Cities and metropolitan areas

Another unexplained and, so far, unexplainable horror. Virginia Beach, Virginia. From Virginia Beach Shooting: A City Grieves Its Workers a Day After Horror.

The second paragraph, referring to the 12 city workers, opens with:

Between them, they had more than 150 years of experience helping to make Virginia’s largest city work — the unelected, behind-the-scenes figures who drew up plans, issued permits and performed the vital jobs that help keep a community intact.

Largest city in Virginia? I would have guessed Richmond. Apparently not. Richmond is only the fifth largest.

Virginia Cities by Population Rank City Population

1 Virginia Beach 450,057
2 Norfolk 245,752
3 Chesapeake 235,410
4 Arlington 229,534
5 Richmond 220,892
6 Newport News 180,775
7 Alexandria 154,710
8 Hampton 136,255
9 Roanoke 99,572
10 Portsmouth 95,536

So this is the traditional City versus Metropolitan Area issue where the suburbs are technically separate but are geographically seamless. From a metropolitan area perspective Richmond is probably the largest, rivaled by the D.C. suburbs as effectively a Virginia exurb. But in terms of governance entities, Virginia Beach is indeed the largest by a wide margin.

Interesting to see so many other large cities.