There is also that city where the White House’s East Wing used to be.
This thread literally proves the point of the OP. People just can’t seem to agree on the 4th city lmao
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.
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.
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! :)
“Specific genres” you mean hip-hop/rap and country? Some of the most popular and culture-driving genres? I think from a music perspective, they’re far far more influential than LA and NYC even if some of the legacy record labels are headquartered there.
Fourth-most important city is the one geographically closest to you. For all others, it’s DC.
This is the true answer imo
NYC is definitely there.
LA is honestly debatable. They have hollywood, but other than and a few things like that (Disneyland) that their claim to fame is just population. Not to say that Hollywood isn’t massive, but I just have this intuition that it’s shrinking and has been for some time because of the perpetual self centered hubris and greed blowing up in their face. And like an overweight person who is eating right and exercising and being healthy, I see that as a healthy person, not a fat person. I think they do belong there, but moreso as a vestige of a passing era.
SEA is somewhat in the same boat. I’m from here, and it is nice, but all these tech companies keep fucking up and being overly greedy. We don’t have the population of LA or other, even bigger massive urban sprawls, but we do have a fuckton of modern business and industry. Unfortunately, much of it has or is in various stages of imploding from their own idiocy and greed. We do, however have EDIT: nothing nice. Don’t come here. Everything is terrible and expensive and awful and breaking down and dirty and conservative and liberal and too educated and there are no jobs and everyone is stupid. Awful place, 0/10 🏳️⚧️ zero growth it’s all gentrifying and too many cars and smoke and drugs and gays and old people and freedom. Go away. 🏳️⚧️ Portland also sucks, don’t go there terrible coffee and pizza and bookstores and zero culture. Coffee and food are all terrible and it just rains 100% of the time and everybody is miserable and dumb and unfriendly and there’s no polycule and no music and no game studios it’s all libtard dei wokegenda. It’s hopeless. Yuck. Very unamerican. Everybody’s the same and there’s no public health or state benefits or bleeding edge research being done. Just an average mill, all brown old buildings from the 1800s. Borrriinnnng. Also our tacos are terrible. And the beer is all generic and bad and supports the gays. And if you’re a furry you’re gonna be alone, there are none of those here. And forget diversity of EDIT: uh, I’m being told to shut the fuck up. Yeah. Uh huh.
MIAMI is great. Definitely go there. Best governor, most level headed and not a cult, no corruption at all. Great benefits.
Very racist.Very common sense, much Trump ⛱️Houston or Boston i guess.
There is no 4th because no one else has 2 baseball teams.
DC has the Orioles and the Nats.
Baltimore has the orioles. The fuck kind of crack you smoking?
Yeah it’s a joke. The DC suburbs are a primary TV market for the Orioles. Like, you get O’s blackouts on MLB.tv all the way down to Richmond.
OK for serious, watch a Yankees game at Camden and tell me who the home team is.
The Os. Yankees fans are posers. If you live in ny, you root for the Mets
Four’s a bit of an arbitrary number and major is woefully undefined.
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?
DC has a clear lead in monuments
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.
I’m with you on the rest, but Phoenix? I think they have the largest state college, but that’s all I can think of for importance
It’s the most populated state capital (5 million) and has a big tech and aerospace presence and semiconductor production. That’s all I know about it really besides being hot and dry as hell.
Didn’t it have the highest murder rate in the 90s? That place is too hot to support life.
Idk, from an outsider perspective to me the big 3 are NY, LA and SF. Chicago barely registers, nevermind Minneapolis
Oh no Chicago is massive. Has Willis/Sears tower which was once the tallest in the world. Is a major financial hub for thr stock exchange. Has a massive arts and good culture. Has O’Hara International Airport with flights all over the world. Many films and TV shows at there or in its suburbs.
It doesn’t have as many familiar landmarks as San Fran, maybe. And San Fran is has gotten more important with the rise of Silicon Valley which shares the bay area. But Chicago is a big deal in the US, for sure.
Minneapolis really only matters within the midwest.
It was a big deal back when railroad connections meant something. Now, its a corrupt rat warren of institutionalized racism, corporate tax havens, and the goofiest accent north of oaklahoma. You guys dont even make good pizza.
Railroads still mean plenty. How do you think most goods get around?
Boats. Have you seen boats? Big metal things that float?
Philadelphia is arguably more historically significant than DC
Historically, but not currently
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.)
The bay area is almost one big city. As such, it would be an easy 4. But separately, not a lock.
California already has one. What about Seattle?
California has an economy larger than 98% of all countries.
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)
Honestly agree about the bay but what makes the bay good is the same thing that disqualifies it from the list. You cant pick one bay area city to represent all of the bay, even SF. Youre leaving out San Jose, Oakland, Richmond, the tri Valley, Walnut Creek, all that. You cant take any one of them to wholly represent the others.
LA is California enough for most people. Its like us, but worse. Any true Californian knows youre not really talking about actual Los Angeles anyways. Its a whole cluster of cities from San Diego to Anaheim and out to the actual city proper. I think we got it covered.
Big three should be LA, NYC, and DC. SF can be a floater like Philly or Atlanta or Houston. Chicago belongs in the past and we should leave it there with their goofy accents.
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.
Miami, San Francisco, maybe Boston. The only thing DFW is good for is talking about the Cowboys.
I’d say Miam, San Francisco, and Atlanta
NY gets to cover the whole NE and Miami is it’s own special place. Atlanta takes care of the SE.
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 think there’s some truth to the idea that the relative ranking depends on what context you’re talking about.
Pure population? Houston.
History and politics? DC to the top, Philadelphia and Boston in the mix.
Economically? The Bay Area has tech and Houston has oil and gas.
Domestic tourists and international tourists? Certainly a conversation to be had for DC, Las Vegas. Miami maybe?
What about cultural influence domestically, and abroad? Do Nashville, Atlanta, and Miami fit in somewhere?
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.
Chicago is clearly top tier, you on angel dust?
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
I was going to list the four NYC Burroughs… Only to have that joke spoiled by facts.