How many people can the central cities hold without overcrowding?

[Mikejesmike]

Imagine the opposite of suburbanization takes place, how many people will our cities hold comfortably? At what point are they on the verge of overcrowding? I did the math for each city, which took me hours, but here's how many they can hold without building any new housing based on census 2000 housing. These cities are on the verge of overcrowding and need more housing if they go barely higher than this, barely meaning a few hundred to a few thousand more. The numbers might surprise you.

1-New York-8,864,489

2-Los Angeles-3,749,747

3-Chicago-3,399,207

4-Houston-2,294,046

5-Philadelphia-2,069,718

6-Phoenix-1,628,525

7-San Diego-1,497,701

8-Dallas-1,407,532

9-San Antonio-1,403,314

10-Detroit-1,196,955

11-Indianapolis-1,119,160

12-Louisville-1,046,690 *

13-Columbus-1,038,738

14-Jacksonville-1,025,783

15-San Jose-989,459

16-San Francisco-948,721

17-Baltimore-884,273

18-Memphis-879,998

19-Austin-863,750

20-Seattle-820,870

21-Milwaukee-787,460

22-Charlotte-778,986

23-Nashville-776,935

24-Denver-773,023

25-Washington-756,502

26-Portland-751,562

27-Boston-741,777

28-Oklahoma City-710,578

other cities-

Cleveland-662,462

Fort Worth-654,191

El Paso-653,087

Albuquerque-643,925

Tuscon- 630,151

New Orleans-626,300

Las Vegas-620,701

Atlanta-542,329

Pittsburgh-487,720

Long Beach-473,940

Cincinnati-470,281

St Louis-460,810

Toledo-456,398

Buffalo-438,824

Miami-360,877

*includes the entire county

I could've done more but the census site isn't running on the section I'm using so I'd thought I'd post what I already have. You never know a second chance might not come by.

[monsoon]

Some of these places have added a lot of housing in the 6 years since the 2000 census was produced.

[Minneapolitan]

Just curious as to why you left the central cities of Minneapolis-St. Paul off your list. The two are usually combined in most urban-related studies due to the fact that they are literally bordering one another. Anyway, I know at one point the two cities had a combined population of roughly 800,000 in just over 107 sq. miles and neither were overcrowded.

Here's something interesting:

Minneapolis 2000 - 382,613 residents; 162,363 housing units

Minneapolis 1950 - 521,718 residents; 105,817 housing units

Minneapolis 1940 - 492,370 residents; 85,922 housing units

[bmorescottamanda]

17-Baltimore-884,273

Baltimore could hold more than that it was up to about 1 million in the 1950's plus They are building a lot of high-rise condo's downtown.