re: Baton Rouge and Knoxville - Tops in the SEC

Metro Populations (2015)

Nashville-1,830,345
Knoxville-861,424
Baton Rouge-830,480
Columbia, SC-810,068
Fayetteville-513,559
Lexington-500,535
Gainesville-277,163
College Station-249,156
Tuscaloosa-239,908
Athens-203,189
Columbia, MO-174,974
Auburn-156,993
Oxford-51,318
Starkville-47,671

Being the second largest city in the state or the Capitol doesn't make you a major city. Montgomery is the Capitol of Alabama. Would consider it a major city? No. Birmingham is our largest city. Would you consider it major? No. Neither would I, and I live here.


You either have to have a huge population of a few million or be a well known cultural hub. There's only a few true major cities in the entire southeastern United States.

By population:
-Atlanta (metro)
-Miami (metro)

-Jacksonville has more people in the city limits than those two but a fraction of the metro

By cultural impact:
-New Orleans
-Nashville

-Memphis,although not quite on the level of the other 2.

Nashville, Memphis, and New Orleans (and even Jacksonville) all have metro areas that are barely bigger than the Birmingham metro, but you would laugh if I tried to compare Bham to those cities. Not only because the actual city of Birmingham is considerably smaller but Birmingham doesn't come close to the cultural impact of those cities. Or even the economic impact, despite similar populations in the general area. There's a reason those cities have pro sports teams and Birmingham doesn't with comparable population size.

Those cities all shite on Birmingham, and Birmingham shits on Baton Rouge. I like BR, but I'm sorry it's just not what most people who have ventured out of there home state would consider a major city.

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-Memphis,although not quite on the level of the other 2.

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Say whaaat? I kinda think the blues and rock n' roll count for something and Memphis can lay claim to both just as Nashville can claim to have been the main production base for bluegrass and country (tho not the place or even the main region where musicians came from). Nashville is a producer's city not a true musician's city. The musician's that built it came from E. TN, E. KY, SW VA and elsewhere.

Memphis metro is 1.34 million
Nashville metro is 1.83 million
Jacksonville metro is 1.35 million
Birmingham metro is 1.13 million

All those cities have at least about 15-20% larger metro areas than Birmingham, Nashville having more than half a million more people. That's considerably bigger.

And Memphis is 100% a huge cultural impact center in the SE. It's the home of rock and roll and has deep roots in the Blues. It's one of the epicenter for the civil rights movement. It's known worldwide for its cuisine. Beale Street is widely known across the world and Graceland is one of the most traveled to destinations in the United States.

Regardless, back the original topic, cities w large metro areas simply cannot be compared to other "cities." The city center is ALWAYS going to have exponentially more crime than the surrounding metro areas, where half the population lives. New Orleans proper, for instance, only accounts for about 40% of the metro area. Atlanta proper only has 447k people while the metro area has 5.49 million people. Of course the city itself is going to have a higher crime rate because it has a higher poverty rate. The people with the means, by and large, live in the suburbs. Memphis is a great example. The crime rate in the city is awful, but the crime rate in places like Germantown, Collierville, etc, is basically non-existent comparatively speaking

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The crime rate in the city is awful, but the crime rate in places like Germantown, Collierville, etc, 

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Even Westwego, which is 20 minutes from The Dome, is the 5th safest city in LA(according to an article I read on NOLA.com, a while back).
Not comparing it in the slightest to Germantown and Collierville. Having lived in all 3, the 2 you listed are world's safer, and I feel completely safe here

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I agree with all you said.
Plus that doesn't even consider the shipping importance of Memphis. The river, the convergence of 55&40, and MEM shipping the 2nd most cargo in the world.

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I mean, I know I'm a homer when it comes to my home state but really the three regions of Tennessee (East, Middle, and West) generally and the cities of Nashville and Memphis particularly have all made pretty massive cultural contributions to the Southeast and US as a whole. And you're spot on that the Mississippi River and interstate routes have meant that Memphis has had a massive impact on world wide shipping (hell much of Tennessee has simply because geography and the interstate systems have made it very much a central hub for transportation/shipping routes but even prior to the national highway/interstate system Tennessee was a major transportation gateway between North and South).

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quite a bit of business in Memphis, and while I agree that it has some historical and cultural significance, of all the cities mentioned, it is the single biggest shithole in the south. I mean it is a frikkin dump. No way in hell I'd live in Memphis for any kind of money.

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Of well when you put it that way :rollseyes:

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SEC cities by population (2014)

1. Nashville 658,602
2. Lexington 310,797
3. Baton Rouge 228,895
4. Knoxville 184,281
5. Columbia (S.C.) 132,067
6. Gainesville 128,460
7. Athens 119,648
8. Columbia (Mo.) 116,906
9. College Station 103,483
10. Tuscaloosa 96,122
11. Fayetteville 80,621
12. Auburn 60,258
13. Starkville 24,886
14. Oxford 21,757

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Now look at the metropolitan Statistical area (MSA) populations:

1. Nashville - 1,830,345
2. Knoxville - 1,096,961
3. Baton Rouge - 802,484
4. Columbia (SC) - 767,598
5. Lexington - 723,849
6. Fayetteville - 463,204
7. Gainesville - 277,163
8. College Station - 228,660
9. Columbia (MO) - 223,676
10. Tuscaloosa - 219,461
11. Auburn - 135,883
12. Athens - 127,265
13. Starkeville - 49,800
14. Oxford (no MSA listed) - 21,757

Well thanks to this thread, I finally put 2+2 together and realized that Baton Rouge means "Red Stick"...