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I definitely agree that the Bay Area and DC area are the two most comparable metro areas in the country, even though they're on opposite coasts. Reasons why they're comparable:
- The MSA/CSA debate holds true in both instances. San Jose is more populated than San Francisco, just as Baltimore is more populated than DC. However, the SF and DC each remain as the cultural nexus of their metro areas.
- Metro and BART are the two archetypical metro/suburban hybrid transit systems and both came about in the mid 1970s
- The suburbs in both the DC and SF-Oakland areas are more diverse than the city propers
- Among metro areas over three milllion, the DC and SF areas were the most Democratic in the 2008 election
- They both vie for the positions of most educated and wealthy metro areas in the country
- As stated in a couple other threads regarding diverse suburbs, DC and San Francisco have the most diverse suburbs of any large metro area in the country
- Both metro areas have popular wineries
- Both cities are separated from a portion of their suburban regions by water (SF is separated from Marin county by the Golden Gate strait and from Alameda County by the San Francisco Bay, whereas DC is separated from its Virginia suburbs by the Potomac River)
- The suburban black segregation patters are similar; the overwhelming majority of blacks in both metro areas reside on the eastern portion of each metro area (though the numbers in DC are much larger)
- Both metro areas contain old, dense, walkable cities bordered by dense suburbs (sometimes separated by a body of water), and lots of new construction/sunbelt-style sprawl in outlying areas
There are probably more similarities that I missed. Nonetheless, I feel that these are two most similar metro areas in the country.
I think you covered it. You could even throw in the Chesapeake Bay in there as well. Would that make DC-Baltimore another Bay Area? Hmm...
I definitely agree that the Bay Area and DC area are the two most comparable metro areas in the country, even though they're on opposite coasts. Reasons why they're comparable:
- The MSA/CSA debate holds true in both instances. San Jose is more populated than San Francisco, just as Baltimore is more populated than DC. However, the SF and DC each remain as the cultural nexus of their metro areas.
I disagree that DC is the cultural nexus of the area. DC has lots of national museums due to the Fed being located there. However, I think Baltimore is bursting with culture that is hundreds of years old (and older than DC). There is an amazing mix of food, museums and theatres throughout the city. Now, I think DC has a lot to offer, so I guess I'm disagreeing with the whole Baltimore is to DC as Oakland is to SF argument. Baltimore's history and size (was a top 10 city from 1790 census to 1980, which makes for an impressive infrastructure and array of amenities) are fairly significant.
the redskins lost to detroit, i wont show dc any respect until next sunday.
I don't want to further fuel the Baltimore vs. DC thing.
But I do see this a lot coming from the Bmore side, and that is to quickly make the debate about sports.
It really has nothing to do with anything and I think its kind of an unhealthy attachment I see in Baltimore to have so much city pride tied up to sports.
SF Bay Area, as the op said, all things being equal, I'd choose the west coast
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boredatwork
