Mercer Human Resources has released its latest list of Top 50 Global Cities for Quality of Living. Once again, the work serves as an eye-opener for we Americans. While the Canadian cites of Vancouver, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Calgary all rank among the leading 25 cities, no American city appears until Honolulu (27), San Francisco (28) and Boston (38). Ottawa is lovely, yes, but there are few cities anywhere that can rival San Francisco or Paris.
Still, we Americans must marvel at a world around us that is bristling with energy, culture and opportunity. Regrettably, so few of us ever experience it. Indeed, only 25 percent of Americans have ever applied for a passport (workpermit.com, March 19). It would seem that global travel joins quality relationships with diverse people, engaging conversation, community service, fine art, quality music and good books framed in intellectual curiosity, spirituality, humility and humor as pillars of an examined life.
I love so many of the cites on this list and lived in several of them - Boston, Stockholm (20) and New York (48). One wonders what our urban policymakers can learn from places like Zurich (1), Geneva (2) or Bern (9), Switzerland; Auckland (5) and Wellington (12), NZ; and Dusseldorf (6), Frankfurt (7), Munich (8) and Berlin (16).
More from Mercer at:
http://www.mercerhr.com/knowledgecenter/reportsummary.jhtml/dynamic/idContent/1128060
Post script - It is dizzying to realize that the 25th anniversary of the Falklands War is upon us. I recall happening upon a somber 10th anniversary commemoration just outside the Cinco de Mayo Plaza in Buenos Aires, another wonderful city that did not, however, find its place on Mercer's Top 50. My sleeper choice from South America would be Montevideo.
Still, we Americans must marvel at a world around us that is bristling with energy, culture and opportunity. Regrettably, so few of us ever experience it. Indeed, only 25 percent of Americans have ever applied for a passport (workpermit.com, March 19). It would seem that global travel joins quality relationships with diverse people, engaging conversation, community service, fine art, quality music and good books framed in intellectual curiosity, spirituality, humility and humor as pillars of an examined life.
I love so many of the cites on this list and lived in several of them - Boston, Stockholm (20) and New York (48). One wonders what our urban policymakers can learn from places like Zurich (1), Geneva (2) or Bern (9), Switzerland; Auckland (5) and Wellington (12), NZ; and Dusseldorf (6), Frankfurt (7), Munich (8) and Berlin (16).
More from Mercer at:
http://www.mercerhr.com/knowledgecenter/reportsummary.jhtml/dynamic/idContent/1128060
Post script - It is dizzying to realize that the 25th anniversary of the Falklands War is upon us. I recall happening upon a somber 10th anniversary commemoration just outside the Cinco de Mayo Plaza in Buenos Aires, another wonderful city that did not, however, find its place on Mercer's Top 50. My sleeper choice from South America would be Montevideo.