The US Census Bureau has data for cities, metro areas (MSA), and combined statistical areas (CSA). Riverside and Los Angeles are separate MSAs but part of the same CSA. In any case, I get flack whichever definition I use, so I'm past caring. :)
But the population of Riverside was 303,000 in 2010, so unless the boys and girls have been extra busy, doesn't it fail on the exceeding 998,000 people clause?
Because the Census Bureau uses counties, making this alleged metro area larger in area than about 10 of the 50 states. And no, no way in any universe would Riverside - San Bernardino have 4.5 million people surrounding them if the rest of the Los Angeles area wasn't there. At least New Jersey suburbs have a substantial portion of the massive harbor. Riverside? Oh, it has a college. Just like Plymouth, New Hampshire.
Denver's a pretty big city, with almost three million people in its metro area. It's also pretty far west. Meanwhile, Albuquerque has about 900,000 (estimated as of 2014) people in its metro area, which doesn't make the cut.
I was so close to making a snide comment along the lines of "Really, the Vancouver that's over 400 km away?" to which you would have been able to reply, "No, actually, the one just across the river." And then I would have looked mighty silly.
I feel like this would be improved by including the same number of cities, but lowering the inclusion threshold to 200,000 or something like that. Of course it would be a lot more challenging, but it also wouldn't include about 60% of the US. It's still a good quiz, but I feel the very arbitrary, Honolulu-friendly threshold is a little high.
I like how Quizmaster said a metro population greater than 998,000 just so he could put Honolulu as answer. Instead of doing a smooth amount like 1 million.
I missed Dallas, Houston, Austin and San Antonio because I gave up on Texas when El Paso wasn't accepted... apparently its population is only 682,000. Who knew?
I think having such a large margin for population just makes it so you get cities half way across the US, that are only western in the sense that they are not as Easterly as other cities like New Orleans and Chicago.
I'll see you in hell Riverside.