The Largest Cities in The South (southeast)

[professor]

Originally Posted by Tourian

I don't bother with scientific reasons to rank cities - so overall population, industry rankings, college enrollments, sports teams, Fortune 500 lists, etc don't matter to me.

Here is how I determine if a city is big time or not:

1. How often is the city mentioned in movies, tv, rap videos or house DJ shout outs?

2. How often are that city's residents' picked to participate in a reality TV show?
a. If the contestant is later found to live in a very distant town that is barely considered a suburb, it COULD gain extra points because that person would rather be associated with it then their home town. But only if they aren't a tool.
b. If the contestant is compelled to name the STATE right after saying the city name for fear of people not knowing where they are talking about it LOSES points. No one says "Georgia" or "Florida" any more after saying Atlanta or Miami.

3. If while watching a nationwide weather report like on the The Weather Channel or the TODAY show, the city is actually shown on the big national map.
a. A few points can be awarded if the city shows up after a regional zoom in.
b. Several points deducted if it doesn't show up after a state zoom in.

4. If a natural disaster occurs in, or fatal shooting of a dozen or so people, or a tremendous accident happens and national news crews are sent in - do the networks send their A reporters, or do they only mention it in passing using some junior grade flunky to report on it?

BONUS: If the city has a cool nickname that people outside of that state actually recognize. Compare and contrast: "The Big Easy" to "The Salty 'Ham" or "The Magic City."

Using that scale we can precisely deduce that:

1(tie). Atlanta
Miami
3. New Orleans
4(tie). Nashville
Orlando
6. Charlotte
7. Memphis
8. Tampa
9. Birmingham


Here is a list of also rans, including a few that many would say are bigger, better and brighter then my home of Birmingham but because of my air-tight ranking system have no juice:

1. Raleigh
B. Greensboro
#. Louisville
pi. Jacksonville
?. Jackson, MS
>. Little Rock, AR
". And that city I forgot that someone will come along and say, "HOW COULD YOU FORGET X??!!!111"

So "rap videos" is a factor in determining what makes a big city?