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

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.

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. :shrug:

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

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. :haha:

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 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. ;)

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

Hmmmmm....
 

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.

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.

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.

Nashville

Thats amazing results i found hear...
I never seen these before now..Its surprisingly for me..

I'd like to see Salt Lake become not physically larger, it's already very sprawling, but much denser in the core. The existing downtown is nice, but relatively small. The same goes for Albuquerque. I wouldn't mind seeing Boise, Madison or Spokane grow either. As a whole though, I would rather the population grow into depopulated, abandoned urban areas (the Detroit's of America- Detroit being a place I would like to see grow to prominence beyond the automotive industry) before much more expansion outward happens.

To the OP-I'm glad you like Pennsylvania, It is one of my favorite states as well(along with Colorado, Oregon, Massachusetts and Vermont-I like mountains:D(and the rockier tendency of New England's and the PNW shoreline)). It would be nice if Pittsburgh would play a larger national role again, it definitely has the potential and the added bonus of a stunning natural setting.

I want Dutchess County, New York, because we all know that New York was a great place to enjoy and many actors and actresses lived here.

i would love to see medford oregon grow in to a big city, around like a million. its about 200k metro. focus on health care and agriculture. Lots of new architecture and near many great outdoor activities.

I am not exactly sure what you are asking. I usually think the problem is larger cities or hubs of larger metropolitan areas being too small. In California for example San Jose's downtown is amazingly small for it's population. The same could be said for Sacramento. I am surprised just how large and urban some of small-to-medium sized cities/metro areas in North America look and feel.

You realize you just called Philadelphia a small town, when it's one of the biggest cities in the world...?

Anyway, Erie is a city with just over 100,000 population. I think it'd be nice if they got a bump in modern architecture.

I wouldn't mind seeing the Greenville-Spartanburg-Anderson (Upstate South Carolina) area become more prominent along the I-85 corridor between Atlanta and Charlotte. Greenville is making significant strides economically — especially downtown and in the city's main suburban areas. I would also like to see better interconnectivity between the Upstate of SC and Western NC. One great advantage to living in Greenville is having the mountains within sight and a short drive during the hot summer.

Boise is growing. We've got a lot initiatives to develop the urban core and the downtown is about to hit a boom. The Boise metro area is just over 600,000 and Boise itself is 205,000. Current projections have the Boise metro hitting 1million by 2040, if Boise still holds about a third of the metro's population then we could be sitting at about 340,000(about the size of Tampa currently). :banana:

I've never been to South Texas, but I'm curious about the cities there. Corpus Christi and Brownsville seem like a great locations, near the ocean with tropical warm winters. I can imagine one of those cities developing into the next Miami someday.

Danbury/Bethel, CT
 

I have recently requested multiple buildings in Danbury and Bethel, CT. I would love to have all of the taller buildings included in your data base!

Of course I'm going sound like a homer but I'd be lying if I said I didn't want Birmingham to be a major regional center (again).
I'd also like to see a revived Detroit and another major city in New England besides Boston. Maybe New Haven? Its MSA is roughly the same size as Birmingham's.
I'd also like to see a new major city emerge on the Gulf between Florida and New Orleans. Alabama coastal condo sale were up >14% last month so hopefully something like that will happen. Seems unlikely though.
I'd also like to see something in Kentucky emerge as a major regional city.

It's already sizable and one of the fastest-growing cities in the country. It gained like 20% in population from 2000-2010

Great thread, definitely stirs the imagination. :tup:

-In my perfect world, Boise would be roughly the same size as Austin, TX or Nashville, TN to properly fill that gap between Salt Lake and Seattle/Portland. I'd also like to see a lot of the towns dotted around Idaho, like McCall, Lewiston, Idaho Falls, Pocatello, Sun Valley, Salmon and Coeur D'Alene significantly larger than they currently are, ranging from, say, 50,000-300,000.

Here's some more I think would be cool:
-Portland, ME roughly the size of Portland, OR
-Rapid City, SD roughly the size of Des Moines, IA
-Billings and Bozeman, MT roughly the size of Boise and Reno

-I guess technically this is still the U.S. -- it'd be cool if there was another Honolulu-sized metropolis in the middle of the Pacific. I don't know where you'd put it.. maybe a fictional extension of Guam or in the American Samoa.

-This one's kind of weird, but I kind of wish Seattle, Tacoma, Olympia, Bellvue, and Vancouver (BC) were all merged into one city located either where Vancouver or Seattle currently is. Adding the populations together would make it a city roughly the size of Philadelphia... And just imagine what a combined Vancouver/Seattle skyline would look like. :slob:

While Nashville is considered a mid-major, I'd still like to see it grow to a true major. The city just lacks leaders and developers with a true vision on how to develop it. Nashville has so many underdeveloped areas or areas not being used properly that cause development issues. The entire east bank of the cumberland river for instance is poorly planned and a wasteland for salvage companies, cement factories, brick yards and warehouses that are not worth anything. Yet it is an area that should be treated as prime real estate. If developed properly as the Midtown and Gulch areas have developed, it would transform Nashville's inner core and make the city even more attractive.

Other cities I'd like to see grow... Chattanooga, Clarksville, TN (to a small major), Alexandria, VA, Springfield, VA (most overlooked area of the DC metropolitan area for development).

NYC Rick made a really good point about Salt Lake City, it has a large metro population but it is way to spread out. The trend is very slowly reversing and the nice, but medium sized downtown is starting to reach skyward a bit more all the time. The one benifit SLC has is that it has natural growth boundaries surrounding it (mountains, big ones) and as transportation costs, particulary gas continue to increase it will hopefully make people realize that slighlty more density isn't neccesarily a bad thing. One positive note on SLC proper is that in the 2011 population estimates show have it as the largest it has ever been, it has eclipesed its 1960 census number. The recent investment by Goldman Sacs in SLC, making SLC it's second largest US office after NY/NJ, has really helped to bring SLC up another notch. There is talk that many other investment banks may start making some moves to SLC, and us development and skyscraper geeks love when banks get in a pissing match and ego wars, because that often times means more and taller buildings. "Mine is bigger than yours"

Another forumer mentioned it and I agree 100%, I would love to see some of the rust belt cities make a come back. They are already built to accomodate twice the population they are today without creating new infrastructure, (updating would be needed) I lived in Cleveland for a few years for school, and had never visited it prior to moving there. It has such potential and such a rich past. It has facilities for the performing arts that most other cities across the country would love to have, and places like SLC are starting to build. Cleveland has such potential for future growth and repopulation, I do have to say approving a casino in downtown WILL NOT help Cleveland. I have never visited Detroit, but I would assume it has much of the same potential at Cleveland with repopulation and growth.

I to think Boise has some great potential and as was pointed out, would be a great link between SLC and the NW. Boise has a great vibe and a very engaging downtown. I hope as the city continues to grow that it can continue with that engagment, and grow larger without losing the charm that it has.

I would want to see Sandusky Ohio grow into a city of 50,000+. It already has a nice tourist industry with an amusement park, 6 water parks, and being the base for many travellers to the Lake Erie Islands. It's already a city of 25,000+, and the center of Erie and surrounding counties. The city has a lot of potential for growth.

I think this may have been mentioned before, but I've always had a fantasy of a bigger Savannah. It's a sizeable city with a large, popular historic core, and I would like to see it gain some non-tourist-related industries, maybe located in a sort of mini La Defense-style area adjacent to the historic district. That would be amazing!

Agreed. Atlanta can't just have all the glory.

But then it wouldn't be Savannah.

It could still be Savannah, I think. I don't want scrapers and new development in the core , per se, just maybe. . .near it--perhaps a second core a mile or five from the classic downtown. Basically all I really want is a real, diversified economy in the area, like a mini-Atlanta. If it had such a thing, I would move there.

Don't forget Rockford, IL too (and Janesville/Beloit, WI). Rockford is west/northwest of Chicago and almost due south of Madison. Rockford has over 150,000 people with a metro area around 350,000. I was born there, spent the first 5 years of my life there, and used to visit there a lot when I grew up in southern Illinois (I live in Tucson now, too far to drive, obviously) since my father lives in the metro area. Rockford's dull and boring though, so if it grew into a giant metro area there might actually be new entertainment opportunities.

St. Louis used to be one of the 5 biggest cities in the country with a population over 800,000. Now it has half that amount, and shrinking every year - though the metro population keeps increasing. The city really needs to figure out a way to keep people in the city, cause it's a great, fun city. BTW: Go Cardinals.

I would like to see Pittsburgh be a bigger City!

Woud absolutely love to see my city of Richmond Virginia grow more over the next few years. For a city with 1.2 million and close to 1.3 million people its doing pretty good for its self. But would really love to see it explode with more growth over the years. I think it has a ton of potential. A ton is going on in the city as far as projects go. Lots of rehabbing projects. We have a few midrises that are being converted to residential space. Recently completed was the John Marshall Hotel which was converted into high rise apartments and is now 88 percent leased.

SPRINGFIELD, MASS. - - - I've lived in Springfield, MA my entire life and even though I'm only 30, I've seen the city and metropolitan area drag along the bottom for years. The crime rate is very high, poverty is rampant, there is massive white flight, the area has not been able to adapt to the post-industrial economic way of life. Springfield, MA was once an amazing city. It is still called the city of homes. For generations home ownership was a given for everyone who lived here. We invented all of the small arms used to fight all of our wars, the Springfield Armory invented the M1903 Springfield and M1 Garand battle rifles among many other famous firearms. George Washington, Jonh Browning and John Garand all called Springfield home at sometime in their lifes and worked at the Armory. Indian motorcycle, among many other manufacturing pioneers called Springfield home. Smith & Wesson is still headquartered in the city. Into the mid 20th Century the city started to slip down the slope and has still not got on steady ground. Springfield is always on the list of most violent cities. The most recent statitics place us at #12. If that isnt bad enough, our sister city, a 30min trip South on I-91, Hartford, CT came in at #14. The entire area is in desperate need of an injection of life and hope. Gambling just became legal in Massachusetts and all the major gaming corporations are battling to build a casino in Springfield. MGM has plans for a massive casino right in the downtown area. I dont know if that will help or hurt, but atleast it is change with a chance of going either way. It means jobs and a needed cash infusion, but who really knows what will happen to the city because of it. Springfield, MA deserves a fighting chance. It is in a great geographical area, right on the Connecticut river. It is the crossroads of I-91 and I-90, has Amtrak connections leading right to downtown, shares an International airport with Hartford, CT (Bradley IAP), has 2 military bases right outside the city (Barnes ANGB and Westover JARB). The weather is decent, four beautiful seasons, not too much snow in the winter. The city has a population of around 160,000 and a metropolitan population of around 700,000.

memphis proper is at around 709,000. metro memphis has always experienced medium growth, until approximately the last year and a half. shelby county is now the only tn county to surpass the 1 million mark, and it has a significantly fast growing downtown and midtown, not to speak of east memphis, the east suburbs, and certainly the south metro, which contains one of the top 25 fastest growing counties in the u.s., as well as the fastest growing suburb in the u.s. another top 100 fastest growing county is located east of memphis, in fayette county, #74 2 years ago. memphis' contigious growth area alone has an estimated 1.18 million over two years ago. that is an area of about 32 miles. the number leaves all of w. memphis and marion, which are directly across the river, all of tipton county, even though atoka and munford are currently building a massive housing development, which will connect millington. the new interstate and the 2nd outer beltway are already producing huge changes in business growth, private community developments, and feeder roads. much is going on, and new industry and manfacturing, biotechnology companies, etc. are steadily building throughout the city and metro. current shelby county pop projections, as of july 1. '12. 1,034,633. the b M is doing well.

Fargo, ND.

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Isn't this a product of tax payers fleeing the city proper for better schools, less crime, etc?

I agree with Syracuse, as it has room to grow and there has been some construction in the area.