Cities and their regional influences

[krazeeboi]

Guys and gals, check out this map. It shows the spheres of influence of significant U.S. cities. It is intended to help provide an answer for the question, "On the level of North America as a whole, what major city do you feel has the most cultural and economic influence on your area overall?"

[ironchapman]

^Good stuff, but I think it's good to take into account the number of people living in each "sphere". Salt Lake City's and Portland, Oregon's influences, for example, is exaggerated because of the lack of another significant city or population nearby. Surely Seattle's sphere is bigger than Portland's. New York City's is small, but think of the number of people within that area!

^I'm hoping that came out right.

The ones on the West Coast States and those east of the Mississippi are generall accurate IMO, though.

[krazeeboi]

Right IC. Also it is important to note that it appears as though this map was designed on personal opinion. I'm not sure if they used any sort of hard data to get the spheres.

[Sundodger]

Salt Lake City's and Portland, Oregon's influences, for example, is exaggerated because of the lack of another significant city or population nearby. Surely Seattle's sphere is bigger than Portland's.

Seattle's looks right to me. Portland's sphere of influence covers more territory but Seattle's is more populated. SW Washington is totally in Portland's sphere getting Portland T.V. & radio which takes a chunk out of Seattle's sphere in the state.

[upstate29650]

Some areas are dead on. Savannah & Jacksonville almost mimic their DMA's (Term used to determine local broadcast coverage area). Believe it or not, I also agree with the size of the Atlanta sphere of influence.

[HABANERO7]

Wow, based on that map, Boston and Chicago have some of the most influence on heavily populated areas in the country

I'm in the Chattanooga shading area, kind of small...

I'm not familiar with other parts of the county but the drawing for the south seems to be headed toward "on target" I'm sure there are many flaws to it, but over all like the last comment, The Atlanta area seems to be fairly accurate, and living in the south you hear about certain towns more than others, and when you look at the area of influence map it almost seems to coincide with the talk a town receives...

[TennBear]

All this talk about Atlanta reminded me of the story about the Northerner who moved to Atlanta and was amazed at how Cosmopolitan they all were. They were always skiping off to Rome or Athens for the weekend. Then he learned that those were in Georgia.

[krazeeboi]

Right--the Republic of Georgia.

[johnnydr87]

Little Rock covers such a large chunk of Arkansas.

I'm very surprised that Jonesboro extends so far into Missouri with only a 50,000 population.

[cheeriokid61]

Make sure you look at the little numbers next to the name, though. Look at Reno(50), and Orlando(260). And Philadelphia(826), and Pittsburgh(442).

By the way, what's going on in Colorado?

[triadcat]

Wow, that's weird.

It just goes to show that there is some competition within the Triad......Greensboro and Winston-Salem are seperate, yet are both close together in the Triad. The Triad needs to work together more like the Triangle.

Atlanta covers a huge area on this map. Boston covers the entire state of New Hampshire!!

Very interesting...

[The_sandlapper]

Columbia dominates SC not much of a surprise though.

[krazeeboi]

Right, but its influence also stretches into a small part of NC. I wouldn't have expected that. However, that might change once people in that area of NC complete the survey.

I also think the Myrtle Beach/Florence area is underrepresented. I don't think Columbia exerts THAT strong of an influence over that area.

[The_sandlapper]

Well I don't know what is ment exactly by influence, but I know "WIS TV 10" in Columbia can be viewed in Myrtle Beach, also "The State" newspaper is in circulation there as well which is kinda unique considering the city is 2 1/2 hrs from the beach. I used to watch the news from back home when I lived in Myrtle back in 01".

It's not too hard to believe that Clum would stretch that far considering it is the only major city for quite awhile in that central region of the state.

[krazeeboi]

The same applies here in Rock Hill, but of course, we are in the Charlotte MSA so that is the city that exerts the strongest influence.

Because Florence and MB are located in another part of the state (Pee Dee/Grand Strand), I would assume that together, they constitute an influencing force over the rest of the Pee Dee/Grand Strand. They have their own local media outlets as well.

[Newnan]

what do the numbers mean?

[ironchapman]

what do the numbers mean?

According to the site, the number in parentheses mean the number of votes cast for each area.

[NCB]

Thats an interesting map.

Some of those figures seem to be very accurate.

[Spartan]

That is a cool website. Its not entirely accureate though. I know that my part of the world in Clemson is not dominated at all by Atlanta, but by Greenville. I realize its a work in progress though. Hopefully as enough people contribute it will begin to be more accurate.

[sean]

All maps lie!

[Lexy]

^ Riiiiight.

[CorgiMatt]

Guys and gals, check out this map. It shows the spheres of influence of significant U.S. cities. It is intended to help provide an answer for the question, "On the level of North America as a whole, what major city do you feel has the most cultural and economic influence on your area overall?"

I'm impressed by Columbia's influence in South Carolina.

[upstate29650]

I'm impressed by Columbia's influence in South Carolina.

And that's even inaccurate. The Aiken area, for example, is more under the sphere of infulence of Augusta, and the NW corner of SC would be more dominated by Florence-Myrtle Beach (which curiously, isn't represented).

[krazeeboi]

I mentioned the Pee Dee area earlier in the thread. As more people from those areas take the survey, the map will begin to more accurately reflect the spheres of influence for various cities.

Also, as someone mentioned, Atlanta's influence really doesn't extend into upstate SC. As a matter of fact, Greenville influences some areas into GA on I-85 more than Atlanta (e.g., Hart County).

[ironchapman]

Also, as someone mentioned, Atlanta's influence really doesn't extend into upstate SC. As a matter of fact, Greenville influences some areas into GA on I-85 more than Atlanta (e.g., Hart County).

I certainly see your point here, but it all depends on who you talked to. Some may say Atlanta influences them more while some may say that Greenville does.

Atlanta's sphere is still huge, no matter what way you look at it.