What Smaller U.S Cities Would You Like To See As Bigger Centers

[Razor]

I ust want to start of by saying that My wife and I live fairly close to the border (Ottawa, Ontario), and we love going stateside for these little four or five day extended weekends...Fell in love with Philly, and Pennsylvania as a whole..The finger lakes region in upstate New york was real scenic.Been to NYC, and next year is Boston...Love your lil towns and cities.

Anyways, I started this thread in the Canadian section with some interesting thoughts..Basically, using your imagination what U.S cities would you like to see grow into large centers?..I can picture Tacoma being like a Portland or Seattle, but I've never been there...How about your Duluth's or Savannah's? Would they make fitting large cities?

Just for fun.

[kcexpress69]

As a person who grew up in Missouri, I have gotten to know cities around the Midwest pretty well. I went to school in Springfield MO. It's a city of about 160k that has had modest growth but unlikely to hit 200k anytime soon, especially with the rapid growth in the suburbs to the south. That said, Springfield has become quite the regional center. I would love to see it expand to 250-300k. I would prefer they do more in the central business district.

Columbia Missouri finally surpassed 100k in the latest census. They have alot going on there, but it's mainly a college town with the University of Missouri being the main employer. One thing I could never figure out about that place, is the fact that it's only about 10 miles from the Missouri River. Why on earth did it not become a river city is beyond me. However, Jefferson City, a city of 41k, is right on the river and it's about 25 miles south of Columbia.

Other cities I would like to see become major centers, or maybe larger than just regional centers would be, St. Joseph MO., The Quad Cities, Sioux Falls, SD, Topeka KS, Cedar Rapids IA, Boise ID, and Billings MT.

Speaking of St. Joseph, it's been said that early on, if St. Joe had gotten the railroad over Kansas City, that it might have been the regional center instead of Kansas City.

[Buzter123]

I couldn't read this thread and not put a plug in for Fargo.

Metro pop at +200k (and growing fast), home to the 3rd largest Microsoft office campus in the world, growing high-tech research area ("Silicon Prairie"), major financial, insurance and health care employers, miles of sandy waterfront in the spring.

[chikid]

Originally Posted by Buzter123

I couldn't read this thread and not put a plug in for Fargo.

Metro pop at +200k (and growing fast), home to the 3rd largest Microsoft office campus in the world, growing high-tech research area ("Silicon Prairie"), major financial, insurance and health care employers, miles of sandy waterfront in the spring.

I would love Madison, WI to grow much bigger. I would acutally love it if Milwaukee grew much bigger too! I think it would be cool to have something like the BoshWash corridor with Madison, Milwaukee and Chicago.

[Urbanguy]

I'd like to see these cities become much larger: Honolulu (being biased here) not much room to grow outward but upward like Hong Kong or Singapore would be cool & others like Omaha, ABQ, Spokane, Salt Lake, Portland (Maine), Montpelier, Fargo, Manchester, Des Moines, Boise, Eugene, Salem (Oregon), Vancouver (WA), Columbia, Madison, Birmingham, Louisville, Buffalo, Rochester, Albany & Grand Rapids.

[eternallyme]

Originally Posted by chikid

I would love Madison, WI to grow much bigger. I would acutally love it if Milwaukee grew much bigger too! I think it would be cool to have something like the BoshWash corridor with Madison, Milwaukee and Chicago.

I'd love to see the Appalachian cities develop into majors and the gap filled between the Great Lakes region and the Northeast Corridor. That would require growth in cities like Scranton, Harrisburg, Albany, Syracuse, Altoona and State College to fill the gap. What is the eastern extent of that region? At what point does the line draw? Also to re-emerge the region as a whole, make it a megalopolis from the Mississippi Valley to the Atlantic and south to Florida, basically the entire eastern North America.

[Centropolis]

I'm going to sound like a huge homer, but I'd like to see another million in St. Louis, Detroit, Cleveland, and whatever other cities are already primed for heavy duty growth on a street grid, with existing infrastructure and some even rail transit and ample water supplies...just waiting.

Of course there is a huge constellation of decent sized, solid small cities in Illinois, Michigan, and Ohio that could use some more people.

[jd3189]

West Palm Beach,Florida. Needs to carry on more weight to be a vital part of the South Florida Metro area(Miami's metro).

[emathias]

A lot of the Erie Canal towns would be cooler if they had more people. They often have very interesting old centers created from the canal wealth, but without the canal there's not so much. Places like Syracuse, NY, for example.

[LMich]

Kind of random, and out-of-the way, but my first thought (and it's really local) was Traverse City, Michigan. Only about 15,000 in population, it serves a HUGE geographic area, and feels much bigger. I'd like to see the resident population mirror its regional importance and its high quality of life. In fact, I'd like to see it and Marquette in the UP become larger cities for their particular regions (Northern Michigan and the UP, respectively). Realistically, each could be about 30,000.

Currently, Great Lakes Central Railroad has a vision for round-trip passenger service from Ann Arbor to Traverse City. Anything that helps develop the northern ends of the state is a good thing, these days, and tying them in, transportation-wise, will only help build the connection.

[hudkina]

I would like to see cities that were boomtowns in the 19th century that sort of busted by the 20th century.

One example is Wheeling, West Virginia. Back in the mid 19th century it was basically a Top 50 city, and one of the largest cities west of the Appalachians. Despite having a population of only about 30,000 today, it has a massive collection of early and late 19th century architecure. It also has a huge downtown for a city of its current status. The only problem is that Wheeling doesn't have anywhere to expand.

Another example is the city of Calumet, Michigan. Today the city has a population of just 798! However, the downtown is comparable to cities in the 10,000 to 50,000 range. The city peaked with well over 5,000 people in the early 1900's (the larger Calumet Township had nearly 30,000 at its peak). The region declined in the early 1900's when the copper mining industry went under and many of the residents moved down to Detroit to work in the auto factories. The Houghton-Hancock area (~15,000 people) to the south is now the dominant economic center in the area, but the size of downtown Calumet rivals any other downtown in Michigan's UP. I would love to see a city population to match the downtown. (10,000+)

Another example is Madison, Indiana It was one of the earliest major cities of Indiana and reached a population of well over 10,000 by the time of the Civil War. Cincinnati and Louisville basically sucked all the growth out of Madison. It would have been nice to see a third major metropolitan area along that stretch of the Ohio River.

[brickell]

I kind of prefer them as the small and medium size towns they are, but the SW Florida coast will soon be a mini version of South Florida. Some nice town centers in the middle of a long line of coastal sprawl.

If you combine Naples and Cape Coral/Ft. Myers metro's you get just under a million.
The Sarasota/Bradenton/North Port CSA is at 862,259.

Together it's 1.8Million between Bradenton and Naples (about the same distance as Jupiter to Homestead on the east coast). That's a lot of old people. But families are thriving and real jobs are becoming more common.

[hudkina]

If you include Naples to Bradenton, then you can certainly continue up into Tampa and St. Petersburg, then over to Lakeland and up through Orlando, Deltona, Daytona Beach, St. Augustine, and finally Jacksonville. The whole peninsula is essentially one giant conurbation.

[brickell]

You're not far off. I traveled a good part of the state last week and it just seems to never stop. Including Bradenton is a stretch, but I do think SW Florida will develop more and more of an identity as it ages.

[1Boston]

Id like to see New England cities start to get bigger. Cities like Worcester MA, Boston MA, Providence RI, Manchester NH. Boston is a great city with tons of great schools, but the skyline is lacking and the population(not metro) is tiny compared to major US cities. And some city in ND, seeing as its a boomtown over there, so somethings gonna pop up sooner or later, and itd just be nice to have some interesting city in that area.

[BrandonJXN]

I want to see Riverside, California become THE city of the Inland Empire.

[hudkina]

Boston is about as "major" as a city can get. Though the municipal population may be relatively small, that is only because it has relatively small municipal boundaries. If you add just the cities and towns that border Boston the population grows to nearly 1.3 million people.

[NYC Rick]

Salt lake City, Birmingham, Louisville and a few others not on this list totally lead the category. I mean SLC alone is in a 35 mile long and 12 mile wide area with over 2 million people in 3 not so large counties.

SLC is making major inroads while the area is really growing.

Originally Posted by Urbanguy

I'd like to see these cities become much larger: Honolulu (being biased here) not much room to grow outward but upward like Hong Kong or Singapore would be cool & others like Omaha, ABQ, Spokane, Salt Lake, Portland (Maine), Montpelier, Fargo, Manchester, Des Moines, Boise, Eugene, Salem (Oregon), Vancouver (WA), Columbia, Madison, Birmingham, Louisville, Buffalo, Rochester, Albany & Grand Rapids.

[Stained]

It has not yet been mentioned that I saw, so I will throw out Chattanooga. The city has completely reinvented itself over the last 40 years. It has risen from the most polluted cities in the US to a center of green ideas, technology, and small business progress. It has recently obtained new industries and is currently undergoing an overall revival. If you do no know much about the city, I suggest you check it out. I would love to see it as a larger center for business and technology, especially with its prime location between Nashville and Atlanta.

[Razor]

Interesting results..Surprisingly, Even though I'm from Canada I heard of every city mentioned so far..They kinda fly just over the radar.Obviously we have have a lot less cities up here, but we do have a few that would make fantastic larger cities..The Halifaxes, and the London Ontario's of the world.Both just around the 400,000 mark..Maybe a little more for Halifax.