Has Nashville gone up in city tiers?

[MagicPotato]

What tier would you put Nashville in compared to other cities?

[wmaddbb2018]

Old tier sister cities imo : Louisville, Memphis, Richmond, Birmingham.

new tier sister cities : Charlotte and Austin.

We have come along ways to be mentioned with those. In some ways we are better, in others not as much. 

[titanhog]

As far as metro size, we're up close to cities like Austin, Cincy, KC, Indianapolis, etc now.

Tourist-wise...I'd say we're nearly in the top group.  We may not be on the level of NYC, Vegas, Orlando...but we're close in a lot of aspects.

[NashvilleObserver]

Couldn't this have been on the Nashville Bits and Pieces thread?

 

[MagicPotato]

1 hour ago, NashvilleObserver said:

Couldn't this have been on the Nashville Bits and Pieces thread?

 

I guess, but I kind of wanted a more central topic.

[MLBrumby]

Please keep hypothetical questions for discussion and random musings in Coffee Shop. Our practice of opening new topics for real or likely/prospective projects has worked well for years. 

[Pdt2f]

5 hours ago, titanhog said:

As far as metro size, we're up close to cities like Austin, Cincy, KC, Indianapolis, etc now.

Tourist-wise...I'd say we're nearly in the top group.  We may not be on the level of NYC, Vegas, Orlando...but we're close in a lot of aspects.

I would actually say that we’re in a third tier, if one was ranking them. First tier I would place cities like New York, Los Angeles, Orlando, Las Vegas, San Francisco, Chicago, Washington DC. Second tier I would put Atlanta, Boston, Philadelphia, Miami, Tampa, Seattle, Denver, and maybe San Antonio (crazy amounts of intra-Texas tourism). Third tier I would put Nashville, Detroit, Minneapolis, New Orleans, Charlotte, Austin, Portland, Baltimore, Phoenix, Charleston. Not sure where I’d rank Houston and Dallas, I don’t know much about tourism in those cities. I would say Nashville is high, if not the highest, in that third tier. 

[titanhog]

27 minutes ago, Pdt2f said:

I would actually say that we’re in a third tier, if one was ranking them. First tier I would place cities like New York, Los Angeles, Orlando, Las Vegas, San Francisco, Chicago, Washington DC. Second tier I would put Atlanta, Boston, Philadelphia, Miami, Tampa, Seattle, Denver, and maybe San Antonio (crazy amounts of intra-Texas tourism). Third tier I would put Nashville, Detroit, Minneapolis, New Orleans, Charlotte, Austin, Portland, Baltimore, Phoenix, Charleston. Not sure where I’d rank Houston and Dallas, I don’t know much about tourism in those cities. I would say Nashville is high, if not the highest, in that third tier. 

Worth finding out.  I'm thinking we're 2nd tier, but I could be wrong.  Gonna have to do some research. 

[archilove]

Are we talking city, metro area? Are we including tourist business, and why would we? New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Houston, Washington, Boston, Dallas, Atlanta, Miami, San Francisco, Seattle are my first tiers. Baltimore, Kansas City, San Antonio, Pittsburgh, San Diego, Tampa, Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Denver are my second. Nashville, Austin, Charlotte, Memphis, Jacksonville, Indianapolis, Louisville, Detroit, Cleveland, St. Louis, Birmingham, New Orleans, Richmond,  Salt Lake City, Portland (O), Las Vegas, Buffalo, Cincinnati are my thirds. These are just my guesstimates and I probably left somebody out.

[urbanplanet17]

3 hours ago, archilove said:

Are we talking city, metro area? Are we including tourist business, and why would we? New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Houston, Washington, Boston, Dallas, Atlanta, Miami, San Francisco, Seattle are my first tiers. Baltimore, Kansas City, San Antonio, Pittsburgh, San Diego, Tampa, Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Denver are my second. Nashville, Austin, Charlotte, Memphis, Jacksonville, Indianapolis, Louisville, Detroit, Cleveland, St. Louis, Birmingham, New Orleans, Richmond,  Salt Lake City, Portland (O), Las Vegas, Buffalo, Cincinnati are my thirds. These are just my guesstimates and I probably left somebody out.

How did you come up with these tiers?

I don't see how Seattle can be first tier and Minneapolis / Denver can be second tier, but Detroit (a city larger than all 3 of them) is 3rd tier. 

[Pdt2f]

47 minutes ago, urbanplanet17 said:

How did you come up with these tiers?

I don't see how Seattle can be first tier and Minneapolis / Denver can be second tier, but Detroit (a city larger than all 3 of them) is 3rd tier. 

Nor how Milwaukee is apparently a higher tier of tourism than Las Vegas, and Orlando doesn’t qualify at all lol. 

[titanhog]

There are several different ways you can come up with "tiers".  

First would be the metro populations...which is not subjective.  You just look at the census figures and there you have it.

You can do tiers based on tourism.   # of sports teams.   # of tech workers.  Etc, Etc, Etc.  

[archilove]

My "guesstimates" weren't based on any research, but more on what I had been drinking that day. But regarding Detroit, if you are talking about just the city and not metro area, Detroit has lost a million people over the last few decades and is only slightly larger than Nashville's city population. Worse than that, part of it looks like Dresden after World War 2. My old neighborhood in East Detroit off of Jefferson has been completely bulldozed, including the commercial buildings. Take a look at it on Utube. City populations are hard to compare because of the disparity in claimed square mileage. Houston claims city population of 2.5 million based on I believe 660 square miles. I have heard that Nashville claims anywhere from 450 to about 500 square miles. Memphis claims a larger city  population than Nashville, but Nashville has almost twice the metro area population. As to Milwaukee, Las Vegas and Orlando, I wasn't considering tourism. 

[urbanplanet17]

4 hours ago, archilove said:

My "guesstimates" weren't based on any research, but more on what I had been drinking that day. But regarding Detroit, if you are talking about just the city and not metro area, Detroit has lost a million people over the last few decades and is only slightly larger than Nashville's city population. Worse than that, part of it looks like Dresden after World War 2. My old neighborhood in East Detroit off of Jefferson has been completely bulldozed, including the commercial buildings. Take a look at it on Utube. City populations are hard to compare because of the disparity in claimed square mileage. Houston claims city population of 2.5 million based on I believe 660 square miles. I have heard that Nashville claims anywhere from 450 to about 500 square miles. Memphis claims a larger city  population than Nashville, but Nashville has almost twice the metro area population. As to Milwaukee, Las Vegas and Orlando, I wasn't considering tourism. 

But the thing is, you also ranked Atlanta and Miami in the first tier (both of which have even smaller city proper populations than Detroit).

Not trying to give you a hard time about it. I was just curious to know how you came up with those rankings.

I'm a Detroit native too BTW. 

[Skyscrapergeek]

When I consider what tier a city is in I typically think of how well rounded it is.  As mentioned, there are a lot of different factors you could use however, one of the bigger ones for me that might push a city up or down in tier status is the “brand” of the city and how well known it is country and world-wide.   While I don’t consider Nashville a tier one city by any stretch, from a brand perspective we’re right up there behind New York and L.A. and far ahead of some others listed.  Defining “brand” might require another thread. 

[fishsticks176]

1 hour ago, Skyscrapergeek said:

Defining “brand” might require another thread. 

 

Don't tempt the creation of  *another* thread

[Rockatansky]

18 hours ago, archilove said:

Memphis claims a larger city  population than Nashville

The latest Census estimates put Memphis at  652,717  and Nashville at 660,388. So they may claim to be larger, but that is an incorrect assertion. Shelby county is still larger than Davidson. 

[titanhog]

4 hours ago, Rockatansky said:

The latest Census estimates put Memphis at  652,717  and Nashville at 660,388. So they may claim to be larger, but that is an incorrect assertion. Shelby county is still larger than Davidson. 

Shelby County may always be larger than Davidson (population) because it has way more square mileage of "livable" land.  A good chunk of Davidson is too hilly for large volumes of population.  And...there are a couple of lakes that take up some land.  And large parks.  And flood areas. 

[archilove]

UrbanP, where did you live in Detroit and when? My experience there goes way back to a time when Detroit was the fifth biggest city in the country. I lived on Meadowbrook, Montclair, St. Clair and Glover, and attended Lingemann Elementary and Foch Junior High. I hope this doesn't sound like I'm trying to establish my credentials, as I don't really care who is right or wrong here. I'm just curious about a fellow Detroiter.  I knew of people like Hal Newhouser, Les Bingeman, Dizzy Trout, Freddy Hutchinson, Hank Greenburg, and Al Kaline. I once played catch with Vic Wertz, and attended the same junior high as Betty Hutton (not at the same time). My great uncle was a foreman at Chrysler and my stepdad worked at Dodge. My mother worked in the Book Building and my grandmother worked at J.L.Hudson's. All of these places are gone except for Foch and the Book Building.

[urbanplanet17]

13 hours ago, archilove said:

UrbanP, where did you live in Detroit and when? My experience there goes way back to a time when Detroit was the fifth biggest city in the country. I lived on Meadowbrook, Montclair, St. Clair and Glover, and attended Lingemann Elementary and Foch Junior High. I hope this doesn't sound like I'm trying to establish my credentials, as I don't really care who is right or wrong here. I'm just curious about a fellow Detroiter.  I knew of people like Hal Newhouser, Les Bingeman, Dizzy Trout, Freddy Hutchinson, Hank Greenburg, and Al Kaline. I once played catch with Vic Wertz, and attended the same junior high as Betty Hutton (not at the same time). My great uncle was a foreman at Chrysler and my stepdad worked at Dodge. My mother worked in the Book Building and my grandmother worked at J.L.Hudson's. All of these places are gone except for Foch and the Book Building.

Born and raised on the east side of the city. I'm young, so I wasn't around when Detroit proper had nearly 2 million people.

That said, even despite Detroit proper's decline, the metro area is still home to at least 4 .2 million people, and as many as 5.7 million people by the broadest measure (source). It's the busiest (or 2nd busiest) international border crossing in North America, has the 2nd largest theater district in the country, is home to 4 professional sports teams and still has the 2nd largest economy in the midwest (outside of Chicago) .

So to say it's on the same level as cities with a metro population of only, say, 1-2 million people just seemed odd to me. Detroit's more akin to Atlanta and Miami (places that also have small city proper populations but a large metro population) than Memphis or Louisville.

[BnaBreaker]

I'm a major Detroit cheerleader myself, and I think it's safe to say that as of three or four years ago it has finally started to make an honest-to-goodness comeback, and I couldn't be more excited.  I hope it (and the country) can sustain that progress through the *ahem*... current climate.  Light rail, new arenas, skyscrapers being proposed, Whole Foods opening in Midtown... Detroit is on it's way back with a vengeance!  

[archilove]

That's why I said "city" population. But your right . I was inconsistent. Its probably more accurate to use the metro area populations. Glad my old town is coming back. Have been to the Fisher theater there (beautiful!) I used to go down to the river to see Guy Lombardo race his boat in the Silver Cup Races, and during World War 2 saw the government-staged mock invasion of Canada. I'm extremely old.