Urban Prominence

I wondered about people's perceptions of cities after I heard my mother call Washington, D.C. a "big city" and after I heard a friend of mine describe Chicago as "huge". I was reading about topographic prominence and realized cities have prominence in people's perceptions of them ("metropolitan prominence", "urban prominence", or whatever you want to call it). In other words, the importance of a city is perceived relative to the towns and cities around it. For example, people say Atlanta is a big city. Atlanta is the largest, most influential city for over 500 miles in any direction (I'd say Washington, D.C. is the closest city with greater prominence). Atlanta is the unofficial capital of the South. Imagine if a city much larger and more influential than Atlanta were located within a few miles of Atlanta. The prominence of that other city would overshadow Atlanta's prominence. My recent move from a big city to a small city makes me think about such things.