Describe the biggest cities in your state in five words or less.

[KEVIN_224]

Bridgeport, CT (largest by population): Many burnt out factories! Even Stewie Griffin mentioned it on "Family Guy". CT also has Pistol Wavin' New Haven and Hard Hittin' New Britain.

[wanderer2575]

Detroit: Urban decay and bad sports
Grand Rapids: We have lots of bridges!
Warren: A glorified township
Sterling Heights: Nobody's heard of us
Lansing: Capital City, State University downriver
Ann Arbor: Hippie college town with freeways
Flint: Corruption and GM ruined city
Dearborn: Ramadan is bigger than Christmas
Livonia: Another no-name suburn
Clinton Township: We're not in Mt. Clemens!

Flint:  Detroit seen backward through telescope (Ben Hamper, Rivethead)

Detroit:  Lousy teams get new stadiums.

[MikeTheActuary]

Bridgeport, CT (largest by population): Many burnt out factories! Even Stewie Griffin mentioned it on "Family Guy". CT also has Pistol Wavin' New Haven and Hard Hittin' New Britain.

Back in the days when Dee Snider had a morning radio show on WMRQ, Bridgeport was "the armpit of Connecticut"

[jp the roadgeek]

Bridgeport, CT (largest by population): Many burnt out factories! Even Stewie Griffin mentioned it on "Family Guy". CT also has Pistol Wavin' New Haven and Hard Hittin' New Britain.

Back in the days when Dee Snider had a morning radio show on WMRQ, Bridgeport was "the armpit of Connecticut"

I always envisioned Waterbury as the armpit and Bridgeport as the crotch

[Big John]

Bridgeport, CT (largest by population): Many burnt out factories! Even Stewie Griffin mentioned it on "Family Guy". CT also has Pistol Wavin' New Haven and Hard Hittin' New Britain.

Back in the days when Dee Snider had a morning radio show on WMRQ, Bridgeport was "the armpit of Connecticut"

I always envisioned Waterbury as the armpit and Bridgeport as the crotch

I still picture Waterbury with notorious mayor Philip Giordano

[sparker]

(#1: Los Angeles): Geographically huge; surprisingly dense core.
(#2: San Diego): Major differences coast to inland.
(#3: San Jose): Weirdest sprawl pattern anywhere!
(#4: San Francisco): Compactness an outlier within state.
(#5: Fresno): Rural; trying to grow up.
(#6: Long Beach): Still in L.A.'s shadow.
(#7: Sacramento): Expansion part of its identity.
(#8: Oakland): Expansion infeasible; infill/rehabilitation needed.
(#9: Santa Ana):  Testbed for CA social change.
(#10: Anaheim): Torn between "old"/"new" OC.
(#11: Riverside): 'Burb trying to be city.
(#12: Stockton): Lots of misperception to overcome.

Could go past the "top dozen", but much of the remainder are too connected to the larger towns to realistically break out. 

[Max Rockatansky]

(#1: Los Angeles): Geographically huge; surprisingly dense core.
(#2: San Diego): Major differences coast to inland.
(#3: San Jose): Weirdest sprawl pattern anywhere!
(#4: San Francisco): Compactness an outlier within state.
(#5: Fresno): Rural; trying to grow up.
(#6: Long Beach): Still in L.A.'s shadow.
(#7: Sacramento): Expansion part of its identity.
(#8: Oakland): Expansion infeasible; infill/rehabilitation needed.
(#9: Santa Ana):  Testbed for CA social change.
(#10: Anaheim): Torn between "old"/"new" OC.
(#11: Riverside): 'Burb trying to be city.
(#12: Stockton): Lots of misperception to overcome.

Could go past the "top dozen", but much of the remainder are too connected to the larger towns to realistically break out.

I thought Bakersfield was in the top ten now?  Really the same phrase used for Fresno could be applied even more so to Bakersfield, they don't even have a complete freeway network.

[sparker]

(#1: Los Angeles): Geographically huge; surprisingly dense core.
(#2: San Diego): Major differences coast to inland.
(#3: San Jose): Weirdest sprawl pattern anywhere!
(#4: San Francisco): Compactness an outlier within state.
(#5: Fresno): Rural; trying to grow up.
(#6: Long Beach): Still in L.A.'s shadow.
(#7: Sacramento): Expansion part of its identity.
(#8: Oakland): Expansion infeasible; infill/rehabilitation needed.
(#9: Santa Ana):  Testbed for CA social change.
(#10: Anaheim): Torn between "old"/"new" OC.
(#11: Riverside): 'Burb trying to be city.
(#12: Stockton): Lots of misperception to overcome.

Could go past the "top dozen", but much of the remainder are too connected to the larger towns to realistically break out.

I thought Bakersfield was in the top ten now?  Really the same phrase used for Fresno could be applied even more so to Bakersfield, they don't even have a complete freeway network.

Bakersfield may well have cracked the top ten as far as incorporated-city population figures are concerned.  The last time I looked that city had just passed 300K; Stockton was somewhere around 315K, largely due to new housing tracts on its north side.  But that whole corridor centered around I-5 north of Manteca and CA 99 is fast becoming one continuous mass of housing from north Stockton all the way south to around Delhi, with Bay Area overflow being the prime driver of that phenomenon.  While Bakersfield may be itself growing, it's not the "anchor" of a long chain of housing -- yet -- like the Stockton/Modesto region, which has multiple focal points.  Nonetheless, if extensive warehousing facilities continue to be built around the I-5/CA 99 "split", it's only a matter of time until the area between Bakersfield and the foot of the Grapevine hill emulates its northerly counterparts and becomes a continuous developed zone -- probably reaching as far as Shafter or even Wasco northwest of Bakersfield.