The best city in the world??

Sorry everyone.......I just couldn't resist posting this! :D

Face it- Melbourne's perfect
October 04 2002

Melbourne has been declared the near-perfect town after being rated the best city in the world to call home.

In a survey of 130 cities, the Economist Intelligence Unit rated Melbourne and Vancouver in Canada as the best cities in the world in which to live, with Perth ranked third and Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide tied in eighth place.

Papua New Guinea's capital Port Moresby was rated the worst.

The London-based EIU assessed the level of hardship for expatriates in the 130 cities, focussing on 12 factors including housing, education, recreational activities and climate.

Not surprisingly, Melbourne's weather prevented it earning a perfect score of zero, with the Victorian capital and Vancouver scoring one point, Perth two and Sydney, Adelaide and Brisbane all on four.

Sydneysiders won't agree, but Melbourne's weather, based on humidity rather than rain and temperature, was adjudged better.

And while Sydney received a near-perfect score in all categories, its high level of violent crime, on a par with New York and London, cost it points.

"Really we found very little wrong with Melbourne, it's just about the perfect city," said Bill Ridgers, editor of the EIU's Cost of Living survey.

"It got a perfect score in every single category we looked at, apart from slight faults in its humidity and the availability of recreational activities, but that's really splitting hairs."

Cities were rated one to five in the 12 categories, with one at 0 per cent meaning there was no hardship and five, at 100 per cent, indicating extreme hardship.

Sydney earned a two for violent crime, the same as New York and London, while Port Moresby scored five.

Melbourne received 1.1 for recreational activities, falling down on the availability of concerts and theatre, while Sydney earned one, but Perth received the lowest score of the five Australian cities surveyed.

The survey was split into three categories with the health and safety section rating the threat of violent crime, the threat posed by terrorism or armed conflict and a health and disease assessment.

Culture and environment looked at the availability of nightclubs, restaurants, sporting events, sporting facilities, theatres, cinemas and concerts, as well as studying climate, levels of corruption and the availability of consumer goods and services.

The infrastructure section ranked transport, housing, education and utilities.

Ridgers said although the survey was based on expats' experiences, the factors were broad enough to apply to locals as well.

London was joint 44th on 13 points along with Hong Kong, Lisbon, Madrid and San Francisco, while New York was 52nd on 16, equal with Dublin.

Canada performed strongly with Toronto equal fourth with Vienna, Geneva and Zurich, while Montreal joined Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide, Copenhagen, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt and Oslo in eighth and Calgary was ranked 16th.

New Zealand cities Auckland and Wellington were both ranked 24th.
 
Economist Intelligence......

Hmmm...there's an interesting contradiction!

Only joking you Economists out there. :)

...........now.......... what was that joke about Economists and changing a lightglobe.........


;)
 
Richard, Richard, Richard........

you said Sydney.........I thought there was a name change about to happen there.........

Broadmeadows North???......that rings a bell......

regards
 
Hi guys,

I've been "lurking" around the new froum for a while and have been prompted to jump in on this post.

Being a Melbourne expat living in Japan currently, I'm curious to find others' views on the EIU's opinion that Sydney had a higher violent crime rate than Melbourne.
Just how dangerous is Sydney ?

Plus here's a twist on the topic.
We'll come back to Oz in a few years, my roots are in Melbourne but after being os for some time and travelling extensively my tandancy to automatically return to "home" Melbourne isn't as strong as it might've been. So here's a challenge :

Can everyone try to convince me of the merits of their home or favourite city ? (how much do you really know about your city ?)
Can you promote it ?
 
Dear Patty,

It really comes down to what is important to you.

.....family?
.....cost of living?
.....entertainment?
.....pollution/environmental concerns?
.....temperature fluctuations?

Family
You will find that for your children family becomes more and more important. It is good to have parents/grandparents who can babysit kids etc etc and times like Christmas is important to spend with the family. At times like this being in another city increases the cost of transportation and makes less get-togethers happen. Family is the one thing that you can't change.

Cost of living
Brisbane is much cheaper than Sydney/Melbourne in the way of petrol and for food. Also it is much cheaper for property comparatively. (Perth and Adelaide are also much cheaper on the property side.) Sydney and Melbourne I believe have much similar property prices.

Entertainment
Sydney and Melbourne are much better on the night-life side. I received many comments from Japanese/Korean friends on how boring the night-life was in suburban Brisbane. However it comes down to whether this is important to you. If not it doesn't make much difference.

Pollution/Environmental Concerns.
Overall Australia is a very unpolluted place. However in my last years in Sydney I did notice that there was a gradual increase in the amount of air pollution there. A symptom of a growing city. With Brisbane I have not found this pollution problem yet.

Temperature Fluctuations
You will find that Sydney is the best city with regards to having a good year-round temperature. Summer in Sydney is quite pleasant. With Brisbane I have found that a Christmas Summer is too hot. On Melbourne it is reknowned for having the "Four seasons in one day" reputation making it difficult to work out what to wear each day. Also I am not one for paying for central heating.

I have spent many years living in Brisbane, Sydney with a good amount of time in Seoul and some in LA.

On the crime side I have not come across big crime activity in either Brisbane or Sydney. Maybe someone else would like to give input in this area. However crime does seem to proprogate itself in certain areas and if you take basic precautions, (Ladies not being by themselves in certain areas late at night etc.) then I don't believe there is much of a problem.

Hope it is of some help on your journey Patty.

Cheers,

Sunstone.
 
Wasn't Hobart just voted 7 th best place to live or visit or something? It is the only capital city in the country where you can buy a house a few k's out of town for 250k.
 
Then you probably won't like Melbourne because all my Canadian friends say the 2 cities are very similar.

Melbourne is pretty good - certainly doesn't have the serious homelessness problem that vancouver does (or certainly had)... it's always nice to take 3 steps without being begged for money
 
Melbourne is pretty good - certainly doesn't have the serious homelessness problem that vancouver does (or certainly had)... it's always nice to take 3 steps without being begged for money

Yes Melbourne is a great city and everyone I meet overseas tells me it's their favourite Australian city because of the nightlife, arts, culture, live music, sporting events, shopping and great restaurants. I've never been to Vancouver but heard it was geographically similar.
 
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