This thread literally proves the point of the OP. People just can’t seem to agree on the 4th city lmao
San Francisco easily takes it imo.
Distant 17th by population but more than makes up for it through business, technological, and cultural influence. (Edit: Especially since the wider San Francisco Bay Area can be credibly lumped together to form such a populous combined statistical area.)
California already has one. What about Seattle?
Seattle definitely isn't the #4 most major city or CSA. It's a great city and has major businesses, but Seattle probably sits behind Dallas–Fort Worth. All jokes about fairness aside: California gets to have this one.
I'm from Seattle and I'm not even mad. I wish it was further down the list, my town was more fun when it was broke and unimportant. A boomtown that only gets fun on the downswing, that's my Seattle.
Something like 1 out of 5 people in the US live in California. If California seceded from the US, it would rightfully join the G7 to make it the G8 again. California can have two cities. (Obviously born and raised in California even if I'm living basically as far as one can still in the US)
The bay area is almost one big city. As such, it would be an easy 4. But separately, not a lock.
Fourth-most important city is the one geographically closest to you. For all others, it's DC.
This is the true answer imo
NY, LA, SF, DC... Chicago is a great city but not as influential on the world stage as it used to be.
Depends how you define major. The 4th city rotates by category.
Tourism? Vegas or Orlando.
Politics or history? DC, Philadelphia or Boston.
Tech? San Francisco or Seattle.
Population size? Houston
Land size? Juneau.
Music? Nashville or maybe New Orleans and Atlanta.
Music is still NYC or LA by miles.
Really specific genres come from the places you listed.
NYC and LA were already on the list! :)
San Francisco is not just tech. It's known for its tech and it the mecca of tech. However it's a giant port akin to NY. If you look at the entire Bay Area like New York, there is no doubt.
NY, Chicago, and LA for sure. And certainly cities like Seattle, Dallas, Denver, St. Louis, New Orleans, Atlanta, Miami, Philadelphia, Detroit, and Boston would all duke it out for the notoriety of the 4th spot. But, are we going to pretend that DC doesn't edge the rest out for importance, both historically and currently, for landmarks, for cultural relevance?
I'm not American but is San Francisco not a really important city?
Yeah, it is. There are arguably many more too. Minneapolis, Pheonix, Las Vegas, San Diego, Houston, etc. I just tried to pick a smattering of places off the top of my head from a wide spread of the country.
DC has a clear lead in monuments
I like to think that Washington DC is the fourth, seeing as it’s the national capital, the political & historical center of America, and the fact that things that happen in DC have not just national, but international effects.
Also a fair bit of personal bias tbh, seeing as I live in the metro area.
I live in your country but I agree. From outside, DC is more major than Chicago.
DC has the only decent transit system besides NYC, which pushes it over a lot of bigger cities. Realistically it's NYC, DC, SF and LA are the tier one cities. Chicago, Boston, Miami, Seattle and Denver start the tier two list. Charlotte, Minneapolis and maybe SLC also get tier two. I am specifically excluding Texas because fuck Texas, there's nothing redeemable there.
Houston or Boston i guess.
There is also that city where the White House's East Wing used to be.
Americans don't get this because they have no idea how the U.N. works.
Thats a ridiculous assertation. They wont get this because they cant read.
The fuck are these random squiggly lines I keep seeing everywhere. I just learned I can hold my finger down on them, click the squares and drop them in chatgpt and do the squares again and people make more squigglies
Maybe it's just me but I don't think Chicago holds that spot idk
Chicago was historically considered the Second City, after NYC. It's a major shipping and economic hub and has something like the 6th highest GDP of any urban region in the world, over $919 billion in 2024. It has an incredibly diverse culture and is a world class city by every definition of the word.
Four's a bit of an arbitrary number and major is woefully undefined.
CityNerd covered it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrj-p5nja7o
What was their conclusion?
The US has a primary city (NYC), a top-3 (NYC, Chicago, LA) and a top-5 (NYC, Chicago, LA, SF & DC). Asking for top 2 or 4 is too hard to call and just asking for trouble.
So it’s like this:
1st tier: NY
2nd tier: Chicago & LA
3rd tier: SF & DC
(Finally learned how to do a single line break on Lemmy - put two spaces at the end of the first line, then Enter)
Holy fucking shit.
It works!
Miami, San Francisco, maybe Boston. The only thing DFW is good for is talking about the Cowboys.
Chicago ain't shit. Its L.A. , NYC, and DC. In that order. Chicago belongs with the floaters like Atlanta, Houston, Miami, Portland, and Las Vegas.
Gotham City
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