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Mercer Quality of Life Study

post #1 of 23
4/6/07 at 6:46am
Thread Starter 
The new Mercer quality of living by city study came out First place is no surprise to me and I ask no questions there What surprises me is that there are so many German cities places above, say, San Francisco, New York, Boston. If I had a choice I would hardly choose Düsseldorf over San Franciso. Do you have any thoughts on that? http://www.mercerhr.com/knowledgecen...FCIIQKMZ0QUJLW
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post #2 of 23
4/6/07 at 9:55am
I didn't see what they judged but my guess is that the level of poverty in american cities is worse than the foriegn ones they studied and that this would skew the results. For example, living in San Francisco is nice but living in the tenderloin is really bad.
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post #3 of 23
4/6/07 at 10:39am
I have no idea how these were scored but I'm sure I'd score them differently. I never take rankings of any kind seriously but they are fun to read sometimes.
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post #4 of 23
4/6/07 at 4:30pm
Top 5 for the Americas are all in Canada.

I note that Hamilton is NOT on the list ...
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post #5 of 23
4/6/07 at 6:25pm
Booyeah, Vancouver in the top 3 yet again
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post #6 of 23
4/6/07 at 6:30pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by muelleran View Post
The new Mercer quality of living by city study came out
First place is no surprise to me and I ask no questions there

What surprises me is that there are so many German cities places above, say, San Francisco, New York, Boston. If I had a choice I would hardly choose Düsseldorf over San Franciso.

Do you have any thoughts on that?

http://www.mercerhr.com/knowledgecen...FCIIQKMZ0QUJLW

have you been to Dusseldorf?
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post #7 of 23
4/6/07 at 10:48pm
Quote:
24 CALGARY Canada 103.6

Is visiting cities or, God forbid, living in them a requirement for these people?
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post #8 of 23
4/6/07 at 11:42pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by persid View Post

Is visiting cities or, God forbid, living in them a requirement for these people?

Well they're right about montreal at least. I used to hate it on principle but I love living here. We've got good tailors, great food (both restaurants and markets), hot women, and it's multicultural. It's also easy to get around in and cheap.
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post #9 of 23
4/6/07 at 11:49pm
I think an Alfa Montreal would be the perfect vehicle then.
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post #10 of 23
4/7/07 at 8:19am
The top five cities in Asia were:



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Auckland (tied for 5th)
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Sydney (tied for 9th)
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Wellington (12th)
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Melbourne (17th)
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Perth (21st)

I didn't know Australia and NZ were in Asia. Ho hum.
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post #11 of 23
4/7/07 at 8:40am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Britalian View Post
The top five cities in Asia were:



*
Auckland (tied for 5th)
*
Sydney (tied for 9th)
*
Wellington (12th)
*
Melbourne (17th)
*
Perth (21st)

I didn't know Australia and NZ were in Asia. Ho hum.

The Chinese want them out, so I guess it counts.......
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post #12 of 23
4/7/07 at 10:25am
I'm getting the feeling that this list represents the least amount of poverty, which ultimately increases the average quality of living scores for these cities relative to other cities. The cities many people might quickly assume are the best also have some of the highest levels of poverty, so that pulls their scores down.

On paper, these cities probably offer very clean, high-value (read: HUGE houses), low crime, places to live, but with that sterility comes boredom and a sort of pre-planned suburbia. I'd rather have some excitement and options and take a bit of grit and grime, isolated crime, and less gigantic place to live (I don't need a 4500sqtf home with 3 acres to be happy).
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post #13 of 23
4/7/07 at 10:32am
Quote:
Originally Posted by briancl View Post
On paper, these cities probably offer very clean, high-value (read: HUGE houses), low crime, places to live, but with that sterility comes boredom and a sort of pre-planned suburbia.
Not true of Vancouver at all. We have a huge problem with homelessness, drug addicition, and panhandling. Housing is unaffordable for almost everyone -- a 400 sq ft condo downtown starts at $300k. A single-family starter house (read:shack) within 15 minutes of downtown will go for $700k. Affordability is nearly as bad as London, SF and NYC when you consider what people in Vancouver make. Quite the opposite of what you described above. The climate here is amazing half the year and absolute shit the other half. I'm still not sure why it makes the top of the lists every year.
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post #14 of 23
4/7/07 at 2:18pm
Quote:
Not true of Vancouver at all. We have a huge problem with homelessness, drug addicition, and panhandling. Housing is unaffordable for almost everyone -- a 400 sq ft condo downtown starts at $300k. A single-family starter house (read:shack) within 15 minutes of downtown will go for $700k. Affordability is nearly as bad as London, SF and NYC when you consider what people in Vancouver make. Quite the opposite of what you described above.
Very true, housing in Vancouver is ridiculous... I don't get it either... but I guess it's a case of 'you don't realize what you've got 'til its gone'... or something like that.
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post #15 of 23
4/10/07 at 2:32pm
That's funny, none of the cities with the highest quality of life were in NA. Not surprising, Americans just know how to make money, and don't know how to live and enjoy life.
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