Needed: One Geography Refresher Course

[gerisullivan]

Or maybe a dozen....

A few moments ago I found myself wondering "Just when did Houston get so big?" I had no idea it's the 4th largest city in the US and has been for all of this millennium.

I knew that NYC, LA, and Chicago were in the top three spots respectively, and of the shift to the sunbelt during my adulthood, but the rest of the top 50 list held several surprises for me. Not only is Houston about 65% bigger (in terms of population) than Dallas, Portland's population is 94% that of Seattle's. Huh? That so doesn't match my memories of those cities.

Okay. The major metropolitan areas is a much closer reflection of the population picture in my head. Dallas-Fort Worth is in the #4 spot there, but I still wouldn't have expected Greater Houston to come in at #6. The Portland/Seattle comparison makes more sense, with metro Portland being two-thirds the size of metro-Seattle. Portland is still larger than it feels. Austin is in the much more sensible #37 spot than the #16 spot it earns on city population. Likewise Atlanta -- #9 on the metro list, but only #37 on the cities list.

Wales, of course, isn't on any of the lists. It is, however, raining here in sympathy with Houston and the Texas coast. Not as hard, and I'm thankful for that.

I send strength, courage, and endurance to everyone in the path of Hurricane Ike's destructiveness. May tomorrow find you both safe and well.

Oh, the wind and rain...oh, the dreadful wind and rain.

Comments

One one hand I'm boggled that Kansas City's

[dragonet2.livejournal.com]

metro area is 40. Then I remembered that I'm boggled by growth sometimes. When my folks bought the Leawood house in 1960 (10318 Manor Rd.), we were at the edge of town and had to have solid trash cans with clampable tops (ours were some sort of 50-gallon drum, the tops also made great sledding saucers).

Now Leawood goes south to maybe 135th Street, Overland Park oozed around it and goes further south. And Olathe, Lenexa, etc. used to be separate towns. Now it's a gigantic amorphous metroplex. hell, there are new housing tracts north of the Renaissance Festival.

Winnipeg would be 18th on city but 70th on region

[maruad.livejournal.com]

Winnipeg amalgamated it's main suburbs into the the city back in the 1970's. Consequently it's population would put it in the 18th spot of the 50 cities list but it's metropolitan area would put it in 70th place on that list.

Winnipeg has sprawled amazingly over the year with only a minimal increase in population (only 4.2% growth since 1991).

[(Anonymous)]

Wow: Colorado Springs is 49. I had no idea.

[threeringedmoon.livejournal.com]

This was me. I am using Jack's computer so I can watch MSNBC on his TV.

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

We're eighth, which doesn't surprise me. The DC Metro area gets bigger every day.