The question was why the Great Lakes were excluded. The explanation for that is not offered in the description. There is a great deal of shipping done through the Great Lakes and there are U.S. Coast Guard stations throughout. There is an international border there. It's a peculiar omission.
There's no reason why the Great Lakes should be included. Countries that touch the Caspian Sea are considered landlocked, even though they're much larger than all of the Great Lakes. Same thing with lake Victoria in Africa. There's no reason why in North America it should be any different
If Wilmington, DE, a city on the Delaware River near Delaware Bay counts as coastal, then Houston, which includes the Houston Ship Channel, an extension of Galveston Bay, should also count.
This is me living in Texas my whole life and just realizing that Houston does not technically touch the sea. Clear Lake (the body of water NASA is on) is, in fact, a lake and not connected to Galveston Bay.
I believe that Houston technically owns land on Burnet Bay, though I think it's a park and nobody lives there.
It'd be nice if all quizzes on this site used the same source for city populations. It's strange to see zoning bylaws the determinant of how big a city is rather than the actual population that considers themselves part of the city. Agglomerations seems to be a more realistic way of viewing populations of cities.
In my experience Americans in the "cities" of the suburbs quite vehemently do not consider themselves to be part of the city at the heart of the urban area.
same here in Canada, cities and suburbs may be one continuous area, but theyre two separate jurisdictions. One could live 20 minutes from the core of downtown Toronto, but would not consider themselves to live in Toronto
Actually, the Canadian practice is quite distinct from that of the U.S. The norm is "unicities," which is why Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg, Hamilton, Ottawa, and Quebec have larger incorporated populations than almost all U.S. cities. The results in both cases have been the result of battles over municipal taxation - typically decided in different directions in the two countries.
Washington hasn't either (Seattle is on an inland sound). I assume that it has something to do with avoiding rainfall, and maybe also the availability of flat land near the coast.
I'm not sure about the southern part of the coast, but I know that Astoria, Seaside, etc. are frequently far more overcast and about 10-20 degrees cooler than even a hours drive inland.
Miami has a larger metro population, but by city limits, Jacksonville is bigger. Jacksonville has a little over 900k in the city proper and 1.5 million in the metro while Miami has less than 500k in the city proper, but over 6 million in the metro.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portland_Penny
I believe that Houston technically owns land on Burnet Bay, though I think it's a park and nobody lives there.
Portland!
I'm not sure, though.