rotates.

        • TheTechnician27@lemmy.world
          English
          2·
          3 days ago

          I don’t think that’s true at all. San Francisco has an especially major cultural, historical, and tourism presence. Moreover, given we’re talking nationwide, I think it’s not just appropriate but prudent to consider the San Francisco Bay Area (its CSA), which has both the 5th-highest population in the country of any CSA and has an enormous nationwide and global presence in technology and education.

          Atlanta isn’t even on the same level (and I don’t mean based on the GaWC I’m about to discuss). Funnily, going by the GaWC classification, I was possibly overstating DFW (I consider globalization a big component given we’re talking nationwide in such a globalized nation), but I think that’s the only mistake I make there. I think New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and San Francisco are solidly the first four.

          • ramble81@lemmy.zipEnglish
            11·
            3 days ago

            Funny enough you skipped over Houston which has the same rank as San Francisco according to your link. It’s also a major global energy hub. It just goes to prove the OPs point that the 4th rotates as there is no true stand out.

            • TheTechnician27@lemmy.world
              English
              1·
              3 days ago

              I again don’t think that shows it. I think 5th is in messy competition in a way one could sort out depending on their priorities but that 4th is solidly SF between population (again, CSA), business, education, and culture.

              The GaWC ranking 1) is strictly about global presence, 2) only considers the city by itself with none of its surrounding context (e.g. San Jose is on its own far down the list) and 3) has huge range in what people would consider “major city” characteristics. By this logic, for example, Warsaw is in direct competition with Seoul and Luxembourg City in competition with New Delhi for “city majorness”, which is obviously nonsensical.

              I provided the GaWC as an explanation for my error that I thought DFW was more heavily globalized than it was, not as the sole criterion for “major city”. I think the fact San Francisco is in the Alpha- bracket despite its handicaps from not having its CSA considered along with it shows how solidly above those other cities it is.

    • HubertManne@piefed.socialEnglish
      4·
      3 days ago

      feels like its going by kinda date. New York was the first major city, then chicago, then LA but LA population wise overtook chicago. Its kinda funny because texas’s major metros combined would surpass new york but then again you start combining cali and you get the same. Both states though are as big as several average sized states combined land wise. Personally I think NY and chicago are kinda special because they are the only ones for their state. Like if your in the state and you say your are going to take a trip to the city you would know what they mean.

    • bangupjobasusual@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      2 days ago

      We are fourth most expensive, fourth worst traffic, third population density of cities with more than a million people. It’s obviously Boston.

  • Not_mikey@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    51·
    3 days ago

    Houston / DFW makes sense to balance out the 4 regions of the US, Northeast, south, Midwest and west

    SF / DC make the most sense for political / economic impact and that they actually feel like a major city and not a giant sprawled out suburb.

  • meh@piefed.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    3·
    3 days ago

    the 4th spot goes to the last city to cause ice agents the kind of nightmares law&order will make into sympathetic copaganda one day. minneapolis is hoping atlanta or hoston will take over soon.

    • MrEff@lemmy.worldEnglish
      15·
      3 days ago

      That city is basically the definition of urban sprawl. It is slightly larger than the size of Connecticut. I have to explain to people that when you cross Houston during normal/low traffic times, it can take over two hours without stopping to get from one side to the other, highway the whole time.