U.S. cities with bloated city proper populations due to annexation

[jayden]

For example, Houston is more than double the land area of NYC, three times the land area of Chicago. Same with Phoenix OKC, Jacksonville, and Nashville to name a few.

These cities are among the Top 20 largest cities in terms of populations outranking other major cities like Atlanta which only has a third of the land area within the city limits, yet receive flack from not having high populations within the city limits.

What other cities come to mind?

[The North One]

Memphis is a very extreme example. It's city proper is basically it's entire metro area.

[BnaBreaker]

Originally Posted by The North One

Memphis is a very extreme example. It's city proper is basically it's entire metro area.

Memphis is hardly the worst offender though. At 315 square miles it's definitely amongst the larger cities in terms of square mileage but more or less on par with places like Kansas City, Austin, Charlotte, and San Diego. It is true that Memphis has done it's fair share of annexation over the years. In 1970 the city was 'just' 217 square miles compared to it's 315 today, for example. However, the city also already had 623,000 residents by 1970, so it's not like it's further annexation over the past five decades makes up a very significant part of it's current overall population.

Also, the main reason the city proper accounts for so much of the metro's population is because there is really nothing of significance in the metro outside of Memphis. There is Memphis, it's few suburbs, and then basically a bunch of agricultural land.

[bnk]

I posted this before but Anchorage Alaska is huge in size but it matters little in any gain in population though.




I know most of Anchorage Alaska is mostly not urban but that is probably the largest footprint of city limits in the USA that I know of on a per capita basis.


1,944.05 sq mi


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anchorage,_Alaska


it is Alaska's most populous city and contains 39.37% of the state's population; among the 50 states, only New York has a higher percentage of residents who live in its most populous city. The Anchorage metropolitan area, which includes Anchorage and the neighboring Matanuska-Susitna Borough, had a population of 396,317 in 2019, accounting for more than half the state's population. At 1,706 square miles (4,420 km2) of land area, the city is the fourth-largest by area in the United States and larger than the smallest state, Rhode Island, which has 1,212 square miles (3,140 km2)

The city limits span 1,961.1 square miles (5,079.2 km2),

[KB0679]

Originally Posted by The North One

Memphis is a very extreme example. It's city proper is basically it's entire metro area.

El Paso is a better example of that.

City: 681,728
MSA: 845,553

But it could be argued that El Paso is truly a bi-national metro area of 2M+.

[Northern Light]

I can't speak to which cities are large strictly due to annexation; or whether that is particularly excessive; but I can link to a list of U.S. cities by area:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...cities_by_area

The largest are in Alaska, then Jacksonville, then 2 in Montana.

Thereafter, in addition to those cities named above, you would find San Antonio, Dallas, Fort Worth, Los Angeles, San Diego and Indianapolis among those larger than NYC in land area.

[TowerSpotter]

Originally Posted by Northern Light

I can't speak to which cities are large strictly due to annexation; or whether that is particularly excessive; but I can link to a list of U.S. cities by area:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...cities_by_area

The largest are in Alaska, then Jacksonville, then 2 in Montana.

Thereafter, in addition to those cities named above, you would find San Antonio, Dallas, Fort Worth, Los Angeles, San Diego and Indianapolis among those larger than NYC in land area.

Wow saw the Wikipedia size for Houston listed at 599 sq miles, which is what I always claimed it to be. A quick google search says it is at 669 sq miles also listed on the city website. Did Houston annex any more land recently that anyone knows of? If so where?

I live in the Montgomery county which is north of Houston and as far as I knew, New Caney was its own city. I noticed that the new housing development Tavola had City of Houston sewer tops. Kind of interesting. Also wondering if Houston could expand into another county.

[JManc]

Originally Posted by TowerSpotter

Wow saw the Wikipedia size for Houston listed at 599 sq miles, which is what I always claimed it to be. A quick google search says it is at 669 sq miles also listed on the city website. Did Houston annex any more land recently that anyone knows of? If so where?

I live in the Montgomery county which is north of Houston and as far as I knew, New Caney was its own city. I noticed that the new housing development Tavola had City of Houston sewer tops. Kind of interesting. Also wondering if Houston could expand into another county.

Houston extends as far north as Kingwood (where I live) and that was the last annexed area back in 1996.

[ThePhun1]

Originally Posted by TowerSpotter

Wow saw the Wikipedia size for Houston listed at 599 sq miles, which is what I always claimed it to be. A quick google search says it is at 669 sq miles also listed on the city website. Did Houston annex any more land recently that anyone knows of? If so where?

I live in the Montgomery county which is north of Houston and as far as I knew, New Caney was its own city. I noticed that the new housing development Tavola had City of Houston sewer tops. Kind of interesting. Also wondering if Houston could expand into another county.

Houston can expand into and already is in other counties and exercises jurisdiction over far outlying areas. Houston's utility district is present at Baybrook Mall for example.

[Northern Light]

I overwhelmingly tend to perceive under-annexation as more of a problem in the U.S.

I think of Detroit, Buffalo, Atlanta and Miami as cities that are obviously under-sized relative to their urban area.

[Yuri]

Originally Posted by Northern Light

I overwhelmingly tend to perceive under-annexation as more of a problem in the U.S.

I think of Detroit, Buffalo, Atlanta and Miami as cities that are obviously under-sized relative to their urban area.

Exactly. No US city is really "bloated". There are only few examples of normal size while the vast majority could do much better with annexations.

In fact, I believe the US should eliminate this tier of administration and consolidate counties and cities.

[Stay Stoked Brah]

Originally Posted by yuriandrade

Exactly. No US city is really "bloated". There are only few examples of normal size while the vast majority could do much better with annexations.

In fact, I believe the US should eliminate this tier of administration and consolidate counties and cities.

I think the opposite is true in America. most people don't want to be a part of the anchor city because they receive lower quality city services and they pay their taxes to a city government that is headquartered 15 miles away, feel neglected by the services they receive and the politicians that represent them.

[pj3000]

Originally Posted by Stay Stoked Brah

I think the opposite is true in America. most people don't want to be a part of the anchor city because they receive lower quality city services and they pay their taxes to a city government that is headquartered 15 miles away, feel neglected by the services they receive and the politicians that represent them.

Then those people should pay true market rates for the services they receive, rather than being directly and indirectly subsidized by the people who do reside within the anchor city.

[Stay Stoked Brah]

Originally Posted by pj3000

Then those people should pay true market rates for the services they receive, rather than being directly and indirectly subsidized by the people who do reside within the anchor city.

what do you mean?

communities independent from the anchor city tax themselves and service themselves. they have their own police and fire protection, their own school districts, their own budgets and bond measures, better representation in the mayor/city council form of government. people in these smaller communities do pay for many urban amenities through regional bond measures.

it's easier to have your concerns heard in a smaller community than it is in a city of 1-8 million.

[Buckeye Native 001]

Columbus, OH

[bnk]

Indianapolis takes up its entire county. Marion County. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marion_County,_Indiana

If Chicago did the same with Cook county it would bloat over 5 million people.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cook_County,_Illinois

[bilbao58]

Originally Posted by bnk

Indianapolis takes up its entire county. Marion County. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marion_County,_Indiana

If Chicago did the same with Cook county it would bloat over 5 million people.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cook_County,_Illinois

Yep. Same with Houston. It would double its population to 4.7 million.

[ThePhun1]

Originally Posted by bilbao58

Yep. Same with Houston. It would double its population to 4.7 million.

Houston has an Extra-territorial jurisdiction (ETJ) that spreads into different counties that's almost if not bigger than Harris County. It's population is over 4 million.

San Antonio is still actively annexing large swaths of land to add population, which separates it from places like Houston.

[ChiSoxRox]

A good way to attempt to quantify this would be the cities that have the largest percentage of their urban areas in their city limits. Here's the leading metros over 1,000,000 by percentage in the city center (using MSAs which are bloated but easier to find the 2019 numbers for):

San Antonio - 60.7%
Jacksonville - 58.4%
(Fresno - 53.2%) - 999k in 2019 estimates
Tucson - 52.3%
San Jose - 51.3% (Yes, I know San Jose MSA is silly)
Louisville - 48.8%
Memphis - 48.4%
Oklahoma City - 46.5%
Austin - 44.0%
New York City - 43.4% (the lingering effects of 1898)
San Diego - 42.7%
Columbus - 42.3%
Indianapolis - 42.2%

Two sub-million examples
El Paso - 80.6%
Anchorage - 72.7%

[bilbao58]

Originally Posted by ChiSoxRox

A good way to attempt to quantify this would be the cities that have the largest percentage of their urban areas in their city limits. Here's the leading metros over 1,000,000 by percentage in the city center (using MSAs which are bloated but easier to find the 2019 numbers for):

San Antonio - 60.7%

Not surprised at all. I live in SA and it’s MUCH worse than Houston in this respect.