Metros where 2nd state isn't really 2nd

[edsg25]

Which metropolitan areas draw some of their greatest strength from their portions outside of the state of their major city?

Few would qualify, i believe.

Eliminating Washington, DC, due to the fact DC isn't a state, the norm would be the city's state dominates:

NYC: NY over NJ, CT
Phila: PA over NJ
Chgo: IL over IN, WI
StL: MO over IL

the only places I can think of that are expections:

Kansas City: Kansas suburbs are generally considered better than Missouri suburbs

Cincinnati: Newport and Covington serve as an exention of the downtown area and the airport is in KY, not OH

[Suburbanite]

As far as multi-state metropolitan areas go, the Quad Cities are an interesting case.

Consider this: Of the four titular cities, two are in Iowa (Davenport and Bettendorf) and two are in Illinois (Rock Island and Moline). The Quad Cities metro consists of five counties; two are in Iowa (Scott and Muscatine) and three are in Illinois (Rock Island, Mercer, and Henry). In terms of central city population, Iowa has the edge with Davenport and Bettendorf combined with a population of 131,000 and Moline and Rock Island on the Illinois side having a total population of 84,000. Illinois, however, has the slight edge in metro population with Henry, Mercer, and Rock Island county populations totaling 219,000, and Scott and Muscatine counties in Iowa with 204,000.

Conclusion: The Quad Cities metro might be the only two state metro in the nation without a dominant state.

[bay_area]

Northern NJ is a major corporate address. CT is home to the largest company in the Eastern US, GE, and lets not forget that hundreds of thousands of upper and upper middle class live in the NJ and CT counties that are part of NY.

That said, the city and NY portion of the Metro is unbelievably productive, wealthy and saturated with corporations too.

I guess the NY Metro just exudes power at all directions. LOL

[Furiine]

Maybe Fargo? MN over ND is my only guess, sans Fargo that is...

[Xusein]

There aren't much examples...LOL.

But, yeah...While not that big economically or in population, Southwest CT does pack a punch in the NYC metro...it is dwarfed by obvious examples.

[TheKansan]

Originally Posted by edsg25

Which metropolitan areas draw some of their greatest strength from their portions outside of the state of their major city?

Kansas City: Kansas suburbs are generally considered better than Missouri suburbs

First of all I am from Kansas, but I am not fool enough to suggest for even one second that the Kansas suburbs are better than the Missouri suburbs, or that Kansas has something to offer that Missouri does not. When it comes down to it the only thing the Kansas suburbs have to offer is proximity to a great city.

I admit that I am not a traditional Kansas suburbanite since I live in Kansas City, Kansas and not Johnson county, but the last thing I want is for our region to become even more fragmented by what you are suggesting edsg25.

[Chicagoago]

Originally Posted by ORDgasm

As far as multi-state metropolitan areas go, the Quad Cities are an interesting case.

Consider this: Of the four titular cities, two are in Iowa (Davenport and Bettendorf) and two are in Illinois (Rock Island and Moline). The Quad Cities metro consists of five counties; two are in Iowa (Scott and Muscatine) and three are in Illinois (Rock Island, Mercer, and Henry). In terms of central city population, Iowa has the edge with Davenport and Bettendorf combined with a population of 131,000 and Moline and Rock Island on the Illinois side having a total population of 84,000. Illinois, however, has the slight edge in metro population with Henry, Mercer, and Rock Island county populations totaling 219,000, and Scott and Muscatine counties in Iowa with 204,000.

Conclusion: The Quad Cities metro might be the only two state metro in the nation without a dominant state.

Yeah, the Quad Cities are a strange creature.

Until the 1960's the area was called the Tri-Cities. This was for Davenport, Moline, and Rock Island. In the 1960's East Moline was added to the mix, to create the Quad Cities. This contained 1 city in Iowa, and 3 in Illinois.

By 1980, Bettendorf in Iowa had actually surpassed East Moline as far as population and prosperity. As a result, some tried to re-name it the Quint Cities - but since the name Quad Cities was fairly well known at the time, Quint didn't pan out. Instead, they quietly dethroned East Moline, and replaced it with Bettendorf. This is where we stand today, 4 cities, 2 states, each state having 2 cities.

Also unique is that the telephone company added to the unity of the region by having 2 different area codes in 2 different states be able to call each other without dialing the area code prefix before the number. Hence you can call across state boarders with a 7 digit number.

The 1980's decimated the whole region though, with tens of thousands of manufacturing layoffs, which has stagnated the area to this day. The Iowa side is recovering better than the Illinois side though, with population increases, a more healthy economy, and a lower crime rate. Not to say the Illinois side isn't reconstructing their urban cores. Metro population totals are still below 1980 levels, after losing 33,000 people during that decade, almost all in Illinois.

2000:

Davenport 98,359
Bettendorf 31,275

Moline 43,768
Rock Island 39,684
East Moline 20,333

1980:

Davenport 103,264 loss of 4.7%
Bettendorf 27,381 Gain of 14.2%

Moline 45,709 loss of 4.2%
Rock Island 46,928 loss of 15.4%
East Moline 20,907 loss of 2.7%

It's strange to have these 4 cities smashed together with a unified economy and have 4 very distinct skylines and downtown areas. Maybe it has also hindered their recovery and growth to have 4 seperate cities covering 2 different states - all trying to act as one metro area.

[Suburbanite]

^What's intersting is that if the quad cities ( including East Moline ) combined into one city they would be larger than Des Moines, which currently enjoys a higher profile nationally. Maybe they should do that.

[Suburbanite]

Originally Posted by TheKansan

First of all I am from Kansas, but I am not fool enough to suggest for even one second that the Kansas suburbs are better than the Missouri suburbs, or that Kansas has something to offer that Missouri does not. When it comes down to it the only thing the Kansas suburbs have to offer is proximity to a great city.

I admit that I am not a traditional Kansas suburbanite since I live in Kansas City, Kansas and not Johnson county, but the last thing I want is for our region to become even more fragmented by what you are suggesting edsg25.

Well, in defense of edsg, I also got the impression that the Kansas suburbs seem more prosperous than the Missouri suburbs. Particularly Olathe and Overland Park. Bear in mind that my experience of the KC suburbs is limited to what is around I-35, but still the difference between Kansas and Missouri is striking around KC.

[jmancuso]

camden maybe an absolute pit (so is chester which is in PA) but there are some really nice towns/ suburbs on the NJ side of the philly metro...as nice as those on the PA side.

[UrbanMyth]

If I'm understanding the thread correctly, we are talking about cities in one state dominating a state adjecent to them?

[Chicagoago]

Originally Posted by ORDgasm

^What's intersting is that if the quad cities ( including East Moline ) combined into one city they would be larger than Des Moines, which currently enjoys a higher profile nationally. Maybe they should do that.

Maybe if you combined the actual cities it would be larger than the city of Des Moines - but you could use that example in a lot of scenarios.

The Quad City's have around 375,000 in the metro area - Des Moines is closing in on 500,000 or more. That's a pretty large difference. Metro Quad Cities were larger than Des Moines as recently as 1980 I believe, when QC's were around 400,000 and DSM was around 360,000, but then the QC's stagnated and Des Moines took off.

As of 2005 the Iowa City and Cedar Rapids areas ( only about 8 miles non-urban between them, and connected on many social levels ) have now surpassed the Quad Cities in population if you combine them - which is surprising since when I was born in 1980 you had probably a 70,000 or more difference in the two.

[AndySocks]

NYC's suburbs (not counting the city itself) have a much larger, probably double, out-of-state population than in-state. However, because of the city, NY metro has 1/3 higher population in NYS than in NJ and CT combined.

Locally, the phrase "New York area" is almost never used to describe the metro, "the Tri-State Area" and "NY/NJ/CT" (referring to the areas in the metro, not the whole states) are favored by far in the media. Had New York the city a different name from New York the state, this phenomenon would probably not exist. While both terms originated in advertising and when describing radio coverage lest they alienate NJ and CT residents, Tri-State Area has been accepted by the general population as the term to describe the whole metro.

While NYS obviously comes out with the highest population, CT and NJ don't really play second-fiddle, since their populations are significant enough to prevent NYS from dominating the region.