Most liveable cities

Beautifull

6 - 10 =

6. Vancouver, Canada

7. (tie) Toronto, Canada

7. (tie) Tokyo, Japan

9. Copenhagen, Denmark

10. Adelaide, Australia

Three in the top ten from Canada, three in the top ten from Australia.

No USA ?

I've never been to America but much of 'flyover country" sounds underrated.

Did affordability count for nothing in this survey?

R5, nope.

None in the top ten, R3. Second year in a row, at least.... Last year Honolulu was the the first U.S. entry, at #17.

But the report notes "No U.S. city has ever been in the top 10 -- but with 140 cities to choose from, being in the top 50 isn't too shabby. Once a city scores above 80, as all U.S. cities on the list do, it's considered top-tier"

London ranks 48th

Not sure I'd consider Calgary's weather particularly "liveable"

Vienna and Melbourne are great cities to visit, I suspect they'd get a but claustrophobic if you actually lived there.

Get a BIT claustrophobic.

Claustrophobic ? How do ?

Damascus, Dhaka named least liveable

Calgary is a shithole.

Calgary is full of racist rednecks. I guess that didn't count for anything.

As with much of what the Economist publishes, it’s utter bullshit. Anyone who classes Tokyo in the top 10 needs their head read. No allowance for air pollution alone.

In terms of cost of living: to purchase an average home in Sydney & Melbourne, with decent commuting distance costs at least a million and a half, while the traffic of nightmarish and the public transport is packed to chronic levels due to runaway Third World migration. Adelaide is a pleasant nowheresville.

R13 👍🏻

I'm always bewildered as to how Sydney places so high on this year after year.

It's always interesting those "most liveable" rankings never seem to include economic growth and/or cost of living.

Sydney is reasonably clean, mild-climated and a quite safe liberal democracy but it is overpriced and a suburban sprawl, kind of like LA, but with a quarter of the things to do, with a fraction of the neighbourhood character, zero artistic impulse, and everything shuts down at 6pm.

My tiny unrenovated1930s apartment is worth $750,000! It’s in a very good neighbourhood but I bought it for $390k in 2003.

Vienna isn't great for a weekend skier.

Vienna isn't great for anybody Jewish these days. C'mon people! Neo-fascist government isn't "liveable.," assholes!

I have only been to Sydney with regards to this list. It was quite OK,. Reading dataloungers sounding pissed off about Calgary sounds more like an extra vote for Calgary as quite liveable. Yes, I am one of those who find the pointless bitchery of datalounge to be extremely pointless.

Sydney is a pleasant place for three quarters of the year (it has an oppressively hot humid summer), but you really need a very high income to make the most of it. Anything else and it can be very stressing. It’s one of those cities where you feel a pounding competitive vibe. The gay scene apart from Mardi Gras time is pretty shithouse, and it is one most body fascist places on the planet. It doesn’t even have a leather bar, which is indicative of how generic it is. Lavender Bay (pic) where Nicole Kidman has her apartment is perfectly gorgeous, but you’d need many millions to buy a place there. Unlike, say, Berlin, money is all that counts in Sydney, and real estate is its religion. They make LAers look like mere amateurs. The only conversations are property prices and sex. But it’s a fantastic place for a holiday.

Melbourne used to be a gorgeous quiet and gracious city twenty years ago, sort of like an Anglo Boston, but like Vancouver etc, but since then it’s been fucked over by immigration.

The list is blatantly racist.

LIvable how? It has mass transit, the kind that doesn't go anywhere and has a limited schedule. It has parks, the kind where you are more likely to be killed by a serial killer than have an enjoyable outing. It has a downtown filled with office drones and outlying malls, very American for Canada, without the quaint neighborhoods and pungent personality of any other Canadian city. It has a lot of sunshine, but unlike Denver it is brutally cold, and its suburbs are infamous for clusters of vCJD, a deadly disease with no cure. And on top of that, it is full of fucking Mormons. So riddle me this, who would want to live there?

r21 I wasn't kidding about Calgary. It's like you wandered into a lost piece of the Deep South.

Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Wellington, Quito, Bogota, Ho Chi Minh City, Chicago, Dublin, Lyon, Milwaukee, Denver, Sao Paulo, Lima, Nairobi, San Diego, Providence, Houston, Mexico City, Newcastle UK, Manchester, Addis Ababa all sound quite underrated to me. I live in Sydney but I have not travelled much.

R26 How would you know if you haven’t travelled ?

The mayor of Calgary (re-elected twice) is a Muslim-Canadian. The provincial government is NDP. cf the Ford brothers in Ontario.

No place that has snow or excessive heat and humidity is liveable.

Liveable, as long as you're White, Xtian and Male. Otherwise, it's just another city full of bigots and racists.

You’re so Wien

You probably think this list is about you

Most livable cities for white straight males

Osaka is trashy.

Lisbon is vastly more livable than any of these.

Depends on what you want out of life, I suppose.

I rather liked R18's take on Sydney. I always felt it was San Diego minus the museums, the zoo and the Latin influence - which was always the best part.

In Vienna many of the apartment complexes are, or were until recently, owned by the city. They're not there to make a huge profit. They're clean, well-kept and affordable. They're not meant to be object for the kind of speculative "investments" that inevitably ruin every other city by driving out everyone who is not absurdly rich.

R34=Madonna

Vienna?? No way, it’s boring as fuck

I lived in Calgary for two years and it wasn't great. It was safe and clean even in the more ghetto areas but really flat and ugly. It's a well maintained city but dull. Definitely my least favourite city in Canada.

R32- You'd be hard to find a lot of white males in Toronto. 50% of Toronto's population is a visible minority.

[quote]Vienna isn't great for anybody Jewish these days.

Outside of Beverly Hills and NYC Jews are less than 1% of the population so it hardly should be counted as a factor. Gay people are a larger group and the they are never factored in unless its specifically about gays.

How did Tokyo, Japan get on that list so high? Its so over crowded, commercialized and expensive.

I know it's not London. It may seem like heaven to the tourist, but I'm sure it's hell to live there.

Some cities are good to visit but I wouldn’t want to live there. NYC for example.

Cities are markets for capital and labor and ideas, but American cities are so spread out most of them have long since ceased to function that way. I guess people will say we don't need that anymore: we can have all our markets online, but I think this abandonment of the city is partly behind our low growth ceiling.

Vienna is amazing, I could live there. Melbourne is a bore in comparison to Sydney. I'll even take Adelaide over Melbourne.

No, it's not the outskirts of Mumbai, it's Paris!!

I have lived in Vienna for 8 years. It is true that it is very livable in general. Great public transportation system, lots of culture, affordable cost of living and real estate in relation to salary, low crime, clean, etc. However, there are a few negative factors that not so easily measurable that somewhat counter the positive ones:

1. unfriendly, gruff, and closed off people (it came 63rd in an expat friendliness and openness survey) 2. the weather is fairly unpleasant 3. the government bureaucracy is pretty terrible and filled with the very unhelpful people 4. xenophobia 5. the Viennese just aren't very fun people. They're kind of stiff and suspicious

I think some cities suffer in these rankings because some of these less quantifiable factors aren't taken into account. For example, I have also spent some time in Lisbon. Although the public transportation system is worse, and the economy not as good, the people are very friendly and open, the weather is great, the bureaucracy better, and it's just more fun. So, if you took that into account too, Lisbon should go up in the rankings and Vienna a bit down.

r33 Osaka is fucking rad. Lived there for five years and would love to go back.

r26 Come visit Wellington! Just not in winter - the wind blows straight off the antarctic and it can get cold as. But lovely in the summer. If it's not windy...

I live in Melbourne, it's becoming overcrowded, traffic ridden (all day, every day), with lots and lots of pushy and arrogant Indians.

[quote]London ranks 48th

No surprise here, most awful city I ever visited.

I have lived in Toronto for many years and it is as boring as shit.

What about Singapore?

Melbourne?!?!? The rest I get, but freakin' Melbourne?! At best, it's on par with Pittsburgh.

[quote]Vienna isn't great for anybody Jewish these days.

[quote]Outside of Beverly Hills and NYC Jews are less than 1% of the population so it hardly should be counted as a factor.

R41 unashamedly trivializes the plight of Europe's Jews.

I really like Melbourne and its arcades. Sydney, on the other hand, seems a bit rude.

[quote]he gay scene apart from Mardi Gras time is pretty shithouse, and it is one most body fascist places on the planet. It doesn’t even have a leather bar, which is indicative of how generic it is.

This made me lol, as Sydney's time as a gay mecca peaked well over 20 years ago. Super sleazy Kings Cross gentrified at the same rate as Times Square and SOHO, the land the gay bars used to occupy is now worth a fortune and with all of the headaches and dealing with the local councils and laws, you can't really blame the owners for wanting to have the plugs pulled. It was still an affordable place until around 2000, but like all Australian cities it has caught many unawares with the insane property cycles. Kings is a now safe, sterile community for upper class families.

Not surprised Oslo isn't on there, ugly overpriced shithole. The only good thing is the public transportation. Culture is good too. It has many music festivals and other things happening. Sadly most people can't afford to live there. A 40 m2 studio apartment can cost 3 to 4 million kroner.

[quote]Calgary is full of racist rednecks. I guess that didn't count for anything

Funny how they keep voting for this guy, then:

London is right to be placed so low as a world city. Born and bred and not white, here. It is over crowded any spare space is built upon thus rendering micro climates within a climate. Tube is crowded, the charge levied against vehicles in zone 1 in the day doesn't do the job of lessening traffic. Pavements in most of the city are too narrow now for the population ( West London zone one and 2 generally have the widest pavements), it stinks more than it has ever done, there is no "suburbia" anymore just "city and countryside". IT is also fucking expensive and the average working class person can't enjoy it as much as back in the day and the middle class of the "the museums , the parks!" persuasion has imported a kind of middle class parochialism form the shires and dullsville that they used to live in that doesn't suit a city. A bit like how "hipsterism" is ruining New York with its over influence and lack of "zing" and has mistake acquisition as "culture".

Then we have the other side, The violence and the underclass which is increasingly "of colour" and male led. Funnily enough, the same "paraochials are even moving into these areas as they cannot afford where they would have liked to have lived even ten years ago. So we have the grotesquerie of people paying even a million to live adjacent to council /housing association estates or performing a dereliction of Leftist duty by buying up what were ex council houses. And then we have the "older white parents of very young children", again who have money, perform their Leftist duty of "living amongst the "edgy", skewing the area more expensive then fucking off once they realise that little Tabitha will NOT be going to the local secondary school academy with Raekwon, Jaden , Marley and Abdul dem.

I'm not going to lie and people can slag me off. Once the successful separation of the white working class and West Indian working class, both aspirational and having a natural cultural influence on their one another happened in London ( I'd say definitely by 2000), London went to the dogs.

The Cockneys of the East End were the canaries in the coal mine, but nobody paid them any mind whilst the area from Aldgate East to now even Romford , much less up to Ilford as it was in the 1980s, was allowed to be ghettoised out of all recognition in a way that no BLACK population would have allowed to perpetrate.

But London does do a good job of fooling itself that is better than New York and that its population of all stratas has had as much influence on The World in the 20th and 21st century as New Yorkers have.

That's how much we are up our arse as we choke on the pollution and avoid buggies that can house three children at a time.

There was a documentary about a gay guy from upstate New York who was murdered in Vienna and the guys mother said the police there were indifferent to her when she sought their help in finding the killer of her son.

[quote]Tube is crowded, the charge levied against vehicles in zone 1 in the day doesn't do the job of lessening traffic.

The Tube is a rickety old mess. It's a fucking disgrace. A so-called "World City" where most of the busiest Tube stations don't even have proper disabled access yet, or even decent ventilation or facilitates, let alone access where people can travel from airports comfortably with a suitcase without without facing 2000 steps on the 150 year old staircases. It's pretty pathetic in this day and age. The Queen should be ashamed and should be forced to sell a couple of her tiaras to pay for the upgrades.

What's happening with the UK is really very worrying, dirty money, lawlessness and shady mobsters are governing London. The UK will be like little Russia in a few decades, probably sooner.

The Formula 1 heiress Petra Ecclestone said in The Times last weekend that she was decamping from London to LA because if was no longer safe even in Chelsea. It’s weird that you can live in a 80 million pound house but as soon as you step on the street you’re vulnerable. When even billionairesses no longer feel safe you know you’ve got a problem.

I'm so tired of these lists. How about a list of the best cities to defecate in.

r65 New York City, Lincoln Center, Alice Tully Hall. Magnificent facilities.

NYC at least they have widen some sidewalks to accommodate pedestrians but in London, the streets are already so small, can’t expand the sidewalks. And I read that stabbings are increasing.

I like New York because I like knowing where the fuck I am.

London was designed by 62 drunks chasing a chicken.

It doesn't help that the tube shuts down and the cabs run on liquid gold.

I hate these articles where there's no actual list - you have to fucking purchase the list on the Economist website.

Did I miss a link to the actual list?

I couldn't find the complete list either. Just the top ten and the bottom ten.

[quote]Viennese just aren't very fun people. They're kind of stiff and suspicious

I experience the total opposite. Charming and fun people, easy going

I live in Manchester and would never live in London, I've managed to keep my rare visits there down to an average of once every 10 years. Usually to catch a flight.

I think they put Manchester at 36 just annoy Londoners though.

As the Town Hall here is pretty much a copy of The Houses of Parliament I will post a pic of the only relatively unique architectural building we have. The Library built in 1934.

^^ Yes, before anybody says asks it is just an vastly upscaled and adapted version of The Pantheon in Rome.^^

[quote][R65] New York City, Lincoln Center, Alice Tully Hall. Magnificent facilities.

Fuck you, dope. SF is the best place to take a dump in the streets.

r74 Fuck you back, you bum. San Diego got there first.

R48: I was in Vienna for two weeks this past Christmas, loved it very much. But I was wondering what it would be like day in and day out. You’d have to speak German of course. We stayed in the heart of it all: loved Gerstner’s Wine Bar.

Manchester city? It’s a shithole!!!

Vienna is like a smaller version of Paris

Maybe R77 but it is 'more liveable' than London and that was what the survey was about.

You can walk across the City Centre in less than 30 minutes and buy a great house in the suburbs (a couple of miles out of town) for less than £500,000 ($700,000).

r59 Even Nenshi acknowledges that he has been elected and re-elected in spite of racism.

I didn't find Calgary racist but I found it dull and lifeless. I actually see more open racism in Vancouver towards Asians at least. Lot's of angry white people in the lower mainland.

R79, You can do that in Barrow-in-Furness. So what? Manchester wishes it were London but it's just a provincial shithole.

R82 Though it does have many more Gay bars and clubs than London and you don't have to take a cab across town to visit them all.

r81 Yeah, Vancouver's "real estate problems" is just code for "the fucking Chinese". Just a different object of the same racism.

I remember a warming about ATM skimming in Vienna. Perhaps this is no longer an issue and helped Vienna become #1.

R85 My Brother just got skimmed in Sorrento, Italy, luckily it was a 'currency card' which had to be preloaded so they were limited to the funds available on that as you have to top it up.

If he had used a credit card or his usual (UK) bank card they could have taken thousands, as it was they could only get £220 (in Phucket, Thailand weirdly) and the card issuer refunded it within 24 hours.

It can happen anywhere.

The gay village in Manchester has its problems but it's actually surprisingly charming, or was the last time I went several years ago. It's not just a glorified cottaging area either, sex does not really hang over the place like other gay villages I've been to that are built near red light areas or whatever, there are always some really cool people hanging out there. It's kind of unique that it's a relaxing little haven that's separate to the sometimes grim other parts of the city.

[R41]: Nice. If quantities of minority populations being oppressed to point of potential murder by a duly elected Neo-Nazi government is how you decide what is "right," G-d help us all.

I see Perth has dropped out of the top ten for the first time in a while (it was No #7 last year and this year is 14). The city itself actually looks better than it has for many many years, with several decade long developments due for completion this year. The multi billion dollar Elizabeth Quay project is finished with a new Ritz-Carlton on Swan due to open soon, also the similar in scale Northbridge Link project and 1.5 billion West Coast Eagle stadium now completed. We have a new Lord Mayor who is gay friendly and who has done so much to revitalize the city at ground level, many of the old laneways have been reactivated and old buildings beautifully restored. I'm an elder gay now but if I was younger I'd fucking love all the changes that have happened recently.

Fuck Calgary.

1)It’s extremely cold in the winter which lasts 7 months a year.

2) There’s abs nothing to do at nights or on the weekends.

3) Too many racists n rednecks live there.

4) The gay scene is dead

American cities will never make the top because of HEALTH.

[QUOTE] R87 The gay village in Manchester has its problems but it's actually surprisingly charming, or was the last time I went several years ago. It's not just a glorified cottaging area either, sex does not really hang over the place like other gay villages I've been to that are built near red light areas or whatever, there are always some really cool people hanging out there. It's kind of unique that it's a relaxing little haven that's separate to the sometimes grim other parts of the city.

The 'Gay Village' in Manchester was established in one of the worst 'Red Light' districts, Canal St and Bloom street was awash with prostitutes and rent boys in the 1970's and 1980's, several of the bar owners were also involved in prostitution in one way or another. There was even a Brothel called 'Jaclyns' on Bloom St.

That all changed with the 2nd generation of owners and the expansion of 'The Gay Village' from 1990's onwards, It became less viable for the boys and girls and eventually moved to the periphery of the area. With the advent of the web it was pretty much eliminated.

Glad you enjoyed it and felt safe when you visited.

Vienna has too many Muslims. Not good for gays or women.

That's not the only reason R91.

R92 yes thank you, I did. There are some nice restaurants there and some very open and smart, casually friendly clubs. Even though it spans several city blocks, it would be better if it overtook some of the unsavory areas nearby. I saw very few rambunctious assholes in the village, but there was the odd homophobe, also an annoying amount of "Cheshire Lasses" (scantily clad, drunk girls with fake tans and stiletto heels) out on hens nights. Another place that had a hip vibe near by was the Northern Quarter. Those two areas seemed very youthful. I also loved some of the gorgeous rural villages within an hours drive south of Manchester.

R94 Didn’t say it was the only reason

Vienna & Geneva are the two most boring cities I've ever visited.

Calgary is in a deep freeze for about 7 months of the year. I don't consider that "livable"

R22, a place without the leather scene is my kind of place. And what you call “body fascist” is likely my dream location of lots of hot, ripped fitness and aesthetics dudes showing off.

^^ Tom Cruise

[quote]Canal St and Bloom street was awash with prostitutes and rent boys in the 1970's and 1980's, several of the bar owners were also involved in prostitution in one way or another. There was even a Brothel called 'Jaclyns' on Bloom St.

You say this like it's a bad thing.

R100 I think that I was trying to point out that 'The Manchester Gay Village' didn't evolve differently to most other gay scenes.

I was good friends with most of the original bar owners (it only began with 4 places) and still am with the few that are still alive.

I even used to drink with a few of the 'working girls', one that sticks in my mind was a MTF transexual who had a bondage dungeon. The News Of The World eventually exposed her in the early 1980's, to much hilarity.

Nobody really judged each other.

Perth?!!! I’ll give you a few things R89: it’s Munich-level clean, and has some fantastic views and beaches. But it has zero walkability — you need a car to get anywhere; it has a shithouse gay scene (I could only presume anyone good looking had fled to Melbourne or Sydney); it is culture free; it is shockingly expensive for such a seriously isolated place; and for a significant slab of the year it is over 40C! Thanks but no thanks. I’d rather live in Perth, Scotland.

R102 The Perth beaches are very windy if I remember

Perth gets hit by fresh Antarctic currents almost every day during summer, and this is especially noticeable directly on the coast which is why people flock to the beaches. It's like a reverse cycle of the Gulf stream that keeps parts of Scotland from becoming like an iceberg. The very best suburbs around the river are surrounded by hundreds of kms of walking tracks. Claremont, Peppermint Grove, Applecross, Dalkeith, Mosman Park are the wealthiest areas. Fremantle is a port city within a city, it has its own distinct and bohemian arty feel, very liberal now very expensive. Cottesloe, Perth's best beach for eye candy near Fremantle and is where the mining magnates go to sip chardonnay.

Some of the other best and lesser known areas to live are: Mt. Lawley/Highgate (very comfortable historic homes, nice gardens and an easy walk to city, formerly a Jewish suburb now up-market gay ghetto), Leederville (close to city, very upwardly mobile), Subiaco (Near Kings Park, good access to city via new subway), Victoria Park (great cafe strip with fabulous international dining, gay friendly), South Perth (the Mill Point Road/Esplanade area has it's own ferry and easy walk over the river into the city).

Some of the areas to to avoid around Perth: Rockingham and Mandurah (these are coastal villages with high unemployment. Bogans, chavs, road rage... they do have beautiful beaches that will one day be ripe for Gold Coast style development. Mandurah at least has some expensive canal properties ).

Cannington (used to be farmland, is now a 3rd world shithole. Lots of crime. Directly under flight path. Has Perth's largest shopping center Carousel which despite attempts to turn it into something nice, is still a shithole).

Balga and surrounds (large, ex-government housing area, still lots of depravity and crime). Midland (depressing crime ridden area, inbred hicks and bogans). Armadale, Kelmscott, Gosnells (generally rough areas, with a few no-go zones, gangs of wild Aboriginal children looking to bash people). NEVER take public transport at night in those areas!

[quote]Cannngton... third world shithole

I thought the majority of immigration to Perth was working class English, drawn by Neighbours.

The majority are Brits who have given up on their homeland. I have little reason to travel to the English immigrant areas as they are at least an hour/hour and a half from Perth central. But it is a remarkable feeling to travel so far from overseas to get here, I've traveled back forth and I do count my lucky stars I live in a quiet and well healed riverfront suburb that's only minutes from Perth center. Perth is city that's divided (north and south) like two self-contained separate cities (with even smaller cites branching off), they don't overlap much and when I travel into other parts I sometimes feel like I'm in a foreign place.

Melbourne & Sydney don”t belong on this list for numerous reasons. They were great places 20 years ago but have lost much of the character they once had. Bad Governments at the local, state & federal levels saw to that!

How so R108?

I've lived in Osaka and Tokyo. Both are claustrophobic and exhausting places. In no universe are they remotely livable.

R110 In what way exhausting ?

R109 I'm not R108 but I live in Melbourne. It's grown very quickly based mainly on migration from India and China, with infrastructure not keeping up. Lots of cheap dog-box in the sky apartments. It's becoming rather ugly. It never had a good start with natural beauty, but there was a quirkiness. But that quirkiness has been demolished to make way for the third world migrants.

The grass is greener....

Do aussie Bogans and chavs have size meat?

Aussies are from all over Europe, Asia, The Middle East, the Pacific. Go to Caracas if you want sizemeat.

R112 could be describing Toronto as well...

[quote]I live in Melbourne. It never had a good start with natural beauty, but there was a quirkiness.

It definitely had that, and it was perfectly positioned along the southern coastline to develop early enough and become the culture capital. No stunning looks. Hobart is actually the Number 1 capital for breathtaking scenery in Australia. Followed by Sydney. With Perth running a close 3rd.

Sydney has a beautiful harbor. And great beaches.

Any New Zealand residents comment? Some pals of mine just moved to Auckland and they love it there. A mild climate but with some proper heat in summer and snow nearby in winter, wonderful beaches, mountains with thermal springs and forests.

Lisbon should be included. I recently returned from there and it was wonderful. Old and rustic and dirt cheap with not many tourists around. I was surprised what a dump Paris has become - it used to be my favourite city in Europe but now I wouldn't spit on it to stop a fire.

I loved Lisbon as well, but I also have to recommend Porto (it has the Atlantic Ocean and a main river as well as an Old Town).

RE Vienna: For those above claiming that Vienna is not good for Jews, my Jewish friends here all beg to differ. Problems with anti-Semitism are rare around here in the 21st century, and those incidents that there have been in the past decade have all stemmed from the migrants, not the Austrians themselves.

In fact, ironically, the right-wing politicians in Austria have discovered that they love the Jews -- they've all been lining up to visit Israel and pray at the Wailing Wall since the days of Haider, now that they've figured out that defending Jews is a winning, politically-correct argument against Muslim immigration. (Plus, Jews generally don't go around knifing strangers or blowing things up, so they're looking pretty harmless to the average right-winger in the street too.)

And even the weather in Vienna has been improving thanks to global warming.

Vienna is gorgeous!

The museums, the café houses, the delicious food, the charm and friendliness of the people, the amazing old architecture, the pleasant pace of daily life.

Where do cassowaries live? I don’t want to live anywhere near cassowaries.

R123 Don't forget the Kaiser Rolls! Mein Gott, sie sind so lecker!

Vienna is very cold in the winter and extremely expensive.

[quote]Any New Zealand residents comment? Some pals of mine just moved to Auckland and they love it there.

Auckland is very pleasant, if you like living is a subtropical, small English city.

New Zealand is gorgeous, but I wonder if it gets a bit dull to live there. (Although "dull" is looking better and better all the time . . . )

R122 most of antisemitism today coming from the left under the guise of "anti-zionism"

But I thought Vienna was sinking.

Vienna? You mean Venice, I think, r129.

But they're both in Europe, and only about 300 miles apart, so, good effort for an American.

Next up: Austria ≠ Australia.

Fuck you're dumb R129.

My in-laws live in Calgary, and I honestly can't understand how it got in the top 5. It was -40 C and snowing the entire time I was there last Christmas. There's very little to do, except in the summer months, and it's one of the least gay friendly cities in Canada. Wages and the job market are good, but day to day living is incredibly expensive considering the lack of culture and excitement the city provides. Most people who've moved there, including the in-laws, did so because it was where they could get jobs, not out of love for the city.

This is that stupid poll that is based on available parking spaces for businessmen. Would not live in Calgary or Toronto. Vancouver is brain dead and overpriced.

When one thinks of charm and friendliness, one thinks first of Austrians.

London is turning into an open sewer, thanks to the masses of third world garbage people everywhere you look.

If Knightsbridge is an open sewer, I’ll live in the gutter.

Vienna looks great! I’m going to visit next year.

Gay & Lesbian guide to Vienna

[41] If you think that, because Jews are less than 1% of any population, is a fine reason to live somewhere, you should read a few things in the world about how genocide functions. It starts with Jews and then moves on, like a virus, to gays, disabled people, people who aren't white, people who aren't rich, and then: They Come For You. Think on this. Because it happens. ALL THE TIME.

London, Berlin, Zurich

The recent heat wave in Adelaide might be enough to knock it off the most livable top ten. It was 46.5C (115F) in Adelaide CBD recently. 48F (119.5F) in nearby Ceduna.

r119 ah more immigrants. Exactly what we need. There is going to be a terrible xenophobic backlash very very soon unfortunately as most kiwis get completely priced out of owning a home. (It's already happened but NZers are very slow on the uptake). Successive governments have failed to diversify and we are left with two main industries - farming and tourism - equally as destructive as each other. The government is obsessed with bringing in immigrants. Their needs stimulate domestic economic activity. Consistent with this, when immigration numbers are up, interest rates also tend to rise because the increase in the population boosts spending by more – at least in the short-term – than it boosts the available resources in the economy. There’s a short-term sugar rush each time immigration surprises us on the upside. We haven't kept up with infrastructure and the country in many ways is falling apart.

It’s the firms in the non-tradeable sectors who are benefiting most from mass immigration: firms servicing the domestic economy, doing things like developing fast-food franchises and building houses. There’s this really important distinction between the tradeable and non-tradeable sectors. The bit that’s competing with the rest of the world – the tradeable sector, the basis of our long-term prosperity – has been badly affected. We’ve skewed the whole economy towards meeting the domestic needs of the country. Per-capita output in the tradeables sector hasn’t increased for 15 years now.

Immigration drives up house prices. That benefits people holding onto land, and the generation about to sell their houses and retire from Auckland to Te Awamutu... But young people are losing because they can’t get into housing.

Of course, most immigrants are gaining, because if they weren’t they wouldn’t come here – or they’d go home again. What you can’t get directly from the national accounts data is the impact of the immigration policy on New Zealanders. So you have to approach the issue indirectly; there’s just no evidence that in 25 years of this large-scale immigration policy, we’ve had faster per capita growth than other countries. So, if the immigrants are gaining, which they probably are, it suggests those ordinary Kiwis are probably losing. We’re richer than we were 25 years ago, but not as rich as we should be. In fact most people I know in good jobs are struggling. $70,000 a year makes you lower middle class.

None of this is to criticise the immigrants. Far from it. They’re doing sensibly what our ancestors did, pursuing their best opportunities. My criticisms are of the policy-makers, not the immigrants.

R142 Exactly what is happening in Australia (but I believe it is more rampant in New Zealand). Both governments are lazy economic managers and are driven by the pretty shall GDP magic number (and not even the GDP per capita numbers). Rather then developing exporting industries (and I won't call higher education that, it is just a visa factory), the government just inflates the service economy at the expense of amenity, environment and affordability for locals (and that includes the migrants from previous generations that were promised a better life, and their children).

[quote][R33] Osaka is fucking rad. Lived there for five years and would love to go back.

Yeah, I am not quite sure R33 said Osaka is a shithole, everyone I know who has visited the city loves it. I have never been there; I would love to go.