Osler's Razor

A lot of the discrepancies between central city population and metropolitan area population dates from the post WWII suburban expansion, coupled with some racial discrimination. Suburbs were created by developers who wanted to maximize the return on their investment and a means to doing so was to create what were then white enclaves that surrounded the central city where minorities were not barred from owning property in the deeds created for the suburbs. I grew up in an old suburb that had those restrictions from its founding, but every post-WWII deed contained language barring certain minorities, as the suburb grew, more than doubling in area and population.

Some cities were aggressive in expanding their geographic boundaries, encircling the suburbs. Examples include Columbus, Ohio, and San Antonio, Texas. Some with municipal systems for water and sewer forced the developers to allow them to be annexed; if not annexed, then create and operate their own systems, or pay very high rates for those services, including such things as high capital fees for extending lines.
 

WF-- It seems so inefficient to have a hundred municipalities in one metro area, so I see the wisdom in annexation….
 

A lot of southern cities expanded geographically in the 60's in order to avoid becoming majority black. Norfolk and Richmond, for example. In response, Princess Anne, Chesapeake and Suffolk Counties all became "cities." Princess Anne renamed itself Virginia Beach.

Is Cleveland really that far down the list? Wow. In the 60's, it was in the top 10. But then again Detroit was #4 in size at one point.