Thread: Second cities
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Old Posted Apr 5, 2019, 4:02 PM
COS COS is offline
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Join Date: Aug 2016
Location: Colorado Springs
Posts: 68
Quote:
Originally Posted by xzmattzx View Post
Anyone ever take interest in the second cities of countries, states, provinces, or other subdivisions? Second cities are the second-biggest/secondmost important city in a certain place. Most people visit the primary city in a country or place when traveling: Paris in France, Reykjavik in Iceland, Lisbon in Portugal, St. John's in Newfoundland & Labrador in Canada, Denver in Colorado, and so on.

Ever travel to any second city? Ever visit a second city before the primary city? Do you think that the second city is a better slice of the country's/state's/province's people and culture, since most visitors go to the primary city? Do you like the second city more or less than the primary city?

Here's some examples of second cities:

Bahamas: Freeport
Iceland: Akureyri
Portugal: Porto
Greece: Thessaloniki
Colorado: Colorado Springs
Arizona: Tucson
Nevada: Reno
Newfoundland & Labrador: Corner Brook
Prince Edward Island: Sunnyside
I have a mixed opinion on the Colorado Springs reference. I can understand how an outside perspective, or just a Denver perspective, might produce the opinion that the Springs is a second city due to how different the economic drivers and political climate are. However, after living in both Denver and the Springs, I am of the opinion that the Springs is Denver's biggest suburb and not anywhere close to being able to stand alone as it's own city.

The Springs has basically no suburb network of it's own, the largest being Fountain at roughly 35k people. Outside of the DoD and the private sector companies like NG/Boeing/GD it supports, there's no other significant independent economic drivers compared to other peer cities. Even though the Springs has significant tourism, Denver still is the main tourism center in Colorado and provides tourism transfers down to the Springs. A large portion of the Springs population growth in the past 10 years has been driven by commuters to jobs in Denver's traditional south suburbs in work centers like the Tech Center and Greenwood Village.

I think the main factor preventing the Springs from being viewed as any other Denver suburb is the geographical Palmer Divide. Douglas County's aggressive development of Castle Rock and keeping ranch open space in the 15-mile stretch between Castle Rock and Monument has helped prevent a seamless sprawl connecting the south suburbs to the Springs. As the public transportation options become more effective in the next 10 years, I would bet the demographics of commuters will become undeniably linked to the point that the Springs MSA will officially fall within the Denver CSA. I have the same opinion on Ft Collins MSA.
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