This was an idea that got me thinking from the recent NYC thread. I read an article last night discussing how New York was able to maintain its dominance of the most populous city since the colonial era. I’ll place a link later but essentially it came down to it being an excellent major port compared to its peers, an early diverse manufacturing base, and an atmosphere of tolerance, change, and reinventing itself. It was pretty much the only Northern city that survived and thrived in during the suburban craze in the late 20th century.
In the peak of American urbanism in the 1950s or so, most of the largest cities in the country were in the Northeast and Midwest. Fast forward to now, many of the top cities and metros are now in the West and South. Only New York, Chicago, and Philly are still up there but only NYC is bigger now than it was then.
There was an 80s article in the other thread that mentioned that LA was expected to exceed NY in population by 2000. What if that happened? Would things drastically change? Would that be seen as just icing on the cake for the success of the Sunbelt?
Yeah, city proper populations don’t matter as much as the metro size, but there is a pride that is associated with being “big” that we can’t necessarily deny in our dick measuring addicted society
But this thread can also consider the possibility of the LA metro also being more populous than the NYC tri-state area.