London, the New Big Apple?

March 30, 2007 — -- London is set to overtake New York as the capital city of the 21st century. Says who?

Well, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg for one. Speaking at New York City Hall in January, the mayor cited a report by the consultancy McKinsey, which found London snapping at the heels of New York.

London, Bloomberg warned, is going to steal New York's thunder as the world's financial capital, thanks to greater job creation and a more welcoming financial environment. If that isn't enough to make proud New Yorkers a tad nervous, the current issue of New York magazine ought to do it. Its cover story? London (The Other New York).

"If Paris was the capital of the 19th century and New York of the 20th, London is shaping up to be the capital of the 21st," writes Matt Weiland and Eugenia Bell.Predictably, the article has unleashed a storm of discussion on both sides of the Atlantic, with bloggers defending their chosen cities with gusto.

I say chosen cities, because several of the people writing about this have been brought up in one city and now live in the other.

People like Melissa Whitworth of The Daily Telegraph, who moved from London to New York in 2001 and has lived there ever since.

"This is a wonderful, lively debate -- and one that I write about almost daily," Whitworth told ABCNEWS.com. For her, the choice couldn't be clearer.

"I don't care how many skyscrapers you build in London," she said, referring to London Mayor Ken Livingstone's claim that the city could have 20 skyscrapers within the next decade. "You can't make up for the shoddy service and the exorbitant living costs by raising a few tall buildings. And then, there's the transport issue."

Yes, the transport issue.

Most London residents will have had some experience of the particular hell that is rush hour on the underground. To hear Swamy -- a 31-year old Indian consultant who's lived in London for almost three years -- tell it, not a week goes by in the summer without him spending at least 10 minutes locked in an underground train carriage with no ventilation and no sign of movement, thanks to the age-worn excuse of signal failure.