Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I was in Seoul in 1957-58 with the US Army and it wasn't anything like today. Picture No. 1 is the Chosun Hotel in 1957, Picture No. 2 is the same hotel(I guess) today. All of Korea was in pretty bad shape back then. They have made amazing progress.
I would say these are better classifications, going by industry engagement:
Global city power projection: London and New York.
Powerhouses in pretty much all global city criteria: Human capital, financial services, cultural heritage and academia.
Financial services: "Big Five" of London, New York, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Singapore.
Paris often gets neglected here for a number of reasons.
Cultural engagement: "Top Three" of London, New York and Paris.
Various other lists also include one or two old world, typically Western European, cities.
Fashion capitals: "Top Three" of Paris, Milan, New York (with occasional mention of London).
According to media coverage, industry engagement and the presence of the biggest fashion labels.
The problem, as far as I can see, with the "Big Four" is that London and New York are heavily overrepresented in related discussions or threads. In some cases, the discussions turn into bitter London versus New York rivalries, with the others being somewhat ignored.
I think it's interesting that, in earlier discussions going back a decade or two, Paris had much more leverage in competing against London and New York by dint of its cultural heritage. Also, though are many advocates for Tokyo who give good arguments for why it should be included among a "top four", it never really received the same public engagement as the other three.
Last edited by Hightower72; 02-04-2018 at 12:37 AM..
There is no such thing as a "Big Seven", there is a Big Four... NYC, Tokyo, London, Paris.
Quote:
Originally Posted by usuariodeldia
I agree
The big seven are a typological category - ie. a list of world cities that are grouped according to characteristics in common in a way that make them ‘unique’ and set apart from the others.
Your ‘big four’ are not the same thing. They are just a shortlist of favourite cities we use from time to time for the convenience of polling and debate on these forums. Because cities in the this case are often chosen and scored according to voters’ own criteria, how big the list is mostly arbitrary. Some have a personal list of 5 or more, some have 3.
To argue that one or the other is irrelevant is a bit misleading. They’re two very different things, but both are geared to suit different purposes and provide different information.
I love America but, a lot of our cities do not belong on that list.
New York. Multiple industries, multi-national political and, corporate interests.
Washington DC. Where you go to buy Congressmen and Senators.
Hollywood. Entertainment, one of the few things we still can export.
San Francisco. HQ to many international tech corporations; Google, Facebook, etc..
The rest? People just live there. Maybe I'm being too harsh on the other ones but, Chicago? That entry almost invalidates the entire list...
This happens to be what I like about America.
Seoul has half of the population and more than half of the resource of Korea, that's why it's a massive city. But what about the rest of the country? What if you are ambitious but you hate living in such a overpopulated city? You have no choice in Korea but you still have opportunities in the US.
There are a ton of great cities in America that offer plenty of career opportunities, access to healthcare, recreational opportunities, etc. For instance, Dallas is home to quite a number of HQs(TI, Toyota, Southwest), good health care resource. Austin is home to a few high tech corporations and a world renowned public university. The same goes for Houston, Seattle, Boston, Miami, etc.
Small towns are already dying out in America. When medium sized cities and even larger cities have died out, the resources and population will consolidate into a few "global cities". Average people have to move to the global cities to find a job, but they can't afford housing.
Seoul's rise from war-torn, poverty-stricken dump to Top Seven Global City, all within a single life time, is nothing short of astonishing. I think it's an amazing city; so clean and vibrant and livable. And as far as I know, it lacks the problems associated with a restless underclass that some of the other cities on this list are afflicted with. It wouldn't surprise me to see it rise to the very top of this list in the not-to-distant future.
While Paris has succumbed into a war zone, a gigantic ghetto.
While Paris has succumbed into a war zone, a gigantic ghetto.
Lol, what? What's the homicide rate of your nearest big city?
Why's this gigantic ghetto in a warzone able to muster the will to do something like this while the US can't even get its claptrap train system to stop crashing?
Lol, what? What's the homicide rate of your nearest big city?
Why's this gigantic ghetto in a warzone able to muster the will to do something like this while the US can't even get its claptrap train system to stop crashing?
Paris has the relatively unspoiled part and totally messed up part. It's still a leading city in advanced technology, math, arts, to name a few. But visiting/living in Paris is becoming very dangerous. The bad neighborhoods in Paris can be worse than Detroit. At least, the general consensus is that Paris is among the most dangerous cities in Europe, along with ghettos like Nice.
Seriously, even though I'm a big advocate of train system, I am very reluctant to ride metro in South Chicago/inner city Houston/Paris for safety concern. America is awful in many ways, but most of the time i feel pretty safe.
Worse than Detroit.
Seine Saint Denis (north and northeastern inner suburbs, where are many of the worst part of Paris area) has only a homicide rate of 2 per 100,000.
By comparison Detroit homicide rate is 39.7 per 100,000.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
