Just spent a week in the UK for work, first an internal training a few hours outside London, and then a few days in London itself. Today as I write this, I'm in the air on the way from London back to New York. It struck me on days like today that I am doing something in one day that about 100 years ago would've been mind blowing - being in London and New York on the same day.
London and New York run the world in a way - even in the globalized world we live in right now. There's a study/panel called the Globalization and World Cities (GaWC) Research Network, a blue-ribbon type deal that every 5-6 years will categorize the cities of the world into groups of how integrated and connected they are to the global world economy. While the study is a bit business-focused (vs. say culture or tourism), it is basically a proxy of "how important and meaningful is this place". The highest level is Alpha++, then Alpha+, Alpha, Alpha-, Beta+, Beta, Beta- (then on and on). There are seven Alpha+ cities in the 2020 release: Beijing, Dubai, Hong Kong, Paris, Shanghai, Singapore and Tokyo. Fair enough. There are just two in the Alpha++ bucket - unsurprisingly it is London and New York City. There's a lot of, simply put, "coolness" being in the standout two most important cities in teh world in the same day.
I've long talked about my relative cool feelings around London compared to other leading world cities - this is moreso from a tourism, culture, anthropological way. I've ranked it in the low-teens of the Top-60 Cities (International) list, and fundamentally don't think it should be higher. But anyway, what I really wanted to do is just compare these two Alpha++ cities head to head. Basically, of these two, which do I find to be just the better city.
Now, as an American who grew up in New Jersey, now works in New York, this is an obvious decision. Spoiler Alert - New York City will win. I have about 15-20 different dimensions that I'll split 10 points among the two cities. They won't all go to New York. There will be some that London wins in a rout. But I think I can go fairly clear here and list out the reasons why I prefer, nay I just can effectively state, that New York is the superior Alpha++, global megacity - whether to live, to tour or to just be....
Public Transit (Metro v Subway):
Ok, let's start out with one that London wins, though I would argue by not as much as people would think. What London's Tube absolutely has over New York is the cleanliness of the standard tube station, and the reliability of its lines. Far less delays, far less random weekend diversions. That said, I do think New York's lines and layout is far better (way too many times in London you have to change lines for what should be a fairly straight path). And I think the actual subway cars are, at this point, even. New York City has the awful C-line trains, but their no worse than just say the Piccadilly line. The good trains in New York are, I would argue, better than London. Also, major bonus to New York's system being 24/7 - because as we'll get to in the next section, above ground public transport is worse in London.
London wins 6-4
Driving / Street Layout
This is a huge rout for New York City, to be honest. London's street system is the most ludicrous set of turns and curves and random splits. It takes forever to go anywhere, and again routes that as the crow flies are perfectly straight, end up being bizarrely turn-heavy. What makes it worse is there's zero coordination between traffic lights. New York doesn't have good traffic, but the parallel grid in Manhattan, and largely parallel grid everywhere, is so superior. As is the light coordination. Every true New Yorker has that experience in a cab and uber late at night when they can go from 50th street to 20th street on one go because the green's line up. I've never had a good driving experience in London. I've had many in New York. This is easy.
New York City wins 9-1 (only not 10-0 because at rush hour NYC traffic is as bad...)
Historical Sights
Yeah, easy one for London here. To me historical has to mean before 1950 or something, so NYC does have the Empire State Building, St. Patrick's, Ellis Island, the Statue of Liberty and some smaller sites within the city, but that's nothing compared to London with the Parliament Building, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, and so much else. London is just a city that has been in its standing for far, far longer than New York City has. I'm not going to argue this one further here.
London wins 8-2 (as you'll come to see, there's not really going to be any 10-0's)
Museums
Maybe my first controversial pick - but New York City wins this, for one huge reason: the great museums of London are a pointed reminder of teh unabashed raping and pillaging of the world by the Crown under Colonialization. Now, it's not like when you see an Egyptian exhibit at the Met in New York it's because New York "discovered" it - but at least we didn't steal it in an era when we colonized Egypt. The British Museum is one of the great museums in the world - but also is a telling reminder of how awful the Crown was to the full world. Anyway, I would almost argue New York City could win this anyway. The main art museums in New York (The Met, the Guggenheim) to me are just flat out better. I prefer the Natural History Museum in New York to anything in London. On merit alone New York would squeak it out - add in the history, and it's a no brainer.
New York City wins 8-2 (would've been 6-4 if not for, you know...)
Walk Around during the Day
New York is a nice city to walk around in, but the concrete jungle of it all, and the parallel-ness of the layout can get tiresome. In London proper it is not. The architecture of the buildings, the rows of rows of ornateness, the history teeming from the walls. It all adds up to a great city to walk around. Now, pretty much any European capital is (again, why I ahve places like Paris, Rome, Madrid, Barcelona ahead of London on my city rankings), but London has this. New York City just doesn't.
London wins 7-3
Walk Around at dusk & night
New York comes back here with a vengeance. At night, the concrete jungle turns to lit office buildings and brightness that gives solid truth to the "city that never sleeps" of it all. There is truth to that. The old buildings of London recede into the background. The brightness of New York, the life of it at night is just superior to London. It's a bit of a mirror image here, but an important one to give credit on both sides.
New York City wins 7-3
Food
I know many are going to disagree with me here (including members of my family) but I honestly think New York City wins. For one reason: South & Central America. If that continent didn't exist, maybe you can edge towards London, but even in that case New York City has great cuisine from every culture around the world. Yes, Indian food is better in the UK (again, colonialism!) but there's damn good Indian food in New York City, and I would argue better Japanese, Thai, Korean food in New York. If we just talk about the local cuisine, you can keep your tea & crumpets, but there's a reason we all laugh at British food. You can deride American food if you want but as a standalone it is simply a better cuisine. And finally - it might be changing slowly, but the wealth of Latino immigrants has resulted in incredible Central & South American cuisine, from street food, to hole in the walls to sit-down to tasting menus. That is something London simply does not have. I think it's close, but the better food from that Continent swings it for me.
New York City wins 6-4
Fast / Late Night Food
I don't know if this is as controversial, but New York City in my mind wins here. Both have a plethora of the world's late night good - gyros & kebabs. London does have the doner (so prevalent in Europe) but the carts of New York more than hold their own. New York City also has pizza - which is just something that London can't match in any design, especially since legitimately good, renowned pizza spots stay open late. Both have traditional fast food about equally (won't ding London that a lot of those are American chains...). London's only unique factor is fish and chips, but pizza way outweighs that.
New York City wins 8-2
Beer / Social Drinking Scene
Another spoiler - this is my biggest win for London, mainly because they have the pub culture which there is just no equivalent in the US. Yes, the craft beer in the US is better, but there's a reason most of the mainstream beer spots in the US are pubs. But they don't have the spill-out-to-the-streets, the revelry, the singing, the fun of it all. The after work to the pub is probably my favorite aspect of all my work trips to London over the years. New York City got a taste of this during the pandemic when outdoor drinking was more allowed. It was great. It should come back. It went away and London retains its spot pretty easily.
London wins 7-3
Party Culture
Big, Big, Big win for New York City, Granted, I haven't gone out super-late too often, but there is a squalid-ness to the London club scene, and sparse lack of late-night cocktail scene, that New York City just hammers away at. There are so many cool art spaces w/ DJ spots in New York, or world-class cocktail spots that stay open till 3/4 in New York City. London shuts down at 3am - but post say 1am it is mostly dingy clubs that are too chav-filled and poorly maintained to really compete here. Also, the crowd in London doesn't know how to handle their booze past a certain time - the streets of soho wreak of piss in spots because of this. Big win for New York City.
New York City wins 9-1
Views
This one is close. Neither have particularly great views within the city. Where I think London wins though is the low-ness of most of its areas mean you get views of the tall buildings, the main areas, from more parts of the city. If you take just the view of Manhattan from Hoboken or from Brooklyn it is better than London - particularly since most of the development in London is north of the Thames, but if you are in Manhattan itself, it becomes a bit too urban maw too quick.
London wins 6-4
Main City Squares/Circles
Gonna nudge New York City here - taking its collection of all the Broadway intersections with Avenues, be it Columbus Circle, Time Square, Bryant Park, Flatiron, Washington Square over London's Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly Circus, St. James Square and others. Trafalgar might be the best out of all of them, but I would put the next 3-4 as New York City spots. Columbus Circle is underrated in its awe. Flatiron is a perfect urban spot. And yeah, Times Square gets a bad wrap, but since Giuliani it has been kept really clean, and its brightness and life is still enthralling. It's comparison point is Piccadilly Circus, which is a pale, pale, pale imitation that is leaning into the worst aspects of Times Square without any of the good ones.
New York City wins 6-4
Outer Boroughs
Big win for New York here - but I'll admit I'm probably fairly unqualified to talk about London's areas outside of the main Cities of London & Westminster. Their doing ok to rebuild out the docklands, and Kensington is nice and whatnot, but Brooklyn is world renowned as a place of cultures, arts, waterfronts, neighborhoods. Queens has its moments. I don't think London is markedly worse but I also don't think London has anything quite like Brooklyn.
New York City wins 6-4
Parks
Oh I would love to give it to New York City, especially after the cleaning up of Central Park but I just can't reasonably do so. Central Park has some amazing areas. The big parks in Brooklyn are wonderful. But I can't in good faith say any are better than St. James's park (yeah, the adjacent royalty stuff is there) or Hyde park. New York City is a greener city than people give it credit for but there's a difference between a decently green city and London.
London wins 7-3
Bridges
I'm talking here about the beauty of the bridges more than the actual utility of them. For London you get all the bridges that cross the Thames, led by the stunning Tower Bridge. For New York, you get the various bridges in and out of Manhattan and a few other notables ones (Verrazano, Guwanis) led by the Brooklyn Bridge. I think London squeaks this one out but might be the closest one that we've had so far. On the London side, they have the single best bridge - the Tower Bridge is just an incredibly picturesque and memorable spot. Few of the other bridges are even close, but they all have amazing views and are easily walkable. New York City has probably my #2 and #3 with the Brooklyn Bridge and the Verrazano (which has such a regality to it), but the rest are all fairly staid, and I have an unnatural hatred for the George Washington bridge.
London wins 6-4
CBD / City Center Skyline
London's skyline is getting better. With the Shard, whatever that Walkie-Talkie building is, the other tall spots in Canary Wharf and the City of London and what-not - it is not a bad skyline, arguably the best in Europe. It isn't close to New York City son. Some of the Asian cities may have overtaken NYC by now, but few have the collection of buildings, in multiple areas, than New York City's downtown (complete again post Freedom Tower conclusion) and midtown, with the Hudson Yards redevelopment and other skyscrapers just adding to the beauty. You even get the great mix of old and new, with the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building still with good prominence. Few cities have the clustered brilliance of New York City.
New York City wins 8-2
Relevance to World Pop Culture
Ok, walk with me on this journey for a second. Over the last 50 years, the world's axis turned to the US and moreso to New York City. Hip Hop / R&B / Rap has many homes - but New York is either #1 or #2 in that list. The art culture of the 21st Century has its roots in New York City. Fashion is far more prominent in New York City than London (though say a place like Milan still holds an edge). New York City is just the far more relevant place in the global pop culture, from movies to art to fashion to culture. It sets trends in a way maybe London did 100 years ago. This isn't close, and a fitting way to end.
New York City wins 8-2
Final Tally:
New York City 98 London 72
Honestly, it's closer than I even thought. I'm sure there are also a lot of fields I didn't really think about or consider. Cost of Living / Price being a big one - I probably should've noted somewhere that rent is far more ridiculous in New York City now, but day to day expenses are worse in London, particularly when adjusting for average income by job type in London being far lower than New York City. You can add different factors for days - the airport system arguably better in London, the music scene far better in New York, the play/theater scene a toss-up, etc. upon etc. Anyway, across these various dinemsions, I do think America's pearl is just that - it is the alpha of all alpha's in the world.
London will never lose its relevance. Colonialism alone will assure that, as it is the guiding light for so many nations that spent centuries in squalor under English rule. It's location relative to Africa also will make it the go-to destination for a Continent (similarly USA / NYC is for South America, though a far less populated one). For all the years I've done my Top Cities ranking, I've made it international, and similarly rejected including New York City on my list of favorite USA / Canada cities - namely because I live in its metro area, I work in it wholesale. I've been there probably 1,000+ times by now. But I know it enough to know where it struggles and where it shines. New York City is the world's center now. Maybe 200 years that changes, but as long as English is the primary language of the World*, it will remain New York City.
**Sidebar: I've long held that the reason English is the world's most prominent langauge, be it the world's most commons secondary language (i.e. the langauge most people would learn after their native tongue), and it being the language of comptuers, the langauge of media, the language of signage in airports, etc., is because of America being the prominent country in the world. Granted, America speaks it because of the UK (as does Australia, Canada, others), but the reason China teaches students English, the reason so many others do, is because it is the language of the USA**
