One of our favorite scenes in the movie “Barcelona” is toward the beginning when Ted Boynton takes his Navy officer cousin Fred on a night-time driving tour of Barcelona and says the city’s Avenida Diagonal is like Chicago’s Michigan Avenue. Then when approaching Las Ramblas (at left), changes his mind, saying that it is more like Chicago’s celebrated retail corridor. Fred nods off and then gets riled up over anti-NATO sentiment in Spain.

We think trying to apply the urban comparisons to totally different cities is foolhardy, but the folks down at National Harbor have done just that when they unveiled their model for the massive $1 billion development near the Woodrow Wilson Bridge that will dwarf Old Town Alexandria in size. And low and behold, the new main street has been described as a Las Ramblas recreated on the shores of the Potomac, except with a giant Times Square-like Jumbotron that’ll display advertising. And don’t forget the boats, it is a harbor after all.