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Having been to Sydney many times, and an avid listener of people's opinions and interpretations on cities and their compatibility to other cities on a global scale, I'm interested in knowing which American city you find Sydney most comparable to? Whether it be in terms of architecture, culture, climate, general "feel", infrastructure, street level and general all round likeness. I've heard many people liken it to San Francisco, many to New York City (mainly between Lower Manhattan and Sydney's CBD) and to a lesser extent Los Angeles. Of the 3, only SF and Lower Manhattan strike me as being comparable to Sydney. LA doesn't have the same downtown feel, and the only likeness I could see was the climate, beach culture and fact that they have large residential areas/urban sprawl.
A few photos of Sydney at street level, to jog some people's memories and so fourth...
Of course, Sydney is Sydney, and it's in entirely its own league, as any other city is, but I'm interested in connections people make based on what they see.
P.S. Sydney is interesting for the fact that its one of the few major cities to have (or have had) a functional monorail that operates through the CBD. However, much to people's dismay, the monorail was completely removed this year.
Hmmm it doesn't really seem like any US city. In some aspects it's like Californian cities - beach culture, mild climate, yet if you drive down George Street it has that 'canyon feel' and narrow streets of Manhattan. The harbour is kinda like San Francisco, and I think the people in both places might be somewhat similar, a lot of yuppies and men who like showtunes lol jk.
I forgot to mention Toronto because I have heard those two compared, although of all Australian cities, Melbourne seems to hold more similarities to Toronto than Sydney for a lot of people. From the harbor perspective it certainly seems like SF, it's almost an identical setting, but at street level to me it's always felt more like Lower Manhattan.
Furthermore both NYC and Sydney are new world cities, highly ranking in the Global City field (NYC number 1 in the top 4, Sydney in the second grouping), with settlement based on a port. In each case the role of the central core of the city and the barriers to growth caused by water barriers have been dominant. The development of the central Sydney area was very similar to that of New York. Manhattan has provided the same function as Sydney's CBD, with an almost identical layout. Both are essentially a cluster of high rise and skyscraper buildings, with mid rise buildings dominating street level.
"Residentially and in terms of suburban development, they also share strong similarities. Manhattan is surrounded by a ring of suburbs developed as residential suburbs in the train and tram era. They are the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, West New York, Union City and Jersey City. In each there were developed large industrial estates. Sydney has the same zone of suburbs, but here the ring is broken. Essentially those suburbs are what we call today the eastern suburbs and inner west. The ring is broken on the lower north shore and the eastern harbour suburbs. The reason for this was the late development of a bridge across the harbour, and the wealthy occupying the heights along the scenic harbour."
Expansion of the city beyond the residential suburbs of the train and the tramway in New York, occurs in a zonal form. Along with these new suburbs came new industrial estates. In New York these suburbs are Nassau and Suffolk counties on Long Island, Staten Island, all but the inner suburbs in New Jersey and the suburbs north of the Bronx in New York State. In Sydney the same outer zone was developed, as well as much of the North Shore." The North Shore is very comparable to New York's Queens and it bears many similarities to the Forest Hills district (just see Wahroonga, Killara of Sydney etc) It became an upper class residential area much akin to Forest Hills during the 1930s when the Sydney Harbour Bridge was constructed, linking the CBD to the North Shore's suburbs.
I forgot to mention Toronto because I have heard those two compared, although of all Australian cities, Melbourne seems to hold more similarities to Toronto than Sydney for a lot of people. From the harbor perspective it certainly seems like SF, it's almost an identical setting, but at street level to me it's always felt more like Lower Manhattan.
Melbourne and Sydney are both like SF in that they feel very Asian, especially in the city centres, with old an large Chinatowns.
Let me just say first, it's really nice to see more of Sydney than the usual harbor and opera house shots.
It really looks like a truly unique place. I see a little bit of San Francisco, Toronto, Seattle and San Diego.
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