{"id":3530,"date":"2009-06-21T22:01:34","date_gmt":"2009-06-21T22:01:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zmetro.com\/?p=3530"},"modified":"2009-06-21T22:01:34","modified_gmt":"2009-06-21T22:01:34","slug":"the_city_of_you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/?p=3530","title":{"rendered":"The City of Your Dreams"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tyler Brule<\/a>: <\/p>\n

\u201cCould you live here?\u201d and \u201cwould you live here?\u201d are two of the most common questions colleagues ask each other at the end of a business trip. Responses rarely take the form of a shrugged \u201cI don\u2019t know\u201d or a half-hearted \u201cI guess so\u201d. Rather, they typically come in vehement declarations suggesting that considerable thought has gone into the topic already. Here are a few I\u2019ve heard over the years:


\nOn the train to Chicago\u2019s O\u2019Hare: \u201cNo way. It\u2019s neither one thing nor the other and just look at this sad excuse of a train to the airport.\u201d
\n


\nIn a cab to Vancouver International Airport: \u201cDefinitely not for me \u2013 seems a bit sleepy and limp.\u201d
\n


\nIn a big Mercedes en route to Hong Kong\u2019s Chek Lap Kok: \u201cI could do it for a short stint but it wouldn\u2019t be for the quality of life.\u201d
\n


\nHitching a ride with an associate to Geneva\u2019s Cointrin: \u201cIf I could get a great flat close to the lake and move my five closest friends, then it would be amazing.\u201d
\n


\nBeing taxied to Fukuoka airport: \u201cIf I wanted the best of Japan but also great connections to the rest of Asia then it would be my first choice.\u201d
\n


\nAssessing quality of life is a difficult business and, as a result, surveys on the subject throw up different results.
\n


\nThe Economist Intelligence Unit\u2019s liveability ranking<\/a>, released this past Monday, put Vancouver, Canada, in the top spot out of 140 world cities, followed by Vienna.
\n


\nCanada, Australia and Switzerland dominated the rest of the top 10, with Melbourne in third place, Toronto in fourth, Calgary and Perth tied for fifth\/sixth, Geneva in eighth and Z\u00fcrich and Sydney tied for ninth\/10th. Helsinki was seventh, while London was 51st, behind Manchester at 46th. Asia\u2019s best city was Osaka, Japan, at 13th, while the top US spot was Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania at 29th.
\n


\nMercer\u2019s quality of living survey, released in April and covering 215 cities, was led by Vienna, followed by Z\u00fcrich, Geneva, Vancouver and Auckland. Singapore was the most liveable Asian locale in 26th place, Honolulu was best in the US at 29th and London was the highest UK scorer at 38th.
\n


\nThere are similarities between these lists and Monocle\u2019s and the reason is simple. According to Jon Copestake, editor of the EIU report, cities that score best tend to be mid-sized, in developed countries, offering culture and recreation but without the crime or infrastructure problems seen in places with larger populations.
\n


\nMost of us tend to play some version of the game every time we travel and, while some quickly conclude they wouldn\u2019t trade their current set-up for anywhere else in the world, I\u2019d argue there are considerably more who are tempted to give up their current address for a place that promises better housing, worklife, transport, schools, restaurants, weather, shopping and weekend pursuits.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tyler Brule<\/a>: <\/p>\n

\u201cCould you live here?\u201d and \u201cwould you live here?\u201d are two of the most common questions colleagues ask each other at the end of a business trip. Responses rarely take the form of a shrugged \u201cI don\u2019t know\u201d or a half-hearted \u201cI guess so\u201d. Rather, they typically come in vehement declarations suggesting that considerable thought has gone into the topic already. Here are a few I\u2019ve heard over the years:


\nOn the train to Chicago\u2019s O\u2019Hare: \u201cNo way. It\u2019s neither one thing nor the other and just look at this sad excuse of a train to the airport.\u201d
\n


\nIn a cab to Vancouver International Airport: \u201cDefinitely not for me \u2013 seems a bit sleepy and limp.\u201d
\n


\nIn a big Mercedes en route to Hong Kong\u2019s Chek Lap Kok: \u201cI could do it for a short stint but it wouldn\u2019t be for the quality of life.\u201d
\n


\nHitching a ride with an associate to Geneva\u2019s Cointrin: \u201cIf I could get a great flat close to the lake and move my five closest friends, then it would be amazing.\u201d
\n


\nBeing taxied to Fukuoka airport: \u201cIf I wanted the best of Japan but also great connections to the rest of Asia then it would be my first choice.\u201d
\n


\nAssessing quality of life is a difficult business and, as a result, surveys on the subject throw up different results.
\n


\nThe Economist Intelligence Unit\u2019s liveability ranking<\/a>, released this past Monday, put Vancouver, Canada, in the top spot out of 140 world cities, followed by Vienna.
\n


\nCanada, Australia and Switzerland dominated the rest of the top 10, with Melbourne in third place, Toronto in fourth, Calgary and Perth tied for fifth\/sixth, Geneva in eighth and Z\u00fcrich and Sydney tied for ninth\/10th. Helsinki was seventh, while London was 51st, behind Manchester at 46th. Asia\u2019s best city was Osaka, Japan, at 13th, while the top US spot was Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania at 29th.
\n


\nMercer\u2019s quality of living survey, released in April and covering 215 cities, was led by Vienna, followed by Z\u00fcrich, Geneva, Vancouver and Auckland. Singapore was the most liveable Asian locale in 26th place, Honolulu was best in the US at 29th and London was the highest UK scorer at 38th.
\n


\nThere are similarities between these lists and Monocle\u2019s and the reason is simple. According to Jon Copestake, editor of the EIU report, cities that score best tend to be mid-sized, in developed countries, offering culture and recreation but without the crime or infrastructure problems seen in places with larger populations.
\n


\nMost of us tend to play some version of the game every time we travel and, while some quickly conclude they wouldn\u2019t trade their current set-up for anywhere else in the world, I\u2019d argue there are considerably more who are tempted to give up their current address for a place that promises better housing, worklife, transport, schools, restaurants, weather, shopping and weekend pursuits.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,21,24,41,12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3530"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3530"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3530\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}