What US city could be copy-pasted into which EU country and the integration would work fairly well on both sides (city and receiving country)?

32 comments

1. Really none of them.

   The closest would be Boston into the UK, and even that’s not going to be perfect, as well as the whole UK not in the EU thing.

2. New Orleans would probably fit into Southern Italy pretty well, assuming language isn’t a criteria.

   Warm weather, food obsessed, laidback lifestyle, marginally competent governance, nice architecture.

3. Boston would fit in well but damn near nothing else would, our cities are way too car dependent to work in Europe where they are paying $8 a gallon for gas

4. idk why but I’ll say DC into Germany

5. Many of the small fishing communities in Maine reminded me of small fishing villages in both Scotland and Norway, but those aren’t EU so I don’t know if they pass your test.

6. Probably nothing…maybe some smaller New England city into Ireland?

7. I’m not sure, but in the opposite scenario, Rotterdam could easily fit in the US, particularly the northeast.

8. I don’t think any US city would fit in anywhere in Europe. The architecture and urban planning styles are fundamentally different between the continents. US cities wouldn’t be too out of place in Canada or Australia.

9. Going outside the box, I think you could put Dearborn, Michigan as a suburb of Paris and it could fit.

10. We could probably post most major cities onto Andorra, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, San Marino, or the Vatican. It would occupy pretty much the whole place.

    Integration wouldn’t be much of an issue because there wouldn’t be much to integrate. Let the citizens of Luxembourg know Houston is being dropped on them.

11. Surprised this hasn’t been said but California>Spain.

12. The closest would be New York near London or maybe Boston in northern England, but those aren’t the cleanest fits.

    Expanding to the rest of North America, Montreal feels like the most European city I’ve seen on this side of the world.

13. Smaller New England towns like Newburyport or Portsmouth would work well in the Ireland.

    Levensworth, Washington would work well in Germany. I’d say Switzerland, but it’s not EU.

14. Santa Fe, New Mexico somewhere remote and rugged in central Andalusia, Spain. I think it would be a pretty seamless integration since so many of the natives are Spanish descendants sharing the customs, religion and language (albeit New Mexican Spanish being a little antiquated). Climate, landscape, altitude, aridness depending on exact location could be a perfect match.

15. Americans aren’t Europeans. None of them would.

    Transportation networks are irrelevant. Society comes from people, not rolly things with wheels. Rolly things don’t have brains and cultures. Society is people and people have cultures. And people who have a different history than Europe will not fit in. Their influences are different, even if some of them on both sides tend to get a stiffy over trains.

    It reminds me of the UK commenter who said, “Before I visited the U.S. I thought it was just like the UK, except bigger. When I got there, I realized it was a whole different country.”

    He was rueful about his naivete.

16. In Texas, I would say Romania could likely fit Houston or San Antonio as a modern city for your car.

17. NYC into Hungary. Just to watch people’s reactions.

18. Hellen, GA —> Germany

19. New York in the UK. Similarly cultured, in architecture, and even in vibe. There’s even public transportation that population depends on. Only thing is NY is like London on steroids. Denser, faster, louder…and taller.

    But Brooklyn alone would be seamless, since it’s more lowkey than say manhattan.

20. St. Augustine, FL. Put it in Spain and no one will notice.

21. I feel like portland understands french protest culture

22. The obvious answer – and pretty much the only one, as the continental US is just too different from Europe – is San Juan to Spain.

23. Boston would be the only city. All other US cities are laid out in a grid pattern. Boston just paved their carriage paths. (It’s one of the main reasons driving in Boston is so bad).

24. You can drop an Irishman anywhere in the rural south and he’d be just fine

25. Brooklyn and Berlin would get along just fine in terms of having a very sketchy and druggy club/rave scene

26. Solvang, we copypasta’d European tourist trap vibes and I think it’d be right at home being an actual European tourist trap.

27. Boston or *maybe* central DC are the only two that might be able to work.

28. There are a couple of small towns, like Fredericksburg, TX and Frankenmuth, MI that could be plopped down in Germany with not too many questions.

29. San Juan, Puerto Rico (mainly Old Town) into coastal Spain or Portugal. Parts of the city remind me a bit of Cádiz in Andalusia.

    Alternatively – Avalon, CA to Spain. Albeit it is a small town.

30. Dallas into Poland

31. Mackinac island placed right into the Netherlands. Only bikes and non-motorized vehicles are allowed with limited exceptions such as wheel chairs, and emergency vehicles.

32. New york city can go into any country with a good rail and bus service to connect into. It’s walkable, reliable transit, plenty of variety in geography and types of housing.
    I’ve always said that living in new york city is like living in another country, but filled with americans. The rest of the country lives almost opposite how new yorkers live. The grand majority of people don’t even own a car. That is a statistical impossibility in the rest of america.