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Op-Ed: Portland the only U.S. city on world Top 25 most liveable cities

Portland is a regular contestant in quality of life surveys. The big US cities, however, have been off the map for a while, despite the legendary LA and New York high end homes and glitz. Seems there’s more to life than that.The Monocle 2015 Quality of Life survey is based on things like the cost of living, recycling rates, housing, unemployment, the price of a cup of coffee, and a decent lunch.
According to the Monocle 2015 survey, five countries took up more than half the list. two Japanese, three German, two Spanish, two Swedish, and two Australian cities made the grade.
Quality of life is an interesting, and endlessly arguable, idea, particularly when you live in these cities. Melbourne and Sydney were 5th and 6th respectively. It’s interesting, at a time when Australians are bitching quite sincerely (and continuously) that the cost of living is ridiculous, that we ranked so well.
Melbourne and Sydney also rated 1st and 5th as the Conde Nast’s friendliest cities, and 6th in safest cities. That’s understandable since I now live in Sydney and must have knocked a few places off both ratings, but they also think Melbourne is Australia’s hippest city. Hip replacements, possibly, but not “hip” as in “chic, cool,” etc.
Of course, the perception of quality of life is the issue. If you grew up in a nice place, your standards are higher. Living in an urban chicken coop or a palace is either normal or not. The spiritual metrics are different, depending on your values.
Admittedly, these surveys may not be infallible. It seems that one of the reasons Sydney rated so well was our public swimming pools, so “workers can have a swim during lunch breaks.” Swimming during some Australian lunch breaks can involve saving the rest of the world from a certain amount of alcohol, fearlessly eating a wild kebab, and a healthy respect for sharks. In the public swimming pools, you only have to worry about the bathers, who haven’t yet quite got the knack of biting off passing limbs. (Although God knows, I try.)
Well, there’s always next year.

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Editor-at-Large based in Sydney, Australia.

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