Mancs vs Brummies
June 22, 2007 5:06 AM   Subscribe

Second Cities are usually easy to name: Chicago, Melbourne, Toronto, Osaka, Barcelona. Other ones, not so much. So, is it Birmingham or Manchester? Lyon or Marseille? Hamburg or Frankfurt? Monterrey or Guadalajara?
posted by chuckdarwin (40 comments total)

This post was deleted for the following reason: A whole lot of links but not much post, chuck. -- cortex



 
Hell!
posted by doctorschlock at 5:07 AM on June 22, 2007


Łódź or Kraków? Debrecen or Miskolc? Brno or Ostrava? Valparaíso or Concepción?
posted by chuckdarwin at 5:10 AM on June 22, 2007


Wait, if TO is Canada's Second City, what's its first? Montreal? Vancouver? (gulp) Ottawa?
posted by psmealey at 5:11 AM on June 22, 2007


Milan or Florence?
posted by psmealey at 5:11 AM on June 22, 2007


Oh, dear... maybe Canda's isn't so clear cut!

In Canada, Toronto was historically referred to as the second city. However, in the late 1970s, amidst political and social unrest caused by the growing Quebec sovereignty movement it overtook Montreal, the first city, in population, and the centre of the financial industry moved from St. James Street in Montreal to Bay Street in Toronto.
posted by chuckdarwin at 5:13 AM on June 22, 2007



Wait - so what's the US' first city?
Brooklyn? New York?

And Canada's? Montreal?
posted by From Bklyn at 5:13 AM on June 22, 2007



(Dammit)
And Canada's? Montreal?
I mean, it seems backward, doesn't it?
posted by From Bklyn at 5:15 AM on June 22, 2007


LA or New York?
posted by mattoxic at 5:18 AM on June 22, 2007


Łódź or Kraków?

Kraków is the coolest and bestest city in Poland. I think the battle for second is really beteween Łódź and Warszawa.
posted by psmealey at 5:20 AM on June 22, 2007


Camden or Paterson?
posted by psmealey at 5:21 AM on June 22, 2007 [1 favorite]


I always thought of Columbus as Ohio's third city behind Cleveland and Cincinnati until I learned it's larger than either.
posted by pax digita at 5:25 AM on June 22, 2007


Two Wikipedia links and a handful of random pictures of cites from Flickr?
posted by octothorpe at 5:27 AM on June 22, 2007


The archived talk page for the wikipedia article on the UK second city debate is a great example of wiki-madness.
(note to editors: Birmingham is clearly the second city in the UK)
posted by patricio at 5:27 AM on June 22, 2007


Camden or Paterson?

Bayonne.
posted by jonmc at 5:32 AM on June 22, 2007 [1 favorite]


Birmingham or Manchester?

Birmingham. Seriously. The only people who question that are from Manchester. It's a bizarre state of affairs.

(And it's Lyon and Frankfurt for France and Germany respectively. Both, incidentally, are twinned with Birmingham.)
posted by MrMustard at 5:32 AM on June 22, 2007


Wait - so what's the US' first city?

Jamestown.
posted by DU at 5:36 AM on June 22, 2007 [1 favorite]


Swansea or Newport?
posted by psmealey at 5:40 AM on June 22, 2007


I thought Chicago was called the Second City because it was rebuilt after the fire.
posted by birdherder at 5:42 AM on June 22, 2007


Your second-favourite city sucks.

Oh, and eat it up, Glasgow.
posted by imperium at 5:44 AM on June 22, 2007


Why are the only US Second cities LA, Chicago and Washington? Albany is the capital of NY, and New York City I would think would be a US 2nd city by any criteria.... Fuck wikipedia....
posted by Debaser626 at 5:45 AM on June 22, 2007


Wait - so what's the US' first city?

Jamestown.


Saint Augustine
posted by Pollomacho at 5:45 AM on June 22, 2007



Camden or Paterson?

Bayonne.


ahem

Lodi.
posted by From Bklyn at 6:00 AM on June 22, 2007


Birmingham or Manchester?

Good question. It always has been Birmingham in the UK. But I'm not sure why (it's one of those because everyone says so things) and Manchester has far more going for it. For France, I'm sure it's Lyon though.

I think the reason it's difficult in the UK is that London is so utterly dominant in almost every sphere that there's no obvious no2.
posted by rhymer at 6:00 AM on June 22, 2007


Camden or Paterson?

Bayonne.

ahem

Lodi.


Oh, Lord, stuck there again.
posted by jonmc at 6:05 AM on June 22, 2007


I thought Chicago was called the Second City because it was rebuilt after the fire.

This is not what the Chicago Public Library believes. They are contradicted, however, by the Vince Vaughn character in "The Break-Up." So, pick your source.
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 6:06 AM on June 22, 2007


octothorpe wrote:Two Wikipedia links and a handful of random pictures of cites from Flickr?


Too thin, eh? I guess I could've done this as an AskMe, instead. I toyed with the idea.
posted by chuckdarwin at 6:07 AM on June 22, 2007


Albany is the capital of NY, and New York City I would think would be a US 2nd city by any criteria

Except for the criteria of not being the first city. Duh. And Albany? It has a population of 95,658. I hope you're not nominating it.
posted by delmoi at 6:07 AM on June 22, 2007


patricio wrote: The archived talk page for the wikipedia article on the UK second city debate is a great example of wiki-madness.

That was kind of my point...
posted by chuckdarwin at 6:08 AM on June 22, 2007


Cork or Galway?
posted by Sk4n at 6:11 AM on June 22, 2007


I thought this was going to be about the comedy troupe Second City and all the places they have theaters. I see I am mistaken and will move on now. Thank you and have a good day.
posted by LunaticFringe at 6:11 AM on June 22, 2007


Manchester. Of course. My justification is twofold:
1) Up yours, Brummie.
2) See point 1.
posted by Jofus at 6:15 AM on June 22, 2007


Bo or Kenema?
posted by Flunkie at 6:20 AM on June 22, 2007


Two Wikipedia links and a handful of random pictures of cites from Flickr?

Yeah, I hate to say it, but this is a classic Bad Post. It's not "Hey, look, I found something cool on the internet!" but "I want to talk about something so I'll toss together some random links and hope it flies."
posted by languagehat at 6:20 AM on June 22, 2007


And don't even think about saying it's Makeni.
posted by Flunkie at 6:22 AM on June 22, 2007


Oooh. And also we've got a huge arts festival starting in a couple of weeks which it would be remiss of me not to mention.

(It would also be remiss of me not to mention that my Gem works there. And the company I work for did the website.)
posted by Jofus at 6:22 AM on June 22, 2007


Gotta love the Wikipedia chart.

Benin: Cotonou - Porto-Novo
Vanuatu: Port Vila - Luganville
Belarus: Minsk - Gomel

See also: primate city. (NOT MONKEYFILTERIST)
posted by mdonley at 6:24 AM on June 22, 2007


Jofus - Manchester will become Britain's Second City the day the Thames finally rises and swallows London.
posted by MrMustard at 6:24 AM on June 22, 2007 [1 favorite]


Birmingham is the city in Great Britain. Brummies hate southern toolbags.
posted by parmanparman at 6:26 AM on June 22, 2007


MrMustard - I'll put the kettle on while we wait.
posted by Jofus at 6:27 AM on June 22, 2007


Also, Birmingham is in the midlands, not in the awful stinking north like those manc bastards. Come on Villa!
posted by parmanparman at 6:27 AM on June 22, 2007


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