Posted on 03/04/2003 9:05:58 AM PST by Texaggie79
LONDON (Reuters) - The Swiss city of Zurich edged out Vancouver, Canada, and the Austrian capital of Vienna to top a quality of life survey published on Monday, with impoverished, war-torn African cities dominating the bottom ranks.
Baghdad, the Iraqi capital where residents are preparing for a possible US-led war, placed 213th of the 215 cities studied.
The study handed the crown to Zurich based on 39 criteria ranging from political, social and economic factors that also included the quality of health, education and transport services.
Zurich, which is surrounded by picturesque scenery, also claimed top spot in last year's survey of cities, commissioned by Mercer Human Resource Consulting.
Vancouver, nestled between mountains and ocean on Canada's Pacific coast, and historic Vienna ranked a joint second, followed by Geneva and Sydney, Australia.
Auckland, Copenhagen, the German cities of Frankfurt and Munich and the Swiss capital, Berne, all tied for fifth spot.
At the other end of the table, Congo's Brazzaville and Bangui in the Central African Republic were judged to have the worst quality of life.
The top-rated city in the United States was San Francisco, which placed 20th, down from 18th last year.
"The gap between cities at the top and bottom of the table is still large," said Slagin Parakatil, a senior researcher at Mercer.
"Economic and political unrest in Africa and Latin America has pushed many cities down in the rankings this year," he said. "It will take time for many of those African cities to recover from such prolonged periods of political and economic turmoil and to re-establish stable, law-enforcing democracies."
In the study, conducted between September and November 2002, New York City was given a base score of 100 for quality of life. It was ranked 44th on the list.
By contrast, Zurich topped the poll with a score of 106.5 and Brazzaville finished at 215 and last with 28.5 points.
Other notable cities included Amsterdam at the 10th spot, Tokyo at 26, London at 39, Los Angeles at 53 and Rome at 66th.
Lower down the table, Athens finished at 79, Istanbul at 91, Rio De Janeiro at 108, Jerusalem at 126, New Delhi at 162 and Havana, Cuba, at 189.
African cities occupied 17 of the bottom 20 spots.
In a related survey, also by Mercer, Luxembourg scored the highest for personal safety, followed closely by Berne, Geneva, Helsinki, Singapore and Zurich.
Milan, Athens and Rome were judged the least safe cities in Western Europe while Washington got the worst safety ranking in the United States.
But lefties always tell us what paradise Havana is under the tuteledge of Uncle Fidel. Surely they are not mistaken. [/sarcasm]
Baghdad was 213th, meaning that the people of the Congo sit in envy of residents of Baghdad.
I can't think of a worse place to live than Baghdad over the weeks to come, can you?
Oh, many places. Like anywhere in Zimbabwe. Baghdad is no picnic, but there are basic services and civil society. As long as you live more than two doors away from anything strategic, the coming bombardment won't even be particularly dangerous. There are probably neighborhoods in the U.S. that are more dangerous and unpleasant than Baghdad's about to become, and even that situation will be temporary, and likely brief.
If there's a siege, of course, all bets are off, but I doubt it will come to that.
WHAT!!!!
We finally passed a law making it illegal to defecate in public and we drop in standing?
So these guys liked SF better when one had the freedom to express himself by defecating on Market St.?
Guess we better recind that one.
But compared to how most of Europe lives, I guess these living conditions are considered good.
San Francisco is not all that big actually, from a population POV. Less then a million. It is of course famous as the focal point of the bay area, but San Jose is larger in this area and San Diego even bigger.
So the selection of cities was based on more then size. I think prestige also had something to do with it.
And just to be clear, inspite of my nickname, I do not live in SF. I chose not to raise my children in that seething cesspool of liberalism, homosexual promotion, incestuous politics, repulican demonizing, street defecation...
Hey! But it is a great place to visit!
Rome 66th! I was there for a while and could walk through the centre at midnight with no worries like in the uk...I SAW NOT ONE DRUNK WHILST i WAS LIVIVNG THERE...really baffles me this survey!
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