Quote:
Originally Posted by ITB495
By many standards, Atlanta isn't a world-class city, despite hosting the Olympics in 1996 and being the location of one of the world's principal airport hubs. Neither are most similarly sized U.S. cities, such as Portland, Minneapolis, Kansas City, Milwaukee, Baltimore or Indianapolis. It could be argued there are only four world-class cities in the United States: NYC, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Washington, DC (because it's the center of government). Others that may or may not be deemed worthy include San Francisco, Houston, Boston and Seattle. What do all these cities have in common? With the exception of LA and Houston, all have good population densities. And LA and Houston, despite their low density, possess very significant populations. Atlanta has neither the population nor the density.
One measure today of a world city is a population greater than one million. There's other factors, of course, but the million number is a good yardstick. San Francisco and Seattle are on track to cross the threshold by 2030 or 2040. Boston, Washington, DC, and Portland are steadily growing as well, but it will take a concerted push if any of the three is to reach a million by 2060. Atlanta first needs to cross 500,000.
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Population size or density don't determine whether a city is "world class". What does is whether it is known throughout the world and sought as a destination by foreigners.
These are the top US cities for foreign tourism (I tried to find a list that excluded places visited only for nearby theme parks not actually in the city or because they have giant hub airports through which visitors pass and don't stay but Orlando, Anaheim and the Grand Canyon are on this list anyway).
https://skift.com/2014/06/18/20-most-popular-u-s-cities-among-international-travelers-in-2013/
I could make a case from crossing Orange County and Orlando off the list because people go to those places to visit the Disney parks and in Orlando's case the park is well outside the city while most tourists visiting CA Disney don't even know what you mean if you say "Anaheim".
But I do think, regardless of density, Las Vegas, Honolulu and Miami (as well as San Francisco) are "world class cities". Another way to know is by the number of foreigners buying property there.
Have the Chinese and other foreign buyers found Atlanta and Houston yet? I don't know but IMHO you'll know they have become "world class" when that happens.
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