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Vienna again named world's most liveable city

reuters.com

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Re: Vienna again named world's most liveable city

#71

Post by RivieraKid »

fit2rule wrote: post #42

I live in Vienna. I don't understand how this is the most liveable city in the world - unless by liveable, it means "concrete jungle monstrosity - with good public transportation". I honestly think this is one of the most oppressive cities in the world, and I just don't get how it managed to gain this acclaim, every single year. I guess things must be really bad in a majority of the western world. The thing is, the c…

It's somewhat similar to Prague, yes the center is nice, but most people live in very ugly buildings built during communism (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panel%C3%A1k).

Re: Vienna again named world's most liveable city

#72

Post by pallinder »

struwelpeter wrote: post #59
4ad wrote: post #11

I live in Vienna and I see these surveys all the time. I moved in Vienna 2.5 years ago. Vienna is a good place to live (otherwise I would have left) provided you don't care about things that are simply not available, for example no real IT sector, no startup scene etc. It's okay, but it's nothing spectacular. I don't understand what these people find so fascinating about the city. My friends share my opinion too. I g…

I live in Vienna too and one thing I like in particular is that despite I live in a metropole with its 2 million inhabitants, I can jump on my bike in the summer, ride for twenty minutes to Donau, Vienna's river, and go for a swim, while being in nature. I can't think of any other city that offers what a world city has to offer, and being able to enjoy nature to the extent that I can swim in its river without worryin…

Stockholm, Sweden has the same thing going for it. In the few months of the year you can actually go swimming without freezing to death that is :)

Re: Vienna again named world's most liveable city

#73

Post by bane »

alexeisadeski3 wrote: post #46
bane wrote: post #18

The more I travel, the more convinced I am that the American experiment with car oriented cities was a disaster that will take untold billions of dollars to rectify. It's affected everything from public safety (e.g. police can no longer walk a patrol), to loss of community (people don't really shop in the same place they live), lost productivity (stuck in traffic), and on and on and on. I'm very encouraged by recent,…

You don't think that Vienna is drivable? It doesn't strike me an any more or less drivable than anywhere else in Europe. It's certainly not Amsterdam. The entire SWPL fascination with non-driving cities, or for that matter opposed to sprawl, is just weird. So some people like to drive: That doesn't oppress you. I personally love suburban cities. Everything is so easy: You can hop in your car and be anywhere you want…

I didn't say that. What I implied was that Vienna is much more walkable than a place like LA. Los Angeles will never appear high on a list of most livable cities -- despite having lots of services, nice climate and loads of culture.

But you could probably pick any major European city at random, claim it was "most livable" or "best quality of life" or whatever and it would be reasonable.

Actually, what's very interesting is how high Australian and New Zealand's cities frequently rank in these kinds of surveys. At least with Australia, there's enough of a shared development model with the U.S (big space, resource extraction, etc.). that when I've been there, cars were a necessity in general, but the urban cores were really nice and walkable.

Re: Vienna again named world's most liveable city

#74

Post by samtp »

alexeisadeski3 wrote: post #46
bane wrote: post #18

The more I travel, the more convinced I am that the American experiment with car oriented cities was a disaster that will take untold billions of dollars to rectify. It's affected everything from public safety (e.g. police can no longer walk a patrol), to loss of community (people don't really shop in the same place they live), lost productivity (stuck in traffic), and on and on and on. I'm very encouraged by recent,…

You don't think that Vienna is drivable? It doesn't strike me an any more or less drivable than anywhere else in Europe. It's certainly not Amsterdam. The entire SWPL fascination with non-driving cities, or for that matter opposed to sprawl, is just weird. So some people like to drive: That doesn't oppress you. I personally love suburban cities. Everything is so easy: You can hop in your car and be anywhere you want…

> Public transport, even in cities with great infrastructure, is soul crushingly slow and inefficient.

Wow. Then how would you describe:

1. A daily 45 minute commune through barely moving traffic

2. Driving around a walmart/tj maxx/home goods/target... parking lot for 5 minutes just to find a space

3. Almost never having to interact with (or even look at) anyone in your community since when you are not inside your house, in a cube at work, sitting in a chain restaurant booth, or shuffling between a maze of aisles trying to find laundry detergent; your sat in a steel box, isolated from everyone else.

No only would I call you lazy, it also seems that you're quite antisocial.

Re: Vienna again named world's most liveable city

#75

Post by whichdan »

alexeisadeski3 wrote: post #46
bane wrote: post #18

The more I travel, the more convinced I am that the American experiment with car oriented cities was a disaster that will take untold billions of dollars to rectify. It's affected everything from public safety (e.g. police can no longer walk a patrol), to loss of community (people don't really shop in the same place they live), lost productivity (stuck in traffic), and on and on and on. I'm very encouraged by recent,…

You don't think that Vienna is drivable? It doesn't strike me an any more or less drivable than anywhere else in Europe. It's certainly not Amsterdam. The entire SWPL fascination with non-driving cities, or for that matter opposed to sprawl, is just weird. So some people like to drive: That doesn't oppress you. I personally love suburban cities. Everything is so easy: You can hop in your car and be anywhere you want…

I'm the exact opposite - the idea of spending 5-25min in a car, when I could be walking, sounds dreadful. I probably walk 500 miles a year or more, simply because I don't drive. I can't imagine moving back to a suburb.

Re: Vienna again named world's most liveable city

#76

Post by cobrausn »

nilkn wrote: post #65
cobrausn wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Density is returning to American cities, seemingly because the roads could not keep up with what they promised. Houston has typically been a perfect example of urban sprawl, but as of late it has been rapidly getting denser and land values are skyrocketing the closer you are to these areas.

I live in Houston and walk to work. It's just a 2-3 minute drive for me to get to a grocery store, a movie theater, restaurants, and museums. But I'm unmarried with no dependents. I couldn't afford to buy a home here (they're seemingly all $1M+). As a consequence, with a city the size of Houston, simply increasing the density probably does not have the desired effect. The urban core of Houston will be completely re-i…

I don't disagree. I fall in the DINK category, but even we cannot afford many of the places that are inside the loop, or even near there. I know some people who do live in the Montrose area (rapidly rising price), and they do so by putting 3 single developers in one house. Once you get married, that becomes less attractive, and you end up forced out of the loop (like we did) - I'm in the process of buying a house conveniently located under 5 minutes from work just inside BW8, and I still can't walk there - doing so would require crossing the Beltway at high traffic times, and I don't care to greatly increase my risk of death five days a week.

I'm actually a big proponent of public transportation and increased options for travel, and am really glad when they get implemented, but purely for selfish reasons - it means less people on the roads. I'll gladly pay a bit more in taxes to make the roads less of a logjam at most hours of the day.

Re: Vienna again named world's most liveable city

#77

Post by freehunter »

debt wrote: post #19
freehunter wrote: post #14

On these "most livable" city indexes, I wish they would take into account how much it costs to live there compared to wages. San Fransisco is high on their list, but from what I'm hearing, it's really not the panacea that these lists often make it out to be. High wages, but higher cost of living and horrible living conditions compared to the Midwest, for example. I have a friend who just bought a two-story, four bedr…

Living conditions? The midwest has been and is still being hit with one of the worst winters in a few decades. Also I hear that "land is cheap elsewhere" argument all the time. You're right; if I was 82 and wanted to settle down I'd buy a ranch somewhere in the palm desert for 100k, but I'm not. I'm young and I want to work. I'll live in my shitty apartment in SF long before I whither away on some plot of land in the…

I'm not quite sure what you're trying to say. Did I mention anything about swampland? Did I mention anything about a desert? Did I mention anything about being an 82 year old withering away?

I mentioned a nice house in city limits with a short, quick commute downtown to work in an office making almost as much as the house costs per year. Weather plays a factor, true, but I wouldn't want to be living in a shitty apartment in SF when the San Andreas goes off again either. I'm not trying to be a walking tourist board for a city I don't even live in, but describing a 200,000 person city with the best beer in the country, a major hacker convention every year (GrrCon) the yearly ArtPrize exhibits, and a great local music scene as "a desert" or "swampland" is a pretty shitty move on your part.

You seem to have dismissed every single word I said as soon as you read "midwest". That's not very polite, nor is it appropriate for any kind of discussion.

Re: Vienna again named world's most liveable city

#78

Post by MrBuddyCasino »

egeozcan wrote: post #7
kfk wrote: post #5

So, I passed by Vienna kayaking down the Danube. We liked the “Neu Donau”, basically an unused arm of the Danube with super ultra clean water. People go there swimming, surfing or just for a walk, it’s super cool. We didn’t really like the city center, way to posh for us. But then again, we were coming to Vienna on a kayak from the woods, that might have skewed our vision of the city. But overall, if you can, go visi…

After living in Stuttgart for the last 5 years, I can tell that these stereotypes describe some Germans perfectly well but the important thing here is those account for less than 1% of the population. The remaining 99%? Those are these very friendly people who have this amazing ability to be relaxed and efficient at the same time.

I live there, and in my experience, Stuttgart is not a very good city to live in, and I know quite some people who share that sentiment. Swabians are famously unapproachable, though I do respect them a lot.

Thats one reason I'm moving to Munich - anyone knows a good company to work for there? :)

Re: Vienna again named world's most liveable city

#79

Post by lazyjones »

Vienna is good overall, but it's passive smoking hell. 99% of all clubs ignore non-smoking laws according to a recent study and you often find particle concentrations higher than on a busy road inside various cafes/clubs and washing all your clothes after a night in a busy place is a must. For some people this will be a sign of relaxed, "laissez-faire" style life, for others like me this is unbearable and I hate it.

The Mercer study Reuters mentions is, by the way, apparently only based on a few publicly available key statistical indicators and not on actual surveys.

Re: Vienna again named world's most liveable city

#80

Post by twelvechairs »

alexeisadeski3 wrote: post #46
bane wrote: post #18

The more I travel, the more convinced I am that the American experiment with car oriented cities was a disaster that will take untold billions of dollars to rectify. It's affected everything from public safety (e.g. police can no longer walk a patrol), to loss of community (people don't really shop in the same place they live), lost productivity (stuck in traffic), and on and on and on. I'm very encouraged by recent,…

You don't think that Vienna is drivable? It doesn't strike me an any more or less drivable than anywhere else in Europe. It's certainly not Amsterdam. The entire SWPL fascination with non-driving cities, or for that matter opposed to sprawl, is just weird. So some people like to drive: That doesn't oppress you. I personally love suburban cities. Everything is so easy: You can hop in your car and be anywhere you want…

which cities have you lived in and tried the public transport thing if you don't mind me asking?
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