Most Livable Cities

robmatic

ruggedtoast wrote: »

Persistent civil unrest. Police tear gassing innocent business visitors sitting off Istiklal trying to sink a Peroni and munch on a falafel (or me in April). Limited public transport for a city of that size and a schoo and university system which is struggling to cope with the numbers of students from the growing population.

Exactly... doesn't sound too dissimilar to London!

(I meant it should be on the wider list, with Cairo and Kiev, not in the top 10).

purch

robmatic wrote: »

Exactly... doesn't sound too dissimilar to London!

And a large costly Olympic Stadium which they desperately try to find a use for........mainly by subsidising their Football clubs to use it.

Of course they didn't even use it FOR an Olympics, but they built it none the less.

tincans

purch wrote: »

Toronto is boring.........but Vancouver is great.

Any city where you can ski in the morning, and swim in the sea in the afternoon has to be a great place to live.

And the other great thing about living in BC is that the accent isn't anywhere near as annoying as the Canadian accent is the East/Central part.

Swimming in the sea in most of British Columbia is a bit like taking a dip in the North sea off Aberdeen. Its brutally cold - it makes sheltered Devon beaches seem like the Maldives.

sparrer

Generali wrote: »

A Northerner...neither happy nor influential. Poor sod.
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Speaking only of UK, My DS and his family live in the north west, in one of the ten happiest cities in the UK. Having spend several holidays with them I can confirm that, and even if it is a few degrees colder up there the warmth of the people more than makes up for it.

And kabayiri I love the Northern sense of humour

In_For_A_Penny_2

Generali wrote: »

http://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2014/08/daily-chart-13

Calgary?? Its full of wannabe cowboys. Weird place.

BigAunty

I was really impressed with Nice, though I only stayed there for a week as a visitor so I couldn't tell you about crime, employment or property rental prices that are factors in whether a city is more habitable or not.

I did see some ads for studios in nice areas of Nice for around 500-600 euros a month (about £400-470 a month that tended to include some bills). This means they are perhaps half the cost of equivalent properties in London where the residents also get clobbered with council tax.

Good transport links - small tram network, lots of buses (1.5 euros a journey) and a comprehensive train service along the south coast with quick and cheap links to Antibes, Cannes, Monaco, not the cattle trucks of London and its eye watering fares.

It had great parks with lots of play areas for kids, a lovely old town packed with delis, cafes and bars, a long promenade of around 3 miles popular with joggers, cheap bike hire (euro a day for public self service 'Velo Bleu' system or free for under an hour), electric cars for public hire, some public beaches, good shopping facilities including a pedestrianised main street. Good climate (April til Oct anyway).

There were loads of homeless folks and beggars though, quite a few obvious street drinkers, which is quite common to cities, tourist places and coastal resorts, no surprises there, but they tended to be passive types sitting on the street with a cup rather than aggressive in your face types.

Only a couple of Roma types doing the babe in arms thing which I put down to the contributory nature of their benefit system, though happy to be corrected on this.

It was a city that I found to have a nice vibe, good layout and infrastructure, largely uncrowded despite the tourist season. Service in shops and cafes was much more efficient and friendlier than my experiences in other french cities.

I loved it.