In what ways were southern cities similar to northern cities?

First, it's difficult to answer this question without knowing which time period you are discussing. But in general terms, both southern and northern cities had mayors, and their states had governors. In both parts of the United States, there were schools, churches, hospitals, and business districts. Some northern cities had a warm climate (contrary to the myth that it's cold in the north all the time), and some southern cities had a warm climate too. As for technology, both northern and southern cities had telegraph service, and later they got telephones. And both parts of the country had sports teams-- even as far back as the 1860s and 1870s, teams from the north would travel to the south to play Baseball, for example (and vice versa).