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Best urban comparison for Mexico City in the United States/Canada?
The city in the United States or Canada that best matches up with Mexico City in terms of density, style of build, infrastructure, vibrancy, concentration of amenities, collections of historic and modern architecture, big city feel, transit, so on and so forth.
Some choices: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Toronto, San Francisco, Miami, Montreal, or other (specify).
Yeah, aside from the larger Mexican presence in LA, I don't know how someone could vote for LA over NYC. In terms of urban form, density, transit, etc. Mexico City is much more like NYC.
Yeah, aside from the larger Mexican presence in LA, I don't know how someone could vote for LA over NYC. In terms of urban form, density, transit, etc. Mexico City is much more like NYC.
I do, the city looks a lot more like LA than it does NYC as a whole. Mexico city has this rep for being this HUGE urban place similar to that of NYC, but that is just not the case. Mexico city is structured like in LA in that it has high density but it is still full of sprawl, urban sprawl. LA and Mexico city share a lot of similar qualities when it comes to the look/layout of the city. Mexico city has amazing old/beautiful architecture that can not be replicated by any US city...so for that Mexico city takes the W in my book . I google mapped certain areas of LA and Mexico city and I feel as if they look pretty similar.
Mexico city- https://goo.gl/maps/4ZzM5aZcQmn
Los Angeles- https://goo.gl/maps/eGogZHV59wP2
I do, the city looks a lot more like LA than it does NYC as a whole. Mexico city has this rep for being this HUGE urban place similar to that of NYC, but that is just not the case. Mexico city is structured like in LA in that it has high density but it is still full of sprawl, urban sprawl. LA and Mexico city share a lot of similar qualities when it comes to the look/layout of the city. Mexico city has amazing old/beautiful architecture that can not be replicated by any US city...so for that Mexico city takes the W in my book . I google mapped certain areas of LA and Mexico city and I feel as if they look pretty similar.
Mexico city- https://goo.gl/maps/4ZzM5aZcQmn
Los Angeles- https://goo.gl/maps/eGogZHV59wP2
Having been to all three places, I've gotta say I strongly disagree. Those streetviews are cherry-picked and not representative of the similarities of these two cities (and, honestly, even with the cherry-picked streetviews, I still see significant differences between the two cities).
On the whole, Mexico City has narrower streets, more bustling pedestrian activity, smaller setbacks, is almost entirely multi-family, and has much more street-facing retail than LA. In those regards, it's more like NYC.
Here are some representative streetviews of random, typical residential areas in all three cities. I'm actually being generous to LA here since I'm choosing an area closer to the core (as opposed to quite far from the core for Mexico City and NYC). Now tell me - which one of these is not like the others in terms of urban form?
Definitely LA. The two biggest Mexican cities in the world, both are multinodal, both are dense sprawl with small cores connected by highways, both had MASSIVE mid-20th century booms.
Both are walkable but not walker friendly, if that makes sense. Both dominated by postwar "satellite business districts" both have retail mostly in huge shopping complexes, with comparatively less street level retail.
NYC looks and feels very different from DF. Don't see too many similarities, at least not visually, esp. at street level.
Just to be clear, that is NOT at all typical of DF. As someone who has actually lived in the city, that is most definitely not a typical street scene in DF.
And that is the core, it is not "closer to the core". That is Centro you are showing, and even that streetview isn't typical for Centro.
Mexico City is much denser than Los Angeles. And has a lot more attached buildings at street level. I can see some similarities to parts of Brooklyn or Queens though the architecture style is different
The streetscape suggests laxer zoning; more smaller streets with commercial at street level, a bigger variety of building sizes than typical for American cities. Compare the building to the right with the one on the left. Right looks like dense infill that could in denser US cities; right is clearer older and from perhaps a poorer era.
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. I google mapped certain areas of LA and Mexico city and I feel as if they look pretty similar. 
