Some True Nerd Shit

So this is some true nerd number running right here and this post comes as a companion to my last post.

After a recent trip to Austin and some research I did upon my return it occurred to me that most large American cities are much bigger land wise than the large cities we have here in the Northeast. Due to this people who have spent most of their lives living in the Northeast may have a distorted view of what makes a large city. I contend that because of the city and town system of New England, even though the towns surrounding a large city are autonomous, independent and have their own municipal governments the group of towns and cities themselves are what dictate the culture of the metropolitan area that gives the core city it's reputation. So I present to you the stats for Worcester, Boston, Providence, Lowell, Hartford, and Springfield. 1st column is the population, second column is the land area in sq miles, third column is the density people per square mile. On the bottom you will find the totals. Since Austin was the inspiration for this I tried to get as close to 300 sq miles as I could. This is by no means scientific but I do think it illustrates my point, which is to stop thinking of Worcester as the second biggest city and trying to get it to live up to all the expectations that entails.

So to start off with Worcester:

Worcester	182,596	37.60	4,678.10
Shrewsbury	31,640	20.70	1,526.30
Westborough	17,997	20.50	876.90
Auburn	16,259	15.40	1,035.30
Holden	15,621	35.00	446.40
Grafton	14,894	22.70	655.00
Northborough	14,013	18.50	756.10
Clinton	13,435	5.70	2,355.70
Oxford	13,352	26.60	501.50
Northbridge	13,182	17.20	767.20
Millbury	12,784	15.70	812.50
Spencer	11,691	32.90	355.90
Charlton	11,263	42.50	264.80
Leicester	10,471	23.40	448.30
West Boylston	7,481	12.90	580.00
Paxton	4,386	14.70	297.70
Boylston	4,008	16.00	250.00
	372,547	293.00	1,271.49

Boston:

Boston	620,535	48.43	12,813.00
Cambridge	105,594	6.43	15,767.96
Quincy	92,339	16.80	5,496.40
Lynn	87,122	10.80	8,066.90
Newton	83,271	18.10	4,600.60
Somerville	74,405	4.10	18,147.60
Waltham	59,758	12.70	4,705.40
Malden	55,712	5.10	10,923.90
Medford	55,565	8.10	6,859.90
Revere	55,341	5.90	9,379.80
Weymouth	53,272	17.00	3,133.60
Arlington	41,144	5.20	7,912.30
Chelsea	38,203	2.20	17,365.00
Everett	37,269	3.40	10,961.50
Braintree	34,422	13.90	2,476.40
Watertown	32,521	4.10	7,932.00
Randolph	30,168	10.10	2,987.00
Needham	28,263	12.60	2,243.10
Melrose	26,708	4.70	5,698.30
Wellesley	26,613	10.18	2,614.10
Saugus	26,078	11.00	2,373.70
Milton	25,961	13.00	1,976.00
Dedham	24,132	10.50	2,298.30
Belmont	23,356	4.70	4,969.40
Canton	21,916	18.90	1,159.60
Winthrop	20,154	2.00	10,077.00
Hull	11,050	3.00	3,648.90
Nahant	3,632	1.20	2,918.70
	1,794,504	284.14	6,315.56

Providence:

Providence	171,557	18.50	9,473.00
Warwick	85,808	35.50	2,457.00
Cranston	79,269	28.60	2,774.70
Pawtucket	71,765	8.70	8,437.00
East Providence	49,515	13.40	3,692.00
North Providence	32,411	5.70	5,720.20
West Warwick	29,581	7.90	3,728.70
Johnston	28,195	23.70	1,191.40
Lincoln	20,898	18.20	1,146.60
Smithfield	20,613	26.60	775.30
Central Falls	18,683	1.20	18,683.00
Barrington	16,812	8.40	1,997.90
Scituate	10,324	48.70	212.10
	635,431	245.10	2,592.54

Hartford:

Hartford	124,512	17.30	7,025.50
New Britain	71,254	13.30	5,358.70
West Hartford	61,173	22.00	2,781.00
Manchester	55,572	27.30	2,036.00
East Hartford	49,173	18.00	2,732.00
Newington	29,676	13.20	2,248.00
Vernon	29,491	17.70	1,666.00
Windsor	28,778	29.60	972.00
Wethersfield	26,220	12.40	2,115.00
South Windsor	25,985	28.00	928.00
Farmington	24,941	28.10	888.00
Bloomfield	20,581	26.00	792.00
Berlin	19,590	26.50	739.00
Rocky Hill	18,760	13.50	1,390.00
Windsor Locks	12,411	9.00	1,379.00
	573,176	273.90	2,092.65

Springfield:

Springfield	150,640	32.10	4,692.80
Chicopee	54,563	22.90	2,389.70
Westfield	40,072	46.60	860.30
Holyoke	39,958	21.30	1,871.40
Agawam	28,144	23.20	1,210.90
West Springfield	27,899	16.80	1,665.70
Ludlow	21,209	27.20	752.10
South Hadley	17,196	17.70	971.00
Longmeadow	15,633	9.00	1,732.50
East Longmeadow	14,100	13.00	1,087.10
Wilbraham	13,473	22.20	606.30
Belchertown	12,968	52.70	245.90
Palmer	12,497	31.50	396.30
Southwick	8,835	31.00	285.40
Hampden	5,171	19.60	263.30
	436,422	281.40	1,550.90

Lowell:

Lowell	103,512	13.80	7,500.90
Methuen	43,979	22.40	1,963.30
Billerica	42,038	25.90	1,623.00
Chelmsford	34,128	22.70	1,503.40
Andover	31,247	31.00	1,007.80
Tewksbury	29,607	20.70	1,430.30
Dracut	29,498	20.90	1,411.40
Burlington	25,034	11.80	2,121.50
Westford	22,066	30.60	712.10
Wilmington	21,679	17.10	1,267.80
Bedford	13,146	13.70	959.60
Tyngsborough	11,860	16.90	701.80
Groton	10,641	32.80	324.40
	418,435	280.30	1,492.81

So there it is. Again, I wrote my last entry on the fly without looking back at these numbers so the numbers I quoted were exagerated, however, these numbers here, all taken from 2000 census numbers do illustrate my point. If all cities in New England were southern city size, Worcester would be number 6 of the bunch (maybe further down as I haven't run the numbers for New Haven or Bridgeport, which by the rules I set would probably just be one gigantic city).

The city (government and it's citizens) need to stop referring to the city as the second largest in New England because it simply is not and it leads to expectations that simply cannot and will not be met.

They're just not that into you Worcester

I am slowly starting to realize that this right here is Worcester's biggest obstacle to becoming a true city with a non poor urban core. The majority of people who grow up in Central Mass and stay here are not people who enjoy a dense urban lifestyle. People who do enjoy city living and want to stay in the area almost always end up moving to Boston, Providence or NYC. So what you have left is a very small minority of folks who truly love the city and are living in the urban neighborhoods and trying to make things better. Than you have folks moving to "the second largest city in New England" (a title true in population only and false in every other way imaginable) expecting all that title would entail and being hugely disappointed. What you have here is a bunch of people trying to run a city who haven't the faintest clue about what true city living is being voted in by a population who could care less about true city living.

Worcester for most of it's history prior to the industrial revolution was a small town. In the span of about 40 very quick years it became a city on the cusp of being a great American city. I-290, the GI bill, and white flight halted this practice in it's tracks in the 50's and 60's and the entire city has been an exercise in futility ever since. The title of second largest city in New England plus the skyscrapers and other big city infrastructure has fooled Central Mass into having faith that this city should be something it isn't and fooled New England and the rest of the outside world to expect this city to be something it just doesn't have the capacity of becoming.

Add in the fact that the metropolitan area is absolutely tiny. Worcester has far less people coming into the city on a daily basis to use it's services and amenities than Boston, Providence, Hartford, New Haven, Springfield, and Albany, and even Lowell. We like to compare ourselves to Providence but people can't seem to grasp the idea that a Northeastern cities density and metropolitan area are what make it feel like a large city not it's population.

If Boston was laid out like a southern city of over 150 square miles it would be an absolute megalopolis. Providence and Hartford would be very large cities of over a million people. Worcester would still only be about 300,000 people. Think about that next time you are comparing and thinking about what you think Worcester should be versus what it is.