Other big cities (New York, White Plains, Rome: neighborhood, college, live)

[Danbo1957]

Need to define "big city". New York has a large population crammed into a smallish area, Houston is massive in square miles. Now, if you want to include New York City into the "Tri-state" area...

[BKTony]

No American city is remotely as crowded or as busy as Manhattan. Chicago is busy and crowded only for a few blocks downtown the rest of it seems too be less crowded and not as bustling as NYC. L.A. is way too spread out. I have only been to one foreign city (Tokyo) that seemed more crowded and busier than NYC.

[eek]

tokyo...thats about it.

[stillife]

Chicago, definitely. I grew up there but have lived in NYC for almost 30 years. Chicago has an excellent theater scene which rivals that of NYC. I'm talking about off-Broadway type stuff. Steppenwolf Theater originated in a church basement in Highland Park, a suburb of Chicago. Restaurants in Chicago are every bit as good as those in NYC. Chicago also has some great architecture and the lakefront is amazing. Living in NYC, even though we're on the coast, I miss the easy proximity to beaches.

I've only been to LA once so I'm not qualified to speak about it, but I will anyway. It's a fun place, but it seemed to me to be more like a bunch of suburbs. Not a true urban feel.

[Coolhand68]

The only city I felt compared in size was Chicago. LA has a sprawl to it, like a giant suburb.

[rsdplaya]

i'm from the minneapolis area and had been to nyc when i was around 12 years old. but at that age, it's hard to grasp just how big and how much nyc has to offer.

well anyways, then within the past few years (i'm 21 now), i've traveled to chicago quite a bit...i thought it was HUGE and amazing compared to minneapolis...that is until i went to nyc a couple times this past summer. just amazing...nyc completely dwarfs chicago imo.

[I_Love_LI_but]

Mumbai, India is the Manhattan of Southeast Asia.

[bluedog2]

LOL White Plains Road and Pelham Parkway in The Bronx are busier at 10:00 p.m. than downtown Chicago !
Parts of Queens are over 20 miles from midtown.If you go 20 miles out of Chicago you are in corn fields.

[latikeriii]

I grew up in Chicago and it is by far the closest "big city" to NYC in vibrancy. I've been to LA, Houston, Dallas, DC, Philly, Boston, San Diego, Atlanta, San Francisco and more and those cities are behind Chicago which is waaay behind NYC. Downtown Chicago is extremely vibrant and busy during both rush hours but pretty quiet during other times(except for Michigan Ave-River North area). The "Loop" or Central Business District is pretty dead nights and weekends but so is the Financial District in NYC. Chicago has vibrant neighborhoods not downtown that are very busy and loud during most hours, examples: Lakeview, Lincoln Park, Rogers Park, Bucktown/Wicker Park, and many crime-filled neighborhoods like Uptown, Austin, Englewood,etc.

However, no city in the US has the scale of NYC's busy streets, noise, and vibrancy. No city compares to NYC in the US but to say Chicago is dead is way off. BTW, the corn fields are long gone, maybe go out 60 miles or more for those. Chicago's burbs are very sprawling and many are vibrant alone.

[john_starks]

Originally Posted by 215GUY

Thanks for answering my post i guess London, Tokyo, or Moscow would feel big to New Yorkers

my cousin who lives in London moved to Boston for a work assignment. he liked it a lot but called it a small town. and loved NYC because it made him homesick. he loved the fact that it was big & dirty just like London