3 ms·

True, but they're also two cities that are 200 miles apart in a country that is 2500+ miles wide.

hyperpape 8y ago
If you draw a circle centered on Washington DC that includes New York, I believe that circle contains 25% of the people in the US. The land area doesn't really matter that much.
- hooloovoo_zoo 8y ago
  I'm not sure this hypothetical circle is meaningful, but since I found this cool site I'll point out it's something like 15% (http://www.statsamerica.org/radius/big.aspx http://www.statsamerica.org/radius/big.aspx).
  - hyperpape 8y ago
    The point is: there are a ton of people in that area. In the abstract, putting two offices within 250 miles of each other seems silly, but given that it's the densest part of the United States, there's enough population to justify two major offices. Drawing a circle around DC is just a vivid way of illustrating that. It's not totally abstract either: while many people in tech move across the country to the Bay Area, moving a few hours for a job is much more common (you can still drive home to visit relatives, etc). As far as the actual numbers, thanks: your source is better than mine. I think you need to extend it to 250 miles to get Queens and DC in the same circle, at which point it's 18%. I still believe that there's no other area with nearly that density in the US (circles centered on Dallas, Chicago, San Francisco, LA or anywhere in Florida are at least 20 million fewer people).
jacques_chester 8y ago
More people live in those 200 miles than live in Australia, a country of comparable size to the US. In fact almost as many people live in the tristate area as live in Australia. Brooklyn alone would be Australia's second largest city in a fraction of the area of Melbourne.
- hooloovoo_zoo 8y ago
  Judging by the number of downvotes I'm receiving in this chain, people have very strong opinions (and interesting reference points) on what 'right next to each other' means. However, since karma is free, I'll point out that the population of Australia is less than that of many well-separated regions of the U.S., which is unsurprising given that its total population is 1/13th of the U.S.'s.

If you draw a circle centered on Washington DC that includes New York, I believe that circle contains 25% of the people in the US. The land area doesn't really matter that much.

hooloovoo_zoo 8y ago
I'm not sure this hypothetical circle is meaningful, but since I found this cool site I'll point out it's something like 15% (http://www.statsamerica.org/radius/big.aspx http://www.statsamerica.org/radius/big.aspx).
- hyperpape 8y ago
  The point is: there are a ton of people in that area. In the abstract, putting two offices within 250 miles of each other seems silly, but given that it's the densest part of the United States, there's enough population to justify two major offices. Drawing a circle around DC is just a vivid way of illustrating that. It's not totally abstract either: while many people in tech move across the country to the Bay Area, moving a few hours for a job is much more common (you can still drive home to visit relatives, etc). As far as the actual numbers, thanks: your source is better than mine. I think you need to extend it to 250 miles to get Queens and DC in the same circle, at which point it's 18%. I still believe that there's no other area with nearly that density in the US (circles centered on Dallas, Chicago, San Francisco, LA or anywhere in Florida are at least 20 million fewer people).

jacques_chester 8y ago

More people live in those 200 miles than live in Australia, a country of comparable size to the US. In fact almost as many people live in the tristate area as live in Australia. Brooklyn alone would be Australia's second largest city in a fraction of the area of Melbourne.

hooloovoo_zoo 8y ago
Judging by the number of downvotes I'm receiving in this chain, people have very strong opinions (and interesting reference points) on what 'right next to each other' means. However, since karma is free, I'll point out that the population of Australia is less than that of many well-separated regions of the U.S., which is unsurprising given that its total population is 1/13th of the U.S.'s.