~More than 360 cities of more than one million inhabitants, 250 can be said to be
of worldwide significance

~Center of human population: Predicted numbers in terms of millions of the
world’s ten largest agglomerations by the year 2000

• Mexico City--27.6 million people
• Sao Paulo--26 million
• Tokyo/Yokohama--24 million
• New York area--23 million
• Shanghai--23 million
• Beijing--20 million
• Rio de Janeiro--19 million
• Greater Bombay–17 million
• Calcutta--17 million
• Jakarta--17 million

It is impossible to think reasonably of modern civilization without referring to great
cities of the world--Washington, New York, Seoul, Cairo, Brasilia, Istanbul,
Moscow, Stockholm, London, Paris, Buenos Aires, Amsterdam, Los Angeles, and
so on. Cities are significant because of their strategic import:

• Cultural cities (leading the world in fashion, trends, and ideas) e.g., Paris, Oxford, Boston, San Francisco
• Political and Administrative cities (centers of worldwide decision making bodies, or which contain governments and their bureaucracies) e.g., Washington, Moscow, New Delhi
• Industrial cities (noisy, blue-collar, factory centers host to central manufacturing industries) e.g., Bombay, Sao Paulo, Chicago-Gary Area)
• Commercial cities (giant marketplaces or bazaars where goods and services are bartered and exchanged on a worldwide basis) e.g., New York, Hong Kong
• Symbolic cities (cities where great struggles are fought and settled and symbolized, or which represent issues of division, oppression, warfare, religious hatred, or freedom within their countries or to the rest of the world) e.g., Soweto, Belfast, Berlin, Beirut, Jerusalem
• Primary cities (cities which combine all of the preceding characteristics, and can be said to be the greatest of the great cities) e.g., Bangkok, Mexico City, London

The cities of America are microcosms of the globe, filled with all the world’s
complicated diversity

• Miami is the defacto capital of Latin America
• According to conservative estimates, at least one million Hispanics pour illegally over the 2400 mile border between Mexico and U.S. each year
• Los Angeles, with its 4.5 million Hispanics, is now the second largest Mexican city, while Houston is the fastest growing one
• Diverse populations make up the typical American city. Over 100 languages are spoken by the residents of Los Angeles, and four-fifths of all of Houston’s schoolchildren are either Hispanic, Black, or Asian
• Twenty years ago, in May of 1982, a NY Times survey of Chinatown found refugees from every province of mainland China within a four block area in the middle of NY city
• Chicago has as many Native American’s as all but the very largest reservations in the country, and more Poles than virtually any other place with the exception of Warsaw
• Most American cities of any size, (2 million or more) host diverse cultural and ethnic populations