That misses the key qualifier: "near a river". The challenge there is what is "near", and what is a "river"?

You are right of course.

I was playing with it, had to go to a meeting and forgot I'd modified the question.

Uh, no, that's just "the second biggest city" Wolfram can't even handle "What is the second biggest city in California near a river" - IE, can't do something one step beyond the trivial.

http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=What+is+the+second+bigg...

Can't even handle "What is the second biggest city in northern California" http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=What+is+the+second+bigg...