1 Philadelphia x
2 Pittsburgh
3 Allentown x
4 Erie
5 Reading x
6 Scranton x
7 Bethlehem x
8 Lancaster x
9 Harrisburg x
10 Altoona
11 York x
12 State College x
13 Wilkes-Barre x
14 Chester
15 Williamsport x
16 Easton x
17 Lebanon
18 Hazleton x
19 New Castle
20 Johnstown
I need to get out more:
- Des Moines - Yes
- Cedar Rapids - No
- Davenport - No
- Sioux City - Yes
- Iowa City - No
- Waterloo - No
- Council Bluffs - Yes
- Ames - Yes
- West Des Moines - Yes
- Dubuque - No
- Ankeny - Yes
- Urbandale - Yes
- Cedar Falls - No
- Marion - No
- Bettendorf - No
- Marshalltown - No
- Mason City - No
- Clinton - No
- Burlington - No
- Ottumwa - No
7/20
Chicago: Yes
Aurora: Yes
Rockford: Yes
Joliet: Yes, long ago
Naperville: Lived there for 12 years
Springfield: Yes
Peoria: Yes
Elgin: Yes
Waukegan: Yes
Cicero: Yes, my friend and I (two suburban white kids) drove through Cicero in a car with T-tops open, no muffler, blasting Boston on his stereo. When we realized the neighborhood we were in, we had a good laugh at our own cluelessness.
Champaign: Yes, lived here 3 years.
Bloomington: Yes
Decatur: Might have passed through, but maybe not.
Arlington Heights: Yes
Evanston: Yes
Schaumburg: Yes
Bolingbrook: Lived here 8 years.
Palatine: Yes
Skokie: Yes
Des Plaines: Yes
19/20 for Illinois
Of course, now I live in Iowa:
Des Moines: Yes
Cedar Rapids: Yes
Davenport: Yes
Sioux City: No
Waterloo: Yes
Iowa City: Yes
Council Bluffs: No
Ames: Yes
Dubuque: Yes
West Des Moines: Yes
Ankeny: Yes
Urbandale: Yes
Cedar Falls: Yes
Marion: Yes
Bettendorf: Yes
Mason City: No
Marshalltown: Yes, just driving through
Clinton: Yes
Burlington: No
Fort Dodge: No
15/20 in Iowa – much higher than I expected. The 20th largest city in IL is almost 3 times the size of the 20th in Iowa.
What counts as “been to”? Because the seventh largest “city” in MA is apparently Brockton which, because it contains Rte. 24, I’ve apparently been to, but never consciously even noted its very existence. And some of the others, I have just driven through. You can tag many of Massachusett’s biggest towns just by driving down I-93.
Apparently in Massachusetts, population and “interesting” are not very correlated. I mean, Haverhill is on the list. Haverhill! Which is still more interesting than Lawrence.
Heh, nine of the largest cities in Missouri are what everyone considers “St. Louis,” and six are “Kansas City.” That leaves five outstate, and I’ve been to them, too.
19/20 for Washington. Everything in the top 20 but Kennewick.
Of course, that’s not hard. 13 of the top 20 are Seattle and its suburbs, and a trip out to Spokane will get you another 3.
I should mention, though, that some of these cities I’ve only been to in the sense that I waved from the highway on the way by.
Yes 1 Los Angeles
Yes 2 San Diego
Yes 3 San Jose
Yes 4 San Francisco
Yes 5 Fresno
Yes 6 Long Beach
Yes 7 Sacramento
Yes 8 Oakland
Yes 9 Bakersfield
Yes 10 Anaheim
Yes 11 Santa Ana
Maybe drove through 12 Riverside
Yes 13 Stockton
Probably Not 14 Chula Vista
Yes 15 Fremont
Yes 16 Irvine
Maybe drove through 17 San Bernardino
Yes 18 Modesto
Probably not 19 Oxnard
Maybe drove through 20 Fontana
I thought Redding was bigger than it is. It’s smaller than Vacaville.
Good point. If you have driven I-95 through Virginia, you will have “been” to four of the cities on the VA list, namely Petersburg, Richmond, Fredericksburg, and Alexandria, but you will have experienced almost nothing of what these cities have to offer. E.g. get off at US 1 in Alexandria and go see George Washington’s favorite bar! Maybe even have a drink.
After nearly 16 years in Maryland (plus two years there as a kid), I finally think of myself as a Marylander rather than a Virginian. But I’ll do both.
Maryland:
Baltimore Yes
Frederick Yes
Rockville Yes
Gaithersburg Yes
Bowie Yes
Hagerstown Yes
Annapolis Yes
College Park Yes
Salisbury Yes
Laurel Yes
Greenbelt Yes
Cumberland Yes
Westminster Yes
Hyattsville Yes
Takoma Park Yes
Aberdeen No
Havre de Grace Yes
Cambridge Yes
New Carrollton Yes
Frostburg No
Nearly half of these are basically DC burbs. How long does it take to go from Bowie to New Carrollton to Hyattsville to College Park to Takoma Park to Rockville? Depends on traffic. Not long at all at, say, 6am on a Sunday morning. And by the time you get near the bottom of that list, the ones that aren’t burbs are small towns, not cities by any stretch of the imagination. Unlike Virginia, where Staunton is a city - a smallish one, but definitely a city.
Virginia:
1 Virginia Beach: yes
2 Norfolk: yes
3 Chesapeake: no
4 Richmond: yes
5 Newport News: yes
6 Alexandria: yes
7 Hampton: yes
8 Roanoke: yes
9 Portsmouth: no
10 Suffolk: no
11 Lynchburg: yes
12 Harrisonburg: yes
13 Charlottesville: yes
14 Danville: no
15 Manassas: yes
16 Petersburg: driven through on the interstate
17 Fredericksburg: yes
18 Winchester: yes
19 Salem: yes
20 Staunton: yes
I was amazed that I have been to all twenty (and lived longer than a year in five).
Chicago: Yes, used to work there.
Aurora: Yes, drove husband to a job there.
Rockford: Yes, had a relative there.
Joliet: Yes, lived near there.
Naperville: Yes, used to work there.
Springfield: Yes, but I don’t remember why. Probably vacation when I was a kid.
Peoria: Don’t remember.
Elgin: Yes, lived there, have relatives there.
Waukegan: Yes, husband had many court dates there.
Cicero: Yes, had lots of things goign on there.
Champaign: Yes, had band camp there.
Bloomington: Yes, my godparents lived there.
Decatur: Don’t remember.
Arlington Heights: Yes, all the time - track, shopping, etc.
Evanston: Yes, born there, and husband had a job there at one time I took him to.
Schaumburg: Yes, used to work there.
Bolingbrook: Yes, used to live there.
Palatine: Yes, live there.
Skokie: Yes, husband had a job there.
Des Plaines: Yes, used to work there, drive through it all the time.
Columbus - Y
Cleveland - Y
Cincinnati - Y
Toledo - Y
Akron - Been Through
Dayton - Y
Parma - N
Canton - N
Youngstown - Been Through
Lorain - N
Hamilton - Y
Springfield - Y
Kettering - Y
Elyria - N
Lakewood - N
Cuyahoga Falls - N
Euclid - N
Middletown - Y
Mansfield - N
Newark - N
In Texas, living here for this long and the work and vacationing I do mean I had to go to #37, San Angelo, to have a miss. In fact, I’m 66/67 and will need a bigger list.
Of the 67 cities on the Wiki list for Texas, it would probably be easier to list the ones I haven’t been to:
30. Round Rock
35. Pearland
52. Atascocita
59. Rowlett
64. Pflugerville
I’ve been an outside rep in Texas for a long time with a variety of territories and a lot of windshield time.
I don’t know if Washington is an easy state but I’ve easily been to the top 30
- Philadelphia- yes.
- Pittsburgh- yes
- Allentown- no
- Erie- yes
- Reading- yes
- Scranton- yes
- Bethlehem- yes
- Lancaster- yes
- Harrisburg- yes
- Altoona- yes
- York- yes
- State College- yes
- Wilkes-Barre- no
- Chester- yes
- Williamsport- no
- Easton- no
- Lebanon- no
- Hazleton- no
- New Castle- yes
- Johnstown- yes
I will note that, of the places I have visited, most of them are nondescript Pennsylvania towns and they are largely interchangeable with each other. Philadelphia and Pittsburgh stand out because they are genuine urban environments, especially Philadelphia. Erie is on the lake, but is not otherwise at all notable.
There are 23 cities in Maine and I have been to all of them except for one, Caribou.
If you have driven on I-35 through Austin, you drove through Round Rock. It’s where the IKEA is.
If you took the bypass around the E side of Austin, you went through part of Pflugerville.
If you drove on Tollway 8 south in Houston, you’ve touched on Pearland. Barely.
If you consider “driving through” the same as “been to”, that is.
Also Virginia. Much to my surprise, I’ve been to all of them.
From the 2010 census:
Maryland - 5,773,552
Baltimore city - 620,961 Yes
Frederick city - 65,239 No
Rockville city - 61,209 No
Gaithersburg city - 59,933 No
Bowie city - 54,727 Yes
Hagerstown city - 39,662 No
Annapolis city - 38,394 Yes
College Park city - 30,413 Yes
Salisbury city - 30,343 Yes
Laurel city - 25,115 Yes
Greenbelt city - 23,068 Yes
Cumberland city - 20,859 No (but I’ll be going in a couple of weeks)
Westminster city - 18,590 No
Hyattsville city - 17,557 No
Takoma Park city - 16,715 No
Easton town - 15,945 Yes
Elkton town - 15,443 No
Aberdeen city - 14,959 Yes
Havre de Grace city - 12,952 Yes
Cambridge city - 12,326 No
I’m not sure how Maryland defines “city” or “town” because Waldorf, which is home to all the big box stores and the mall and a lot of apartments and other businesses in this part of the state, doesn’t show up on the list. Same with Lexington Park, home of a large Naval Air Station.