There's also the idea of modeling a city after Amsterdam, the "Venice of the North". Perhaps Manhattan could become a canal-centered city if the Dutch stay there, or if the Dutch colonize the Mississippi Delta.
Another candidate was Mauritstaad, nowadays Recife, in northeastern Brazil - it became a very rich city during this period, as center of dutch Brazil.
More important than the cultural motivation, though, it its geographical position: between two rivers and a reef (the name "Recife" means "Reef", literally, in Portuguese) could lead to a totally canal-based city. It still has many canals, dicks etc, but it could have many more if there were more dutch money entering in it.
A satellite photo of Venice, to compare with Recife:
vs
It was actually called "Brazilian Venice", rather than "Brazilian Amsterdam"...
another pictures:
Recreation of how Recife was, before the Portuguese (and dutch)colonization
Modern(1970s) photos of Recife, showing its "dicked islands", pretty much like Venice.
A bigger picture of the central island inside the Lagoon