Which is a better City: London or New York? (best city, home)

[Tall Traveler]

London wins for me on the history, architecture (older), milder climate, though fast paced it seems less frenetic and stressed. the only area I can think of that NYC wins is a bit stronger economy.

[BigLake]

I think New York is a great city, but this one's not even close. London if far more interesting, has the history, much more user-friendly. This is not close in my opinion.

[modernist1]

As a native Londoner, and someone who knows both cities well, it's a close call. London gets newer day by day, Gotham gets older - both good. If I had to say, New York gets it. And yes, as someone pointed out, there are other threads on the same.

[Brave New World]

Originally Posted by modernist1

As a native Londoner, and someone who knows both cities well, it's a close call. London gets newer day by day, Gotham gets older - both good. If I had to say, New York gets it. And yes, as someone pointed out, there are other threads on the same.

The traditional west end hasn't changed a great deal, and a lot of the parts getting newer are concentrated around the city, old east end docks and Greenwich Peninsula and places such as Vauxhall and the Elephant and Castle.

The rundown area around Battersea Power Station is being redeveloped, although it's not a case of becoming newer it's a case of London finally filling in the old empty industrial sites such as Bishopsgate Goods Yard, Battersea and Nine Elms, Kings Cross, Old Oak Common, the old empty docks in the East, which have been empty since containerisation but were once the largest docks in the entire world.

London at one time as full of WW2 bomb craters, and empty industrial land, especially in the East End, and the 1960's saw a lot of ugly concete estates, a lot of which have been pulled down in recent years and replaced with much better housing.

Some of the regeneration schemes have been very good, indeed Kings Cross has been impressive, Canary Wharf has seen a vast second fininancial centre develop in the East End and nearby Wood Wharf and the Royal Docks are also being redeveloped, as is the Greenwich Peninsula also in the East.

New renderings of the old Bishopsgate Goods Yard also look very good, and the vast Old Oak Common transport interchange is also impressive.

London has a lot of listed buildings but had so much disused land in the East End that the sensible thing to do was to utilise it.

In terms of NYC, it had the advantage of not being bombed during WW2, although the events of 9/11 were very tragic.

Saying that I love NYC and there is not much between these two great cities.

[ilovelondon]

Yes, London's transformation from a declining imperial city to a premiere global city is truly astounding. It wasn't until 1991 (less than 30 years ago) when the population decline reversed into growth. New York is the same way I believe where it grew from the 1980s as well. Say what you want about Giuliani gentrifying Manhattan, but New York is much better now than it has ever been.


National Geographic: How London Became the Center of the World

[Milky Way Resident]

They are both about even to me. It would be really hard to pick a favorite.

[manitopiaaa]

New York for me. New York has a "center of the world" pulse that I don't get from London.

I think it's because New York is the undisputed premier city of 325 million people, whereas London is the undisputed premier city of 65 million people. London doesn't have a "continental" dominance to it that New York has, since it has to compete with Istanbul, Moscow, Paris and other Alpha cities. They both feel "international" but New York feels monolithic and grand on a scale that London falls a bit behind on.

New York's "Manhattan-centric" development versus London's multi-nodal, polycentric landscape also helps give New York a more impressive core, while London feels like a close-knit collection of distinctive neighborhoods. The latter gives London probably more layers to discover - something that New York is correcting with large-scale growth in the outer boroughs - but it also gives New York a sheer verticality and dominance that I find stunning.

Everytime I see the Manhattan skyline coming into the Holland Tunnel, I audibly gasp at the sight of the city. London isn't quite at the "audible gasp" stage.

[manitopiaaa]

Also, there's a huge size differential here.

London fits 9 million people into 600 square miles. New York fits 9 million people into 300 square miles.

I think London needs to vastly densify to truly take the mantle of the premier global city. London's density actually ranks very poorly with its peer cities.

[Brave New World]

Originally Posted by manitopiaaa

Also, there's a huge size differential here.

London fits 9 million people into 600 square miles. New York fits 9 million people into 300 square miles.

I think London needs to vastly densify to truly take the mantle of the premier global city. London's density actually ranks very poorly with its peer cities.

London is a very different city, and has never been about cramming people in to some disgnated city area, indeed London has a history of green spaces going back as far as the Tudor Kings such as Henry VIII.

London is a city where you can walk through historic areas, through green and pleasant areas and stop at local pubs in order to enjoy a pint or stop at one of the caes in the many parks for a coffee or a meal,, it is a city rich in architecture, tradition and culture. This os one of London's pluses in my own personal view.

Originally Posted by The Nature of Cities

This movement is not something that has suddenly emerged out of the blue. London has a long and impressive history of protecting its green environment, from the Royal Parks created in the late medieval and Tudor periods, to the Metropolitan gardens movement of the 19th century and Garden City suburbs of the early 20th century, to the designation of London’s Green Belt and Metropolitan Open Land in the 1950s and the massive proliferation of urban nature reserves since the 1980s, large numbers of which are now protected through planning legislation. The idea of a National Park City is building on firm foundations.

The statistics are extraordinary. Greater London covers nearly 1600 km2, of which 47 percent is physically green. Nearly 20 percent is made up of private gardens and there are 3,000 parks. The total length of streams, rivers and canals is more than 850km, many of which are accessible by footpaths. Signed footpaths and well established greenways exceed 1000km in length.

London’s natural habitats are exceptional, with considerable areas of ancient woodland, meadows, heath and common, as well as ancient deer parks—such as Richmond Park—and recently created wetlands that have proved to be extremely popular. These natural habitats include some that are internationally important, but it is particularly striking that the total amount of natural habitat now protected by nature conservation designations amounts to nearly 20 percent of Greater London.


The Nature of Cities - London: A National Park City

[Brave New World]

Originally Posted by manitopiaaa

New York for me. New York has a "center of the world" pulse that I don't get from London.

I think it's because New York is the undisputed premier city of 325 million people, whereas London is the undisputed premier city of 65 million people. London doesn't have a "continental" dominance to it that New York has, since it has to compete with Istanbul, Moscow, Paris and other Alpha cities. They both feel "international" but New York feels monolithic and grand on a scale that London falls a bit behind on.

New York's "Manhattan-centric" development versus London's multi-nodal, polycentric landscape also helps give New York a more impressive core, while London feels like a close-knit collection of distinctive neighborhoods. The latter gives London probably more layers to discover - something that New York is correcting with large-scale growth in the outer boroughs - but it also gives New York a sheer verticality and dominance that I find stunning.

Everytime I see the Manhattan skyline coming into the Holland Tunnel, I audibly gasp at the sight of the city. London isn't quite at the "audible gasp" stage.

I don't believe any city is at the centre of the world, and London has always had close connections to the world, it's docks were the largest in the world, it has 6 airports, has direct rail links with Lille (1 hr 22min), Brussels (1hr 48 mins), Paris 2 hrs 16 mins), Amsterdam (3 hrs 22 mins) and there are also direct trains to the South of France and Ski trains to the Alps, with new sevices to Bordeaux and Geneva planned. In terms of London's docks they are once again growing in terms of London Gateway and the expansion of Tilbury docks, and ferries also operate to Europe, whilst London is building a new cruise liner terminal.

NYC isn't even the capital of the US, there is no grand building like the Houses of Parliament or palaces where the Royals reside, indeed Prince Chrles is now Head of the Commonwealth, an organisation which represents over 2.4 Billion people. Indeed Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the UK have even discussed the propsect of greater political and economic ties through Canzuk.

London is also going to host a ne Financial and Trading Sector at the Royal Docks to encourage new trade with Far East countries, and the City already has two very impressive skylines in terms of the City of London whih is to the east of London and Canary Wharf in the East End, which just across the Thames from the development going on at the Greenwich Penininsula.

Welcome to London's Royal Docks

In terms of education and culture, London has some superb universities sich as UCL, Imperial, LSE, Kings etx which are often classed as among the best in the world, whilst unlike NYC London host national museums, the national museums such as the Smithsonian in the US are mainly in Washington DC along with most of the political institutions.

London is also one of the great sports cities of the word home to numerous famous sporting teams and grounds as well iconic national sporting venues such as Wembley (Football/Soccer), Twickenham (Rugby), Lords (Cricket), the Oval (Cricket), Wimbledon (Tennis) etc.

Much as I love NYC, the world doesn't revolve around it, beither does it revolve around London, however London like NYC is very much part of the world and very international in it's outlook and links.

Eurostar

CANZUK International