What keeps Atlanta from reaching LA, Chicago, or NYC levels?

[mhays]

God not that GAWC crap again. They don't count what you think they count.

[ThePhun1]

Originally Posted by JManc

Just no. There are several IAH to Schiphol daily fights. Get on one and go visit Amsterdam. There's a lot more to it than tulips, Heineken, Van Gogh, hookers and hash.

I said relative lightweight, of course it's also relative big player. Just nowhere near the level of New York or London or the like.

[jtown,man]

Just a political side note:

We were told in 2016 that just voting for Brexit would destroy London. It hasn't, not even close. Nothing will change. It just seems to be people who politically disagree with Brexit who keeps fantasizing it failing.

[mhays]

Maybe wait until Brexit actually happens before making that judgement?

[DMPHL]

Originally Posted by jtown,man

Just a political side note:

We were told in 2016 that just voting for Brexit would destroy London. It hasn't, not even close. Nothing will change. It just seems to be people who politically disagree with Brexit who keeps fantasizing it failing.

That's because:

(1) It's a multi-year process to exit the European Union, requiring a lot of negotiation on tens of billions of euros worth of fees and penalties, not to mention the political untangling and re-organizing of other responsibilities that has to take place.

(2) Theresa May's government have been dragging their feet on actually invoking the legal articles to leave the EU, because they realize that it was a stupid decision and could be a potentially massive blunder, economic and otherwise.

If and when Britain exits the EU, I imagine you will see a lot of companies re-evaluate the extent of their operations there. It won't be instant, but it could happen over time.

That said, lots of multi-national corporations have their EMEA headquarters in Dublin already.

[pizzaguy]

Originally Posted by jtown,man

Just a political side note:

We were told in 2016 that just voting for Brexit would destroy London. It hasn't, not even close. Nothing will change. It just seems to be people who politically disagree with Brexit who keeps fantasizing it failing.

I mean the currency lost 20% of its value from the vote alone. I find it very silly to believe that everything will stay the same after it actually happens.

[ue]

Originally Posted by Crawford

To me, these cities are very different in relative importance. LA is one of the most important cities on the planet. Top 5, easily. Amsterdam wouldn't be in the Top 50. It might barely be Top 100.


Rotterdam is pretty much on Amsterdam's level. Not as as tourist center, obviously, but similar size, economy and, until recently, the most important port anywhere on the planet.

This post is so utterly ridiculous I'm not even sure why I'm responding to it. I'd love to know what 50 cities you'd put ahead of Amsterdam. Really.

While I do agree cities such as Los Angeles and Seoul are a notch above Amsterdam, it certainly isn't basically Rotterdam in importance. That's like saying London is basically Birmingham or Chicago is basically Minneapolis. Amsterdam might not actually be in the Top 10, but it's certainly at least in the Top 20 cities of the world. It's similar to cities like Hong Kong, Las Vegas, Dubai, Vancouver, Rome, etc, which, while not sprawling behemoths of human activity, are very important cities. Amsterdam is probably above most of those cities, though. It's hard to compare it more to Mexico City or Sao Paolo, which are, while very important cities with cultural and economic significance, kinda overlooked despite that. I can more easily say that Amsterdam is less important than Los Angeles, more important than Las Vegas, but I'm not sure where CDMX or SP fit. Perhaps similar rank?

Top 10 cities are probably (perhaps not in this exact order)
1. New York
2. London
3. Paris
4. Tokyo
5. Los Angeles
6. Shanghai
7. Moscow
8. Beijing
9. Delhi
10. Seoul

Next rung probably include cities like Amsterdam, Berlin, Rome, Istanbul, Dubai, Tehran, Mumbai, Hong Kong, Taipei, Cairo, Jerusalem, Mexico City, Sao Paolo, Buenos Aires, San Francisco, Chicago, Washington

Third tier prob St Petersburg, Copenhagen, Barcelona, Athens, Brussels, Milan, Dublin, Johannesburg, Nairobi, Lagos, Riyadh, Tel Aviv, Kolkata, Guangzhou, Nanjing, Osaka, Sydney, Melbourne, Toronto, Montreal, Boston, Miami, Atlanta, Seattle, Houston, Havana, Lima, Bogota, Rio de Janeiro, Karachi, Singapore

Fourth tier... Cape Town, Tangier, Casablanca, Lisbon, Naples, Vienna, Prague, Warsaw, Stockholm, Oslo, Madrid, Kiev, Riga, Helsinki, Munich, Dallas, New Orleans, Philly, Las Vegas, Vancouver, Guadalajara, Panama City, Medellin, Alexandria, Beirut, Baghdad, Agra, Varanasi, Mecca, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Manila, Perth, Brisbane, Auckland, Santiago, Montevideo

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by jtown,man

Just a political side note:

We were told in 2016 that just voting for Brexit would destroy London. It hasn't, not even close. Nothing will change.

You realize Brexit hasn't happened yet, right?

And who, specifically, told you that London would be "destroyed" by Brexit?

There's a general consensus that London will be significantly harmed, given that the financial industry will need to relocate tens of thousands of high-paying jobs, and London's international stature and strategic importance will decline somewhat, once untethered to the Eurozone.

Originally Posted by jtown,man

It just seems to be people who politically disagree with Brexit who keeps fantasizing it failing.

Or, more likely, it could be the fact that basically every economist agrees that exiting the Eurozone is a significant net economic negative?

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by ue

This post is so utterly ridiculous I'm not even sure why I'm responding to it. I'd love to know what 50 cities you'd put ahead of Amsterdam. Really.

I'm not counting out 50 cities, but in Europe alone, I would say the following 14 cities are clearly larger/more important than Amsterdam:

Paris
London
Moscow
St. Petersburg
Istanbul
Berlin
Munich
Frankfurt
Brussels
Vienna
Rome
Milan
Madrid
Barcelona

In North America alone, the following 14 cities are clearly larger/more important than Amsterdam:

NYC
LA
DC
Chicago
SF
Boston
Philly
Houston
Dallas
Atlanta
Miami
Seattle
Toronto
Mexico City

So that's almost 30 cities already. Then there are a ton of cities that are roughly even. Places like Montreal, Detroit, Hamburg, Cologne, Stuttgart, Copenhagen, Budapest, Prague, Warsaw, Stockholm, Lisbon, Athens, etc.

Adding the rest of the planet, probably around 50-60 cities or so that are pretty obviously larger/more important than Amsterdam overall.

And I think I'm being pretty generous regarding the "even" cities. Somewhere like Detroit has easily twice the population and economy, and is an global economic hegemon in a specific industry. Somewhere like Budapest has a much more extensive urban form and much more monumental feel.

[jtown,man]

Originally Posted by mhays

Maybe wait until Brexit actually happens before making that judgement?

That would make sense, but people on here and In the media have jumped to a very concise conclusion from the start, so I will too.

[JManc]

Originally Posted by Crawford

And I think I'm being pretty generous regarding the "even" cities. Somewhere like Detroit has easily twice the population and economy, and is an global economic hegemon in a specific industry. Somewhere like Budapest has a much more extensive urban form and much more monumental feel.

Houston dominates the global energy industry and is much bigger than Detroit and in far better economic shape...still not on Amsterdam's level. New York and London have a smaller economic outputs and a smaller populations than Tokyo but they are still regarded as the "higher" of the alpha cities.

[Sun Belt]

Originally Posted by pizzaguy

I mean the currency lost 20% of its value from the vote alone. I find it very silly to believe that everything will stay the same after it actually happens.

Not to dispute what you're saying, but the Euro to USD 10 year chart shows that the currency has fallen from 1.60 in 2008 to 1.18 today.

[10023]

Originally Posted by JManc

Houston dominates the global energy industry and is much bigger than Detroit and in far better economic shape...still not on Amsterdam's level. New York and London have a smaller economic outputs and a smaller populations than Tokyo but they are still regarded as the "higher" of the alpha cities.

Houston dominates the North American energy industry. It is one of several nodes globally (another being here in London).

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by JManc

Houston dominates the global energy industry and is much bigger than Detroit and in far better economic shape...still not on Amsterdam's level. New York and London have a smaller economic outputs and a smaller populations than Tokyo but they are still regarded as the "higher" of the alpha cities.

Houston, to me, is far above Amsterdam. Around 3x the size and wealth. More important for basically everything excepting tourism.

NYC has a larger economic output than Tokyo, BTW, and is significantly wealthier. London doesn't have a larger economic output, but has much higher per capita output than Tokyo.

And Tokyo is certainly on the same level as these cities. You're arguing something different; that Amsterdam is more important than much larger/wealthier cities.

[mhays]

Vancouver is a phenomenal city but calling it "important" is a huge stretch. It's a regional city that also serves as a second-home and offshored-money capital, seaport, movie/TV center, etc. I haven't seen metrics but I suspect it bats below its weight as a business center.

For Amsterdam I think people are putting too much credence on history and culture.

[ThePhun1]

Originally Posted by ue

This post is so utterly ridiculous I'm not even sure why I'm responding to it. I'd love to know what 50 cities you'd put ahead of Amsterdam. Really.

While I do agree cities such as Los Angeles and Seoul are a notch above Amsterdam, it certainly isn't basically Rotterdam in importance. That's like saying London is basically Birmingham or Chicago is basically Minneapolis. Amsterdam might not actually be in the Top 10, but it's certainly at least in the Top 20 cities of the world. It's similar to cities like Hong Kong, Las Vegas, Dubai, Vancouver, Rome, etc, which, while not sprawling behemoths of human activity, are very important cities. Amsterdam is probably above most of those cities, though. It's hard to compare it more to Mexico City or Sao Paolo, which are, while very important cities with cultural and economic significance, kinda overlooked despite that. I can more easily say that Amsterdam is less important than Los Angeles, more important than Las Vegas, but I'm not sure where CDMX or SP fit. Perhaps similar rank?

Top 10 cities are probably (perhaps not in this exact order)
1. New York
2. London
3. Paris
4. Tokyo
5. Los Angeles
6. Shanghai
7. Moscow
8. Beijing
9. Delhi
10. Seoul

Next rung probably include cities like Amsterdam, Berlin, Rome, Istanbul, Dubai, Tehran, Mumbai, Hong Kong, Taipei, Cairo, Jerusalem, Mexico City, Sao Paolo, Buenos Aires, San Francisco, Chicago, Washington

Third tier prob St Petersburg, Copenhagen, Barcelona, Athens, Brussels, Milan, Dublin, Johannesburg, Nairobi, Lagos, Riyadh, Tel Aviv, Kolkata, Guangzhou, Nanjing, Osaka, Sydney, Melbourne, Toronto, Montreal, Boston, Miami, Atlanta, Seattle, Houston, Havana, Lima, Bogota, Rio de Janeiro, Karachi, Singapore

Fourth tier... Cape Town, Tangier, Casablanca, Lisbon, Naples, Vienna, Prague, Warsaw, Stockholm, Oslo, Madrid, Kiev, Riga, Helsinki, Munich, Dallas, New Orleans, Philly, Las Vegas, Vancouver, Guadalajara, Panama City, Medellin, Alexandria, Beirut, Baghdad, Agra, Varanasi, Mecca, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Manila, Perth, Brisbane, Auckland, Santiago, Montevideo

New Orleans? Seriously? It's not even clearly a third-tier US city, how is it gonna be on this list? Seattle is also way too high. Las Vegas is a resort town that didn't exist over 100 years ago. Philly on the other hand should be one if not two tiers higher.

Houston and Dallas are inseparable twins at this point, no way is Houston on a tier above Dallas. They are both similar nationally and if anything, Dallas is more internationally famous.

[JManc]

Originally Posted by Crawford

Houston, to me, is far above Amsterdam. Around 3x the size and wealth. More important for basically everything excepting tourism.

NYC has a larger economic output than Tokyo, BTW, and is significantly wealthier. London doesn't have a larger economic output, but has much higher per capita output than Tokyo.

And Tokyo is certainly on the same level as these cities. You're arguing something different; that Amsterdam is more important than much larger/wealthier cities.

Houston is a regional city, Amsterdam is no New York or London but is far more global than we are...despite the smaller size. Apart from the energy sector and a lesser extent, medical research and treatment, our exposure is relatively limited.

I think Tokyo has a bigger GDP but New York has more people at the top...and the bottom. My experience with Tokyo (and Japan in general) was that it was less extravagant than New York but they also have no South Bronx or Bed-Stuy either.

[ThePhun1]

IDK

Houston has some reach these days, especially in the Caribbean and Latin America. The biggest thing Amsterdam has over us is that its been at it longer.

[maru2501]

Amsterdam's future not as tied to the combustion engine

[goat314]

Atlanta does not have to be on New York, Los Angeles, or Chicago's level to be considered a global city. According to GaWC, an organization that researches global cities, there are definitely levels to being a global city. Alpha (1st tier), Beta (2nd tier), and Gamma (3rd tier). There are even levels within these tiers. With that said, the United States has about 30 cities that considered global cities. So chances are if you live in the United States, you are not too far from a global city. Also, being global has nothing to do with population size or density, size of skyline, urbanism, etc. it has to do with global connectivity in terms of infrastructure, education, economy etc. If I posted the American global cities in their ranks, I'm sure there would be a lot of debate and surprises.