N.Y. Fares Well Vs. London in a New Study

A new report has found that Londoners are six times more likely to be robbed or assaulted than New Yorkers, that their cost of living is nearly 40% higher, and that their largest university, the University of London, has just 125,000 students, compared with the City University of New York's 450,000 students.

The 116-page study, a collaboration of New York University's Schack Institute of Real Estate, the Urban Land Institute, and London South Bank University, is a follow-up to a seven-volume report published in 2000.

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In the new study, 14 factors were examined, and of the six categories in which one city was found to lead, New York dominated. In fact, London was found to lead in just two categories: its programs to prevent climate change and its efforts to project a better city image.

New York, meanwhile, came in first for having a lower cost of living, more affordable housing, a stronger program to tackle urban poverty, and larger arts, fashion, and food scenes.

"This is not a review of competition between London and New York City," the author of the report, Greg Clark, a senior fellow at the Urban Land Institute, wrote in the preface. "It is an assessment of how the two cities can use their competitive instincts to be successful in the 21st century when many other cities will seek to emulate the success London and New York had in the last 100 years."

It may not be a competition, but the two cities are compared with striking results: In the financial services sector, for example, it has been the case for the last several years that London is perceived to have surpassed New York. This is in large part because businesses are drawn to London's minimal regulatory environment — it has a single regulator, the Financial Services Authority, compared with 10 regulators overseeing the American financial markets.

Now, though, after a run on the London-based Northern Rock bank and its subsequent borrowing of billions of dollars from the Bank of England to stay afloat, some companies are questioning the more lax British regulatory system.

"They were considered to have this great regulatory system with the Financial Services Authority, but it is clear now it just didn't work with Northern Rock," an associate professor at New York University, Rosemary Scanlon, a former New York State deputy comptroller, said.

In addition, while London sees far more initial public offerings — its share of IPOs jumped 30 percentage points, to 63%, between 2001 and 2006, while New York saw IPOs drop 41 percentage points, to 16%, during the same period — New York has a far larger market. The New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq together accounted for nearly half of global stock trading last year, with the value of shares traded in New York at $33.6 trillion, compared to $7.6 trillion in London.

"So much of the financial business conducted in London is from New York firms — Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs," Ms. Scanlon said.

New York is also a more affordable city, the report finds. Citing a 2007 survey from Mercer Human Resource Consulting, London became the second most expensive city in the world behind Moscow last year, climbing from fifth place. New York dropped five places, to rank 15th.

While a major reason New York is more affordable is the relative decline in the value of the dollar against the British pound, London also has much stricter building codes, limiting the size of new construction, and more top-end immigration, both of which push housing prices higher.

New York is also a more global city, as defined by its hosting more firms that have offices in at least 15 cities around the globe, according to the Globalisation and World Cities Group. While London is the most popular location for European headquarters of international businesses, "New York has the edge in terms of total numbers of global firms," the study found.

New York also comes out on top in terms of crime. It is among the safest cities in America, with violent crime dropping 75% over the past 12 years, and the murder rate last year at its lowest level since 1963. London, meanwhile, has seen violent crime on the Underground rise 14% between 2004 and 2005, according to the British Transport Police, and its street crimes skyrocket more than 40% between 2001 and 2002.

Even the discrepancy in gun violence between the two cities is narrowing: "Although differences in arms laws have long resulted in greater gun crime in New York, the gap between the cities is lessening as New York improves its statistics whilst gun crime in London is on the increase," the report said.

One reason may be the stronger police presence in New York — there is one New York police officer for every seven crimes, compared to one officer for every 41 crimes in London, according to the Police Federation.

There are areas where London is more successful. While the two cities have similar populations, London has only about 1,500 homeless, less than half the number in New York.

In addition, London has a far smaller carbon footprint — 41.9 million tons to 72 million tons for New York — and a better reputation. According to the Anholt City Brand Index, which studies the brands of 30 cities, London ranked first and New York seventh. "Most respondents felt they knew more about London than any other city by a wide margin. London was the second most visited city, the top for ease of finding a job, for doing business in, for obtaining a valuable education qualification, and for ease of finding a community to fit in," the report said.

A similar study by another firm also looked at cities' marketing efforts, and placed New York at the top, with London ranking eighth. "This discrepancy undoubtedly reflects the subjective and qualitative nature of 'measuring' image and identity," Mr. Clark wrote.

While New York did do better in certain categories, overall, the two cities have striking similarity, the researchers behind the report said.

"I expected their to be more distinct and dramatic differences, but they really are neck and neck," the president of Urban Land Institute Europe, Middle East, Africa, and India, William Kistler, said. "The bigger concern is that these two cities not rest on their laurels: What happens to the two cities in the next five years will be really crucial."