Mercer: These are the world’s most livable cities

[Arsalan]

@Nilgiri YOU started it!

None of this is required at all. Please refrain from trolling posts and derailing threads man. PLEASE!!
I am not rating any of the posts as i am sure you will get the message this way as well. So please refrain from this going forward.

@The Eagle @WAJsal @waz plenty of this troll posts have been replied too by quoting (against our rules) can you please clean it all up (the replies as well).

Regards!

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

Exactly,This ranking demonstrate an overwhelming bias towards western cities.If you look at the list they included both small and large western cities while for non western countries they only included capital city or mega urban areas like Shanghai,Mumbai,Guangzhou etc. If you look at the top 10,all are small European cities populated by few hundred thousands of people.Maintaining quality of life is much easier in these small cities then similarly rich mega urban areas.Pressure on infrastructure,maintaining law and order is much more daunting in mega cities then those cute little town.No wonder,their large cities like New York,London,Rome fared poorly.I believe if they taken account impartially also small and medium sized cities from Far east,rich middle eastern or latin American countries,upper half of the ranking would not be so dominated only by western cities.

They included 17 US cities. They weren't all the 17th largest. They excluded some of the nicer larger (San Diego, Denver, Austin) and obviously the smaller ones...however these nicer cities are relatively unknown worldwide compared to the ones listed.

It seems they chose capitals and then well known cities as their criteria.

 

[Hafiz-Zafar]

Great compilation.

 

[Shardul.....the lion]

My city Pune is at 145

 

[Gibbs]

As expected Colombo leads South Asian cities

WTF. My city Melbourne was No. 1 City for the 6th consecutive year until last year and now it is at No. 16? I don't agree with this ranking.

http://www.sbs.com.au/yourlanguage/...ed-worlds-best-city-live-6th-consecutive-year

I suspect it's the property prices brah.. A home ownership for a average Melbournian is unrealistic these days

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

As expected Colombo leads South Asian cities



I suspect it's the property prices brah.. A home ownership for a average Melbournian is unrealistic these days

So it seems the big picture is that as cities become more livable, more people demand to live in them, the prices rises, and thus as a side effect they become less livable.

I wonder what the solution is.

 

[Gibbs]

So it seems the big picture is that as cities become more livable, more people demand to live in them, the prices rises, and thus as a side effect they become less livable.

I wonder what the solution is.

That is actually not the case, Atleast in the case of Australian cities.. Standard of living is already very high here, So there are no mighty migrations to the cities, Except for may be Sydney rest of the cities have maintained steady population rates, The property boom and the consequential price hikes are due to external factors really

Lots of Chinese investors are buying prime real estate in large numbers in places like Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, Inturn creating a bubble

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

http://www.todayonline.com/world/as...kong-trailing-singapore-quality-life-rankings

Hong Kong trails Singapore in quality-of-life rankings due to housing, pollution issues

A view of Victoria Harbour in Hong Kong. Bloomberg file photo
Island nation also tops Asian cities while Hong Kong placed 7th

HONG KONG — Hong Kong risks losing out on top expatriate talent if it does not tackle its pollution and housing issues, according to latest survey findings on quality of life, released by a global consulting firm.

The annual survey by Mercer, used by multinational companies to design expat packages, ranked Hong Kong 71 out of 231 cities for quality of living – dropping one spot from last year’s placing.

In Asia, Hong Kong’s regional rival Singapore took the top spot, followed by five Japanese cities. Hong Kong placed 7th.

Pollution and housing were some of the greatest concerns for expatriates looking to move to Hong Kong.

“For employees with families, they need to consider their children’s health. Singapore will definitely be a better place than Hong Kong because of better pollution control,” Ms Connie Leung, principal business leader for talent information solutions at Mercer, said.

“And as for housing [in Singapore], you may have more choices for flats [and] the living environment is much better. The cost is too high in Hong Kong and so you have a limited choice [of flats].”

Vienna in Austria took the number one ranking overall for the city with the best quality of life.

According to the survey, Hong Kong’s quality of life was on par with Detroit, a former United States automobile manufacturing powerhouse.

Social and political issues were also reasons for the city’s lower ranking.

“Hong Kong saw a dip in ranking due to recent social and political uncertainties as well as the rise in quality of living in other cities in the region,” Ms Leung said.

“The good news is, Hong Kong still remains at a relatively good standing compared to nearby cities in Asia.”

The survey looked at 10 categories including: political and social environment, economic environment, natural environment, housing, health services, and education.

British account manager Nick Ball has been a Hong Kong resident since 2011 and said he has seen a decline in his quality of life.

“A lot of places where we use to hang out have disappeared because of [high] rents, and it seems that things that can bring a better way of life ... are just not really being very well run anymore,” he said.

“Congestion has got a lot worse. You try to go anywhere on the weekend and it’s just terrible unless you get out first thing in the morning because there are traffic jams everywhere.”

Despite the problems, Ball still said there was “no other place on Earth” like Hong Kong, but he was uncertain if he would still be in the city five years from now if things continued to decline. SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST

 

[Mista]

Exactly,This ranking demonstrate an overwhelming bias towards western cities.If you look at the list they included both small and large western cities while for non western countries they only included capital city or mega urban areas like Shanghai,Mumbai,Guangzhou etc. If you look at the top 10,all are small European cities populated by few hundred thousands of people.Maintaining quality of life is much easier in these small cities then similarly rich mega urban areas.Pressure on infrastructure,maintaining law and order is much more daunting in mega cities then those cute little town.No wonder,their large cities like New York,London,Rome fared poorly.I believe if they taken account impartially also small and medium sized cities from Far east,rich middle eastern or latin American countries,upper half of the ranking would not be so dominated only by western cities.

Smaller Japanese cities are inside the list. Which smaller cities do you think in the Far East, Middle East, or Latin America can squeeze into the top 20?

So it seems the big picture is that as cities become more livable, more people demand to live in them, the prices rises, and thus as a side effect they become less livable.

I wonder what the solution is.

Planning and building infrastructure ahead of demand? Control the inflow of population?

We are able to do these in Singapore. However that's because we are a city-state; there's only one layer of government and it has enough power to plan for the long term. I'm not too sure about other countries.

Do cities in the US have power to control the inflow of people?

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

Do cities in the US have power to control the inflow of people?

Nope, zero ability.

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

1) Vienna