In your opinion, what are the 5 most important cities in the United States?
January 22, 2010 7:12 AM   Subscribe

In your opinion, what are the 5 most important cities in the United States? (Bonus points for a list of the top 10)

I'm curious about what people would consider to be the 5 most important cities in the United States. I'm guessing that most people would choose New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Washington, DC, but then what? I also wonder what most people would list as the top 10 most important cities in the U.S.

To be clear, I mean this question in most general possible sense. In my mind, factors that would make a city important include (but are not limited to) population, economic activity, geographic importance (is it a major port?), foreign recognition, cultural/historical importance, political activity, amount of corporate headquarters, amount of well-regarded universities nearby, etc.

Obviously, this is a very subjective question; there's no way to measure these cities with any precision (other than population comparisons), and there's no way to formulate a completely generalised ranking here. Importance, after all, is entirely a matter of context and bias. So I guess I'm just interested in what people would list if asked to make a list of only 5 (or 10).

What do you think the top 5 (or top 10) most important cities in the U.S. are? (Feel free to rank them if you wish)
posted by capitalist.pig to Society & Culture (4 answers total)

This post was deleted for the following reason: This is pretty much a poll / chatfilter. -- cortex

 
in this order...

New York
Washington DC
Boston
Los Angeles
Chicago
posted by kmavap at 7:15 AM on January 22, 2010


Given Florida's importance in the electoral landscape, and the importance of the burgeoning Latino minority in general, I think Miami would fill out the top 5 along with the cities you mentioned.
posted by Joe Beese at 7:17 AM on January 22, 2010


Your top four in exactly that order, and then either Miami, Houston or Boston, depending on my mood and what kind of lunch I'm thinking about.

(Cuban, barbeque or chowduh, obviously.)
posted by rokusan at 7:18 AM on January 22, 2010


I think it's a toss up between Boston (which is a powerful tech, education, and financial center) and Miami (probably a bigger cultural center with a lot more gloss).
posted by Admiral Haddock at 7:18 AM on January 22, 2010


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