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I am always fascinated with big cities and everything that comes with them. The tall skyscrapers, upscale shopping districts, public transportation systems, and everything in between. Fortunately I am lucky enough to live near one of the world's top cities, San Francisco. The sheer magnitude of large cities used to impress me the most, and I would love looking through the Almanac at the nation's largest cities by population. And it would always surprise me to find cities like San Jose in the top 10. What really should be more important than sheer population is population density. Without a doubt, New York City would still be the top city in the US, but as you can see from this chart I compiled from stats from Wikipedia, San Francisco would be number 2.
Rank City, State Population Density (/sq mi)
1 New York, New York 8,214,426 27,083
2 Los Angeles, California 3,849,378 8,205
3 Chicago, Illinois 2,873,321 12,470
4 Houston, Texas 2,144,491 3,701
5 Phoenix, Arizona 1,512,986 3,077
6 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 1,448,394 4,201
7 San Antonio, Texas 1,296,682 2,808
8 San Diego, California 1,256,951 3,871
9 Dallas, Texas 1,232,940 3,544
10 San Jose, California 929,936 5,216
11 Detroit, Michigan 871,121 6,856
12 Jacksonville, Florida 794,555
13 Indianapolis, Indiana 785,597
14 San Francisco, California 744,041 15,834
15 Columbus, Ohio 733,203
16 Austin, Texas 709,893
17 Memphis, Tennessee 670,902
18 Fort Worth, Texas 653,320
19 Baltimore, Maryland 631,366 7,871
20 Charlotte, North Carolina 630,478
22 Boston, Massachusetts 590,763 12,327
23 Seattle, Washington 582,454 6,901
24 Washington, DC 581,530 9,015
34 Atlanta, Georgia 486,411
43 Miami, Florida 404,048 11,504
The problem I have with rankings by sheer population is that a city like San Jose, with no impressive downtown, no tourist attractions, and an overall dull atmosphere, can lay claim to being the 10th largest city in the nation. To me, that is an attractive claim, but one which San Jose has no business claiming. Density, on the other hand, really is more telling of a city and what it has to offer. High density is more representative of what I view when I think of a real city: tall office and apartment buildings, tight residential areas, and urban parks. One of the most appealing thing to me about San Francisco is its density, and the fact that you can walk easily between all of the interesting parts of the city, or take a short ride on a comprehensive transit system. This is what turns me off from places like Los Angeles, which might have interesting areas like Hollywood, or Rodeo Drive, or Santa Monica, or Westwood, or Santa Monica, but getting around between each area is a pain with the clogged transportation arteries and lack of a subway/metro system. But it's not just that.. San Francisco is so much prettier than Los Angeles.
One of the more interesting articles I've found on Wikipedia focused on a list compiled by the PJ Taylor at the GaWC in 2004, documenting his rankings of world cities [1]. His rankings were based on everything from economic importance, tourist appeal, sports teams, diversity, technological capabilities, transportation, etc. "Well-rounded Global Cities" included London and New York City, cities with a "Very Large Contribution". Next were the Global Cities with "Smaller Contribution and Cultural Strengths." At this level is Los Angeles, Paris, and San Francisco. This speaks volume about how great a city San Francisco really is, to be on par with Paris (and LA), and just below London and NYC, while above great cities like Chicago and Tokyo. Also interesting to note, one of my other favorite cities, Boston, is ranked just below on the next rung, as an "Incipient Global City," meaning in the initial stages and showing promise of becoming a true Global City. Ranked along with Boston are Amsterdam, Chicago, Milan, Madrid, Moscow, and Toronto. This ranking, if anything, says much about how population alone (Boston: 22nd most populated US city, but 4th most dense, behind NY, SF, Chicago) says nothing about the importance and appeal of a city.
