Towns that look bigger than others (downtownwise) but have a smaller population

[TheStranger]

A California example:

Sacramento has a much more robust downtown than Fresno, even though Fresno's city proper has more people than Sacramento's (525K vs. 500K in recent estimates).  (Sacramento also has I-5 and I-80, while I-5 was rerouted away from following today's 99 through Fresno between 1957-1958 in favor of the West Side Freeway routing)

- Sacramento's importance as the state capital and as one of California's first major cities in the 1850s are massive factors here.  Fresno's major period of growth has been after 1970.  (Fresno has never been seriously considered for major pro sports, while the Sacramento Kings have been in town since 1985 - albeit with a period 2009-2013 where their future in the city was questionable)
- Sacramento also is surrounded by many unincorporated suburbs that have resisted annexation from Sac itself (Arden-Arcade in particular) that still use Sacramento mailing addresses confusingly enough.  This makes the entire concept of the city seem far larger than the official city proper numbers

---

In the Bay Area, San Jose has a modest downtown while Oakland has a few taller buildings, even though Oakland now has a population of just 425K while San Jose has 1.028 million.

- San Jose's downtown is height-restricted due to the airport being close by, and much of SJ's growth has been through sprawl.  Oakland is entirely surrounded by older locales such as Berkeley
- Oakland was a much more important industrial center in the 1940s-1960s period, which led to them getting teams in all four major pro sports at one point (of which the A's are now the last one remaining).
- The Silicon Valley's massive growth is primarily 1980s-present, and some of the major companies out there are in San Jose suburbs instead of the core city (i.e. Apple in Cupertino)
- BART was primarily designed with Oakland as its core area, while San Jose only received its first BART station during the pandemic (after at least 30+ years of planning).

[TheHighwayMan3561]

Probably almost every major mining town that still has a population.  Example; downtown Sonora, CA gives the impression it is far larger than a city of 5,000 residents.

Calumet, MI gave me that same feeling.

[Max Rockatansky]

Probably almost every major mining town that still has a population.  Example; downtown Sonora, CA gives the impression it is far larger than a city of 5,000 residents.

Calumet, MI gave me that same feeling.

Laurium, Lake Linden, Hubbel and Dollar Bay too in the immediate area.

[MATraveler128]

The city of Cambridge, MA has a very impressive skyline for a city its size. Given that it’s home to MIT and Harvard, two Ivy League Schools, the buildings of MIT make the skyline almost as big as Boston’s. The city has also built new apartments, making it feel even larger that that. Even with all that and a gigantic downtown area, it still only has 118K people.

[golden eagle]

Huntsville, AL has an unimpressive downtown for a city its size. But then again, annexation has played a role in its population.

and its now the largest city in Alabama...

Yep. It was only a matter time since other larger Alabama cities were dropping or barely rising.

[Rothman]

The city of Cambridge, MA has a very impressive skyline for a city its size. Given that it's home to MIT and Harvard, two Ivy League Schools, the buildings of MIT make the skyline almost as big as Boston's. The city has also built new apartments, making it feel even larger that that. Even with all that and a gigantic downtown area, it still only has 118K people.

I don't know.  Cambridge's skyline is on par with Syracuse, NY's, which is roughly a similarly sized city.  Harvard and MIT have little to do with the taller buildings that make up Cambridge's skyline.

[tolbs17]

Evidence of Wilson's downtown looking bigger than Greenville until they were destroyed to make room for low-rise mixed use development. I wish I could have fixed up those buildings instead of them imploding them. They were perfect for the skyline!!!

https://www.wral.com/former-bb-t-offices-in-wilson-imploded/19436176/

Little Rock's downtown is huge even though their population is just 200,000.

[kkt]

The city of Cambridge, MA has a very impressive skyline for a city its size. Given that it's home to MIT and Harvard, two Ivy League Schools, the buildings of MIT make the skyline almost as big as Boston's. The city has also built new apartments, making it feel even larger that that. Even with all that and a gigantic downtown area, it still only has 118K people.

MIT isn't in the Ivy League.

[bing101]

A California example:

Sacramento has a much more robust downtown than Fresno, even though Fresno's city proper has more people than Sacramento's (525K vs. 500K in recent estimates).  (Sacramento also has I-5 and I-80, while I-5 was rerouted away from following today's 99 through Fresno between 1957-1958 in favor of the West Side Freeway routing)

- Sacramento's importance as the state capital and as one of California's first major cities in the 1850s are massive factors here.  Fresno's major period of growth has been after 1970.  (Fresno has never been seriously considered for major pro sports, while the Sacramento Kings have been in town since 1985 - albeit with a period 2009-2013 where their future in the city was questionable)
- Sacramento also is surrounded by many unincorporated suburbs that have resisted annexation from Sac itself (Arden-Arcade in particular) that still use Sacramento mailing addresses confusingly enough.  This makes the entire concept of the city seem far larger than the official city proper numbers

---

In the Bay Area, San Jose has a modest downtown while Oakland has a few taller buildings, even though Oakland now has a population of just 425K while San Jose has 1.028 million.

- San Jose's downtown is height-restricted due to the airport being close by, and much of SJ's growth has been through sprawl.  Oakland is entirely surrounded by older locales such as Berkeley
- Oakland was a much more important industrial center in the 1940s-1960s period, which led to them getting teams in all four major pro sports at one point (of which the A's are now the last one remaining).
- The Silicon Valley's massive growth is primarily 1980s-present, and some of the major companies out there are in San Jose suburbs instead of the core city (i.e. Apple in Cupertino)
- BART was primarily designed with Oakland as its core area, while San Jose only received its first BART station during the pandemic (after at least 30+ years of planning).

San Francisco is also on this list its official population is at 874k in the 2020 census but the city implies that its the center of the Bay Area given the tall buildings in the Financial District and SOMA.  However as mentioned in this thread San Jose is officially the largest city in Northern California.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco

In the case of Sacramento its suburban sprawl goes all the way to Solano County like Vacaville and Dixon given that parts of Solano County is inside the Sacramento Valley and the other half of Solano County where Benicia and Vallejo are are listed as being in the Bay Area.

[bing101]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Makati


Here is a Philippines Example. Makati City has a population of 625K but its downtown area seems to imply that Makati City is the biggest city in the Philippines due to where major financial services have their main offices located.


However Manila City Proper has a population of 1.8 Million People and the official largest city in the Philippines Quezon City has a population of 2.9 Million as of 2022. 


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quezon_City


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manila

[index]

Surprised nobody's mentioned Yellowknife yet. Very large skyline for a town of its remoteness and size.

[Ted$8roadFan]

When I was in high school, I traveled through Brattleboro, Vt. and thought its downtown reminded me of Boston. Relative to Vermont, it is a big city although it is tiny compared to Boston.

[bing101]

Surprised nobody's mentioned Yellowknife yet. Very large skyline for a town of its remoteness and size.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellowknife


Dang Yellowknifes downtown looks like it was meant for a city like Fresno if you look at the skyline.

[bing101]

A California example:

Sacramento has a much more robust downtown than Fresno, even though Fresno's city proper has more people than Sacramento's (525K vs. 500K in recent estimates).  (Sacramento also has I-5 and I-80, while I-5 was rerouted away from following today's 99 through Fresno between 1957-1958 in favor of the West Side Freeway routing)

- Sacramento's importance as the state capital and as one of California's first major cities in the 1850s are massive factors here.  Fresno's major period of growth has been after 1970.  (Fresno has never been seriously considered for major pro sports, while the Sacramento Kings have been in town since 1985 - albeit with a period 2009-2013 where their future in the city was questionable)
- Sacramento also is surrounded by many unincorporated suburbs that have resisted annexation from Sac itself (Arden-Arcade in particular) that still use Sacramento mailing addresses confusingly enough.  This makes the entire concept of the city seem far larger than the official city proper numbers

---

In the Bay Area, San Jose has a modest downtown while Oakland has a few taller buildings, even though Oakland now has a population of just 425K while San Jose has 1.028 million.

- San Jose's downtown is height-restricted due to the airport being close by, and much of SJ's growth has been through sprawl.  Oakland is entirely surrounded by older locales such as Berkeley
- Oakland was a much more important industrial center in the 1940s-1960s period, which led to them getting teams in all four major pro sports at one point (of which the A's are now the last one remaining).
- The Silicon Valley's massive growth is primarily 1980s-present, and some of the major companies out there are in San Jose suburbs instead of the core city (i.e. Apple in Cupertino)
- BART was primarily designed with Oakland as its core area, while San Jose only received its first BART station during the pandemic (after at least 30+ years of planning).

https://repository.uchastings.edu/ca_ballot_props/793/
There was a point where Sacramento County and Sacramento City wanted to have a city county consolidation but that didn't work out in that case.

[Dirt Roads]

How about Tysons Corner, Virginia (pop 26,374).  They compare to other cities and towns in Virginia: Winchester (28,120), Fredericksburg (27,982), Staunton (25,750), Salem (25,346), Herndon (24,655), Fairfax (24,146), Christiansburg (23,348) and Hopewell (23,033).  Although both Herndon and Fairfax have decent skylines for their size, Tysons is the quintessential example of an edge city with almost no population. 

[thspfc]

Huntsville, AL has an unimpressive downtown for a city its size. But then again, annexation has played a role in its population.

and its now the largest city in Alabama...

That seems impossible, I've always thought of Huntsville as like the 4th largest city in AL. Wow

[index]

Huntsville, AL has an unimpressive downtown for a city its size. But then again, annexation has played a role in its population.

and its now the largest city in Alabama...

That seems impossible, I've always thought of Huntsville as like the 4th largest city in AL. Wow

Metro-wise it's the second largest - half the size of Birmingham. I'm not too big a fan of comparing cities proper because it almost never gives the full picture of an area. This is especially true with places like Atlanta and Miami where the metro population is far, far above the population of the city proper.

[triplemultiplex]

Surprised nobody's mentioned Yellowknife yet. Very large skyline for a town of its remoteness and size.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellowknife


Dang Yellowknifes downtown looks like it was meant for a city like Fresno if you look at the skyline.

Density makes sense when its cold as balls 6 months of the year.  Make bigger buildings closer together and then you don't have to go outside as much.

I assumed Bellevue, WA would get shouted out and it did.  Hard to believe that's the skyline of a suburb.  It dwarfs most Midwest cities.

[tolbs17]

When looking at Tysons, its like comparing it to Greensboro.

[SkyPesos]

When looking at Tysons, its like comparing it to Greensboro.

Lots of DC suburbs have noticeably tall skylines (probably to make up for DC's height limit?), reinforcing that they're also CBDs of the metro area. Arlington/Crystal City, Tysons, Reston, Bethesda, to name a few.

[tolbs17]

When looking at Tysons, its like comparing it to Greensboro.

Lots of DC suburbs have noticeably tall skylines (probably to make up for DC's height limit?), reinforcing that they're also CBDs of the metro area. Arlington/Crystal City, Tysons, Reston, Bethesda, to name a few.

The Elm is definitely a game changer there.

[kkt]

Surprised nobody's mentioned Yellowknife yet. Very large skyline for a town of its remoteness and size.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellowknife


Dang Yellowknifes downtown looks like it was meant for a city like Fresno if you look at the skyline.

Yes.  Partly, I suppose, as the capital of a vast territory.  Also practical, with the insanely cold winters making it so difficult to build pipes that won't freeze you want to cluster together a few tall buildings rather than sprawling out over the landscape.

[golden eagle]

If the Buckhead section of Atlanta were its own city, it only have about 79,000 people, but an very impressive skyline.

[bing101]

Burbank and Glendale has some tall buildings. But those buildings on average look like they are on average the same as Downtown San Jose. Their heights are limited dud to the Burbank Airport and Van Nuys Airport nearby.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burbank,_California


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glendale,_California


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downtown_Long_Beach

Long Beach has a sizable downtown and you can easily compare the skyline to Downtown Sacramento in the profile.

[Road Hog]

Somebody mentioned Little Rock on another thread. Little Rock's population is about 200,000, but it does have an impressive skyline for a city its size. The thing to know is the city is landlocked by a number of suburbs, the Arkansas River, floodplains to the east and mountains to the west, and a completely separate 60-70K city of North Little Rock lies across the river. Plus it's the capital city of the state and sees a lot of commerce.