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I would never want to live in a very large European city, they all have at least two or three of the following strikes against them:
-Crowded (with locals and/or tourists)
-Petty criminals
-High-density
-Expensive
-Public transportation that is expensive/dirty/unreliable (compared with large Asian cities)
-Bad traffic
-Polluted (too many diesels on the road)
Of that list, London would be my least-favorite. It manages to have ALL of the problems on that list (with the possible exception of #2, it seems safe with cameras everywhere), plus bad weather. And the city gov't's has the SAME solution for every problem it faces - charge a fee! Fee to drive into the city, fee to watch the fireworks, sheesh...they'll put meters on their park benches before long.
I lived in The Hague for a year and a half and grew to love it. It felt more like a large village than a city, with lots of parks, quiet neighborhoods, non-astronomical rent, and crowds/traffic that weren't too bad outside of the very center. I'd be happy to live there, or perhaps in a mid-sized southern European city like Split or Girona.
Last edited by gwarnecke; 01-29-2016 at 11:44 AM..
I would never want to live in a very large European city, they all have at least two or three of the following strikes against them:
-Crowded (with locals and/or tourists)
-Petty criminals
-High-density
-Expensive
-Public transportation that is expensive/dirty/unreliable (compared with large Asian cities)
-Bad traffic
-Polluted (too many diesels on the road)
Of that list, London would be my least-favorite.
I lived in The Hague for a year and a half and grew to love it. It felt more like a large village than a city, with lots of parks, quiet neighborhoods, non-astronomical rent, and crowds/traffic that weren't too bad outside of the very center. I'd be happy to live there, or perhaps in a mid-sized southern European city like Split or Girona.
-Crowded : well, yes, but I think that's great, you can find so many people and so many women -Petty criminals : Huh what? Crime rate is much higher in Houston... -High-density : Well yes, and that's great because you can find everything you need at a walking distance -Expensive : True, most of the time they're expensive -Public transportation that is expensive/dirty/unreliable : Apart from cities such as London and Stockholm they're not that expensive, and I never had to complain about unreliability in Brussels. Paris is quite dirty though. However I doubt Houston has a reliable and clean public transportation it's very car-centric -Bad traffic : Well yes, but you don't need a car to live in a big Euro city, they're a burden more than anything else.
-Polluted (too many diesels on the road) : Not all of them, Paris is quite polluted though. But Houston mustn't be less polluted with all these industrial firms.
Read carefully. I said at least 2-3 of the following, not necessarily all. And I never said that Houston was perfect either.
As for public transportation, I'll admit that some cities at least offered cheap and high-frequency service. London's underground was terrible, it was extremely expensive unless you rode many times a day and hit your daily cap, and there were lots of shutdowns both times that we went. The Netherlands was clean, but my wife took the train to work everyday and constantly complained about the service disruptions. Best cycling infrastructure in the world, though.
Last edited by gwarnecke; 01-29-2016 at 12:06 PM..
Read carefully. I said at least 2-3 of the following, not necessarily all. And I never said that Houston was perfect either.
As for public transportation, I'll admit that some cities at least offered cheap and high-frequency service. London's underground was terrible, it was extremely expensive unless you rode many times a day and hit your daily cap, and there were lots of shutdowns both times that we went. The Netherlands was clean, but my wife took the train to work everyday and constantly complained about the service disruptions. Best cycling infrastructure in the world, though.
Yeah, London's transports are too expensive, I couldn't believe it!*
I would never want to live in a very large European city, they all have at least two or three of the following strikes against them:
-Crowded (with locals and/or tourists)
-Petty criminals
-High-density
-Expensive
-Public transportation that is expensive/dirty/unreliable (compared with large Asian cities)
-Bad traffic
-Polluted (too many diesels on the road)
Of that list, London would be my least-favorite. It manages to have ALL of the problems on that list (with the possible exception of #2, it seems safe with cameras everywhere), plus bad weather. And the city gov't's has the SAME solution for every problem it faces - charge a fee! Fee to drive into the city, fee to watch the fireworks, sheesh...they'll put meters on their park benches before long.
I lived in The Hague for a year and a half and grew to love it. It felt more like a large village than a city, with lots of parks, quiet neighborhoods, non-astronomical rent, and crowds/traffic that weren't too bad outside of the very center. I'd be happy to live there, or perhaps in a mid-sized southern European city like Split or Girona.
London is basically morphing into one massive Monaco full of utopian spas and luxury facilities tailored specifically for the international jetset class. It is definitely possible to live frugally in Central London and have fun at the same time, provided you're meticulously organized, but only in the former context can its appeal be fully understood.
Honestly I didn't feel that way, Downtown Brussels seemed pretty joyful to me when I lived there.
When I first visited Brussels in 2004 I would have agreed with you despite there being snow on the ground. When I returned in 2014 it felt like it had gone downhill a little bit even though it was summer with small crowds of people standing around up to no good (saw a mugging in progress) and increased tagging negatively impacting its appearance. Still like it very much though.
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