They think Istanbul is in Western Europe while Budapest is in Eastern Europe, I'm not entirely convinced that rest of their report is worth reading.
The most livable cities
231–240 of 300 posts
Re: The most livable cities
#232Earlier quoted context omitted.
> how all of the diverse cities of the USA Have you perhaps considered that they're not very diverse? NYC and SF are a bit different yeah, but other than that they're all remarkably similar. Honestly it's a significant factor in why I decided to move back to Europe. It always bothered me when Americans claim that the US states are as diverse as separate countries in e.g. Europe. No, just no. You are blinded by the fa…
I'm always surprised how Americans have a radically different interpretation of diversity. This debate always comes up. Large American cities have many minorities that tend to congregate socially and geographically, hence "Koreatown", "Little Russia" etc. You have your Cuban-Americans and eat Thai food. An American will say this is diversity. I guess it is in a sense, but with very flawed integration. Other countries…
The existence and continued renewal of historical enclaves is not an indication that America does not integrate immigrants or that America has not been enriched by their presence. (It's almost absurd to say. America is far from being "little England", and the culture I grew up with was so clearly influenced by the various peoples who settled the area, I don't even know what you could possibly mean.)
America is currently home to almost 50 million immigrants, representing about 13% of our population. This is more than any country on Earth by number, and something like 8th by percentage. This number is just immigrants, not the American children of immigrants.
The population of Chinatown in SF is around 35,000. Only 80% of that is some kind of Asian. The Chinese-American population of San Francisco is around 175,000 (out of around 850,000; total Asian-American population is around 280,000). There are areas of concentration, but you've a great chance of having a Chinese-American neighbor or two wherever you live in the city. The population of Little Italy in Manhattan is just under half white, with less than 10% being ethnically Italian. Similar demographic changes for Little Russia in SF. With the exception of some religious enclaves (e.g. Hasidic Jews), this is probably the case for most enclaves in the US older than (say) 50 years.
Enclaves existed in Europe historically and still exist today. Both in the US and in Europe, enclaves formed both naturally as a thing immigrants did to survive in their new host country and as part of government plans.
Ethnically, in the US the lines are essentially gone. Almost no one cares if your grandmother was Irish or your cousin married a Greek. (There are some pockets where people do care, but they're usually associated with historical beef—or generalized racism—and they're by far the exception.) To the extent non-white people care about ethnicity, it is probably correlated with how recently their ancestors immigrated, with recent immigrants themselves most likely to hold such views. I doubt this is that different from Europe.
We do tend to divide more along racial lines; especially between certain groups—usually with outspoken people in BOTH groups having a problem with mixing. This is seen both socially and geographically; especially in some places. (Even this has changed significantly over my lifetime in places I thought it wouldn't.) I don't really know how this compares to Europe.
Re: The most livable cities
#233As I wrote last year, these liveability index ignores all the best cities in Europe and I suppose in most countries by focusing on the largest cities. I enjoyed living in the US, France, Denmark and Germany, I can't find Boulder, Besançon, Nantes, Helsingor, Münster, etc. These are all smaller cities outside of the big ones and they would all have a score higher than Vienna in this index. I am 100% confident that you…
These lists also often ignore the weather, which makes a huge difference to what most people consider to be "livable". Nordic European winters are horrible, and no amount of amenities can compensate.
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Re: The most livable cities
#234Ranking Frankfurt higher than Munich is a joke. I lived in both cities (currently living near Frankfurt) and it's not even close. Infrastructure, cultural and recreational activities, architecture. None of these things are even in the same ballpark.
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Re: The most livable cities
#235This list is a complete joke, evidenced by the fact that they use a definition of livibility that puts cities that are barely walkable in the top 10.
Whether or not a city is "walkable," is not necessarily an improvement upon livability. In areas of Chicago and Baltimore, for example, the streets are "walkable," however the frequent violent & property crimes that take place in these areas make a casual stroll down the block an unsafe proposition. I grew up in Harlem during the time it was emerging out of the 1980s crack epidemic. As a child, the streets were easy…
Walkability and crime go hand in hand. If crime is high on a street, people will not want to walk on that street. Because of this, shops will close, and any reasonable walkability score will drastically go down. You cannot have high walkability and high crime. They are intrinsically linked.
If your goal is reducing crime, increasing walkability is an excellent way of achieving that. The more walkable areas are, the more regular people will be walking in that area. The more regular people that are walking in an area, the safer it is. Walkable areas are also much easier to police and keep safe since they are naturally much more dense and less spread out, so there is vastly less surface area to cover.
Re: The most livable cities
#236As I wrote last year, these liveability index ignores all the best cities in Europe and I suppose in most countries by focusing on the largest cities. I enjoyed living in the US, France, Denmark and Germany, I can't find Boulder, Besançon, Nantes, Helsingor, Münster, etc. These are all smaller cities outside of the big ones and they would all have a score higher than Vienna in this index. I am 100% confident that you…
These lists also often ignore the weather, which makes a huge difference to what most people consider to be "livable". Nordic European winters are horrible, and no amount of amenities can compensate.
Nordic winters are tame compared to those in places like northern north America. I live in a town that regularly dips below -40c.
But a very cold winter is nothing compared to a very hot summer. Look at how many people die in heat waves. Rarely does a cold snap result in more than a handful of deaths, and most of those will be traffic-related. Heat waves can result in hundreds dead very easily. I'll take a Canadian or Norwegian winter over a Texas summer any day.
Parts of Canada are actually about to mandate air conditioning (aka active cooling) in new buildings in recognition of the danger that summer heat can pose in Canada.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/heat-dome-retrofit-building-c...
Re: The most livable cities
#237Earlier quoted context omitted.
Europe is a big place; fjords have little to share with Algarve or Greek isles as far as climate goes.
Everything north of the alps is pretty gloomy, especially compared to North America
For what it's worth, the place where I am at right now has been extremely warm and sunny basically all spring and summer. And that's north of the Alps.
By contrast, many large cities in North America have extreme seasonality. With meters of snow in the winter, and unbearable heat in the summer. Looking at you NYC.
Re: The most livable cities
#238Earlier quoted context omitted.
The whole idea of "liveability index" is strange to me. Different people have different needs to live and different places have different cultures. This is biased towards the European and generally western style of living which although might be preferable to most people does not mean it's preferable to all. In addition to there being probably hundreds of variables that are subconscious and/or can't be accounted for…
I'm guessing The Economist has some idea of who reads their magazine and so this article is likely written with a specific audience in mind.
Agree. If you consider Vancouver as livable then you’re already targeting the 1%. The rest of us simply can’t afford to live there.
Re: The most livable cities
#239> Other cities affected by the contagion of war, such as Budapest and Warsaw, saw their stability scores slip as geopolitical tensions increased. Meanwhile, kids in American schools are getting shot at, but yeah, Warsaw is definitely less livable than any large US city.
Wars kill far more people than school shootings, just not in the US and just not lately.
I don't think Poland and Hungary have a high probability of entering a war, but it is a small percentage increase multiplied by a devastating outcome.
Re: The most livable cities
#240Earlier quoted context omitted.
> how all of the diverse cities of the USA Have you perhaps considered that they're not very diverse? NYC and SF are a bit different yeah, but other than that they're all remarkably similar. Honestly it's a significant factor in why I decided to move back to Europe. It always bothered me when Americans claim that the US states are as diverse as separate countries in e.g. Europe. No, just no. You are blinded by the fa…
I'm always surprised how Americans have a radically different interpretation of diversity. This debate always comes up. Large American cities have many minorities that tend to congregate socially and geographically, hence "Koreatown", "Little Russia" etc. You have your Cuban-Americans and eat Thai food. An American will say this is diversity. I guess it is in a sense, but with very flawed integration. Other countries…
I think the US is by far the most integrated and assimilated country in the world.
It has people at all stages of assimilation, including communities of completely unassimilated immigrants, but it also has large populations from just about every ethnic background in existence that consider themselves Americans first, and are also considered fully and completely American by the vast majority of other citizens. I don’t think you’ll find that to the same degree anywhere else.