There has been talk here in Illinois that if the city of "Angels" is sucessfully split up, Chicago will win back the title of "America's second largest city" that it had before L.A. stole it in 1982. For having an area (in size) much smaller than L.A., Chicago's population is so condensed that it has almost three million people.
It does sound more logical that "The Second City" should be the second city. ;-)
Go secessionists go. Good luck in the CA State Assembly.
But it will still be the third largest metropolitan area.