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G'day Jacq! I just moved from Adelaide to Toronto this year. When I drive around the Barossa or McClaren Vale I think of Sonoma, Napa... rolling hills, vineyards, dry climate, eucalyptus trees here and there...
As far as Adelaide being closer to Mars... lol... I LOVE Adelaide but can't think of any US city to compare it to. When I try to think of a US city with preserved colonial architecture and with a dichotomy of a conservative veneer but being in the first state to decriminalize homosexuality and the first state with an official nude beach.. its hard to think of an American equivalent! Don Dunstan definitely left his mark and I find his story fascinating.
Its easy to find comparisons with Melbourne (San Francisco), Sydney (LA), Perth (San Diego).. but Adelaide is a different animal.
P.S. I miss Farmers Union, Coopers, Pie Floaters and the proximity to great wine
Here you know the world could turn
Or crash and burn
And you would never know it
Going where the air is clear
There's better beer in Adelaide
I remember earlier in this topic I said LA and Johannesburg, and someone thought I was crazy. They both are young, sprawling, dry, and bustling. The only difference is that LA is WAY more economically well off.
I agree with this one actually. Both are young, both have a poor CBD, both have slarge non-downtown biz districts (Sandton, Rosebank vs. Irvine, Westwood, Whilshire), both have an issue of race (Soweto vs. East LA), both have bad traffic, both are very diverse, both have crime issues (though Jo'burg is worse), and both are kind of the cutting edge definition of a modern city (nodal model vs. the CDB model).
True, but I would equate Marseilles with Oakland moreso than San Francisco. Marseilles is a lot edgier and more "rough and tumble" a la Oakland.
Simone de Beauvoir, the French author and founder of modern feminism, compared San Francisco to Marseille in the 1950s, when SF was much more of a working class city than it is now.
As a San Franciscan (albeit a recent transplant), I'd compare SF more with Lisbon. The exact same weather, plenty of hills, similar architecture (even a bridge that looks like the Golden Gate), plenty of earthquakes, and a fascinating cultural vibe that has survived tourism. Also, the old working class white San Francisco (almost gone now) had far more of a Portuguese element than a French element. (One could point out, however, that many of the white "French" in Marseille are not French by ancestry, but Italian, Spanish, Maltese, Greek, Eastern European, etc. - then again, something like one out of every 3 French people has an immigrant ancestor within 4 generations, and I'm not just talking about immigrants from Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. President Sarkozy's father was Hungarian and his maternal grandparents were Greek, and Foreign Minister Kouchner's grandparents were Russian Jews. This phenomenon is merely more accentuated in Marseille than elsewhere in France.)
Detroit has a large Italian population. Both cities also have a high crime rate (well Rome may not have a high murder rate, but a lot of theft). Another connection, both cities are located in a state or country that are shaped like an article of clothing (Michigan is shaped like a glove, while Italy is shaped like a boot). The Midwest and Northeast regions in general are comparable to Europe.
If Rome was magically transported to the US it would have amongst the lowest crime rates of any city. Rome has a high rate of property crime but by US standards a low rate of violent crime.
The closest city in the EU to Detroit would be Riga - the city with the highest violent crime rates in the EU, with major ethnic tensions and poverty. . Also, the Eastern European influence on Detroit is even larger than the Italian influence.
Not necessarily cleaner. Vancouver full of homeless and drug addicts. Montreal full of prostitutes at night and people pee in the streets. Don't know about Toronto.
Toronto has some pretty bad neighborhoods, not as many as Chicago but it has its fair share. You might've heard of Canadian rappers name dropping Jane & Finch, it is a pretty bad ghetto area.
The "Canadian slum" that Michael Moore visited in "Bowling For Columbine" is actually a working class part of Toronto and by no means the worst off or most dangerous. (BTW Canadian audiences laughed at the "unlocked doors" sequence). Moore seems to steer clear of the 'hoods when filming in foreign countries - for example, in the part of "Sicko" filmed in France he only filmed the good life in the 6th, 7th, and 16th arrondissments in Paris and didn't go into the suburban banlieue ghettos like Clichy-sus-Bois, Aulnay-sus-Bois, Villiers-le-Bel, and the other places where the riots happened.
Glendale, CA - Yerevan, Armenia : Armenian influence. Both cities even look similar with the mountains in the background and desert climates(though Glendale is much warmer in the winter). Yettem,CA could also be comparable to Yerevan. Yettem is Armenian for Eden and was settled mainly by Armenians.
Solvang, CA - Copenhagen, Denmark: Danish influence (Solvang was founded by Danish settlers and even looks like Copenhagen in some ways.) Both cities have a statue of The Little Mermaid. There is also a replica of the Copenhagen observatory Rundetard in Sovlang. Solvang is Danish for Valley of the Sun.
Portland, OR - Busan, South Korea: Ports on the Pacific rim and the look similar with mountains in the backdrop. Similar climate.
Astoria, OR - Okhotsk, Russia : known for being trading posts for the fur trade in their early history. both are ports on the Pacific Rim.
New York - London. This one's obvious. Both are cosmopolitan, mega-sized capitals of their respective empires (I know the British Empire's not around anymore, but still).
Boston - Paris. Mainly because all of the history, architecture, and their respective reputations. Boston is known as an education capital, Paris is known for the arts and romance. Arts and education go hand in hand.
Washington, D.C. - Geneva. Both cities have played enomorous roles in shaping global politics over the last century or two. They are known, more than anything else, for being political centers.
Los Angeles - Rome. Similar climate. Also, both cities are cultural, political, and social centers of their respective regions. Rome has really fallen off in terms of importance (it ain't what it used to be. 2,000 years ago it was really something else). And I know L.A. is a really new city that 100 years ago was a dusty little desert town, but they still kind of have similar vibes to me. Rome wasn't built in a day, but L.A. was, or at least it seems.
Miami - Havana. I think the reasons are obvious. I was going to compare Miami to Rio, but Miami is flat and Rio is definitely not.
San Francisco - Hong Kong. I think these two cities work because they both have really exotic looking terrain. They're both, well.................exotic. Alternatively, San Francisco could also easily be compared with Rio da Janeiro for the same reasons, plus the fact that San Fran and Rio have really interesting mixes of people and cultures. Hong Kong is pretty homogenous - pretty much all Chinese people, well some British and American whites, but not many.
Chicago - Berlin. Both cities are known for cold, gloomy weather. Also their both really utiltarian, if that makes any sense. Their the kind of cities that adopt a "work comes first" mentality. They're not pretty, nor do they try to be. They simply do their jobs. Also, both have long histories of racism (though I suppose Berlin's history as being the capital of the Third Reich can't compare to Chicago's race riots in the 1960s). But Chicago is known for other types of crime. Both cities are thought of as being a bit "rough around the edges". I think the Chicago-Toronto comparison works well too, except for the fact that Toronto is clearly the cleaned up and polished version of Chicago. As far as I know, Toronto doesn't have anything that comes close to say, the west side of Chicago.
Detroit - Johannesburg. The reasons should be obvious - high crime and a history of racism and segregation. I don't mean to dog Detroit (it actually reminds me a lot of home and so I have a bit of a soft spot for it) but these two cities kind of give you the impression that crime is so out of control that they're barely able to function as cities, in terms of attracting and operating businesses, tourism, and recreation. More than anything, the struggle these two cities face is against perception and reputation, perhaps even more so than the actual reality of the crime these cities face.
Houston - Dubai. Both cities are built in places that a normal human being would think is simply too f***ing hot to live in, let alone build an entire city in. And yet, both cities grow like weeds. Why? Oil money. Both cities are modern metropolises planted right in the middle of places that are not very progressive socially and politically (Houston being in Texas and Dubai being in the Middle East).
Minneapolis - Stockholm. Both cities are known for their Scandanavian background, and get ridiculously cold in the winter. Only thing is, I think Stockholm is on a harbor or bay, but Minneapolis is just on a river.
New Orleans - Amsterdam. Both cities are interesting and eclectic. Both cities lie below sea level. Both cities are very liberal, especially when it comes to sex (New Orleans' French Quarter and Amsterdam's Red Light District).
Denver - Seoul. They're both clean, modern cities that are located in or near the mountains and get cold as hell in the wintertime.
Atlanta - Frankfurt. Both are modern, booming cities in the middle of traditonally conservative regions (Deep South and Germany, respectively). Both boast impressive skylines and have only seen growth in recent times.
Honolulu - Okinawa (Japan). Though Okinawa's nowhere near as large, Hawaii in general to me is very reminscent of Okinawa. Like Hawaii, Okinawa was its own kingdom for centuries before being taken over by a larger imperial power (in this case, Japan). Both places are full of people who are naturally warm and friendly, because it's embedded in their culture. Both are in warm climates and on tropical islands too far away from their respective countries' mainlands to drive, so you have to fly to get there. However, Honolulu's much further. Okinawa's 350 miles away from the rest of Japan; Honolulu's 2,000 miles away. Honolulu is just as far from Los Angeles as New York.
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This is a hard comparison to do. Many American cities are so unique that they have no real counterpart overseas. Philadelphia's a good example. What's more American than Philly? The Declaration of Independence was signed there as was the Constitution. Its history IS American history. Its culture and people are distinctly, if not stereotypically, American. Loud and brash. Huge sports fans. A melting pot of ethnicites - Italian, Irish, African American, Puerto Rican, Dominican, etc. It's hard to find a foreign city that reminds me of Philly.
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These are good ones. NY and London make sense and so do New Orleans and Amsterdam. Those aren't the only ones. I have a few more to add.
New York City - Brussels, Belgium: New York has the U.N. and Brussels has the EU, so both have some role in world politics.
Denver, CO - Zurich,Switzerland: both cities are also located near major mountain ranges, clean, and cold in the winter. Both are major financial centers.
Minneapolis, MN - Helsinki, Finland : both cities have Scandinavian influence and are very cold in the winter. Furthermore, both cities have alot of lakes inside them. Both cities are also home to a sizeable Somalian
diaspora.
The next two might sound a bit odd to some:
Atlanta, GA - Bucharest, Romania : Both cities are known for the dubious distinction of having alot of their old architecture gone. Atlanta was burned down in the Civil War. Only the churches survived. Bucharest had to deal with alot of its old architecture being torn down by former(and deceased) dictator Nicolae Ceausescu to make way for Stalinist architecture. Both cities have manage to thrive while dealing with relatively high crime rates. Both cities have seen their share of hard days(Civil War and the Jim Crow era for Atlanta, World War II and the Cold War).
New Orleans, LA - St. Petersburg, Russia : Both cities were built out of marsh and swamp land where no one else wanted to build and became major ports. Both cities suffer from high poverty rates and very high crime rates(St. Petersburg has historically been a high crime city).
Last edited by green_mariner; 10-11-2008 at 12:15 PM..
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