Effects of proximity to an A-list Megacity?

Following up on the discussion of Lowell, here is an interesting article:

Planning firm seeks to recast Lowell as a where place you can live without a car

?I think of Lowell as a city-state,?? Speck said. ?I don?t think of it as a suburb of Boston, or even related to Boston. It wasn?t created because of Boston, and it has the potential to be more self-reliant than a lot of other Boston suburbs. I think a lot of the future residents will be laptoppers who could commute to Boston, but don?t have to do it every day. They can have a better life here for a lot less money.??
 
The Northeast Corridor is probably more comparable to the Kansai than to Tokyo in terms of how New York overwhelms its neighbors. Osaka is the obvious hub of Kansai, but it doesn't necessarily damage the brand of Kyoto, and Kobe feels somewhat independent. And all these places are even closer together than the cities of the NEC.
 
I was in Kyoto/Osaka four years ago this week -- can't wait for my next visit. Though on a different scale, Boston/Providence/Worcester seems like a good New England analog.
 
Lowell needs a real bus service (one that doesn't shut down at 7 pm and runs all weekend) if it's going to be "a place where you can live without a car". It is nowhere near small enough to navigate on foot.
 
czsz said:
The Northeast Corridor is probably more comparable to the Kansai than to Tokyo in terms of how New York overwhelms its neighbors.
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Again, I've never been, but it seems like the Kansai cities' urban fabric bleed into one another in a way the NEC cities don't (although from DC to New Haven their suburban areas do).

Perhaps I should have added Osaka and its neighbors to the list of cities overshadowed by a nearby megacity? Even though its a pretty long drive, it's only 2.5 hours by train to Tokyo. Do Osakans measure themselves against Tokyo or do the Kansai cities view themselves as the top dogs in their own orbit?
 
Here's a very interesting list:
http://www.citymayors.com/statistics/richest-cities-2005.html

Notice how Phladelphia, DC and Boston are all clustered very high up - I would guess this does, in fact, have a lot to do with being geograpically clustered very near to New York. (Baltimore on the other hand is quite a bit lower, perhaps to be expected.) Compare to San Francisco, Seattle, or Miami. I don't think I can draw any scientific conclusion based on this, but I find it interesting nonetheless.
 
Osaka reminded me of a lot of Chicago. It's stunningly urban, and the people are purposeful and open. I felt very much at home there.

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Kyoto is also dense, and much of its pre-WWII architecture is still intact. It's an appropriate sister-city for Boston.

Though I haven't discussed it with my friends form Osaka (actually Neyagawa, which reminded me of Porter Square), I believe there's an "awareness" of Tokyo/Yokahama, but I didn't detect have the cultural "inferiority complex" that some New Englanders have about New York.

belmont square said:
...it seems like the Kansai cities' urban fabric bleed into one another in a way the NEC cities don't...
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I didn't visit Kobe, so I can't make a blanket statement, but the Keihan Line passes through rural areas between Kyoto and Osaka.
 
Beton Brut said:
I believe there's an "awareness" of Tokyo/Yokahama, but I didn't detect have the cultural "inferiority complex" that some New Englanders have about New York.
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Osaka knows it's the #2 city in the nation when it comes to entertainment, sports, arts/cultural events, etc. I personally loved that I had at least five or six options every weekend just to attend art shows and night club events (for the techno of course!). Tokyo has the same kind of events, but MORE, I'm talking way way MORE. I won't put a number on it, but when I was there on some weekends, I had an infinite amount of options for night clubs and the arts. Your Kansai friends will admit this if you ask them. My Kansai friends won't shut-up about it.
 
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