Which Real-World City Is Gotham City?

[Jester]

Crime rate doesn't matter

Gotham is New York City

The only relationship it has to Chicago is that the Nolanverse was filmed there.

It has been stated over and over again that NYC IS Gotham

 

[Nivek]

I'm a NY guy, but I always seen NY as Metropolis (screw that stupid Smallville show for putting it in Kansas, WTH kind of lame idea is that?). Given Chicago's organized crime past, I always thought it was more fitting as Batmans city.

 

[michephantom]

Okay, we all know that Batman is from the United States, and Gotham has to have some awe-inspiring (or just plain ugly) architecture. But if not exclusive to USA, what about Mexico City? They have the mafia, which run everything, huge crime rate, high percentage of poor peopleAND rich people, and a corrupt police department. They also have an incompentent bureacracy, from what I've read.

 

[BlueLightning]

Okay, we all know that Batman is from the United States, and Gotham has to have some awe-inspiring (or just plain ugly) architecture. But if not exclusive to USA, what about Mexico City? They have the mafia, which run everything, huge crime rate, high percentage of poor peopleAND rich people, and a corrupt police department. They also have an incompentent bureacracy, from what I've read.

Yep that or my City, Ciudad Juarez. Really some cities on the north have Soldiers in their jeeps around the city, and, thinking deeply, they don´t really are ussefull.

And for the Smallville comment, there was located in Kansas long before smallville hit the TV. Even in the Superman (1978) film, Smallville was located in Kansas.

 

[Hulk1968]

Here's what I found on wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gotham_City

And a small paragraph :
Creation

In Batman's earliest adventures, he lived and operated in New York City, specifically Manhattan[1]. Writer Bill Finger is credited with the creation of Gotham City. Finger commented on the naming of the city and reasoning for changing Batman's locale from Manhattan to a fictional city: "Originally I was going to call Gotham City 'Civic City.' Then I tried Capital City, then Coast City. Then I flipped through the phone book and spotted the name 'Gotham Jewelers' and said, 'That's it,' Gotham City. We didn't call it New York because we wanted anybody in any city to identify with it."[2]


So apparently, Gotham City is New York City. Specifically Manhattan.