I agree that the argument doesn't hold water but for different reasons. Yes Phoenix has a very large population spread out over a large area, and I think that metro population is a better estimate of a citie's "size." However when you look at the other cities below Phoenix you tend to find more impressive skylines than Phoenix has. There are other cities with a very large (top 10) population that aren't in the top 25 for metro area (I think of San Antonio and San Jose). These cities also don't have very memorable skylines. I think what we have to keep in mind is that despite our relatively large population, even on the metro scale, it has happened very quickly. We were barely a top 25 in 1990 (2,238,480), we added about 1 million in the 90's and will add more than that this decade. Part of it is we have some catching up to do. At lease we are adding buildings to the skyline and an effort to reinvent downtown. But high rise buildings don't pop up as quickly as people are moving to the valley. Hopefully the downturn in the market will create more favorable conditions in the housing sector.
14 Riverside–San Bernardino–Ontario CA 4,026,135
15 Seattle–Tacoma–Bellevue WA 3,263,497
16 Minneapolis–St. Paul–Bloomington MN–WI 3,175,041
17 San Diego–Carlsbad–San Marcos[1 CA 2,941,454
18 St. Louis MO–IL 2,796,368
19 Tampa–St. Petersburg–Clearwater FL 2,697,731
20 Baltimore–Towson MD 2,658,405
21 Denver–Aurora CO 2,408,750
22 Pittsburgh PA–WV 2,370,776
23 Portland–Vancouver–Beaverton OR–WA 2,137,565
24 Cleveland–Elyria–Mentor OH 2,114,155
25 Cincinnati–Middletown OH 2,104,218
Quote:
Originally Posted by kevininlb
You know, Don, I understand your point. But this whole argument -- often cited when Phoenix's population comes up -- really doesn't hold much weight. Look at the top 10 cities and Phoenix's geographic size isn't exactly grossly out of whack (L.A., for example). These are 2000 census figures, so slighty outdated, but still... Anyway, what's the real measure...metro? Okay...anyone have square miles per metro? I suspect the Philly metro is bigger than Phoenix in square miles but not sure.
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