• EABOD25@lemm.ee
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    2 months ago

    Ok! As per the marriam-webster definition of a metropolis:

    the chief or capital city of a country, state, or region,

    the city or state of origin of a colony (as of ancient Greece),

    a city regarded as a center of a specified activity,

    a large important city.

    As per Cambridge:

    a very large city, often the most important city in a large area or country.

    Collins:

    A metropolis is the largest, busiest, and most important city in a country or region.

    Britannica:

    a very large or important city — usually singular

    Oxford:

    A very large urban settlement usually with accompanying suburbs. No precise parameters of size or population density have been established. The structural, functional, and hierarchical evolution of global metropolises is rooted as much in the past as in the present: modern information and communications technology may be more advanced than the 19th-century telegraph, but the processes and outcomes are much the same (Daniels (2002) PHG 26). ‘[Berlin’s] wealth of facilities, as well as their scatter across the metropolis, can be understood only in the light of the city’s history and, paradoxically, its troubles.

    Longman:

    a very large city that is the most important city in a country or area

    You:

    NYC but only if half the people use public transit

    • jjjalljs@ttrpg.network
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      2 months ago

      I don’t think they were being literal or looking for a dictionary definition. I think they were saying the definition of a real city should hinge on the use of mass transit.

      Personally I think anywhere that’s car dependent isn’t somewhere I’d want to live.

      • AA5B@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        I think of it more as transit is a characteristic of a functioning city. You can’t scale well without it.

    • kinsnik@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      not OP, but according to some of those definitions (cambridge, collins, longman), NYC would be the only metropolis in the US, as it is the US’ largest, busiest, and most important city.

      • EABOD25@lemm.ee
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        2 months ago

        It goes by region. LA, San Diego, Chicago, Sacramento, San Francisco, Milwaukee, Detroit, Charlotte, Tulsa, San Antonio, Dallas, Atlanta, Cleveland, Las Vegas, Denver, etc… all fall under the definitions of a metropolis. And the most important city in US is not NYC, it’s Washington DC. NYC is just the most populated and industrialized, DC trump’s it in significance because that’s the epicenter of trade, labor, and industry policies

    • huginn@feddit.it
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      2 months ago

      Nah buddy I grew up in Atlanta you can’t convince me it’s a metropolis.

      There’s a nice little downtown core and then 99% suburban sprawl. Fuck that

    • FundMECFSResearch@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      2 months ago

      All those definitions use “city”. Does the definition of city require the kind of density that would make relying mostly on self-owned cars impossible? Depends, in america no, in other countries maybe.

      • Ledivin@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Does the definition of city require the kind of density that would make relying mostly on self-owned cars impossible?

        Ooooo, self-moving goalposts, nice!

      • EABOD25@lemm.ee
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        2 months ago

        No it doesn’t. However original commenter put a challenge out on what a metropolis is. I responded to the challenge.

      • dylanmorgan@slrpnk.net
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        2 months ago

        No. “City” is a legal designation for an inhabited area. Some legal frameworks place a minimum population requirement for designation as a city but none (AFAIK) require a population density value.

        For example, Oklahoma City is the largest city in the US by land area (or it was a few years ago) because the city limits were drawn that way. Population density was and is very low but it’s still a city.

        • FundMECFSResearch@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          2 months ago

          in some countries it is. Not in all. You can’t generalise the US’s rules for everywhere. Also, many words have both common and legal meanings.