It’s a great view from the air but, to understand why Canberra has been named the second best city in the world to live in, it helps if you’re more grounded. Photo: James Coleman.
Don’t tell anyone*, but apparently Canberra has been named the second best city in the world when it comes to quality of life.
Depending on the sort of person you are, the first question would have to be: “What was the best one?”.
It was Grenoble in France. Hands up if you’ve even heard of it, been there and got the snowdome, or just think it sounds like somewhere else.
Apparently it is most famous for its advances in nuclear science. Yep, that makes for a great quality of life.
Or if you’re the other sort of person, your first response could well be: “Duh”. Where else in the world could you live and breathe politics so closely (still debating Hansard-like whether that’s good or bad) or know not to say Manooka?
What a blessing, too, to live in a place that values the new so much over the old. Who needs historic (read 1960s) buildings when you can have those new shiny ones that all look the same. That help you meet new people when you get lost trying to find your place among the other 99 identical apartments in your block. No place to park anything, like a car, but that’s OK because you can aways take the tram pram.
So, it’s OK if you take this study with a grain of salt, preferably chicken salt from that awesome chicken place in, yes, Canberra.
Grenoble as the best? Seriously? Sure, it’s in France and they have such friendly, stylish people – even if they don’t speak our language – but the idea of it having as many nuclear laboratories there as we have potholes here is just a little suss.
Called the Oxford Economic Global Cities Report, the survey based its ranking on how locals saw their country. Indicators included life expectancy, income equality, recreational sites – and Internet speed.
Chances are, if you’ve lived in Canberra for a while, the place works for you. Sort of a have-lanyard, will-stay attitude.
There’s little pollution, people, on a whole, are kind to each other unless they’re referring to or are politicians, and when it comes to complaining about roundabouts, they’re straight into it.
Then it gets a little weird. It says one of Canberra’s main weaknesses was that it experienced more natural disasters. How on earth can we be blamed for that?
Flooding caused because way too many people left their taps running? Wildfires because lightning struck where it wasn’t supposed to? Drought? See flooding.
Apparently the study is based on the well-being of its people. Perhaps it wandered about saying to people “are you being well?”. How else would you respond other than “yes well, thank you” because we are renowned for our niceness – again pollies excepted.
In case you were wondering, here’s the Top 10:
- Grenoble, France
- Canberra, Australia
- Bern, Switzerland
- Bergen, Norway
- Basel, Switzerland
- Luxembourg, Luxembourg
- Reykjavik, Iceland
- Zurich, Switzerland
- Gent, Belgium
- Nantes, France
* We don’t want you tell anyone about Canberra’s ranking because other people, maybe even from Grenoble, will want to move here.
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