Rio de Janeiro & New York City: Similarities and Differences

By Jeffery Kazembe Batts
IG: @kazbatts
Two famous international cities are located on opposite sides of the equator on the east coast of the Americas. New York City is the largest city by population in the United States, and Rio de Janeiro is the second largest city in Brazil. As a New Yorker visiting Rio with my cousin, we were amazed at the similarities and differences between the two cities.

The Botafogo area, where we stayed, reminded me of my native Bed-Stuy. With Christ the Redeemer statue looking down from a distance, from my balcony I watched the sunrise with the sidewalk slowly filling with a mixture of students with backpacks and adults in mostly casual attire moving along the street stopping at small diners and grocery stores. American-based fast-food restaurants like Burger King or McDonald’s are sprinkled among the more prevalent local places to eat.

People waited for public buses that frequently passed along the busy street. During my trip We rode the city bus, a difference was that the bus driver took money directly. After purchasing your ticket, you had to go through a turnstile inside the bus to get to the seating area. Rio de Janeiro also has a subway system. We stood around and observed and no one jumped over the turnstile. Once inside the train, you could blink and think you were on the A-train.

Riders were on their phones, like a subway ride in NYC. One difference is that all stations have stores selling food, newspapers, and cultural items. Trains arrive frequently and the stations are cleaner in Rio’s subway, which is far smaller than NYC’s. In the downtown civic area, trams crisscross the street. With the trams moving at a moderate speed, people can walk right next to the tram. There are no barriers. I cannot imagine how this could work in NYC.

A major difference between the two cities is the topography. Rio de Janeiro has small mountains in the middle of the city! For comparison, it is like if you were on Eastern Parkway and got to Utica Ave and suddenly a 60-story mountain was in your way, and you had to go through a tunnel to get to Nostrand Ave. These mini mountains were located throughout the city separating and uniting communities. Nothing like that is in NYC. Larger mountains can be seen surrounding the city.

Some small mountains have favelas going up along the side. Sociologists might consider the favelas the equivalent of the hoods in NYC, but they are not like Brownsville or the South Bronx. These residences are where enslaved people made their homes after emancipation in the late 19th century. We took an ariel tram to the top of a favela and then walked down. The tram was built when Rio hosted the Olympics in 2008.

Coming down poverty and unsafe-looking homes dominated the scene. Steps and passageways abounded at every turn. It was a maze in the sky. There were also flashes of abundance with flat-screen televisions and well-kept homes. The favela we visited had an enclosed soccer field, souvenir shops, restaurants, and a statue of Michael Jackson at the site where he came to make a music video.

While walking around the city, you cannot get far without seeing a statue. The statues are of mostly white men who are part of the history of Brazil. Large and well-landscaped statues and smaller ones are on almost every other corner. The preponderance of public statues is different from NYC. Some of the smaller, more accessible statues have been defaced with graffiti. Murals, mostly of Black people, make up for the lack of Black people in the statues and are a frequent presence throughout the city.

In Rio people are comfortable outside late into the night. In NYC, even in lively locations like Bleeker St. or Times Square, the crowds tend to dwindle around 2:00 am. In Rio, after going out to socialize we saw the sun rise marking a new morning for three days in a row without realizing so much time had passed being outside. The people of Rio are OUTSIDE late, drinking, eating, listening to music, dancing, and just chilling. Some places were extremely crowded, but people were cordial and made room for you to move. Fights and arguments were almost nonexistent.

It would be unfair to compare Copacabana and other Rio beaches to Coney Island or Rockaway Beach in NYC. The layout of restaurants, vendors, and beach supplies is far superior at Copacabana Beach. Youth in a non-threatening way are hustling candy and cultural items. People routinely spend the night on the wide, clean beach. Unfortunately, unlike in NYC, we did not see any lifeguards.

Rio de Janeiro, like NYC, has a large homeless problem. Most of the homeless are Black men. They gathered in groups and did not threaten people as they passed by. They seemed to accept their situation while enjoying the pleasant weather. Noticing a line of homeless people, we were surprised to see a church preparing to share food with an elegant setup of a tablecloth-covered seating area with porcelain plates and utensils for the people to eat. It looked so good we almost went in!

Downtown Rio is like mid-town Manhattan, although Rio has a street named after Nelson Mandela and NYC does not! Traffic congestion, people rushing about, high-end stores, public transportation, and homelessness are similar. Small mountains, favelas, and easily accessible beaches are different. It is like the Twilight Zone. There are many similarities but distinct differences. I urge you to take a trip down the east coast of the two American continents to the other side of the equator and see Rio de Janeiro for yourself.