Quote:
Originally Posted by BajanYankee
This one has never been done before. Compare these two cities on the following:
Economy
Global Significance
Diversity
Weather
Food Scene
Local Culture
Parks
Museums
Walkability
Street Vibrancy
Transit
Architecture
History
Education
Nightlife
Shopping
Safety
Tourism
Cost of Living
Outdoor Recreation
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I can imagine other criteria where Philadelphia could be a little more competitive but for these ones it is mostly a blow out
Economy:Close, mostly because of the US$ bias in the measuring of GDP. Even so Mexico City has the largest and more diverse economy. It houses the second largest stock exchange in Latin America, and produces over 15% of the national GDP. Philadelphia's economy is gonna have better per capita numbers but the economy of Mexico City is more important nationally and globally.
Global Significance: Mexico City by a VERY long way. CdM is the largest Spanish-speaking city in the world and arguably that world's cultural capital. It hosts many of the largest and most important Spanish language publishing houses, television and film production companies, art galleries, music studios etc. What is made there has truly global reach from Manila to Tierra del Fuego. Philadelphia is a great city but it has NOWHERE near the global reach or significance of Mexico City.
Diversity: Depends on how you measure. Much more linguistic diversity in Mexico City. Depending on how you count, there are up to 300 Indigenous languages in Mexico, you will hear some of them spoken on the streets of Mexico City. There are a range of expat communities but I can see how you could give this one to Philadelphia.
Weather: Mexico City has close to perfect year round weather: rarely gets above 80 F and even more rarely gets below 40F. Weather is always gonna be subjective. Philadelphia has much greater extremes of heat and cold. Only coastal Southern California in the US has comparable weather to CdM. For me, big win for Mexico City
Food Scene: Philadelphia is a good eating town, but not in the league of Mexico City. I agree with the poster above who called it the best eating city in North America. Really only NYC compares. From the best street food I have ever eaten to some of the best fine dining restaurants in the world, Mexico City is restaurant paradise at every price point. Equidistant from the Pacific and the Gulf, the second largest fish market in the world is in Mexico City. Seafood is fresh and spectacular, The best Sushi I have eaten outside of Japan has been in CdM. Mild climate, long growing season, short supply chains means that generally produce is much fresher and better than anything that ends up in a U.S. supermarket. Coffee is also mostly excellent and while the best Tequila is from Jalisco and the best Mezcal is form Oaxaca, it all finds its way to the capital. The food scene in Philadelphia is good, but Mexico City's food scene blows it out of the water, Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia is pretty great. There are more than thirty such markets in Mexico City- many bigger and better. Not even close.
Local culture? Do you prefer bullfights to American football etc. Mexico City is the primate city of a country with one of the most fascinating cultures on the planet. What is local culture in Philly? Entirely subjective.
Parks: Again, very easily Mexico City. Chapultepec is one of the try great urban parks in the world. Its peers are the Bois de Boulogne in Paris, Central Park in New York and the Imperial Gardens in Tokyo. It is massive, houses half a dozen excellent museums, a Hapsburg castle. While Mexico City could do with a little more green space there are beautiful pocket parks scattered throughout the core: Mexico, Espagne and Alameda are all spectacular.
Museums: You have to be joking. There are over 200 museums in Mexico City, many world class. I would be surprised if Philly has half that number . . .
Walkability: Easily Mexico City and over a much bigger area . . .
Street vibrancy. I have never seen street markets of the number and size that you find in most Mexico City neighborhoods. The climate is also much more friendly to year round al fresco dining and drinking. Mexico City by a very long way
Transit. Mexico City traffic is not for the feint-hearted, so easier to get around Philadelphia by car. Public transit is much more frequent and extensive in CdM.
Architecture: This one is actually a joke. Mexico City has been a center of wealth and power for over a thousand years, and the traces are there. What would the Philly equivalent to the pyramids of the Sun and Moon be? Rittenhouse Square is lovely but it looks tiny and positively suburban compared to the Zocalo. Philly has charming eighteenth and nineteenth-century row houses neighborhoods. There are more extent 16th, 17th and 18th century buildings in Mexico City than there are in Madrid, plus the beautiful Art Nouveaux Porfirian neighborhoods like Condesa and Roma Norte. Then there are the many gorgeous old colonial towns that the city has swallowed up, most famously Coyoacan and San Angel. There is one UNESCO World Heritage site in Philadelphia - Independence Hall. The entire 3.5 square miles and some 1500 plus buildings in the Centro Historic in CdM are a World Heritage Site. And then there is Luis Barragan and Mexican Modernism. I could go on, but you are getting the picture. There is a lot of ghastly seventies cinderblock infill in Mexico City and Philadelphia has its share of bombed out blight, but you have to be on crack to think Philadelphia is remotely in the same architectural league as Mexico City.
History: see Architecture, plus the floating islands of Xochimilco in the south of the city can plausibly claim to be the oldest continually cultivated agricultural land in the hostly of the world. There is a lot more history in the valley of Mexico than there is in Philadelphia . . .
Education: I can give this one to Philadelphia, though it is close, but Penn probably edges UNAM. Temple/Drexel and Ibero are kinda a wash. There is no answer to the slew of truly excellent liberal arts colleges in the Philadelphia suburbs in Mexico City, but similarly there is no Philadelphia equivalent to the Colegio de Mexico. But Philadelphia here.
Nightlife; Philadelphia has improved, but Mexico City can be WILD. Clubbing is often 24/7. Restaurants are often open until 2am or later. Philadelphia is a bit tame in comparison.
Shopping: I give this to Mexico City - fabulous street markets in many neighborhoods, and many specialty stores- I love the old fashioned sweet shops, cobblers, hardware stores etc. There are many suburban malls, not good as KOP, but I don't care, and then there is no street in Philadelphia that can hold a candle to President Masaryk in Polanco for high end designer retail.
Safety: You are more likely to be the victim of petty crime in Mexico City but three times as likely to be murdered in Philadelphia according to the stats. I feel plenty safe in both cities - just pay attention to your surroundings.
Tourism: They are both great places to visit. CdM is just on a other scale. I think you can do the highlights of Philly in 3-4 days. I have spent months in Mexico City and feel like I have only scratched the surface.
COL. I think Philadelphia along with Chicago are the best urban bang for your buck in the English-speaking world. If you are being paid in US$ Mexico City is absurdly cheap.
Outdoor recreation: Since Mexico City has better parks, is ringed by mountains, there is better hiking etc. Philadelphia is closer to beaches. Mexico City has much more beautiful environs, but my sense is that no- one visits either place for outdoor recreation . . .
That said, for a number of reasons I could imagining choosing to live in Philadelphia over Mexico City. I spent my 20s in Manhattan and while I loved it, at this point in my life I would rather visit a mega-city than live in one.
But for the criteria listed by the OP, I think Mexico City is a full tier above Philadelphia, with only education and diversity being Philadelphia leans . . .
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