User:Joseph R P/City classification proposals (Mid-Atlantic)

Listed below are the places in Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware that I personally believe should be cities, based on their population, prominence, notability, amenities, and more. The purpose of this page is to get opinions from others and to get place classification consistence within the aforementioned states.

For the time being, the page is complete with any future changes being things that were discussed to change and copy edits. In the future, I may also include towns as well as more states. Please let me know about anything that needs clarification.

Personal criteria for city classification

Primary factors

The two following factors, when both equally considered when classifying place and observed more than the other factors further down in the list, will help you identify which places are the most significant in a region.

• Population

The population of a place is one of the more obvious factors for classifying a place as a city. For example, if a town has a population of 45,000 while the other close-by towns have around 10-20,000 residents, the former may be a good candidate for city classification, so long as it is noticeably more important than the others. Although many (perhaps even the majority) users around the US consider the minimum population required for city classification to be 50,000, however, this is not explicitly stated in the page for tag:place=city. As a result, there are many city-classified places, especially in states west of the Mississippi River, which have populations as low as 3,000.

(This can't be decided by me and needs to be agreed upon by everyone interested in place classification.) Personally, I believe that the minimum population of a place classified as a city should depend on how urban or rural it is and should be as followed:

- For rural communities, this minimum should be around 10,000, as long as the place isn't overshadowed by another nearby town with a much higher population. A community like this will usually be found in states like Nebraska, the Dakotas, Kansas, etc. as well as some northeastern states.

- For exurban or suburban communities, this minimum should be around 25,000, particularly applying to the most prominent and notable places in a suburban metro area. Ex.: Manassas, Fairfax, Leesburg, and Fredericksburg in Virginia.

- For urban communities close to or bordering a much more major city, this minimum should be around 75,000, particularly applying to communities that aren't very prominent compared to the nearby city but still large, populous, and notable. Ex.: Chesapeake, Virginia.

• Prominence

Less-considered than the population when classifying places is the prominence (i.e. how much it sticks out in compared to the other nearby surrounding communities). Ask yourself this, which would you make the city here; the lesser-populated (pop. of 25k), more-notable, community with a proper city center and a higher density or the more-populated (pop. of 75k), less-notable, suburban sprawl community with a standard shopping center at its crossroads? Situations like this exist between places such as Gaithersburg and Germantown in Maryland and Manassas and Dale City in Virginia.

Secondary factors

"Secondary factors" are the classification factors that I consider to be less important then the above primary factors and won't be considered all the time when classifying places. These might end up being tiebreakers most of the time.

• Amenities

This will most likely only apply to rural communities, but if a place has the largest or the only airport, college, train station, hospital, etc. within a very remote area, that place may warrant city classification to indicate it's the most important community in the whole area.

• Location

If the place is located at junction between two major highways or railroads or maybe at an important port, that may add some significance to it.

• Notability

If you ever run into the situation where you had two similarly-populated places and where looking to classify one as a city and the other as a town, the one which may be more well-known out-of-state or even international or the most historically-significant may be the one to upgrade. However, not all well-known places should be a city if the less-know nearby place is much larger in population and has a higher prominence.

• Size

The area size of a place maybe also be a deciding factor in upgrading a place to city, but not all very-large places are highly-populated or prominent.

Virginia

• Alexandria (city; p. 158k)

Reason: More populous and prominent than other neighboring places

• Arlington (consolidated CDP-county; p. 236k)

Reason: Not very prominent, but very populous, large in size, and notable

• Blacksburg (town in Montgomery Co.; p. 44k)

Reason: More populous and important compared to the neighboring town of Christiansburg

• Bristol (city; p. 17k)

Reason: Significantly populous, prominent, and notable

• Chesapeake (city; p. 243k)

Reason: Not very prominent, but very populous, large in size, and notable

• Charlottesville (city; p. 47k)

Reason: Significantly populous, prominent, and important

• Danville (city; p. 41k)

Reason: The most populous and prominent place in a large area

• Fairfax (city; p. 23k)

Reason: Not the most populous, but the most prominent and notable place compared to neighboring communities

• Fredericksburg (city; p. 29k)

Reason: Not the most populous, but the most prominent and notable place compared to neighboring communities

• Hampton (city; p. 135k)

Reason: Very populous, notable, and large in size

• Harrisonburg (city; p. 54k)

Reason: Significantly populous and prominent

• Leesburg (town in Loudoun Co.; p. 54k)

Reason: More populous and prominent than other neighboring places

• Lynchburg (city; p. 81k)

Reason: Very populous, prominent, notable, and large in size

• Manassas (city; p. 41k)

Reason: Not the most populous, but the most prominent and notable place compared to neighboring communities

• Newport News (city; p. 180k)

Reason: Very populous, notable, and large in size

• Norfolk (city; p. 244k)

Reason: Very populous, prominent, notable, and large in size

• Petersburg (city; p. 31k)

Reason: Significantly populous, prominent, notable, and large in size

• Portsmouth (city; p. 95k)

Reason: Very populous, notable, and large in size

• Richmond (capital city; p. 229k)

Reason: Very populous, prominent, notable, and large in size, also the capital city of the state

• Roanoke (city; p. 99k)

Reason: Very populous, prominent, notable, and large in size

• Staunton (city; p. 25k)

Reason: More prominent than the neighboring city of Waynesboro, also located at a more important highway junction

• Suffolk (city; p. 91k)

Reason: Very populous, significantly prominent, and the largest-in-size city in the state

• Williamsburg (city; p. 15k)

Reason: Not very populous, but very prominent, notable, and historically significant

• Winchester (city; p. 28k)

Reason: Significantly populous, prominent, notable, and large in size

• Virginia Beach (city; p. 451k)

Reason: The most populous city in the state as well as being very prominent, notable, and large in size

Maryland

• Annapolis (capital city; p. 39k)

Reason: The state capital of Maryland

• Baltimore (city; p. 602k)

Reason: The most populous, prominent, and notable city in Maryland

• Bethesda (CDP; p. 65k)

Reason: Significantly populous, prominent, and notable

• Bowie (city; p. 58k)

Reason: Not very prominent, but significantly populous compared to neighboring communities

• Columbia (CDP; p. 105k)

Reason: Very populous and significantly prominent

• Cumberland (city; p. 19k)

Reason: Not very populous, but still populous on a regional scale as well as very prominent

• Dundalk (CDP; p. 63k)

Reason: Significantly populous and significantly prominent

• Frederick (city; p. 72k)

Reason: Very populous, prominent, and notable

• Gaithersburg (city; p. 68k)

Reason: Significantly populous, prominent, and notable

• Hagerstown (city; p. 40k)

Reason: Significantly populous, prominent, and notable

• Havre de Grace (city; p. 19k)

Reason: Not very populous, but the most populous and prominent place compare to nearby communities

• Laurel (city; p. 35k)

Reason: Not the most populous, but the most prominent place compared to nearby communities

• Ocean City (town; p. 7k)

Reason: Not very populous, but very prominent, notable, and important

• Rockville (city; p. 68k)

Reason: Significantly populous, prominent, and notable

• Salisbury (city; p. 33k)

Reason: Significantly populous and prominent

• Silver Spring (CDP; 81k)

Reason: Very populous and prominent and significantly notable

• Waldorf (CDP; p. 78k)

Reason: Not very prominent, but very populous as well as the most populous in the area

• Westminster (city; p. 19k)

Reason: Not very populous, but very prominent as well as the most populous and prominent in the area

Debatable

• Ellicott City (CDP; p. 73k)

Ellicott City is currently classified as a town, but one could argue that due to its population and regional significance, it should be classified as a city. However, in reality, it is just an amalgamation of a small town and about 70k residents-worth of Baltimore/Columbia sprawl around it, and because of that, it should probably remain a town.

Delaware

• Dover (capital city; p. 37k)

Reason: Significant populous, prominent as well as the state capital

• Middletown (town; p. 22k)

Reason: Not very populous, but regionally prominent

• Newark (city; p. 34k)

Reason: Significantly populous, prominent, and notable

• Wilmington (city; p. 71k)

Reason: The most populous, prominent city in the state

Notes and sources

Population source: 2020 Census

Other data (location, size, etc.): OpenStreetMap