Does Boston share more similarities with London or New York? (homes, neighborhoods)

[Mayei]

Hi all,

Just as a little background, Boston is my hometown, but I've visited London multiple times for family, and due to proximity, have enjoyed quality time in New York as well. These are 3 of my favorite cities, and I have noticed a significant cultural overlap between the 3 as well (despite 2 being huge global cities, and Boston small and regional in comparison)

You can still see a lot of British colonial influence in Boston's architecture and street layout - one of Boston's most differentiating characteristics from other major American cities is its winding roads. London is similarly not gridded, and has some similar building stock to Boston's, while being not as skyscraper-heavy as New York. Boston and London also bear an Irish influence.

While New York & Boston's streetcapes & architecture don't look very similar (at least in Manhattan), they both share American and Northeastern culture, despite New York leaning Mid-Atlantic & Boston New England. Also when one looks at Brooklyn, the architecture in some neighborhoods look incredibly similar to some of Boston's housing stock, specifically rowhomes & greenery.

Even though London and New York probably share many more similarities culturally to each other than Boston does to either, being a much smaller city, I thought it may be an interesting comparison. All 3 cities mix old and new architecture, and all 3 have been historically entwined.

Let us know what you think, and feel free to share pictures if you like!

[Bettafish]

Whenever I ask about ancestry in Boston, the answer is some combination of Irish and Italian. It seems relatively few people in Boston have British/Anglo ancestry.

[OyCrumbler]

NYC by a massive margin. Due to sheer proximity and being in the same country, Boston is far more like an outer borough part of NYC than it feels like London and it's not even remotely close.

[Brave New World]

London is a mixture of architecture and extremely vast, parts may resemble other cities, but overall I would have thought Boston was more similar to parts of New York with it's Brownstones, than parts of Central London which has more Georgian/Regency architecture and streets courtesy of architects such as the great John Nash.

[BigCityDreamer]

The Boston accent sounds kind of similar to the New York accent.

Very few people in Boston speak with a British accent, unless they're from Britain.

[Trafalgar Law]

It is more like New York by far.

I live in London and have been to both New York and Boston several times. Not once, not twice, not even thrice, but been to them several times. Boston is probably the closest to London in America but that's not really saying much, given everywhere in America is vastly different from London, Boston included. It's like saying Korean food is the most similar to American food among all the Asian cuisines solely because both superficially have barbecue involved in ample segments of their cuisine.