I live in London but selected New York,but now some of you are persuading me otherwise.
Come to the dark side! Together we can rule the galaxy!
What! No votes for Tokyo?
Nah, it’s not in the running. There are only two cities in the world classed as Alpha++.
I think NYC is the most amazing city in the world, but it’s also aware that it’s awesome, and thus insists on itself.
London is definitely more outward-looking and self-aware.
That said, I vote ‘other’ because I think Hong Kong absolutely deserves the title. It has aspects of both of the above cities, is keenly West-aware but is also absolutely in the milieu of the East.
(Why yes, I am anthropomorphizing cities in a pretentious manner. Donc, mord-moi.)
I’m trying to decide whether the fact that New York isn’t the (political) capital of the U.S. (or even of its state) is a point for or against it being capital of the world.
London is unquestionably one of the world’s great cities, but it’s also the quintessential English city, which maybe works against its being “capital of the world” as a whole.
Oooh! I came up with a delightfully trivial and irrelevant point for London. But I thought I’d share my idlings.
The three most famous people in the world are the British monarch, the American president, and the Catholic pope.
London is home to one of these; NY is not.
And yes, I agree this isn’t a real point. 
Well, I didn’t mean that we should pick the richest city in the world. I mean that, purely by population density, the “centre of the world” would probably be a point somewhere in the Middle East. However, if you factor in level of economic activity, as you might when considering where a world capital should be, the centre of gravity probably moves westward a bit, let’s say to somewhere in south eastern Europe. Now, considering the great cities of the world, which are closest to that point? London? Paris? Istanbul? London seems to be the strong contender.
I’m also not saying that this is the be-all and end-all of what makes NYC and London great cities. Just that, on this count, I think London has the edge.
And New York is the quintessential American city. I’m not convinced there’s a point to be made here.
Voted for NYC but not for particularly good reasons.
You will note that Wall Street did a fantastic job of putting things in motion to fuck up the world economy.
Also, having lived in Berlin and also working in Switzerland, plus traveling around Europe, I hate to be the bearer of bad news but the rest of Europe doesn’t quite embrace London as the hub of anything. Not that they have great affection for NYC either, but they consider it the loud mouthpiece of the USA.
So, while I really do love both London and NYC and would gladly live in either, I would give NYC the edge in being the leader, simply because they seem to have more obnoxious assholes who have a stellar track record for world class clusterfucks.
Aha! Wikipedia loves me!
The two biggest music venues in the world are the O2 and Madison Square Garden.
The O2 is bigger in both terms of size and revenue.
Plus the BBC is the largest broadcasting corporation on the planet.
So, home to biggest broadcaster and biggest music venue in the world. Gotta be worth a point or two.
(My bolding). Really? It’s very different to the rest of the country - the biggest city in a country often is.
Both London and New York share that trait. Both are viewed as quintessential from outside; neither even vaguely actually are. I personally consider this one a non-point.
I guess what I meant was, if you asked lots of people to “name an English city,” London would almost certainly be the most common answer by an overwhelming margin. The percentage of all English novels, movies, and T.V. shows that are set in London dwarfs (I’m pretty sure) the percentage of all American novels, movies, and T.V. shows that are set in New York City. So London “dominates” its nation in a way that New York doesn’t.
But I don’t know which way, if either, this should influence the OP’s question.
Ditto New York. Do you imagine otherwise? There’s a reason these are the only two Alpha++ cities in the world.
Sure. So?
I don’t personally see it as being relevant. YMMV of course.
That doesn’t make London quintessentially English. But yeah, London probably does dominate the UK slightly more than NYC does the US, as it should be, given how much bigger the US is, but if anything that makes London more important.
NYC, just seems no contest really.
Every statistical measure presented in this thread so far says otherwise.
The New Yorkers need to try to argue a case.
New York has 2 words in it’s name, London has 1.
Seems to me that London massively dominates the UK in a way that NYC doesn’t for the US. There’s no real cultural, political or economic power in the UK that provides a real counter-balance to London in the way that Washington DC, Los Angeles or Chicago do in the US context.
But anyway, it’s either London or New York as the major world city. Honourable mentions to Tokyo, Berlin, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Paris. Beijing probably too.