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David Crow

Connector of dots. Maker of lines. Rider of slopes.

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Best places to live

by davidcrow

Business Week has published it’s list of The World’s Best Places to Live 2008 which is based on Mercer Consulting’s 2008 Quality of Living survey. The survey is a strange set of 39 subjective measures compared to New York City as the baseline.

Mercer has designed an objective way of measuring quality of living for expatriates based on factors that people consider representative of quality of living. Our annual survey is based on detailed assessments and evaluations of 10 key categories and 39 criteria or factors, each having coherent weightings reflecting their relative importance.

The report is aimed at calculating “ fair, consistent expatriate allowances…for transfers to more than 350 cities worldwide”. Generally there was not a huge change year-on-year.

Rank 2008 Rank 2007 City Country
1 1 Zurich Switzerland
2 3 Vienna Austria
2 2 Geneva Switzerland
4 3 Vancouver Canada
5 5 Auckland New Zealand
6 5 Dusseldorf Germany
7 8 Munich Germany
7 7 Franfurt Germany
9 9 Bern Switzerland
10 9 Sydney Australia
11 11 Copenhagen Denmark
12 12 Wellington New Zealand
13 13 Amsterdam Netherlands
14 14 Brussels Belgium
15 15 Toronto Canada
16 16 Berlin Germany
17 17 Melbourne Australia
17 18 Luxembourg Luxembourg
19 18 Ottawa Canada
20 20 Stockholm Sweden

Typically these lists are much more North American focused. They all seem to have a well-thought out logic

Entrepreneur.com Best Cities for Entrepreneurs

  1. Phoenix, Arizona
  2. Charlotte, North Carolina
  3. Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina
  4. Las Vegas, Nevada
  5. Austin, Texas
  6. Washington, D.C.
  7. Memphis, Tennessee
  8. Nashville, Tennessee
  9. Norfolk, Virginia
  10. San Antonio, Texas

Forbes.com Top 10 Up-and-Coming Tech Cities

  1. Columbus, Ohio
  2. Santa Fe, New Mexico
  3. Palm Beach County, Florida
  4. Houston, Texas
  5. Milwaukee, Wisconsin
  6. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
  7. Boise City, Idaho
  8. Iowa City, Iowa
  9. Lake Charles, Louisiana
  10. Yuma, Arizona

Paul Graham argues that Silicon Valley or Boston are the best places for startups. Richard Florida provides a unique look at a variety of different factors, from creative class to innovation and scientist to singles. And he provides a list of the best cities based on the characteristics on the individual.

The New Geography of Work

New-Geography-of-Work

Innovation in a Spiky World

innovation-in-a-spiky-world

 

What do you think? Where is the greatest city for startups in Canada? What can you do to make your city a better place?

Posted on July 30, 2008 Filed Under: Articles, Entrepreneurship, Toronto

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