Quality of life - best city to live in

[Monique]

215 cities were investigated to see which one is the best to live in, well: Calgary, Canada apparently :) right above Honolulu and Helsinki :)

Amsterdam is on no. 10, like last year (traffic is the big stumble block.. tell me about it :P) Athene is the most unhealthy city of Western Europe.

 

[zoobyshoe]

How did they rate San Diego?

 

[null]

Originally posted by Monique
215 cities were investigated to see which one is the best to live in, well: Calgary, Canada apparently :) right above Honolulu and Helsinki :)

Seriously Calgary ?!? It's a nice city eh but I wouldn't rate it the top in Canada let alone the world. Besides traffic what factors did they base the investigation on?

 

[Monique]

Mercer Human Recource Consulting did the research, called 'Quality of Life'.. some information might be available on the web? I guess it will be hard to find.

 

[ShawnD]

Don't be bashing cow town (Calgary). That's a really nice city. There are nice cars are nice bikes (racing style) everywhere. Traffic is pretty good because the the city has good freeways and an excellent train system. The view from the hills in the northern part of town is just excellent (my uncle owns a house in the hills). The economy there is booming and it's less than an hour drive to the mountains. I would love to live there.

 

[Monique]

apparently

 

[Mr. Robin Parsons]

Calgary, heck! I lived there for near enough two years (22 months) beautiful vista's of the Rocky Mountains (so long as no weather blocking it) transit by rail, and bus, (90 minutes, any direction, timed) nice people too...

Lotsa work there too, boomin!

 

[KLscilevothma]

How about Hong Kong ? Not even on the list, right? I'm sure Hong Kong isn't the best place to live in. It's quite expensive to buy a good and big house here, living environment is quite crowded and the air quality isn't very good. However, it's really convenient to buy things that you want.

 

[null]

Originally posted by ShawnD
Don't be bashing cow town (Calgary). That's a really nice city. There are nice cars are nice bikes (racing style) everywhere. Traffic is pretty good because the the city has good freeways and an excellent train system. The view from the hills in the northern part of town is just excellent (my uncle owns a house in the hills). The economy there is booming and it's less than an hour drive to the mountains. I would love to live there.

Hey now settle down there cowboy, there was no cow town bashing intended I said that Calgary is a nice city. I've spent a fair amount of time their myself. Everyone just has varying opinions on what constitues a top city.

By the way if your into blues (and at least 18) next time you're in Calgary you should go check out my favourite blues dive, the 'King Eddy' if you haven't allready. Its in a kinda sketchy neighbourhood you might think your going to get mugged and looks pretty seedy from the outside (not a good sell so far) but everytime I've been there, there has been just amazing blues musicians. It's great because you get a totally diverse crowd and everyone is just got a good vibe because they are so into the awesome music .

Anyway yup a good city, yup its gone through a huge economic boom (that fell a bit last year) but there are many other cities that are just amazing in Canada (also with noteworthy economical growth of late) and all over the World.

 

[Njorl]

My favorite thing about Calgary is the name of their hockey team, The Flames. They are named to commemorate General Sherman's burning of Atlanta in the American Civil War.

Njorl

 

[motai]

My town isn't that bad, except that the population explodes in the winter. Makes for some interesting traffic.

 

[megashawn]

well, going on the quality of life idea, I wouldn't think any city would be very good. But I'm biased for I like the country. I like to be able to go out back, jump on my dirt bike, ride for 30 minutes and be at a grocery store. I also enjoy walking outside in my pj's at 3 am and no one around to complain.

Every large city I've ever been to/lived in was to congested and not enough mud.

 

[rattis]

I would say that countryside life is better than any city

 

[Njorl]

Originally posted by rattis
I would say that countryside life is better than any city

Then this is the place to be...

http://www.maggiore.net/greenacres/gatheme.asp

Njorl

 

[Monique]

oh sure, it will probably take 7 yrs on a waiting list before an apartment becomes available in Amsterdam. Students have to resort to cracking abandoned (office)buildings, which they claim as their residency. The moment of actually breaking the lock of a building is illegal, but once you replace it with your own you are free to live there until the MP kicks you out with waterhoses

But the crowding is fun! I don't like living in the US because of the diluteness..

 

[Dreamer]

Each year, various organizations come up with their "The X Best Places to Live" lists, and while there are some perennial favorites, many times the criteria are changed to reflect a national mood and some very strange places are chosen as the "best" places.

The best place to live is the place that best suits each person's tastes and desires...we are hardly homogeneous enough to engender a legitimate "best" list!

That said, of course I live in the REAL "best place" and those who don't agree are sadly deluded.

 

[Mr. Robin Parsons]

Personally I think that the best place to live is planet earth...but I could be wrong...

 

[plus]

Originally posted by Monique
oh sure, it will probably take 7 yrs on a waiting list before an apartment becomes available in Amsterdam. Students have to resort to cracking abandoned (office)buildings, which they claim as their residency. The moment of actually breaking the lock of a building is illegal, but once you replace it with your own you are free to live there until the MP kicks you out with waterhoses

But the crowding is fun! I don't like living in the US because of the diluteness..

What actually makes this crowding fun? I think that having a garden and a detached house is better than living in an apartment block with people you have never spoken to before.
There is far too much crime in amsterdam, even after allowing for all of the bad things which the dutch have made legal - the police are too reticent to act to protect the public.

I thought that the squatting laws were only valid if the building had been unused for 6 months? (obviously an office does not come into this category)

 

[Monique]

Far too much crime in Amsterdam? lol, doesn't every large city have crime? There is nothing about Amsterdam that make it particularly outstanding in anyway. OK, maybe some of the suburbs which house all the wrong people, but those are exceptions. I've walked around plenty, used the subways at night, sat on the trainstations, never felt intimidated.

As for the detached houses vs apartment blocks. That's a rule for the whole country, detached houses are not common, row houses are the rule.

I've been to LA for instance, the fact that all the houses stand on their own spreading forever in the horizon made it look a very boring and dilute place to me, you have to drive forever to get somewhere..

 

[Kerrie]

if you like books, quality retro secondhand shops, coffee (not starbucks), and a very bicycle friendly city, consider portland oregon! a couple of years ago we ranked in the top 10 safest cities, and if you like the liberal progressive types, they flock here.

 

[Dagenais]

215 cities were investigated to see which one is the best to live in, well: Calgary, Canada apparently :) right above Honolulu and Helsinki :)

Calgary is top for economics but the best is probably Vancouver, which has been voted as #1.

On another contest, Washington state was voted 2nd best in USA.

CBC viewers gives the best Canadian city to Halifax:

http://www.cbc.ca/sunday/toptencities/viewer.html

CBC's own panel awards it to Vancouver, which is where I spent the majority of my life (which is like, a bit over 10 years):

http://www.cbc.ca/sunday/toptencities/experts.html