New York and London Square Off For Bragging Rights

In London last week, a good-natured debate took place between Boris Johnson, mayor of London, and New York City deputy mayors Howard Wolfson and Robert K. Steel for ultimate mega-city bragging rights.

February 19, 2012, 1pm PST | Jonathan Nettler | @nettsj

A couple of weeks ago, on the eve of the Super Bowl, we featured an epic face-off between New York and Boston for bragging rights as the ultimate sports town. Now it seems New York is competing again, this time with London for best all-around.

Richard Florida provides the tale of the tape, "A quick look at the numbers shows the two cities are in reality pretty evenly matched. London has a slight edge as the world's leading financial center, ranking first to New York's second. New York's greater metro area is substantially larger, with roughly 22 million people to London's 14 million. And New York is economically more powerful, ranking second only to Tokyo, with London third, in the Economic Power Index I published here last fall."

Absent from the discussion were the many emerging challengers to the supreme mega-city title, such as Hong Kong, Tokyo, Singapore, Shanghai, and Seoul. I'm sure that's not the last we'll hear of this debate.

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New York vs. London, in Debate Form

Published on Thursday, February 16, 2012 in The Atlantic Cities