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Old 12-08-2011, 03:31 PM
 
15 posts, read 45,671 times
Reputation: 40

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Quote:
Originally Posted by ubringliten View Post

This ranking is pretty legit, way more legit than the stupid Forbes lists.
The ranking is legit, but often misused, for example posted in threads such as this under the implication that the cities at the top are considered simply the "best" cities in the world.

That is not the real purpose of the Mercer rankings. The intended audience are corporate and governmental human resources departments. They use the rankings to calculate things like "hardship allowances" when sending employees to work in other countries, and the key criteria to get a high rating is for the city to be "clean, safe and dull." The list is dominated year after year by Germanic and Scandinavian cities along with Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

For many people, "clean safe and dull" is not the be-all end-all when deciding the best place to be for their career, social/family life, and mental/spiritual/cultural enrichment. For example I consider New York City the most invigorating city on the planet but it falls in at #47 in the Mercer ranking. Oh well.

Here is an interesting and thoughtful article about the shortcomings of city rankings:
City Livability Rankings, and the struggle for the Complete City | Planetizen
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Old 12-08-2011, 03:51 PM
 
Location: San Francisco
330 posts, read 747,771 times
Reputation: 324
Quote:
Originally Posted by urbanist34 View Post
the key criteria to get a high rating is for the city to be "clean, safe and dull."
You use this phrase in quotes as if it were not your words but those of Mercer. This is just false. It takes a simple google search to find out what the ratings are actually based on:

Defining 'Quality of Living'

Clean and safe, sure. Dull? Hardly. Here's one of the criteria:

Recreation
Variety of Restaurants
Theatrical and Musical
Performances
Cinemas
Sport and Leisure Activities
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Old 12-08-2011, 04:07 PM
 
Location: A bit further north than before
1,651 posts, read 3,687,890 times
Reputation: 1465
I think every realizes that wasn't a direct quote, and that "clean, safe and dull" was used in a slightly exaggerated/humorous tone.
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Old 12-11-2011, 08:43 AM
 
1 posts, read 1,408 times
Reputation: 10
People of San Francisco! Do you think this city inspires creativity amongst professionals who work here? How much room is there for entrepreneurship within the city? Im a student from the UK writing a thesis on creatvity in San Fran and would appreciate any feedback! thanks!! =)
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Old 12-11-2011, 11:40 AM
 
Location: Oakland, CA
1,148 posts, read 2,984,668 times
Reputation: 857
Quote:
Originally Posted by pixie_features View Post
People of San Francisco! Do you think this city inspires creativity amongst professionals who work here? How much room is there for entrepreneurship within the city? Im a student from the UK writing a thesis on creatvity in San Fran and would appreciate any feedback! thanks!! =)
Sure, it does. Here are some leads you can follow for specific examples:

TechShop SF

This is a membership based workshop where people can use tools to create inventions. Tinkerers and anyone wanting to just make something whether it be a personal project or a business prototype can find the tools and classes here to make it happen. In fact, the prototype for Square, the rapidly popular mobile payment system created by Twitter founders, was developed here.

Article explaining TechShop and how it helps promote creativity and innovation here

Burning Man

Burning Man is "an experiment in radical self-expression". While the 50k attendees of Burning Man hail from around the world, a good percentage of SF and Bay Area residents regularly attend the annual event. On their roster of famous attendees: the Google guys Larry Page and Sergey Brin, as revealed in the book "The Google Story". The event started on the shores of Ocean Beach in SF back in the 80s. It has since moved to Black Rock desert in Nevada, but there is still very much a presence of Burning Man in the city as they have their headquarters here and you can see people preparing for the event in the weeks and months before, practicing dance moves in the park or building their structures. There are also public art structures around the city that came from burning man such as the large human form structure in Hayes Valley and installations along the embaracero.

Video about Burning Man and art installations made by participants:

here

Other things to check out:

SF Made - non-profit promoting and supporting an ecosystem of local artisanal manufacturing headed up by Mark Dwight, founder of Rickshaw Bags

Last edited by mini_cute; 12-11-2011 at 12:13 PM..
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Old 12-13-2011, 01:06 AM
 
Location: Playa Vista
327 posts, read 765,301 times
Reputation: 322
I enjoy my $900/month 1000 sq. ft. apartment sitting in a gated community with tons of goodies to mess around with inside... I also enjoy hopping in my bmw 7-series to head off to activities around the city and to work every day. Man, I love Texas.

I love SF too. In fact, I'm going back in 2 weeks. My girlfriend is there for school. I wouldn't live there because I know I'd be sacrificing all of my goodies to be couped up in an uncomfortable 200 sq. ft. unit with several maintenance issues.
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Old 12-13-2011, 01:42 AM
 
Location: SF Bay Area
18,965 posts, read 32,487,805 times
Reputation: 13615
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jink View Post
I enjoy my $900/month 1000 sq. ft. apartment sitting in a gated community with tons of goodies to mess around with inside... I also enjoy hopping in my bmw 7-series to head off to activities around the city and to work every day. Man, I love Texas.
Texas: Land of the $30k a year millionaires
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Old 12-13-2011, 11:30 AM
 
12,671 posts, read 23,744,028 times
Reputation: 2665
Quote:
Originally Posted by sav858 View Post
Texas: Land of the $30k a year millionaires
Not everyone has a goal to be a millionaire.
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Old 12-13-2011, 11:33 AM
 
1,027 posts, read 1,941,695 times
Reputation: 551
The Burners... one reason to stay away from SF...there's no creativity or art in SF only pseudo, and if any appears, it will be suffocated.
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Old 12-13-2011, 12:29 PM
 
329 posts, read 1,026,341 times
Reputation: 438
Everyone who bashes SF in this thread is just jealous they don't live here. I'd be pretty bitter too if I had to be stuck in a Dallas cookie-cutter suburb.
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