Inspired by The Errant Isle of Manhattan, I decided to see what New York City looked like compared to other American metropolitan areas. Right off the bat what I found was not so much a size discrepancy between two cities but a difference in perception. When one thinks of New York City you see in your mind a seemingly never ending expanse of city. This is to be differentiated between a never ending expanse of suburb which is what rings all American cities, including New York. New York is different in that it remains dense and walkable even out to the edges, though there parts of Queens and Staten Island that are quite suburban and require cars. But if you look at these maps you will see that many US cities have the same size as New York but at a completely different mental scale.