Example of a second city would be Pittsburgh for Pennsylvania and San Francisco for California. Basically, the second city in terms of influence and/or population. The first city is usually also the capital of a country, state or province as well, but that doesn’t have to be the case.
A famous example in my country would be Amsterdam (first) vs. Rotterdam (second).
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If I had to choose, I would say Buffalo. I’ve never been there, but I understand it’s kind of a decrepit rust belt city. Still, it is the home of the Buffalo Wings, and it isn’t far from Niagara Falls.
If I choose Montgomery: So bad that the Confederates couldn’t stand having it as the capital
If I choose Mobile: Cute town, underrated
If I choose Huntsville: Knockoff version of other towns
Buffalo is the second largest city in NY. For those of us who live in the NYC area, it may as well be in Canada.
I live in Oregon in what is effectively the “Second city,” Eugene. I love it here and would never want to move to Portland. It’s a beautiful city with lovely neighborhoods, great outdoor access, and plenty of stuff to do, in my opinion. We have a lot of the same issues as Portland, like a lack of housing and a terrible homelessness crisis, just to a much lesser degree. And it’s much more pleasant to live here, with much less traffic and less general agita.
Ironically Eugene has almost exactly the population of Salem, but Salem is notorious for being a big nothing. I am not sure what the difference is exactly – Eugene has a bigger university, more businesses, more arts and culture, and has just developed differently.
My state doesn’t even have a “first city”. Seriously I can’t think of one and I’ve lived here all my life.
The only city that remotely qualifies isn’t even in our state – Philadelphia.
Colorado Springs. If you’re a conservative Christian it will scratch all your itches, but if you’re not you’ll probably wish you lived in any of the other Front Range cities besides Pueblo or Greeley.
I’m curious to see how that guy who love Buffalo, NY answers this question.
He might say New York is New York’s second city.
EDIT: I feel bad this is currently the top post in this sub.
For Michigan it’s Grand Rapids. Lots of good beer, very hip and seems to be thriving. Makes for a great weekend trip from Detroit.
Maine’s second city is Lewiston and then close behind is Bangor. I can’t speak much for Lewiston but Bangor has a lovely airport, good people, a few necessary things that are harder to find in the countryside. It’s difficult to identify anything in Maine as a “second city” because the first one is so small anyway.
Duluth
Probably one of the most underrated tourist cities in America.
We really only have 3, maybe 4, cities: obviously Boston, and then Worcester and Springfield. Most people outside of New England have probably never heard of them or can’t say anything about them.
I live in one of them and my opinions on them are complicated I guess.
Cheyenne and Casper go back and forth for the highest population so I guess those.
It’s either Spokane or Tacoma, and honestly both really have a niche for people since Tacoma is as close to Seattle without being a real part of it, and Spokane may as well be on a different planet in nearly aspect: dry but still green, politically polar, much less exciting, culturally isolated and less noisy
San Diego is the second city by population within city limits, but San Francisco is the real second city of California.
It’s nice, but like LA, it’s badly managed. I always enjoyed visiting.
Tulsa.
It’s okay as far as cities go.
That’s a tough one, but I would say Rockford.
It’s awful. Never go to Rockford. It’s a decaying, blue collar industrial town.
There’s also Peoria, which isn’t terrible.
It’s either Las Cruces or Santa Fe. I’d say Las Cruces since Santa Fe is so close to Albuquerque and they’re pretty interconnected.
Las Cruces is hotter, drier, lower elevation, and the food is a bit different than up north in Albuquerque and Santa Fe. It has more of the feel of a college town, probably just because it’s so much smaller than ABQ that the university dominates it more. I like it and I’ve lived there before, but I definitely prefer the larger city feel of Albuquerque, as well as the weather and closeness to mountains.
If we consider the “Twin Cities” to be one city, I would say Duluth is the second city… where the REAL hipsters live.
Seriously though, Duluth is amazing. There’s so much to see, and Lake Superior is beautiful.
I don’t know what Ohio’s first city is never mind the second. Both are one of the C’s.
Gonna grab some popcorn to witness the fight between citizens of St. Louis and Kansas City.
(PS: 816>314. Math checks out!)
If Miami is the biggest city in Florida, then I would say Tampa or Orlando?
per your example, pittsburgh. I’m from western pa so I’m biased but I’m a fan
> The first city is usually considered the capital of a country, state or province
as a side note, state capitals in the us are rarely the most culturally influential or populous cities in those states. I’m willing to bet many if not almost all of our state capitals would get an absolutely blank stare from non-americans because they’ve never heard of them
I’d say Fort Wayne for Indiana. It’s the second-largest city, and is starting to cultivate a Portland/Austin “keep it weird” vibe. Probably the only other real contenders for the title would be South Bend (which is more an extension of Chicago) and Bloomington (pretty much entirely because of IU.)
Savannah. And it’s the weirdest place on Earth (and I mean that in a very good way). Whole different world than Atlanta.
Madison, our capital, seems like a nice city every time I am there, and of course has the ‘flagship’ university of the U of W system.
I don’t know what would count as Virginia’s first city.
Virginia Beach is the largest city but that’s an artifact of a weird city/county system that largely only exists here. The commercial engine of the the Hampton roads area is Norfolk.
But that’s very recent compared to Richmond which these days is a smaller city compared to other regions. Still it’s historic and cultural cache give the city an outsized influence.
Meanwhile places in northern Virginia like Arlington and Alexandria are bigger and denser than either Richmond or Norfolk but that’s just because of Washington DC being right there but not part of either Virginia or Maryland. And well Arlington is politically organized as a county but it’s completely urbanized.
So, I guess if you pick Richmond as number 1 for it’s role as state capital and overall history despite not being the biggest anymore I’d say Norfolk is 2 because northern Virginia is too disjointed from an administrative standpoint despite being the population/economy being much bigger than other areas of the state.
But you could swap all that around and make a good case. Or just saying Arlington is number 2 both for Virginia but also the dc metro area.
Tucson. It’s a nice place for the most part,especially if you’re going to school there. It has gotten expensive, and the traffic is annoying, but there’s tons of stuff to do there, the city has its own unique identity, the food there is delicious, and the weather during winter cannot be beat. It’s also a great place to do stargazing because just outside the city is some of the darkest, most pristine nighttime skies you’re gonna see anywhere.
Reno. It isn’t too bad there and quite a nice small city near Lake Tahoe. But when I was in school in Vegas people would joke they’d rather be dead in Vegas than alive in Reno 😂