200 Largest U.S.A. Major Cities 2021 From 2020 Census

[heights unknown]

Well, haven't seen it posted yet so here it is if it's legit; probably should have went to census.gov but I'll bet that's where they extracted this. Out of the top 20, Jax has the poorest showing, especially of consolidated cities, of peope per square mile (185). That is extremely paltry shwoing how un-dense Jax and/or Duval County really is; enjoy.

Click on the bleow link please.

https://worldpopulationreview.com/us-cities

[heights unknown]

As some in this forum have said and iterated, "population/people" make a city, not buildings, structures, landmarks or monuments. Well...if this is true, and I would agree that it is, and Jax has the population to "make a city, a great city" mind you, then WTH is wrong with the other part of this picture? The buildings, parks, entertainment places, bars, restaurants, skyscrapers (which seem to be going out of fashion), and I could go on and on. Well, we all know w hat the problem is, and I will leave it at that. As I've said, if Jax is going to be a city of 930,000 people, we reeally need to behave as one and in that vain; otherwise, drop the damn consolidation mask; 185 people per square mile says it all; Jax is not who she portrays or display herself to be to the U.S.A. or the world. Cruised around saturday, and today, Riverside/avondale...popping; Brooklyn...popping; San Marco...popping; Murray Hill...not popping but people walking around, shopping and eating; 5 Points...popping; Ortega...popping. Downtown, Northside, Springfield (is on the way up), Eastside, Tallyrand, Shipyards/Stadium District...sad, dreary, hardly any people, not popping in the least. I know, I'm beating a dead horse and I need to just shut up and let it go; I won't let it go. Lastly, I know you guys that run this forum may not be political; but you need to be. All of you are smart, intelligent, and know what this City (Jax) needs in order to be prosperous and successful. You should have a meeting and one of you should be tapped/picked out to run for Mayor, and the other smarties in the forum, if he or she wins, should be integral parts of that administration. IMO you all can do it. I think if you get pissed off bad enough you will. Alright...enough. It just angers me to see my city, moreso the urban core/downtown, beat down and stagnant like it is. On the whole Jax is better than it was IMO in the 70' and 80's. Thanks guys for reading.

[marcuscnelson]

Lastly, I know you guys that run this forum may not be political; but you need to be. All of you are smart, intelligent, and know what this City (Jax) needs in order to be prosperous and successful. You should have a meeting and one of you should be tapped/picked out to run for Mayor, and the other smarties in the forum, if he or she wins, should be integral parts of that administration. IMO you all can do it. I think if you get pissed off bad enough you will. Alright...enough. It just angers me to see my city, moreso the urban core/downtown, beat down and stagnant like it is. On the whole Jax is better than it was IMO in the 70' and 80's. Thanks guys for reading.

The challenge for some is that for every door you open to that end, other doors close. Becoming explicitly political on this site, beyond advocating for urban planning and transportation, means that whichever side you didn't choose will likely close their hearts & minds to you. This isn't to say that people on this site can't or won't ever be involved, just that there are risks, and any such organization would really have to be separate from what The Jaxson is as a website.

The other big thing is, as always, money. Thanks to Curry and Peyton before him, running a mayoral campaign is expensive. As I've said before, any candidate has to determine how to either get more of money from less people, or less money from more people. That's after you navigate the partisan structures that already exist, because like it or not, as long as we have partisan elections with national party labels, that is going to significantly impact who is willing to consider voting for or donating to you.

Also, just my opinion, but you need more than just a Mayor to make what you're talking about truly work. A Mayor can do a lot, but much less than they could with a Council that shares their interests. Which is more money, more effort, more time. It's certainly not impossible, with the right message, but it's an uphill battle nonetheless. What's important is keeping your eyes peeled, eventually someone good will be bold enough to throw their hat into the ring. And whenever they do that, they're going to need a lot of help.

[vicupstate]

Every one of the top 25 largest cities grew in population. In the '70's and '80's the majority would have been losing population.   

[WarDamJagFan]

Well, haven't seen it posted yet so here it is if it's legit; probably should have went to census.gov but I'll bet that's where they extracted this. Out of the top 20, Jax has the poorest showing, especially of consolidated cities, of peope per square mile (185). That is extremely paltry shwoing how un-dense Jax and/or Duval County really is; enjoy.

Click on the bleow link please.

https://worldpopulationreview.com/us-cities

But this is what makes Jacksonville unique from other cities with large populations. Sure, there's appeal to density and clustering so I won't argue against any of that. On the opposite side of the coin, there's something really nice about not being piled on top of each other as well. Jacksonville is a giant (and still growing) suburb. While most on here advocate for more clustering around the downtown area - an idea which I think is fine - I still think we are ignoring and not discussing the greatest resources this city has. Those resources are our river and ocean front. Water-front recreation and entertainment in this city is on par with that of a landlocked Las Vegas. Any given weekend there will be a thousand boats in our rivers which have nowhere to dock and walk. Even though you may find 50K people spread out on our beaches each weekend, the entire beach front from Ponte Vedra to Mayport is 98% residential. It makes absolutely no sense to me.

While it will take a very long time before Jacksonville becomes a traditional "densely populated" city, it would be more realistic in the short term for this sleepy city to at least leverage its natural resources in a smarter manner to provide an even greater quality of life for those of us who call Jville home.

[thelakelander]

I don't think Jax is any different than most places across the country. The numbers are a semantics game, IMO. If we looked at these from an urban area perspective, we would see that our development pattern is no different from the average US urban area of similar scale and size.

While it will take a very long time before Jacksonville becomes a traditional "densely populated" city, it would be more realistic in the short term for this sleepy city to at least leverage its natural resources in a smarter manner to provide an even greater quality of life for those of us who call Jville home.

Jax already has a traditional "densely populated" city. However, it's only a 30 square mile area and it has lost about 50% of it's population and density since 1950. It maxed out at a little over 200k residents and a little under 7,000 residents per square mile around 1950. Then we went batshit crazy with urban renewal projects that took out entire swaths of our densest neighborhoods. From my perspective, this area offers opportunity to recapture its density because the infrastructure network is built for several times more people than it supports today. So we should be able to offer the best of all sorts of environments, urban, suburban and rural, giving our residents a viable choice of quality of life options moving forward.

[Steve]

Every one of the top 25 largest cities grew in population. In the '70's and '80's the majority would have been losing population.   

If you're looking at 2021 vs. 2020, Chicago lost. But your point still remains as they were the only one to drop population-wise.

It does surprise me a bit, because with the influx of people to Florida and Texas where are these people coming from and why - on the surface - does it not seem to jive with the congressional redistricting losses?

[thelakelander]

The source appears to be an estimate and not the results of the 2020 census. It will be interesting to see how close or far off some of these population estimates will be when the official numbers are released.

[MusicMan]

How many cities on that list DO NOT have a Starbucks in their CBD?

Or a good grocery store?

[bl8jaxnative]

If population density is the end goal, just start filling in the wetlands. 

[thelakelander]

How many cities on that list DO NOT have a Starbucks in their CBD?

Or a good grocery store?

Traditionally, the CBD was only the Northbank. For Jax, does the Starbucks in Baptist or Fresh Market in Brooklyn count as being in the CBD?

[Zac T]

Well, haven't seen it posted yet so here it is if it's legit; probably should have went to census.gov but I'll bet that's where they extracted this. Out of the top 20, Jax has the poorest showing, especially of consolidated cities, of peope per square mile (185). That is extremely paltry shwoing how un-dense Jax and/or Duval County really is; enjoy.

Click on the bleow link please.

https://worldpopulationreview.com/us-cities

Not sure where they're getting their numbers from but none of them match up with the census figures although they claim them as a source. The area and density numbers are all off as well.

The point still stands that Jax has a low population density however the latest results from 2019 show that out of the Top 25 cities, Jacksonville is #24 with 1,220/mi² right between Oklahoma City (1,080/mi²) and Nashville (1,410/mi²)

It should be noted that a lot of these cities had high growth rates in the early 2010's following the recession and have slowed down significantly in the past few years. Jacksonville's growth has picked up since the mid-2010's including in the central city, not just the suburbs

[jaxlongtimer]

Jacksonville is potentially even less dense than this list shows.  According to Wikipedia, we have about 758 square miles of land and 117 sq. mi. of water for a total of 874 sq. mi.  The article posted shows us at 747 sq. mi. so it appears to only be accounting for the land in the City, not our water.  I wonder if they used this approach with any other City.  I wonder if they made any adjustments for Baldwin and the Beaches, although, technically, I think those residents may be dual city citizens since Jacksonville is also the county government.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 874.3 square miles (2,264 km2), making Jacksonville the largest city in land area in the contiguous United States; of this, 86.66% (757.7 sq mi or 1,962 km2) is land and 13.34% (116.7 sq mi or 302 km2) is water.

[thelakelander]

Jacksonville is potentially even less dense than this list shows.  According to Wikipedia, we have about 758 square miles of land and 117 sq. mi. of water for a total of 874 sq. mi.  The article posted shows us at 747 sq. mi. so it appears to only be accounting for the land in the City, not our water.  I wonder if they used this approach with any other City.  I wonder if they made any adjustments for Baldwin and the Beaches, although, technically, I think those residents may be dual city citizens since Jacksonville is also the county government.

Yes, using land area is the common method. Miami would not have +12k residents per square mile if they also included Biscayne Bay as a part of the city's land area. Also, population density numbers for the City of Jacksonville would not include Baldwin and the three beach municipalities.

[jaxlongtimer]

^ I wonder how they count "water."  Wetlands, swamps, dry beds that host seasonal or storm water only, retention and natural ponds, lakes, ditches, small creeks or streams, narrow vs. wide rivers, intracoastal "rivers"... where is the line drawn?  Do they just scan a satellite photo and if it reflects the sun, it's deemed water  ?