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I want to say Australia, but I have yet to visit, so I'll go with what I know and go with USA, though really only on the basis of NYC. UK is an interesting beast, and I like it but not in London. I have no idea why as I love NYC and Tokyo, probably would have liked Hong Kong before the unrest, would have loved to see Kowloon as bad as it was, but whenever I go to London, I just want to get out and go somewhere else like Leeds, Watford, Manchester, etc.
Best I can say is that Camden and Piccadilly Circus really turned me off with the intense crowds of tourists. A lot of what I want to do also doesn't seem to happen in London proper for whatever reason even though those activities lend themselves to urban environments. You never see it that bad in NYC, and only when seeing the Emperor of Japan and going through Harajuku Station during Golden Week have I ever seen it that bad in Tokyo. I also found London overly expensive even coming from NYC, but the pound was a lot stronger back then.
We have an office in Belfast and I usually do a weekend trip up to London after work, so after this virus maybe I'll try again, but I might just get a hotel in Watford or hang with my friends in Manchester. The raves they have up there are amazing.
It isn't that these cities win all of your criteria points and that the others lose the criteria points but you asked which ones "win for you," so it makes it a pretty subjective thing based off of personal preference alone.
For me Australia wins since I would take all three cities there without giving it a second thought. I like cities in the United States as well but those cities aren't a part of this comparison.
Last edited by Trafalgar Law; 04-16-2020 at 05:25 PM..
To live i would take Sydney Melbourne and Brisbane over London, Birmingham and Manchester any day. I am a Dual Australian/UK citizen, and lived in the UK for a number of years.
London is fantastic, if you an ambitious 20 something year old with a good education and no commitments outside of work, but frankly i think it would be terrible once children and family get thrown into the equation (my main reason for leaving).
Yeah, this isn’t really true. Per capita homelessness rates in the US are low, public transportation isn’t terrible relative to Canada or Australia, and universal welfare and healthcare doesn’t impact poverty rate. The OECD ranks the US first for median household income and average disposable income.
This is trope-y, ignorant Anti-Americanism. It’s always “scrutinize and blow up America’s problem’s while minimizing and ignoring everyone else’s.”
It’s not anti-Americanism. I have been to most of the major American cities and I didn’t see myself living there or spending a long timer over there. You wouldn’t find a place like skid row (LA) in Australia, Canada or the UK. SF is a hole, NYC also has a lot of homeless people and it’s sad. Public transport is terrible; nyc subway is crumbling with old trains, run down stations full of rats. Old buses and terrible airports (JFK and LaGuardia) for the largest city in the USA is a joke. Compare the infrastructure in NYC with London, Sydney or Melbourne and their extensive network of well maintained trains, trams, airports. LA is a car city full of horrible highways. Chicago is full of gangs and ghettos. Universal welfare and healthcare does impact on poverty, if someone loses their job in Australia or Canada, there are less chances to steal food because your are hungry or end up as a homeless. Again, NYC and LA are iconic cities but to live there for an average person is a hell, and more in these pandemic times.
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Best I can say is that Camden and Piccadilly Circus really turned me off with the intense crowds of tourists. A lot of what I want to do also doesn't seem to happen in London proper for whatever reason even though those activities lend themselves to urban environments. You never see it that bad in NYC, and only when seeing the Emperor of Japan and going through Harajuku Station during Golden Week have I ever seen it that bad in Tokyo. I also found London overly expensive even coming from NYC, but the pound was a lot stronger back then.
It depends where you go in London, obviously the centre is going to be jam packed, however London has over 3,000 parks, on top of the Royal Parks, heaths and commons as well as garden squares in Central London, and the suburbs are also broken up by green belt. A recent study found that London was 47% green space, and the city has set up it's own green national park and wants to increase green space to over 50%. Parts of London also have a verey village like quality and Lonndon is not a bd city in terms of open space.
I can only suggest on your next trip to London you take a tube train to somewhere like Richmond Park and have a nice long walk whilst watching the herds of deer or go to UN World Heritage sites such as Kew Gardens.
It's also worth noting that London is within easy reach of the south coast and indeed the South of France which is five hours on a train and a relatively short flight away, and many very wealthy people choose to hyave homes in places such as London and NYC.
Manchester and Birmingham are old industrial cities similar to the cities non the US East Coast and they sadly don't have the climate to be ranked as the best cities, although they do have a lot of culture, education and arts, and are fairly close to each other and indeed other regional cities. A recent example is the planned British Library North in Leeds and there are lots of sporting and entertainement venues. The coastline in North West England is also home to a numer of world class gold clubs such as Royal Liverpool Hoylake, Royal Lytham & St Annes Golf Club and Royal Birkdale.
Best I can say is that Camden and Piccadilly Circus really turned me off with the intense crowds of tourists. A lot of what I want to do also doesn't seem to happen in London proper for whatever reason even though those activities lend themselves to urban environments.
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I hope you're checking out places like Hoxton, Brixton, Greenwich, Hampstead, Clapham, London Fields, Angel, Richmond, Kingston and not just sticking to touristy Piccadilly and Camden. Although Camden is good just not on weekends as its jam packed.
I've been to all 4 countries, and actually all the cities on the list except Montreal. This is a tough one.
UK - London is my favorite city in the world, hands down. Birmingham and Manchester are okay, but don't offer quite as much as some of the other cities on the list. If this was country vs country, I'd choose the UK as I'm a Europhile and I can't imagine myself living anywhere else.
Canada - Toronto and Vancouver are fantastic cities. Vancouver especially, seems like a pretty exact mix of London and Seattle. UK row-house style architecture and infrastructure with PNW landscape and people. Maybe it's because I grew up pretty close to Toronto and have been there 100 times, but for me it's just missing something. I can't exactly put my finger on what that is, but I recognize its quality on an international level. I have not been to Montreal, but I like the cultural and linguistic contrast between Quebec and the rest of Canada, which is otherwise quite similar to the USA.
Australia - I've spent a significant time in Brisbane, which reminds me of Miami meets Southern California. Melbourne is one of the hippest cities on the planet, and Sydney has a very San Francisco-esque style about it. I love Australian people, Australian coffee, Australian brunch, and their general way of life, but I can't help but think about how isolated and cut off from the rest of the world I am when I'm down there. That feeling of being on another planet seems to make me feel a bit anxious whenever I'm there.
USA - Each of these three cities offers a wide variety of Architecture, fashion, climate, food, and geography. One simply can't sum up each of these cities' influence on the world in one short paragraph. Would I rather live in these cities than some of the others on the list? No, but from a strictly objective perspective, these three provide, across the board, the most out of any of the three cities on this list, in my opinion.
Ultimately I would still prefer to live in America than Australia, but Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane ARE all better than New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.
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