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The most livable cities

economist.com

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Re: The most livable cities

#51

Post by jules »

drstewart wrote: post #26
martindbp wrote: post #11

Earlier 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…

>There are as large regional differences within individual European countries Have you considered that they're not very large differences and you're just blinded by the fact that you're attuned to them?

The difference between e.g. northern and southern Italy is large. Larger than the differences I've seen in the US. I'm from the Netherlands, so I may be suffering from the same issue, but a reason I doubt that is that in many ways Dutch culture is closer to American culture than to Italian culture, so if anything I should be able to detect nuances in US regional differences better.

Re: The most livable cities

#52

Post by isubasinghe »

masonic wrote: post #19
thriftwy wrote: post #3

There should be some in-built bias, such as adding points for just being in the Northern America. Otherwise it's hard to explain how all of the diverse cities of the USA end up being clumped in one place of the scale. That, or not having sufficient dynamic range.

> adding points for just being in the Northern America To the contrary, I find it odd that there isn't a single upper-tier livable city in the western 2/3rds of the US but every city in the eastern 95% of Australia is top tier. Hell, my neighbors immigrated from Australia.

I think Australia is very easy to have a good life in thanks to the laid-back culture and government support (healthcare, benefits etc), imo it is a mix of Europe + America.

The problem also is the laid-back culture which creates mediocrity in my opinion, the tech scene in Europe, America, Singapore is much better as a result.

Depending on priorities its a great place to live, but if you are super passionate about whatever you are doing, it may not be the best place to advance career wise.

Re: The most livable cities

#53

Post by nonrandomstring »

Some factors rapidly changing in UK cities are

- Empty offices since the pandemic

- Disappearance of the high-street due to Amazon

- New "In-between" builds

Most British cities still have empty or skeleton-crewed office buildings. That can't be sustainable. Surely these will be sold off as housing.

Shops are vanishing at a terrifying rate. Some city centres are boarded up and only charity shops, Tesco minimarts and tattoo/nail bars remain.

Every tiny plot of land is being sold off to developers to "fill in" with profitable (but in my reckoning totally unneeded) housing. This is changing public footpaths and cycle cut-throughs and squeezing the density of some areas.

I think any metric of "livability" would be in flux and likely to change in many British cities.

Re: The most livable cities

#54

Post by burntoutfire »

mypalmike wrote: post #49
burntoutfire wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Have you perhaps considered that they're not very diverse? This. Being a European, after seeing NYC, SF and Las Vegas, I passed on an opportunity to go for a week-long business trip to Seattle. Even though I had the time, I imagine Seattle being just mostly more of the same (an uniform, boring city consisting of XX century architecture built on a grid) and absolutely not worth the trip. Americans speaking about lar…

This being hn, I'm struggling not to be sarcastic about how similar Seattle and Las Vegas are.

Apart from tiny tourist part of Las Vegas, are they really that different? I've walked around Las Vegas to see how the real city (not the tourist part) looks like, and it was just an endless grid of streets with condos, houses and mini-malls at intersections. Is Seattle different?

Re: The most livable cities

#55

Post by mypalmike »

piaste wrote: post #44
drstewart wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>There are as large regional differences within individual European countries Have you considered that they're not very large differences and you're just blinded by the fact that you're attuned to them?

Unlikely, as foreign visitors invariably point them out uncoached.

I concur. Perhaps must notably, I found that the graffiti on the old stone apartment blocks in Cologne had a certain flair not seen on the old stone apartment blocks in Hamburg.

Re: The most livable cities

#56

Post by pmkiwi »

So Auckland dropped 33 places just because of few Covid cases ? It is true that we had a peak of Covid cases this year, but it was never really massive by international standards.

At the same time, Auckland is pretty dead for a while now, especially the CBD. Traffic is not that bad, but we haven't recovered at all from Covid. We will see in the next few months if cruise ships and tourists are back or not.

Re: The most livable cities

#57

Post by zfxfr »

Loic wrote: post #29

As 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…

I was going to share the same observation. Also I am impressed someone mention Besançon on HN. I live nearby ! In Vesoul which is also a really good place to live ! And I say it after living all around Europe and asia.

Re: The most livable cities

#58

Post by rsp1984 »

Ranking 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.

Re: The most livable cities

#59

Post by Simon_O_Rourke »

From personal experience, Vienna tops the list of places to go see the locals doing the old 1930's style stiff arm salute. If described in terms of cake, as it probably should be, Vienna is a layered sponge cake, two thick wedges of art and culture sandwiching a smaller middle layer of right-wing reactionary local politics.
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