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I like these parallel universe posts! Maybe I can give some of my ideas of parallel cities, starting with these North American (Canadian) cities:
St. John's - Reykjavik
Quebec City - Caen
Montreal - Lyon
Ottawa - The Hague
Toronto - Oslo
Winnipeg - Lviv
Calgary - Aberdeen
Vancouver - Yokohama
Yellowknife - Kiruna
Here is my list, I'm only going to do a few cities.
NYC- London
Washington, D.C.- Paris
Miami- Rio De Janeiro
Chicago- Berlin? This was hard
New Orleans- Barcelona
Los Angeles- Melbourne
If I didn't put down a city, it's because I couldn't find a similar city for it
In addition to weather, the architecture and culture of Seattle and London are similar. Seattle also has good fish n' chips. Now that Seattle has the Great Wheel, it has something similar to The London Eye, only a lot smaller. Stockholm is another good match for Seattle, as another poster mentioned. Not familiar with Auckland though, but Sweden in general has similar geography and climate as Washington State.
Actually SEAandATL, when I was in Sweden and its archipelago I thought I could easily be on the coast of Maine with its low relief glacially scoured rocky islands topped with a few scraggly pine trees. Stockholm is a cool boutique type of city to which the Swedes flock to enjoy themselves. There are no skyscrapers and the streets are fairly narrow with lots of leisurely pedestrian traffic.
I can sort of see the DC-Paris resemblance to be honest. They both seem rather immaculate and planned. I mean, Paris is a very old city, but a lot of its modern streets are planned (like Champs-Elysees). The architecture seems rather consistent.
DC is actually a lot more orderly in its street layout. Paris has a few straight roads but most of the city is just a jumble of narrow streets that seemingly go wherever they want. Paris is a shockingly confusing city to get around if you don't know where you are going. DC is the opposite.
Additionally, Paris is extremely vibrant in its core, DC is full of office buildings and is dead after hours.
Actually SEAandATL, when I was in Sweden and its archipelago I thought I could easily be on the coast of Maine with its low relief glacially scoured rocky islands topped with a few scraggly pine trees. Stockholm is a cool boutique type of city to which the Swedes flock to enjoy themselves. There are no skyscrapers and the streets are fairly narrow with lots of leisurely pedestrian traffic.
I think in North America parts of the great lakes region (in Ontario and Michigan) resemebles Sweden the most. It helps that a large part of that region is "cottage country" as well. The West coast of North American is probably more like Norway, especially with the fjord like landscape in British Columbia and Alaska.
Stockholm is kind of interesting when it comes to skyscrapers I always find. We have a handful of tall buildings in the city itself, but most of the taller residental buildings one can find are in the suburbs (thanks mostly in part of the million program). One of the few cities that reminds me of this is Toronto, where there are many million program like high rise public housing buildings all over the city. For example, I don't see that so often in many other North American cities like Boston or Seattle for example (not in the scale and scope anyway).
St. Louis, MO - Winnipeg, MB,|Both river cities, humid uncomfortable summers, bad winters(though winnipeg's is way worst), North and West sides are the hood parts of town,hallmarks respectively the arch and the Forks, similar economy and both have a older vibe to them.
Washington D.C. - Paris, France, (btw both should have better skylines)
Chicago, IL - Toronto, ON | Great Lakes Cities , Business Centers, Both Have great Dense Skylines , Similar in size(both in population and city limits) both beautiful beaches, Chi has Navy Pier, T.Dot has the Islands, The Chicago fire of 1871, Toronto Fire in 1904.
San Diego, CA - Melbourne, Australia
Minneapolis, MN - Copenhagen, Denmark
Houston, TX - Calgary, AB
Denver CO - Edmonton, AB
Boston MA, - Halifax ,Nova Scotia
Last edited by GreatLakesStateofMind; 08-21-2013 at 06:43 PM..
Melbourne is not like LA. Maybe geographically speaking, with its urban sprawl and coastal setting. Other than that, they aren't really comparable. Melbourne is mostly flat terrain and it does not get hilly or mountainous like LA does. The San Diego-Melbourne connection has got to be a joke. Melbourne's American counterpart is Boston or Chicago and maybe NYC as a distant cousin. Only a very tiny portion of Melbourne even slightly resembles San Diego and that's the beach-side suburb of St. Kilda. Even that isn't very alike SD.
Last edited by augostoschmitt; 08-28-2013 at 01:33 AM..
I was more going based off climate than anything. I would probably replace it with Sydney now that I realise it, though Sydney is a lot more humid than LA.
Adelaide, like Perth, is probably more like San Diego.
Sydney is also nothing like LA. It's closer to San Francisco and New York than it is LA.
There are a lot of people that see Paris as a peer of Tokyo, New York, & London and while that's true to an extent, I don't think so. Not anymore at least, Paris' days of rivaling those three are behind it and it's the next half tier down with Hong Kong. I call it tier 1B behind tier 1A (New York, London, Tokyo). Paris is a cultural gem but it's not the financial center that Tokyo, London, & New York are, it doesn't have the large economy of those three either, those three ranked by different researchers as the top cities (alternatively, depending on which study) while Paris never beats them in most studies, & those three have just as much notoriety and culture as Paris to hold it off. However there are no United States cities on the level of Hong Kong or Paris (except New York, which exceeds them in my opinion)
Laughable. Paris is still a world leader in all sectors and there are figures to back that up. I'd also take it over London and Tokyo any day when it comes to personal preference.
St. Louis, MO - Winnipeg, MB,|Both river cities, humid uncomfortable summers, bad winters(though winnipeg's is way worst), North and West sides are the hood parts of town,hallmarks respectively the arch and the Forks, similar economy and both have a older vibe to them.
Washington D.C. - Paris, France, (btw both should have better skylines)
Chicago, IL - Toronto, ON | Great Lakes Cities , Business Centers, Both Have great Dense Skylines , Similar in size(both in population and city limits) both beautiful beaches, Chi has Navy Pier, T.Dot has the Islands, The Chicago fire of 1871, Toronto Fire in 1904.
San Diego, CA - Melbourne, Australia
Minneapolis, MN - Copenhagen, Denmark
Houston, TX - Calgary, AB
Denver CO - Edmonton, AB
Boston MA, - Halifax ,Nova Scotia
San Diego and Perth. Not only are they twin cities, they share the same Med climate, have the same laid-back beach culture, look similar (the layout of the city etc) and SD even has a lot of Australian eucalyptus. It's not like Melbourne at all. SD is the only city in the US that really seemed Australian.
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