This thread literally proves the point of the OP. People just can’t seem to agree on the 4th city lmao

Depends how you define major. The 4th city rotates by category.

Tourism? Vegas or Orlando.

Politics or history? DC, Philadelphia or Boston.

Tech? San Francisco or Seattle.

Population size? Houston

Land size? Juneau.

Music? Nashville or maybe New Orleans and Atlanta.

NY, LA, SF, DC... Chicago is a great city but not as influential on the world stage as it used to be.

There is also that city where the White House's East Wing used to be.

Four's a bit of an arbitrary number and major is woefully undefined.

I was going to list the four NYC Burroughs... Only to have that joke spoiled by facts.

NYC is definitely there.

LA is honestly debatable. They have hollywood, but other than and a few things like that (Disneyland) that their claim to fame is just population. Not to say that Hollywood isn't massive, but I just have this intuition that it's shrinking and has been for some time because of the perpetual self centered hubris and greed blowing up in their face. And like an overweight person who is eating right and exercising and being healthy, I see that as a healthy person, not a fat person. I think they do belong there, but moreso as a vestige of a passing era.

SEA is somewhat in the same boat. I'm from here, and it is nice, but all these tech companies keep fucking up and being overly greedy. We don't have the population of LA or other, even bigger massive urban sprawls, but we do have a fuckton of modern business and industry. Unfortunately, much of it has or is in various stages of imploding from their own idiocy and greed. We do, however have EDIT: nothing nice. Don't come here. Everything is terrible and expensive and awful and breaking down and dirty and conservative and liberal and too educated and there are no jobs and everyone is stupid. Awful place, 0/10 🏳️‍⚧️ zero growth it's all gentrifying and too many cars and smoke and drugs and gays and old people and freedom. Go away. 🏳️‍⚧️ Portland also sucks, don't go there terrible coffee and pizza and bookstores and zero culture. Coffee and food are all terrible and it just rains 100% of the time and everybody is miserable and dumb and unfriendly and there's no polycule and no music and no game studios it's all libtard dei wokegenda. It's hopeless. Yuck. Very unamerican. Everybody's the same and there's no public health or state benefits or bleeding edge research being done. Just an average mill, all brown old buildings from the 1800s. Borrriinnnng. Also our tacos are terrible. And the beer is all generic and bad and supports the gays. And if you're a furry you're gonna be alone, there are none of those here. And forget diversity of EDIT: uh, I'm being told to shut the fuck up. Yeah. Uh huh.

MIAMI is great. Definitely go there. Best governor, most level headed and not a cult, no corruption at all. Great benefits. Very racist. Very common sense, much Trump ⛱️

San Francisco easily takes it imo.

Distant 17th by population but more than makes up for it through business, technological, and cultural influence. (Edit: Especially since the wider San Francisco Bay Area can be credibly lumped together to form such a populous combined statistical area.)

Fourth-most important city is the one geographically closest to you. For all others, it's DC.

I like to think that Washington DC is the fourth, seeing as it’s the national capital, the political & historical center of America, and the fact that things that happen in DC have not just national, but international effects.

Also a fair bit of personal bias tbh, seeing as I live in the metro area.

NY, Chicago, and LA for sure. And certainly cities like Seattle, Dallas, Denver, St. Louis, New Orleans, Atlanta, Miami, Philadelphia, Detroit, and Boston would all duke it out for the notoriety of the 4th spot. But, are we going to pretend that DC doesn't edge the rest out for importance, both historically and currently, for landmarks, for cultural relevance?

There is no 4th because no one else has 2 baseball teams.

I'm not sure.. who would be the rotations?

Boston ?

San Francisco

Phoenix

Santa Fe

Houston Austin

Idk

PHILADELPHIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Houston or Boston i guess.

I mean, if you're operating purely by population, next in line is Houston.

If you're operating on power and influence, Washington D.C. is #1.