Monocle's Top 25 Most Liveable Cities

[Bendrix]

This list pisses me off. Anyone sense a Euro bias? They threw in some Japanese cities, every - off's token Asian/Japanophilia thing.

http://www.monocle.com/sections/edits/Web-Articles/Top-25-Cities/

[JayPee]

Melbourne, Auckland, Honolulu, Sydney, Tokyo, Singapore, Montreal..

You have a point though.. Germany in particular.. Having traveled their extensively, its an amazing country but I would put Melbourne ahead of all German cities (And that's hard to say for a Sydney sider)

[beveridge]

wow. this is the worst list i've ever heard! Why isn't it called Monocle's 25 Most Bike Friendly Cities?

[andreas]

I'm surprised that my very own Sin City is ranked no. 21 ;-)

[ProfMonnitoff]

wow. this is the worst list i've ever heard! Why isn't it called Monocle's 25 Most Bike Friendly Cities?

because fuck commutes

their list is decent for the most part

obviously you can always argue this stuff

[salaryman]

The list is pretty similar to last year's list.

Anyway, overall its good enough. After all, Its not a "best cities in the world" list. If you are talking about places with the most culture/history/edge/entertainment/art Its no contest that the world's major metropolises, NY, London, Paris, LA, Rome, Shanghai, Tokyo, are head and shoulders above everybody else.

This survey is about quality of life--green space, public transportation, service industry, etc. About being "easy to navigate and user friendly"...

With that in mind, the survey is also likely to be more biased to countries with more socialist governments since they normally have decent health care available, typically less crime, etc.

Germany has some of the most underrated cities in Europe, to live, for tourism, whatever, and this list reflects that too.

Still. though fuck places like fukuoka and aukland, they are essentially tier 2 cities anyway... it doesn't matter how good their infrastructure is, they could never compete in terms of entertainment/culture with proper cities. Just don't have enough to offer.

[JayPee]

Only one problem is Auckland.. it's full of Kiwis

No, Auckland is a cool place! I enjoyed it

[Bendrix]

Oh, salaryman's post cleared things up. It's kind of a feel-good list.

[cyberPUNK]

maybe if you read the title of the fucking podcast/article you'd understand the contents a bit better. just a thought.

[Bendrix]

reading the title of the fucking podcast/article, much less listening to it, did not make things clearer. salaryman's post, however, gave this irredeemable list a justification for its existence/methodology which is highly Eurocentric and suspect. it sounds like it was written by a bunch of Germans who attend state subsidized universities and like to buy Japanese toys.

[cyberPUNK]

the title is quality of life survey...meaning it was based on the quality of living. this is what salaryman essentially told you. you failed to understand this the first way through because a) you didn't read the title or you read it and didn't understand what "quality of life" meant.

either way, go fuck yourself.

[Bendrix]

you pooped your pants.

[kiya]

The only US city is Honolulu?

Really?

Have they actually BEEN to Honolulu?

[cyberPUNK]

Haha, yeah that was a bit of a surprise, I haven't heard great things about it. I assume it's because of the weather, beaches, and the low crime rate they pointed out. jmatsu lives in Hawaii right? Maybe he could shed some light on that pick. I would've expected at least San Francisco or Portland though.

[Fuuma]

because fuck commutes

their list is decent for the most part

obviously you can always argue this stuff

+1, a lot of the places mentioned are excellent spots I'd be happy living in. I mean aside from the Swiss cities; WTF!

Some cretins just wanted to see NYV/Paris/Tokyo/London/LA to be confirmed in their megalopolis biases.

[ProfMonnitoff]

people dont know what theyre missing until they live in a city where they can bike to work/school

[Fuuma]

people dont know what theyre missing until they live in a city where they can bike to work/school

I'm not interested anymore in places where you can't walk or bike everywhere you need to go.

[cyberPUNK]

you two are totally right.

[lmaozedong]

i dunno. honolulu might not be a very impressive place but i think the people are generally really happy there and the lifestyle is so laid-back, who wouldn't enjoy it? and like salaryman mentioned, these are feel-good cities more than amazing places to visit or anything.

[salaryman]

I don't know, I know what you mean, but I feel like the label "feel good cities" is kind of condescending. These aren't just nice places, they are cities that are comparatively very easy to live in, and are successful in terms of planning, etc. for a variety of reasons.

Of course, to people who are interested in a particular art scene, or who are in film, etc. it doesn't matter that LA is unwalkable and barely even a city by conventional definition. By the same standard, many people are willing to write off any major problems with NYC just because it is the huge entity that it is. These places are what they are and have opportunities available that you can't find anywhere else, but are not necessarily easy for everyone to live in.

Ultimately, everyone has personal reasons for making a decision about where to live. But this list just highlights places that have a consistently high standard of life and are "liveable" to a wide segment of people. That's probably why places with legit public transportation/places that are easy to navigate dominate the rankings. (Especially Tokyo, even though its the only real metropolis on this list..public transport is on point, service is generally outstanding, and convenience is a priority everywhere.)

And as for Honolulu, I'm pretty sure when the first list came out the monocle editors mentioned that the city does have quite a few problems (public transport isn't great, even crime, whatever) but that it scored so well in other categories like climate, enjoyable green space/outdoor entertainment, and geographic location that it more than makes up for it. Again, personally I wouldn't choose to live there, but I can easily see why many people do.

[Bendrix]

I think these guys forgot to consider Japan's little racism problem. It's okay for Japanese, and white dudes wiling to take some shit, not so much for everyone else.

[DaBestSpoona]

Still. though fuck places like fukuoka and aukland, they are essentially tier 2 cities anyway... it doesn't matter how good their infrastructure is, they could never compete in terms of entertainment/culture with proper cities. Just don't have enough to offer.

Fukuoka and Aukland >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

http://consumerist.com/5313482/top-10-best-places-to-live-in-the-us

[salaryman]

Fukuoka and Aukland >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

http://consumerist.com/5313482/top-10-best-places-to-live-in-the-us

yeah, I just saw that list on the news today...

can't really imagine living in any of those places.

[ProfMonnitoff]

they could have named that list "top 10 whitest cities in america" and i wouldn't have doubted it for a second.

[Fuuma]

I'm not interested anymore in places where you can't walk or bike everywhere you need to go.

Bendrix negged this post with the following comment:

"hipster bike?"

What kind of cunt would bother commenting on my post if they don't know enough about me to know I'd never ride that shit. Next he'll say i'M just a skateboarder!!

[salaryman]

This thread could have been an interesting discussion if the OP would have approached it in a different way...

Also, I kind of take back my hate on Auckland. Been reading more about it, and everyone I know who has been says its really nice and definitely livable...I only visited once when I was younger with boring family so I kind of have a biased view. I still don't think its on the same scale as most of the other places on the list, but it does fit Monocle's criteria.

[Fuuma]

This thread could have been an interesting discussion if the OP would have approached it in a different way...

Also, I kind of take back my hate on Auckland. Been reading more about it, and everyone I know who has been says its really nice and definitely livable...I only visited once when I was younger with boring family so I kind of have a biased view. I still don't think its on the same scale as most of the other places on the list, but it does fit Monocle's criteria.

Maybe but some of the other cities are among the nicest place to live on the planet. I've never set foot in Auckland but I have my doubts.

[DaBestSpoona]

I have family in Auckland, they seem like nice corny people, so I have no interest in enduring a 25 hour plane trip.

[salaryman]

Aren't there quite a few sufu people from Auckland?

come rep your hood.

Give us the sales pitch.

[ProfMonnitoff]

its a good place to take waywt pictures i've heard