July 24, 2007...2:01 pm

Liveable cities

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A smart person told me that I am suffering from seniority (edit: I am an idiot. It’s senior-itis) at work. I didn’t even know this term existed. But I think it’s true. I almost didn’t come to work today, instead I tried persuading my mom to go shopping with me. Hmph. I was rebuffed. Now I am here and I have done ZERO work. And so I decided to document some of today’s major faffathon.

IHT reports that according to Monocle, Munich ist die beste Stadt, in terms of city liveableness. The remaining 19 are as follows:

#2: Copenhagen
#3: Zurich
#4: Tokyo
#5: Vienna
#6: Helsinki
#7: Sydney
#8: Stockholm
#9: Honolulu
#10: Madrid
#11: Melbourne
#12: Montreal
#13: Barcelona
#14: Kyoto
#15: Vancouver
#16: Auckland
#17: Singapore
#18: Hamburg
#19: Paris
#20: Geneva

The survey puts emphasis on state education, medical care, sunshine, temperatures, wireless connectivity (Munich has about 500 wifi hotspots), tolerance, drinking and shopping, public transport, international and local media, international flight connections and a well-designed airport.

Many US contenders got cut out because of high crime rates. London doesn’t make the cut either because it fails in many of the categories, including “social” (= drinking hours). Haha. There’s an article explaining Monocle’s criteria, entitled Urban Manifesto: Factors that make a city great (also found on IHT, Monocle requires you to be a subscriber. Pity, the magazine looks amazing.).

I have only been to 6 of those cities. Pathetic.

11 Comments

  • 6 for me too. 7 if you count a four-hour stop over. hehe. I don’t think 6 is a bad showing. :)

  • OH yeah I had a stop over in Sydney! hihihiihihi

    Anyway one of my bigger plans involves heavy traveling over the next 5 years

  • i’ve also been to 6 too. 7 if you count a 3-hour stop-over spent in a wheelchair in the smoking lounge (sydney also). agree with sparks on 6 being good showing!!!

  • Really? Ok now I’m curious, what are your cities? Mine are:

    Munich
    Vienna
    Sydney (stop-over only so doesn’t really count!)
    Melbourne
    Barcelona
    Singapore
    Paris

  • mine are:

    tokyo
    helsinki
    sydney (doesn’t count! stop over lang. listing for consistency’s sake)
    vancouver
    auckland
    singapore
    paris

  • I got 7!

    Munich
    Vienna
    Sydney
    Melbourne (and i live here!)
    Barcelona
    Singapore
    Paris

    exactly the same as Chris, except for the stopover part.

    and here Melburnians still keep claiming that Melbourne is the most liveable city… people have got to stop living in the past: that was in 2005!

    btw, what is senior-itis? is it contagious? what are the symptoms?

  • You’re so silly. You went to Madrid too, remember?

  • she beat us!!!!!! hehe. ateng-ate talaga wow. super galeng. senioritis is when you slack off completely senior year, typically of high school, but may be applied to uni as well.

    symptoms include:
    - shirking working
    - comes with getting scrubbed out (i.e. mode of dress)
    - not doing work they’re supposed to do
    - lots of faffing about

    i suppose it may be applied to worklife as well, in that month between when you tendered your resignation and when it actually takes effect?

  • you know, it’s obvious my brain is absent today. what a hideous enumeration. apologies. but you get the idea, right?

  • You’re right!! I did go to Madrid. I thought you did too so I didn’t really bother going through the top 20. Hehe.

    Woohoo! 8 for me!!
    I’m soo good.

  • you know? i’ve just realized what i’ve done. I did count Madrid but then didn’t count Munich!! Just because it wasn’t on the list (coz it was already the title of this post, duh).

    D&I are 2 years old today! Woohoo!

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