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The most livable cities

economist.com

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Re: The most livable cities

#281

Post by burntoutfire »

martindbp wrote: post #111
burntoutfire wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure I'd have much time to venture outside of the city. Plus, I live in climate that's similar to PNW (coastal Poland), and actually the desert surrounding Las Vegas and semi-desert Bay Area were much more interesting for me. I'd much rather go to Florida for example, as I've never experienced the tropics before.

I really don't think the PNW and coastal Poland is similar (if it's anything like Sweden). The PNW is like if the Alps had a huge coastline and almost no population to speak of. Check out Olympic National Park and remember that pictures are not the same as being there. It's breathtaking, pristine nature. Florida is extremely boring, the only thing it has going for it is the warm water. Hawaii on the other hand is com…

> I really don't think the PNW and coastal Poland is similar (if it's anything like Sweden). The PNW is like if the Alps had a huge coastline and almost no population to speak of. Check out Olympic National Park and remember that pictures are not the same as being there. It's breathtaking, pristine nature.

Yeah, that's what I imagine. A better, more beautiful, more pristine version of what I have at home. I'd gladly see that. But places like deserts or tropics or arctic are nothing like home, and a bit like traveling to another planet - more interesting to see, although there may be not that much to see there after a first couple of days.

> Florida is extremely boring, the only thing it has going for it is the warm water.

Doesn't Florida still have some pristine swamps? It would be cool to see them. Also, I've just never been to a place with oppresive heat, aligators, plenty of mosquitos (in the swamps) and all the rest of it - it'd cool to experience it once, even if to swear it off for the rest of my life.

Re: The most livable cities

#282

Post by pmkiwi »

EdwardDiego wrote: post #120
pmkiwi wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

NZ is not cheap indeed and Auckland is insanely expensive (managed to buy despite the crazy housing market), but nice beaches and awesome for sailing !

Yeah, I was really surprised by how nice the beaches are in Auckland when I first travelled up there. I had thought, given how many people live around them and use them, that the beaches would be crowded, or ruined with litter, but nothing of the sort. And the water is so much warmer than our South Island beaches.

Some of the central beaches are sometimes crowded, but many beaches are just empty. Went for a swim today and water was fresh (16 degrees) but refreshing !

Where are you based ?

Re: The most livable cities

#283

Post by peoplefromibiza »

novok wrote: post #223
peoplefromibiza wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Mass shootings are rare Yeah, but... Typical (Median) Annual Death Rate per Million People from Mass Public Shootings (U.S., Canada, and Europe, 2009-2015) United States — 0.058 Albania — 0 Austria — 0 Belgium — 0 Czech Republic — 0 Finland — 0 France — 0 Germany — 0 Italy — 0 Macedonia — 0 Netherlands — 0 Norway — 0 Russia — 0 Serbia — 0 Slovakia — 0 Switzerland — 0 United Kingdom — 0 Using the median analysis, th…

IMO I think the fact that the numbers are so low shows that people should stop giving a shit about death by guns by civilians. I wish humanity put as much focus about the obesity & diabetes crisis, car deaths, slipping in the bathtub, murder by government policy and war than they did about guns. Guns are flashy, but infinitesimal compared to the actual causes of early death. The dirty secret of gun control policies i…

> IMO I think the fact that the numbers are so low shows that people should stop giving a shit about death by guns by civilians

They are usually zero in many developed countries and usually non zero in others(I mean one here).

So giving a shit about it actually have an impact.

It can make the difference between your kids coming home from school or not.

Gun violence in US kills.more people than soldiers at war.

Should we stop giving a shit about war too?

I think it's shows that the average US mentality is cynical about other people's lives exactly because people don't give a shit.

Obesity is a problem of quality of food, if McDonalds cost less than vegetables and poor people often can't afford healthy options of course there are going to be consequences. But the solution is not throwing money at the problem (food stamps) it's in a shift in culture, which US society is apparently not able to do, because nobody gives a shit. They are good at campaigning to deny abortion to women, but not to make healthy food available to everybody regardless of the census. Maybe it's too a socialist option for them.

> Guns are flashy, but infinitesimal compared to the actual causes of early death.

That's completely untrue. And, again, it shows the cult around guns that some people appear to be sucked in.

Guns Became the Leading Cause of Death for American Children and Teens in 2020

https://time.com/6170864/cause-of-death-children-guns/

Re: The most livable cities

#284

Post by jjav »

sandworm101 wrote: post #236
jiggawatts wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 o…

> But a very cold winter is nothing compared to a very hot summer.

Goes right back to how subjective livability is. The above statement might be true for you. For me I'm unhappy at anything below 80F and downright miserable below 60F. Any city that gets weather below freezing is completely out, regardless of all other factors. Live is too short to spend most of it freezing. All the top 5 in this economist list are freezing places, hard nope from me to all of them.

Re: The most livable cities

#285

Post by usrbinbash »

bergenty wrote: post #275
usrbinbash wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The only downside to car culture is environmental concerns that I really hope electric cars fix. How are they supposed to fix it? In many countries we still burn gas & coal for electricty. The cars need to be produced, which is alot more resource intensive than building better public transports, since a train transports hundreds of individuals at once, and can serve the transportation needs of thousands over the co…

Yes over time. Electric cars and renewable energy in a nutshell.

Even if we had infinite renewable energy, or something like Fusion Power; there are still the problems of having to manufacture all these individual vehicles, gathering the resources to do so, maintaining them, storing them, and providing them with roads.

Re: The most livable cities

#286

Post by jjav »

dzogchen wrote: post #148

This 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.

Agreed. A list that has Calgary tied as third best city? Sorry Calgary but.. no. Miserably cold, in the middle of nowhere, nothing to do but freeze. Something wrong with the criteria for this list.

Re: The most livable cities

#287

Post by adammarples »

hartator wrote: post #173
peoplefromibiza wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Mass shootings are rare Yeah, but... Typical (Median) Annual Death Rate per Million People from Mass Public Shootings (U.S., Canada, and Europe, 2009-2015) United States — 0.058 Albania — 0 Austria — 0 Belgium — 0 Czech Republic — 0 Finland — 0 France — 0 Germany — 0 Italy — 0 Macedonia — 0 Netherlands — 0 Norway — 0 Russia — 0 Serbia — 0 Slovakia — 0 Switzerland — 0 United Kingdom — 0 Using the median analysis, th…

It seems a misdirection to use median across years as we have averages available. It's more precise and more readable but probably doesn't align with the policies you want to push: Norway — 1.888 Serbia — 0.381 France — 0.347 Macedonia — 0.337 Albania — 0.206 Slovakia — 0.185 Switzerland — 0.142 Finland — 0.132 Belgium — 0.128 Czech Republic — 0.123 United States — 0.089 Austria — 0.068 Netherlands — 0.051 Canada — 0…

On the contrary, median is a much better indication of central tendency here than mean. It is also not less "precise", both statistics are given to the same three decimal places here.

Re: The most livable cities

#288

Post by ihateolives »

amf12 wrote: post #187
dzogchen wrote: post #148

This 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.

While walkability should be a factor, less walkable cities could be better than more walkable cities due to other factors that impact the standard of living - opportunities, public transit, housing, etc.

If city has good public transport system then it also has pretty good walkability as people have to have a way to get to public transport stops/stations.

Re: The most livable cities

#289

Post by tut-urut-utut »

someone_else12 wrote: post #135
tut-urut-utut wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wrong. German is a nationality, not an ethnicity, except if you take an opinion of a few far right borderline Nazi German parties.

German is both nationality and ethnicity. There are ethnic Germans outside of Germany. For example, Germans in Kazakhstan, they report their ethnicity as "German", despite being Kazakh citizens.

Not in Germany. The legal system here knows only about nationality, and that’s either German or foreign. And saying “Deutsch” / “German” has a prevalent meaning of a German National, eg a holder of German citizenship.

And people of German origin in Kazakhstan or other post Soviet states are referred as Russlandsdeutsche, or German Russians, not Germans.

Only far right groups insist on blood theory and ethnicity as a concept.

Re: The most livable cities

#290

Post by joushx »

jonstewart wrote: post #215

My connecting flight to my vacation destination in Italy was canceled this morning, so I got to spend the afternoon in Vienna with my wife and kids. Strudel and einspanner at Cafe Mozart, brats from a wurst stand, the CAT train, Stephensplatz, it was all a good reminder why Vienna is such a great city.

The CAT train is a scam. It costs much more than a Railjet that takes the same time and you end up at the central station.
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