User:Purplebackpack89/SandCity


 * E. Africa includes Burundi, Comoros, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mayotte, Mozambique, Réunion, Rwanda, Seychelles, Somalia, South Sudan, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe
 * C. Africa includes Angola, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo Republic, Congo DRC, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and Sao Tome & Principe
 * W. Africa includes Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Saint Helena, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo
 * S. Africa includes Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa and Swaziland
 * N. Africa includes Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia and Western Sahara
 * Central American includes Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama
 * C. Asia/Caucuses includes Afghanistan and the Asian former Soviet republics (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan)
 * Other E. Asia includes the Koreas, Mongola and Taiwan
 * Other S. Asia includes Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka
 * SE Asia includes Brunei, Cambodia, East Timor, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam
 * The Middle East includes Bahrain, Cyprus, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, UAE and Yemen.
 * The Balkans includes Albania, Greece and the constituents of the former Yugoslavia (Bosnia, Croatia, Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia)
 * Other E. Europe includes Belarus, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Ukraine
 * Other W. Europe includes Austria, Belgium, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Switzerland
 * Scandinavia includes Denmark, the Faroe Islands, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden
 * The Baltic include Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania
 * S. Europe includes Andorra, Gibraltar, Italy, Malta, Monaco, Portugal, San Marino, Spain and the Vatican City

There were two general goals of these quotas: 1) bring the quotas more in line with an equitable distribution according to population, and 2) bring them more in line with a 4-to-5-fold increase from the Lv 4 levels.
 * There needs to be substantial increase in the number of African and South American cities on this list, particularly in East and West Africa.
 * 155 seems about right for China. But India and the U.S. probably shouldn't have more than that, so I propose reducing the number of Indian cities to 155 and U.S. cities to 150.  There are a number of questionable American cities on this list so 150 seems reasonable.
 * I propose reducing the Caribbean quota to 30. IMO, some of the Caribbean nations have too many cities compared to their population (Cuba-11.5 million people, 7 cities→5, Guadeloupe, 449K, 2 cities→1, Jamaica, 2.8 million, 4 cities→3, Puerto Rico, 3.6 million, 4 cities→3, Trinidad and Tobago, 1.4 million, 3 cities→2).  We might want to remove additional Caribbean cities in favor of adding Willemstad and/or Charlotte Amalie.
 * We could add 40 or 50 South American cities and it still would only represent a 4-fold increase from the VA4 and would amount to one South American city for every 3 million South Americans
 * There is a great deal of bloat in Japan and Malaysia in comparison to other countries. Malaysia has 26 cities despite only having 31 million people.  Japan has 91 cities despite only having 128 million people.   (If China and India had a commensurate number of cities, they would each have about 1,000) We need to cut the number of Japanese and Malaysians cities, with the reduction in Japanese cities going toward non-Asian cities and the reduction in Malaysian cities spread amongst other SE Asian nations.
 * Southern Europe is also heavily overrepresented.
 * Australia and New Zealand could do with losing a few. New Zealand has more cities than millions of people!
 * Explanations of the reductions or additions in European quotas available on request.

Establish a quota of 60 for Japanese cities
91 Japanese cities seems excessive in comparison to other countries, especially other Asian countries.

Establish a quota of 60 for Brazilian cities
South America, especially Brazil, is currently underrepresented

Establish a quota of 15 for Australian cities
That's about one per every 1.6-1.7 million Australians. Average across the world is about 4 million; current 18 articles is about 1.3 million.

Swap Delap-Uliga-Djarrit for Lae
Delap-Uliga-Djarrit is a part of Majuro anyways. Marshall Islands (pop <100,000) shouldn't have 2 "cities' when Papua New Guinea (pop 8,000,000) has only one

Remove Broome
One of the smallest Australian cities on this list.

Remove Launceston
One of the smallest Australian cities on this list. Two Tasmanian cities seems excessive when only 300,000 people live on the island outside of Hobart.

Remove Sunshine Coast
Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast are essentially exurbs of Brisbane; both are less than 100 km from Brisbane. I am proposing removing the smaller of the two to get us down to 15 Australian articles.

Remove Queenstown, New Zealand
Six Kiwi cities is too many for a country of less than 5 million and this "city" only has 15,000 people.

General comments

 * There's some merit to that, but...
 * How many total cities in the world are there of over 200,000? It's probably way more than 1,950.  And how does that break down from country to country?
 * In countries that divide cities certain ways, you get a lot of suburbs of over 200,000. Glendale, California is a hair over 200K now and Chandler, Arizona is well over 200K but I don't think we should have either on the list.  Our list should primarily be of core cities, with only the largest of suburbs included
 * As such, perhaps focus on size of the metro area (if available) than the size of the core city?
 * With 1,950 slots available, we have room for the capitals and largest cities of every country (regardless of size) and major country subdivisions. One example of a place I've added that fits this criteria but is significantly under 200,000 pop is Nuuk
 * We should probably avoid half the list being from a small handful of countries, while at the same time make sure countries with large urbanized populations each have several representatives.
 * There's general agreement to give disproportionate weight to the Western and English-speaking world
 * Historic/cultural significance

Is my quota proposal perfect? Probably not. Feminist pointed out that my list doesn't take into account differences in the levels of urbanization between countries. But it's a point of discussion.

Remove Boulder, Colorado
Depending on how you look at it, it's either a suburb of Denver or an anchor of a not-that-large (<350,000) metro area. I'm not sure being the location of the University of Colorado is notability enough; we do not have State College, Pennsylvania, Berkeley, California, Champaign, Illinois, Charlottesville, Virginia or College Park, Maryland.

Remove Aurora, Colorado
Suburb of Denver. Got fewer than 15,000 page views in a recent month (Denver, by contrast, got over 90,000)

Remove Joliet, Illinois
Suburb of Chicago, and not a particularly large one at that (just under 150,000). Got fewer than 15,000 page views in a recent month (Chicago, by contrast, got over 200,000)

Remove Ann Arbor, Michigan
Depending on how you look at it, it's either a suburb of Detroit or an anchor of a not-that-large (<400,000) metro area. I'm not sure being the location of the University of Michigan is notability enough; we do not have State College, Pennsylvania, Berkeley, California, Champaign, Illinois, Charlottesville, Virginia or College Park, Maryland.

Remove Tri-Cities, Washington
With a metro population of just under 300,000, one of the smallest metro areas on this list that isn't a capital or the largest city in its state (one of the smaller ones, Bangor, is up for removal above). None of the constituent cities have a population over 100,000; neither they nor the Tri-Cities receive more than 10,000 monthly pageviews (compare Portland receiving almost 100,000 and Seattle receiving well over 100,000). Only city on this list to a) not be a capital, b) not be the largest city in its state, c) have under 300,000 metro population, and d) have fewer than 10,000 monthly pageviews.

United States VA5 cities with under 125,000 city population
(capitals italicized, largest cities emboldened, *-Has been nominated for removal):


 * Fairbanks, Alaska
 * Juneau, Alaska
 * Hollywood, California
 * Palm Springs, California
 * Boulder, Colorado*
 * New Haven, Connecticut
 * Stamford, Connecticut*
 * Dover, Delaware
 * Wilmington, Delaware
 * St. Augustine, Florida*
 * Quad Cities (Davenport only)
 * Springfield, Illinois


 * Frankfort, Kentucky
 * Augusta, Maine
 * Bangor, Maine
 * Portland, Maine
 * Annapolis, Maryland
 * Cambridge, Massachusetts
 * Lowell, Massachusetts
 * Plymouth, Massachusetts
 * Salem, Massachusetts
 * Ann Arbor, Michigan*
 * Lansing, Michigan
 * Duluth, Minnesota


 * Independence, Missouri
 * Jefferson City, Missouri
 * Billings, Montana
 * Helena, Montana
 * Carson City, Nevada
 * Concord, New Hampshire
 * Manchester, New Hampshire
 * Atlantic City, New Jersey
 * Trenton, New Jersey
 * Santa Fe, New Mexico
 * Albany, New York
 * Lake Placid, New York


 * Bismarck, North Dakota
 * Fargo, North Dakota
 * Oregon City, Oregon*
 * Allentown, Pennsylvania
 * Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
 * Newport, Rhode Island
 * Pierre, South Dakota
 * Burlington, Vermont
 * Montpelier, Vermont
 * Olympia, Washington
 * Charleston, West Virginia
 * Cheyenne, Wyoming

United States VA5 cities with under 300,000 metro population
(capitals italicized, largest cities emboldened, *-Has been nominated for removal):


 * Fairbanks, Alaska
 * Juneau, Alaska
 * Dover, Delaware
 * Springfield, Illinois
 * Topeka, Kansas
 * Frankfort, Kentucky
 * Augusta, Maine
 * Bangor, Maine*
 * Duluth, Minnesota


 * Jefferson City, Missouri
 * Billings, Montana
 * Helena, Montana
 * Carson City, Nevada
 * Concord, New Hampshire
 * Atlantic City, New Jersey
 * Santa Fe, New Mexico
 * Lake Placid, New York
 * Bismarck, North Dakota


 * Fargo, North Dakota
 * Pierre, South Dakota
 * Sioux Falls, South Dakota
 * Burlington, Vermont
 * Montpelier, Vermont
 * Olympia, Washington
 * Tri-Cities, Washington*
 * Charleston, West Virginia
 * Cheyenne, Wyoming

United States VA5 cities with under 20,000 pageviews
(capitals italicized, largest cities emboldened, *-Has been nominated for removal):


 * Mesa, Arizona
 * Santa Ana, California
 * Santa Rosa, California*
 * Aurora, Colorado*
 * Bridgeport, Connecticut
 * Dover, Delaware
 * Joliet, Illinois*
 * Springfield, Illinois
 * Quad Cities, IA/IL


 * Topeka, Kansas
 * Frankfort, Kentucky
 * Augusta, Maine
 * Bangor, Maine
 * Lowell, Massachusetts
 * Plymouth, Massachusetts
 * Lansing, Michigan
 * Independence, Missouri
 * Jefferson City, Missouri


 * Helena, Montana
 * Carson City, Nevada
 * Concord, New Hampshire
 * Manchester, New Hampshire
 * Elizabeth, New Jersey*
 * Trenton, New Jersey
 * Lake Placid, New York
 * Fayetteville, North Carolina
 * Bismarck, North Dakota


 * Oregon City, Oregon*
 * Salem, Oregon
 * Allentown, Pennsylvania
 * Newport, Rhode Island
 * Pierre, South Dakota
 * Montpelier, Vermont
 * Olympia, Washington
 * Tri-Cities, Washington*

United States metros with multiple VA5 cities

 * Phoenix, AZ (Mesa)
 * Los Angeles, CA (Anaheim, Hollywood, Long Beach, Santa Ana)
 * Riverside, CA (Palm Springs)
 * Denver, CO (Aurora)
 * Bridgeport, CT (Stamford)
 * Miami, FL (Fort Lauderdale)
 * Chicago, IL (Joliet*)
 * Boston, MA (Cambridge, Lowell, Plymouth, Salem)
 * Baltimore, MD (Annapolis)
 * Minneapolis, MN (St. Paul)
 * Kansas City, MO (Independence, Kansas City-KS)
 * New York City (5 boroughs, Elizabeth-NJ*, Jersey City-NJ, Newark-NJ)
 * Portland, OR (Oregon City*, Vancouver-WA*)
 * Philadelphia, PA (Wilmington-DE)
 * Providence, RI (Newport)
 * Norfolk, VA (Virginia Beach)
 * Seattle, WA (Tacoma)

Do we want the capital AND the largest city of EVERY U.S. state?
At present, there are 10 U.S. states with 2 or more VA5 cities, but under 2 million population (capitals italicized, largest cities emboldened): Note that in every case, the largest city in the state gets substantially more pageviews than the capital. In some cases, the state capital has a very small population (South Dakota and Vermont especially). How OK are we with this? Are we OK with, say, Nebraska but not Vermont? Thoughts?
 * Alaska has Anchorage (294,356 city pop, 400,888 metro pop, 112,456 pageviews), Fairbanks (32,751 city pop, 99,703 metro pop, 40,283 pageviews) and Juneau (32,094 city pop, 32,094 metro pop, 40,835 pageviews)
 * Delaware has Dover ( 37,786 city pop, 176,824 metro pop, 9,760 pageviews) and Wilmington (71,106 city pop, part of the Philadelphia metro area, 22,081 pageviews)
 * Maine has Augusta (18,494 city pop, 120,569 metro pop, 9,610 pageviews), Bangor (32,658 city pop, 151,957 metro pop, 13,553 pageviews, nominated for removal above) and Portland (67,067 city pop, 514,098 metro pop, 32,716 pageviews)
 * Montana has Billings (109,642 city pop, 170,498 metro pop, 22,938 pageviews) and Helena (31,169 city pop, 79,664 metro pop, 18,489 pageviews)
 * Nebraska has Lincoln (284,736 city pop, 331,519 metro pop, 22,241 pageviews) and Omaha (466,893 city pop, 933,316 metro pop, 51,324 pageviews)
 * New Hampshire has Concord (43,019 city pop, 143,582 metro pop, 9,498 pageviews) and Manchester (111,196 city pop, 409,697 metro pop, 19,484 pageviews)
 * North Dakota has Bismarck (72,865 city pop, 132,142 metro pop, 16,407 pageviews) and Fargo (122,359 city pop, 241,356 metro pop, 31,416 pageviews)
 * Rhode Island has Newport (24,779 city pop, part of Providence metro area, 13,972 pageviews) and Providence (180,393 city pop, 1,621,122 metro pop, 40,582 pageviews)
 * South Dakota has Pierre (13,646 city pop, 19,814 metro pop, 8,919 pageviews) and Sioux Falls (176,888 city pop, 228,261 metro pop, 25,529 pageviews)
 * Vermont has Burlington (42,417 city pop, 219,395 metro pop, 24,230 pageviews) and Montpelier (7,535 city pop, 58,504 metro pop, 13,423 pageviews)