cities

[Richard Jay Solomon <rjs () farnsworth mit edu>]

The population list is generally misleading since it only reflects the
definition of the city by the issuing authority -- usually in the Western
countries meaning incorporated areas, and not a metropolitan region which
would indicate some level of community of interest or connectivity. But how
do you measure this, and how do you avoid comparing apples to strawberries?

The NY SMSA (including North Jersey) is 17 million, and the Northeast U.S.
Megalopolis is 40M+. Still, how do you compare an American multi-nucleated
and dispersed urbanized structure (eg, So. Calif.) to something in India?
How do you account for telecom links, highway links, urban railways lines
-- all of which are used differently in different societies, perhaps priced
differently, available differently, and at different levels of development?
How do you compare an evolving Cyberspace society (the "educated &
developed" Western world plus colonies) to pedestrian commuterspace. This
is an extremely complex problem. Reams have been written about it for over
a Century -- way before superhighway and telephones; and it is getting more
complicated.

One of the most dense urbanized and highly developed "city" in the world
NEVER shows up in these lists: the independent cities and towns of the
Rhine-Rhur, from south of Bonn to Dortmund, to Aachen, and even beyond.
Much of this area is interwoven with a seamless (but separately managed)
interregional rapid transit network more extensive than most cities in the
world (yes, subways, too, but even that never appears on a list of subway
systems). Another such region with multiple interconnected transit is
Kyoto-Kobe-Osaka-Nara (Kinki). And the Tokyo metropolitan area (Kanto
region), for all practical purposes, extends way beyond the incorporated
section of 8.4 million. How would you demonstrate connectivity for the very
large set of commuters who daily take the Shinkansen more than 200 miles
from Tokyo center city (with fares often paid by the employer)?

Is London "Network Southeast", or Tourist London? What do you call ALL of
Holland?

What is a City today? What will a City be tomorrow?