Hierarchy of cities in your state

[Roadgeekteen]

Not a complete list (you don't have to rank EVERY city)

MA (probably completely wrong):

Boston
Springfield
Worcester
Cambridge
Lowell
New Bedford
Fall River
Lawrence
Brockton

[CtrlAltDel]

Well, for better or worse, in Illinois the hierarchy is fairly straightforward:

1. Chicago.
2. All others.

[hotdogPi]

Fall River/New Bedford

Residents of both cities would object to your treating two different cities as if they were interchangeable.

[Roadgeekteen]

Fall River/New Bedford

Residents of both cities would object to you treating two different cities as if they were interchangeable.

I couldn't decide which one was more important, they are both similar sized cities on the south coast. 

[hotdogPi]

Fall River/New Bedford

Residents of both cities would object to you treating two different cities as if they were interchangeable.

I couldn't decide which one was more important, they are both slimier sized cities on the south coast.

That doesn't make them the same city, nor does it make them slimy.

[Roadgeekteen]

Fall River/New Bedford

Residents of both cities would object to you treating two different cities as if they were interchangeable.

I couldn't decide which one was more important, they are both slimier sized cities on the south coast.

That doesn't make them the same city, nor does it make them slimy.

Fine, I put New Bedford first because it has more people.

[sprjus4]

Virginia (?) -
1-97. Northern Virginia
98. Hampton Roads
99. Richmond
100. Everything else

[michravera]

Not a complete list (you don't have to rank EVERY city)

MA (probably completely wrong):

Boston
Springfield
Worcester
Cambridge
Lowell
Fall River/New Bedford
Lawrence
Brockton

In California, there are a number of cities in the southern part of the state that live in the shadow of Los Angeles despite being more populous than other cities in the state often aren't considered as highly. Fresno, Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, and even Bakersfield get noticed when Long Beach, Riverside, Anaheim do not. But, what do you expect when the top 70 (Wiki says 74) cities are over 100K population.

[ozarkman417]

Tier 1. The Missouri River- Big- KC, St. Louis
Tier 2. MO River-Small- Columbia, Jeff City, St Joseph
Tier 3: Ozark (Big)- Springfield, Joplin
Tier 4: Ozark (small)- Branson, Rolla, Farmington
Tier 5: Mississippi Delta- Poplar Bluff, Cape Giradeau, Sikeston
Tier 6: Decently sized towns in Northern MO (basically Iowa)-Kirksville, Hannibal, Moberly


     

[inkyatari]

Well, for better or worse, in Illinois the hierarchy is fairly straightforward:

1. Chicago.
2. All others.

I'd change that a bit.

1) Chicago
2) Springfield
3) what other cities?

[webny99]

New York:

Tier 1a: The Big Apple
Tier 1b: Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Albany
Tier 2: Schenectady, Utica, Binghamton, Watertown, Niagara Falls
Tier 3a: Poughkeepsie, Newburgh, Middletown
Tier 3b: Rome, Ithaca, Auburn, Elmira, Jamestown
Tier 4: Everything else. (All cities not listed above are suburbs, defacto suburbs, and/or under 25K in population).

[tdindy88]

Indiana
Here's some for Indiana as I've always seen them.

Tier 1: Capital metro area, the biggest and most dominant of them all, important statewide except for a few counties along the borders
-Indianapolis metro area

Tier 2a: Super regional centers, carry a large influence over their hinterlands, have their own TV/radio markets
-Fort Wayne
-Evansville

Tier 2b: Similar to the super regional centers, only their region of influence is a little smaller, large enough to have TV markets (or close)
-South Bend-Mishawaka
-Northwest Indiana suburbs (Lake and Porter Counties)

Tier 3: Large regional centers, large enough to carry influence over several counties with all, large enough for their own radio markets
-Lafayette-West Lafayette
-Terre Haute
-Bloomington
-Muncie
-Falls City area (Jeffersonville/Clarksville/New Albany)

Tier 4: Small regional centers, usually have to share influence with the larger regional centers and part of their radio markets
-Elkhart-Goshen
-Kokomo
-Anderson
-Columbus
-Richmond
-Michigan City-LaPorte

Tier 5: Micro regional centers, not too dominant but with a little more than most of their surrounding fellow county seats/large cities
-Warsaw
-Vincennes
-Jasper
-Bedford
-Seymour
-Marion
-Angola
-Logansport
-Crawfordsville

Tier 6: Everything else, mind you Tier 5 is quite subjective so there's room for moving cities around

[Flint1979]

Michigan

Detroit
Grand Rapids
Lansing
Rest of state

[Roadgeekteen]

Indiana
Here's some for Indiana as I've always seen them.

Tier 1: Capital metro area, the biggest and most dominant of them all, important statewide except for a few counties along the borders
-Indianapolis metro area

Tier 2a: Super regional centers, carry a large influence over their hinterlands, have their own TV/radio markets
-Fort Wayne
-Evansville

Tier 2b: Similar to the super regional centers, only their region of influence is a little smaller, large enough to have TV markets (or close)
-South Bend-Mishawaka
-Northwest Indiana suburbs (Lake and Porter Counties)

Tier 3: Large regional centers, large enough to carry influence over several counties with all, large enough for their own radio markets
-Lafayette-West Lafayette
-Terre Haute
-Bloomington
-Muncie
-Falls City area (Jeffersonville/Clarksville/New Albany)

Tier 4: Small regional centers, usually have to share influence with the larger regional centers and part of their radio markets
-Elkhart-Goshen
-Kokomo
-Anderson
-Columbus
-Richmond
-Michigan City-LaPorte

Tier 5: Micro regional centers, not too dominant but with a little more than most of their surrounding fellow county seats/large cities
-Warsaw
-Vincennes
-Jasper
-Bedford
-Seymour
-Marion
-Angola
-Logansport
-Crawfordsville

Tier 6: Everything else, mind you Tier 5 is quite subjective so there's room for moving cities around

Nothing in Northwest Indiana?

[roadman65]

Florida

Miami- Fort Lauderdale (all considered to be South Florida as a whole)
West Palm Beach
Jacksonville
Orlando
Tampa- St. Pete (known as one big combination called The Tampa Bay Area)
Bradenton- Sarasota- Venice (are now linked together with Sprawl)
Fort Myers- Cape Coral- Naples (another big area known as SW Florida)

Then smaller cities by themselves without being in a regional area.
Tallahassee
Gainesville
Panama City

[Roadgeekteen]

Florida

Miami- Fort Lauderdale (all considered to be South Florida as a whole)
West Palm Beach
Jacksonville
Orlando
Tampa- St. Pete (known as one big combination called The Tampa Bay Area)
Bradenton- Sarasota- Venice (are now linked together with Sprawl)
Fort Myers- Cape Coral- Naples (another big area known as SW Florida)

Then smaller cities by themselves without being in a regional area.
Tallahassee
Gainesville
Panama City

West Palm Beach and Jacksonville over Orlando and Tampa?

[Scott5114]

Tier 1. The Missouri River- Big- KC, St. Louis
Tier 2. MO River-Small- Columbia, Jeff City, St Joseph
Tier 3: Ozark (Big)- Springfield, Joplin
Tier 4: Ozark (small)- Branson, Rolla, Farmington
Tier 5: Mississippi Delta- Poplar Bluff, Cape Giradeau, Sikeston
Tier 6: Decently sized towns in Northern MO (basically Iowa)-Kirksville, Hannibal, Moberly

I'd put Springfield in a tier just below KC-STL. Far more people out of state know of it than they do St. Joseph, and nobody'd care about Columbia or Jeff City if they weren't home of Mizzou and the state capitol respectively. (Hell, Columbia can't even manage to pull off being a control city, unlike most of the other cities named.) I'd also move Branson up a few tiers, because as lame as it is, people have heard of it, whereas multiple times when I was on the road to Oklahoma and told someone I was in Joplin, I'd get the reply "What's that?"

[Ben114]

I'll throw in my opinion for MA

Tier 1a: Boston
Tier 1b: Worcester, Springfield
Tier 2: Taunton, Lowell, Pittsfield, Barnstable, Fall River, New Bedford, Fitchburg, Greenfield
Tier 3: Lawrence, Haverhill, Quincy
Tier 4: Methuen, Lynn, Leominster
Tier 5: every other city

Edit 11:14 pm: Changed a little bit.

[Roadgeekteen]

I'll throw in my opinion for MA

Tier 1: Boston, Worcester, Springfield
Tier 2: Taunton, Lowell, Pittsfield, Barnstable, Fall River, New Bedford, Fitchburg, Greenfield
Tier 3: Lawrence, Haverhill, Quincy
Tier 4: Methuen, Brockton, Lynn, Cambridge, Leominster
Tier 5: every other city

Boston needs to be in a tier of it's own. Taunton is too high, same with Greenfield. Cambridge should be higher.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

MN:
Tier 1: Minneapolis/St. Paul metro area
Tier 2: Duluth, Rochester
Tier 3: Bemidji, Brainerd, Moorhead, St. Cloud

[US 89]

Let's see, I'll do Utah. Not including suburbs.

Tier 1: Major metropolitan area of statewide or greater significance
- Salt Lake City

Tier 2: Large regional center, would be more significant on their own if not sprawled into a tier 1 metro
- Ogden
- Provo

Tier 3: major regional center. Big enough for a Costco or Sam's Club.
- Logan
- St George

Tier 4: significant regional centers, sometimes on their own and sometimes in outlying areas of a greater urban corridor
- Brigham City
- Cedar City
- Heber City
- Park City/Summit Park
- Tooele

Tier 5: smaller regional centers. Basically, this is the level at which you get a Walmart.
- Price
- Richfield
- Vernal

Tier 6: larger small towns
- Ephraim
- Grantsville (starting to grow into Tooele)
- Hurricane (growing into St George)
- Kanab
- Manti
- Moab
- Morgan
- Nephi
- Stansbury Park (starting to grow into Grantsville/Tooele areas)

Tier 7: midsize small towns, typically big enough for a McDonalds or something similar
- Beaver
- Delta
- Roosevelt
- Tremonton

Tier 8: small towns, often not much more than pit stops along a highway. May or may not even have a traffic light.
- Blanding
- Castle Dale
- Duchesne
- Fillmore
- Green River
- Gunnison
- Huntington
- Kamas
- Milford
- Monticello
- Mt Pleasant
- Parowan
- Panguitch
- Salina
- Wendover

Tier 9: any remaining towns with a functioning gas station

Tier 10: everything else

[DandyDan]

MN:
Tier 1: Minneapolis/St. Paul metro area
Tier 2: Duluth, Rochester
Tier 3: Bemidji, Brainerd, Moorhead, St. Cloud

I would add Mankato to your tier 3, but my real question is how is Bemidji on the same level as St. Cloud? And Shouldn't St. Cloud be Tier 2?

[webny99]

MN:
Tier 1: Minneapolis/St. Paul metro area
Tier 2: Duluth, Rochester
Tier 3: Bemidji, Brainerd, Moorhead, St. Cloud

...
And Shouldn't St. Cloud be Tier 2?

That's what I was thinking as well, but a few thoughts:

-Rochester is #3 statewide and Duluth is #4; St. Cloud is all the way down at #10.
-About 20,000 people separate Rochester and Duluth, with no other cities in between.
-About 20,000 people also separate Duluth and St. Cloud, but there's 5 Twin Cities suburbs in between, so St. Cloud is pretty unlucky in this regard.
-Would not surprise me if Bloomington surpasses Duluth to take the #4 spot, possibly even as soon as the 2020 census.
-Duluth still "feels" bigger than Rochester, because it has more historical significance and is regionally distinct.

I would add Mankato to your tier 3
...

If population is the metric, Mankato makes sense. It's similar in size to Moorhead, and is still in the top 10 of non-suburbs.
Red Wing, Albert Lea, and Winona, among others, are also bigger than Bemidji.

[NWI_Irish96]

Indiana
Here's some for Indiana as I've always seen them.

Tier 1: Capital metro area, the biggest and most dominant of them all, important statewide except for a few counties along the borders
-Indianapolis metro area

Tier 2a: Super regional centers, carry a large influence over their hinterlands, have their own TV/radio markets
-Fort Wayne
-Evansville

Tier 2b: Similar to the super regional centers, only their region of influence is a little smaller, large enough to have TV markets (or close)
-South Bend-Mishawaka
-Northwest Indiana suburbs (Lake and Porter Counties)

Tier 3: Large regional centers, large enough to carry influence over several counties with all, large enough for their own radio markets
-Lafayette-West Lafayette
-Terre Haute
-Bloomington
-Muncie
-Falls City area (Jeffersonville/Clarksville/New Albany)

Tier 4: Small regional centers, usually have to share influence with the larger regional centers and part of their radio markets
-Elkhart-Goshen
-Kokomo
-Anderson
-Columbus
-Richmond
-Michigan City-LaPorte

Tier 5: Micro regional centers, not too dominant but with a little more than most of their surrounding fellow county seats/large cities
-Warsaw
-Vincennes
-Jasper
-Bedford
-Seymour
-Marion
-Angola
-Logansport
-Crawfordsville

Tier 6: Everything else, mind you Tier 5 is quite subjective so there's room for moving cities around

I would do it a little bit different:

1) Indianapolis clearly stands by itself

Have Commercial Airports
2) Fort Wayne
3) Evansville
4) South Bend

Have network TV stations
5) Terre Haute
6) Lafayette

Have major universities
7) Bloomington
8) Muncie

NWI Cities
9) Hammond
10) Gary

Large but Suburban
11) Carmel
12) Fishers
13) Noblesville

Principal Shopping and Highway Centers
14) Kokomo
15) Anderson
16) Columbus
17) Richmond
18) Valparaiso
19) Warsaw

Smaller suburbs/near bigger cities
20) Greenwood
21) Elkhart
22) Mishawaka
23) Jeffersonville
24) Portage
25) New Albany

[SEWIGuy]

1. Milwaukee
2. Madison
3. Green Bay

Next Tier - center of larger population areas

-Appleton
-Wausau
-Eau Claire

Larger Cities within other metropolitan areas

-Kenosha
-Racine
-Waukesha
-Oshkosh
-Stevens Point
-Superior

Other Significant Cities

-LaCrosse
-Sheboygan
-Fond du Lac
-Janesville
-Beloit
-Manitowoc