Global Cities: London vs. New York

Executive Summary

The variation between two huge cities, New York and London is essential as both London and New York are two cities that are the largest concerning being the world’s financial centres. The word New York stands for either the New York state or the New York City. Considering the New York state, it is ranked the fourth highest populated place in the United States. This state is comprised of a variety of cultures, business establishments, financial centres, manufacturing units and leisure spots. The New York City is the highest populated city in the United States of America and has gained its status as the immigrant’s gateway. The New York City has numerous tourists’ attractions. On the other hand, London is the world’s most visited destination. London was a major Roman settlement for an extended period and currently houses at least 500 of the largest companies in Europe. Both New York and London also serve as cities where most financial activities take place on a global scale. There are differences and similarities in these two cities. These differences and similarities thus beg the question of which is a more global city than the other?

Is London now a more ‘Global’ city than New York?

With regards to international finances, London is more centrally placed as compared to New York City as London is at the centre of Europe. London depends more on immigration and trade which have acted as key drivers of this city concerning its status as a city which is a financial centre. London has always been, since the 19th century, foreigner-dominated in trade and banking businesses. However, after the 1914 war in Europe, London lost its global finance centre status to New York. The United States did not experience war in that period and industrialised rapidly, quickly occupying the void left by London thereby leading financial innovation (AskIvy, 2018).

After the 9/11, businesses and firms struggled to obtain visas for people to find work in America’s most populated city, New York. However, Britain has always been readily available. Furthermore, with many high-profile bankruptcies and scandals in the United States, such as WorldCom and Enron, investors started having the notion that the country’s environment is not better than London as a place to invest (AskIvy, 2018). Concerning cultural diversity in New York City, there are several means of categorising diversity, for instance, regarding ethnic/racial neighbourhood makeup.

In this regard, New York City neighbourhoods have majority black, majority white, majority Asian and Majority Hispanic. The diagram below demonstrates that white-mixed neighbourhoods are more than twenty percent while other groups also have at least 20%. Furthermore, in New York neighbourhoods, not more than 20% are white while two other different groups add up to at least 20% of every tract population. Also, no individual group forms a majority resident than the others (AskIvy, 2018).

London is also a very diverse city in the UK as it contains very diverse wards and local authority. The diversity in London refers to its demographic characteristics which are inter-related, such as religious belief, Nationality and where a person is born (Vertovec, 2007). The 2001 to 2011 population censuses carried out in London indicate that this population went up from 1 to 8.17 million people. In this region, the ethnicity census was first conducted in 1991 and found ten ethnic groups. With these levels of ethnic diversity, both New York and London are equally destinations for immigrants (Forbes et al., 2011).

Regarding arts and cultural diversity, London is ahead of New York City due to various reasons. London is an incredibly vibrant city culturally and is on top of the world in this regard. For instance, in the top ten galleries and museums worldwide, London hosts three of these (Hooper-Greenhill, 1997). The total number of art galleries in this city sums up to 857 galleries. Furthermore, London houses four UNESCO sites of world heritage including Maritime Greenwich, The Tower of London, Kew’s Royal Botanic Gardens and Westminster Palace. There are also at least 300 languages which are spoken in London which gives it the highest number than any city worldwide. Additionally, concerning music performance, the city usually has at least 17,000 performances yearly (Hooper-Greenhill, 1997).

These music performances are often conducted in the city’s 3000 and over venues such as the O2 arena which is the most popular venue for music performance globally. Besides, about 84% of the residents in London believe that its cultural scene is essential in making sure they have high quality in life. London also has at least 700 museums and 11 national museums such as the British Museum which houses culture dating back 1000 years like the 196 BC Rosetta stone. Moreover, London hosts at least 250 festivals yearly including the Mayor’s free and largest Thames Festival which is also the largest Europe’s street festival. Another festival is the Notting Hill Carnival that attracts about 1 million individuals (Hooper-Greenhill, 1997).

The 1662 May 9th Samuel Pepys’s entry diary recorded the initial performance of Judy and Punch show done at Covent Garden. Further, London usually has some live comedy globally than any other big city. From new talent in the pubs’ backrooms to major arenas, London is also the best in visual arts which takes at least 30% of the world art market. London has also played a huge role in numerous films where it takes the third position concerning the world’s busiest centre for film production where at least 14,000 films are shot every day. About one-fifth of the United Kingdom’s cinema screens are found in London where the number is 796 screens, thus it has the highest number than in any other country (Smiers, 2003).

In fashion, London’s has a fashion week with orders which generate more than 100 million pounds. The city also has more than 32,000 hours of watched digital content in the country from over 100 different countries. London also boasts of the first Shakespeare performance in 1599 and currently has more than 200 shows one can choose from. London also celebrates the Wilton’s Hall of music that was constructed in 1743 making it the oldest hall in the city. London has also produced recording artists that are the world’s bests such as the late Amy Winehouse (Smiers, 2003).

It also has more than 800 bookshops as well as 380 libraries such as the British Library that houses the Magna Carta. London has the London Design Festival which is the leading world event that attracted more than 350,000 individuals to cutting edge innovative design and projects. One-third of the United Kingdom’s archives are located in London, for instance, the National Archives that is as old as the 11th century (Mirza, 2009). This archive holds the Domesday survey of William the Conqueror. Lastly, London also boasts several oldest milliners globally such as the 1676 Lock & Co which is famed for developing the authentic Lord Nelson’s bicorn hat and the specially commissioned Hatwalk version which was part of the 2012 London Festival (Mirza, 2009).

On the other hand, New York City also has various art and culture forms but are not as many as in London. There are the New York art galleries, museums and theatres which attracts tourists from all over the world. New York celebrates the Olympic Games conducted in Lake Placid and also has a fascinating Revolutionary war history which occurred at Port Ticonderoga (Mirza, 2009). Besides having a rich culture, New York has the Fenimore Museum of arts and an art gallery known as Albright Knox that attracts visionaries from all over the world. The city also has the Lucy-Desi comedy centre which features festivals and exhibits and attracts many top-notch comedians. A person can also enjoy the attractive and creative activities done in the New York museums such as the Corning Glass Museum and the Strong Play Museum (Zukin, 1996).

For people who wish to experience the most significant performing arts, they can visit the Saratoga centre of performing arts or the Shea’s in Buffalo theatres that hosts the city ballet and outdoor concerts each summer. A person can also visit MoMA, Albright Knox or the Albany Institute of History and Arts which are New York’s finest. Those interested in music can treat their ears at the Lincoln centre, the New York Concerts or the Blue Note.

New York City also has an architecture which spans back centuries where almost all the era and style are adequately represented (Zukin, 1996). There are also art gallery tours done in New York that favours various artistic tastes. Furthermore, the Children’s Museum of New York is a family-friendly site which is educational for children and parents and is also a place where kids can have fun. New York also has cultural museums which have been part of the path through time and history that display massive artistic achievements throughout the state and city. Lastly, the New York Historical Museums portray a rich heritage of the state and nation which are explored and celebrated at these history museums (Zukin, 1996).

Inequality between New York City and London also show a considerable difference concerning the city which is more global. The source and reason for the increasing disparity are currently hugely debated. The inequality effects are well understood. For instance, regions with greater income difference show a higher rate of segregation, high crimes, experience shorter life expectancy and acute health conditions as compared to areas with smaller income parity. For the city planners, these challenges pose huge problems when developing policies which integrate the societies of impoverished inhabitants and in ensuring a balanced development or growth in the city (Gordon, 2013).

The inequality also poses challenges for urban marketers regarding estimating the purchasing power of consumers and in understanding the preferences and demographics of unique communities found in the cities. The diagram below by Gordon (2013) shows the city size and the rate of inequality seen in these cities. The city size and the rate of inequality show a similar trend across cities all over the globe and within single states. In the UK, the US, in Brazil or China, all their big cities show unequal income distribution.

The substantial job markets and megacities usually attract unqualified people from the state’s hinterlands or abroad especially for very developed countries (Gordon, 2013).

For the talented and skilled, large cities often magnify the returns or income to scale. The outcome is enormous differences in income. For instance, New York City is among the most income-unequal regions in the world. As demonstrated by the above diagram using the Gini coefficient, household income inequality in New York is above their national average. The racial segregation legacy, the concentration in urban areas of poor people, the lack of education and skills are mainly the cause of poverty in cities like New York. Similarly, New York celebrates several largest millionaires as well as the state’s best-paid jobs, particularly in Manhattan.

Manhattan also produces a significant amount of waste in the city, yet the city had no centres for waste transfer in 2012. At least 34% of the country’s population live in 20% of unequal counties in the north-eastern and southern regions of the United States (Gordon, 2013). On the other hand, London is the most affluent as well as is an unequal place in the United Kingdom. The income distribution extremes in London are very acute so that it is similar to the US megacities such as New York City other than the Europe or UK cities. The metropolitan area of London hosts at least 25% of the whole UK’s population which is around 15 million people of the entire 62.5 million.

However, about 40% of the British most affluent households are also found in London. The average income which is disposable for over 2.7 million families in the United Kingdom, by revenue, the top 10% was about 137,054 US dollars in 2011 while in the UK there was an average of 55,220 US dollars for each household. A disproportionate amount, 1.1 million out of the 2.7 million people, lived in London. Similarly, for 29% of the United Kingdom poor people, 10% of the 29% most impoverished families were found in London (Gordon, 2013).

References

Forbes, L.J.L., Atkins, L., Thurnham, A., Layburn, J., Haste, F. and Ramirez, A.J., 2011. Breast cancer awareness and barriers to symptomatic presentation among women from different ethnic groups in East London. British Journal of Cancer, 105(10), p.1474.

Hooper-Greenhill, E. ed., 1997. Cultural diversity: developing museum audiences in Britain. Burns & Oates.

Mirza, M., 2009. Aims and contradictions of cultural diversity policies in the arts: a case study of the Rich Mix Centre in East London. International Journal of Cultural Policy, 15(1), pp.53-69.

Smiers, J., 2003. Arts under pressure: Protecting cultural diversity in the age of globalisation. Zed Books.

Vertovec, S., 2007. Super-diversity and its implications. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 30(6), pp.1024-1054.

Zukin, S., 1996. The cultures of cities. Wiley-Blackwell.