World's most liveable cities!

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/04/07/most.livable.cities/index.html?hpt=C1

which one are you moving to?

 

They are only liveable if you have a good job/income. Rents in most of those cities are through the roof, not to mention real estate prices.

 

Ever think there is a reason for that?

 

I can only say Vancouver isn't all that it's made out to be_ think of a corrupt provincial government, corrupt cops(drunk taser-happy Cops -one of them killed a motorcycle rider and fled the scene and claimed he had a drink at home after he fled the scene) ,high crime, high real estate with few well paying jobs centered around lumber and medical fields. It's the only moderate climate in Canada hence you get a lot of old people etc etc It's very racist too even though they claim to be muti cultural but its the great "white" north (read the craigslist to get an idea)


Its great from May to August/sept but rest of the time its pretty grey and depressing, plenty of homeless people, needles on pavements, really bad drivers and no real freeways, Not much to do once you seen the same places over and over again.

When you are visiting it might be different feel for it but I'd take Seattle, San francisco, San Diego, LA, New York, Toronto any day over Vancouver. ( Cities I ve lived in so talking from experience)

 

Define liveable? Ok, wait they tried:
"These surveys look at a wide array of factors ranging from crime rates, health care and transport to encouraging entrepreneurship and the ease of finding supermarkets open late at night."

Hmm. Crime rates and then they list big cities? Supermarkets open late at night - I could care less about that. Encouraging entrepreneurship? Sure, if that's what you want.

Then look at their descriptions - for example Copenhagen:
"Cutting edge design" (looks ugly as heck to me)
"Green credentials" (looks jam packed crowded to me - I bet there's a ton of waste there as well.)
"flourishing art scene" (could really care less).

I'll take my little city in Orange County, CA over any of those in the first place - and I'll throw in most moderate sized mid-west towns in the U.S.

JJacksET4

 

Shit, San Antonio is definitly the spot if you make way over 6 figuers. No state Tax, you can buy a huge home for nothing ( i live in a loft on the RiverWalk)... Property tax is kinda high in the city 2.4% or so. Going out drinking and eating at the fine resturants is cheap as hell. Hop over to Austin for the weekend, Dallas, head to Vegas, its all cheap. SA is a great Jump Off Spot to many cities and flights are cheap. And its in the US. Most the cities in the article wouldn't give you a visa to work. Or good luck trying to trade off most of their 'Digital" lines, with the US markets.


However, if you work for a typical local company, your wages will be real low...which makes SA not such a great place to live. Even though the cost of living is low, it's not cheap in the nice areas.
Thus, You will end up with the mexicans, and lets just say it's like living on the South Side of Chicago, with all the trash people and trash in the streets. If thats the case, it wouldn't be worth it.

Yet, all cities have that element.

 

Must be nice to be one of my favorites George Strait, huh? I guess he lives in a huge home somewhere there. You are right about the houses there - in decent parts of So. Cal, you are lucky to get a starter for $500K.

Property tax tends to be high in all of Texas - I thought 4 or 5% was normal at least in Houston (I visited there once and thought of buying a rental property, but went elsewhere) - I guess it's because there is no State Income tax.

JJacksET4

 

Wouldn't have had Sydney there from Australia.. Melbourne has won world's most livable city 2 years in a row and came 3rd this year.


10 February 2010

Melbourne has once again been named one of the most liveable cities in the world, ranked third in the Economist Intelligence Unit’s (EIU) latest liveability survey, released today.

Australian cities dominated the rankings with four cities inside the top ten. Melbourne remains the most liveable city in Australia with a score of 97.5 out of 100, topping Sydney in seventh place and Perth and Adelaide at equal eighth.

Melbourne was also the highest ranked city in the Asia-Pacific, reinforcing why it is a great place to live and do business in the region.

Vancouver, Canada, home of the Winter Olympics, ranked first and Vienna, Austria came in second place. Toronto (4), Calgary (5), Finland (6) and Auckland (10) rounded out the top ten, while Zimbabwe’s capital Harare was ranked last.

The EIU’s Liveability Ranking, part of the Worldwide Cost of Living Survey, assesses living conditions in 140 cities around the world by assigning a rating across five broad categories of stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education and infrastructure.

Melbourne achieved perfect scores in the areas of healthcare, education and infrastructure, according to the survey.

 

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You'll need to make USD 1/2 million or more a year to have a decent lifestyle in any one of the mentioned cities.

If you have that type of money, get a foreign passport or resident card to open a foreign bank account and IB account to trade from a smaller Coastal Cali. city such as san luis obispo.

I've lived and visited pretty much the entire globe. Very few places on earth have the amenities, infrastructure or weather of California. Yes yes, I know. Some of you are deathly afraid the gubment will find out and tax you or put you in jail ,blah blah blah blah ........ blaaaahhhh.

 

I live in Vancouver and can agree with some of what you mentioned. I love the city, but it's still got problems. Another poster mentioned how expensive the Vancouver is, and I can vouch for that. I read somewhere that relative to income, it's now the most expensive city to live in the world.