City rivalries?

[traininthedistance]

New York is above considering any American city its worthy rival. 

Boston probably comes closest, because of the Red Sox and Patriots, and Philly a clear but distant second on the sports front.  If you're talking about more incohate cultural factors, I would say DC and San Fran actually loom much larger in our eyes than LA and Chicago.  LA is not really what we would consider a "city", and Chicago is just that odd place that operates under the collective delusion that upside-down tomato casserole is somehow "pizza", which of course it is not.

...

When I lived in Philly, we definitely considered NYC to be our main rival in everything.  Pittsburgh was mostly an afterthought, except when it came to hockey I guess.  And upside-down tomato casserole was still, of course, an object of well-deserved derision.

[traininthedistance]

New York is above considering any American city its worthy rival. 

Boston probably comes closest, because of the Red Sox and Patriots, and Philly a clear but distant second on the sports front.  If you're talking about more incohate cultural factors, I would say DC and San Fran actually loom much larger in our eyes than LA and Chicago.  LA is not really what we would consider a "city", and Chicago is just that odd place that operates under the collective delusion that upside-down tomato casserole is somehow "pizza", which of course it is not.

...

When I lived in Philly, we definitely considered NYC to be our main rival in everything.  Pittsburgh was mostly an afterthought, except when it came to hockey I guess.  And upside-down tomato casserole was still, of course, an object of well-deserved derision.

And yet Chicago is so much more American than New York.. which is increasingly unique... and unrepresentative of the nation as a whole.

Are you really trying to play the "Real American" card here?  For shame.

[traininthedistance]

New York is above considering any American city its worthy rival. 

Even not L.A.? Otherwise, I suggest for the purpose of this thread to declare NYC the unofficial capital of the USA, which means it is out...

Especially not Los Angeles.  I was being less than completely serious with that remark, but even so there are at least five different cities I'd think of before them (Boston, Philly, DC, SF, and, yes, Chicago).  Boston and DC are probably our "closest" rivals depending on the context, which of course makes the former-Philly-resident in me quite sad.