Mercer's 2012 Quality of Living ranking highlights - Global

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by drewboy12

Parking here (Vancouver) is cheaper though.... and well... Calgary is straight up just boring...

Presumably you'd consider all the costs associated with living. Parking downtown is more in Calgary, but housing is much, much more in Vancouver, which I suspect more than balances it out. Some other things are more in Calgary (goods with a high labour component, like haircuts and restaurant meals) but I bet no PST and/or HST balances that out.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by drewboy12

Parking here (Vancouver) is cheaper though.... and well... Calgary is straight up just boring...

Vancouver has it's pluses but hasn't it been rainy and cloudy for almost a month now in Vancouver with no outlook of change? To me that sucks no matter how nice the scenery is.

[Table 5]

Originally Posted by Ozy_Flame

I've always wondered why Calgary's economy alone doesn't make us leap frog over every other Canadian city in these rankings. There is a #### ton of money to be had in this city for a very high quality of life.

Well for one, not everybody works in the oil and gas sector to enjoy that booming economy, and two, life isn't just about work. What happens outside of work hours is pretty damn important too.

At the end of the day, Calgary is still a relatively small city and just can't compete with a true metropolis in a lot of areas. Not a lot of cutting edge things happen here...wether they be culture, music, shopping, tech, history etc....we're kind of a 2nd/3rd tier kind of place. It's a good place to raise a family, and still get a lot of great stuff....but compared to a lot of places in the world, it's still a bit, uh, podunk?

[Flame Of Liberty]

30+ degrees weather forecast for the weekend (and the summer barely even started), world class beaches at the front door, Vancouver, Vienna or chinooks can eat my new shorts.

[polak]

More to life than just climate and how close you are to the beach...

[Phaneufenstein]

Originally Posted by GoinAllTheWay

Wow...Calgary not even in the top 50 for infrastructure.

Not surprising...

The ######s at city planning have a lot to learn.

Just came back from Houston and wow did their highways and interchanges ever impress me.

[Bill Bumface]

Originally Posted by Flame Of Liberty

30+ degrees weather forecast for the weekend (and the summer barely even started), world class beaches at the front door, Vancouver, Vienna or chinooks can eat my new shorts.

And the best part, no immigrants on the beach, because they're all incarcerated or stay at home all day out of fear!

[Flame Of Liberty]

Originally Posted by hulkrogan

And the best part, no immigrants on the beach, because they're all incarcerated or stay at home all day out of fear!

?

[MrMastodonFarm]

Originally Posted by Flame Of Liberty

30+ degrees weather forecast for the weekend (and the summer barely even started), world class beaches at the front door, Vancouver, Vienna or chinooks can eat my new shorts.

The fact that you had to say they are new shorts is both confusing and amusing. I mean, why?

Originally Posted by Flame Of Liberty

?

Australia is a racist wasteland.

[JD]

Originally Posted by polak

More to life than just climate and how close you are to the beach...

Yup, in the past few years I lived near a beach for the first time in my life. I went exactly zero times. Maybe it's because my life growing up in Calgary conditioned me to not go to the beach?

Originally Posted by Phaneufenstein

Just came back from Houston and wow did their highways and interchanges ever impress me.

Yes, the true mark of a great city.

[MrMastodonFarm]

Originally Posted by drewboy12

Parking here (Vancouver) is cheaper though.... and well... Calgary is straight up just boring...

Straight up yo!

If you can't have fun in Calgary then maybe the boring thing is you?

[BloodFetish]

I think the important fact that everyone is overlooking is that Edmonton did not make top 50 in either list.

[evman150]

Originally Posted by JD

Yup, in the past few years I lived near a beach for the first time in my life. I went exactly zero times. Maybe it's because my life growing up in Calgary conditioned me to not go to the beach?

I've lived my whole life less than four blocks from a beach.

I used to go a lot when I was little, now I pretty much never go.

[Bunk]

Originally Posted by Table 5

Well for one, not everybody works in the oil and gas sector to enjoy that booming economy, and two, life isn't just about work. What happens outside of work hours is pretty damn important too.

At the end of the day, Calgary is still a relatively small city and just can't compete with a true metropolis in a lot of areas. Not a lot of cutting edge things happen here...wether they be culture, music, shopping, tech, history etc....we're kind of a 2nd/3rd tier kind of place. It's a good place to raise a family, and still get a lot of great stuff....but compared to a lot of places in the world, it's still a bit, uh, podunk?

Calgary is most often compared to cities multiple times its size. What Calgary needs to develop as it becomes a true big city is that big city buzz - just more of everything - whether it be streetlife, walkable neighbourhoods, shopping, dining, cultural activity. These things will come both naturally with densification and growth and some deliberate effort on the part of its citizens to create a better, more exciting city. Calgary does pretty well for a city its size and is a really fun place if you really get yourself out there in the community.

On the otherhand, it's hard to find a place on earth where the basics of a good quality of life are better - whether it be health and wellbeing, education, income, infrastructure, recreation, or environmental factors (air, water, ground quality).

[_Q_]

Originally Posted by Phaneufenstein

Not surprising...

The ######s at city planning have a lot to learn.

Just came back from Houston and wow did their highways and interchanges ever impress me.

Houston might have been one of the ugliest cities I have ever been to because of this. That city looks like a grey, concrete, post-apocalyptic wasteland where cars rule the world and all life on earth is destroyed to satisfy the all mighty car.

No thanks.

And yeah, Calgary is nice. I've been to many cities around the world. A lot of them are nicer than Calgary, but I get the feeling that most of them would get pretty blah after living there for a while. While I wouldn't put Calgary as high as some of you would, I think #32 is about right.

[TitovFTW]

Originally Posted by troutman

How is San Fran not #1? Too expensive?

Insane how expensive San Fran is.

[Northendzone]

Ppfft, mercer, what do they know? Calgary has at lest 27% more gangnam style since mercer obtained thier data, we will be higher next year.

[Table 5]

Originally Posted by Bunk

Calgary is most often compared to cities multiple times its size. What Calgary needs to develop as it becomes a true big city is that big city buzz - just more of everything - whether it be streetlife, walkable neighbourhoods, shopping, dining, cultural activity. These things will come both naturally with densification and growth and some deliberate effort on the part of its citizens to create a better, more exciting city. Calgary does pretty well for a city its size and is a really fun place if you really get yourself out there in the community.

On the otherhand, it's hard to find a place on earth where the basics of a good quality of life are better - whether it be health and wellbeing, education, income, infrastructure, recreation, or environmental factors (air, water, ground quality).

Yeah, I don't think it's Calgary's fault that it's missing some of those factors....it's after all still a small city that's growing up. The buzz will grow....it will take decades, but it can only get better. I see a pretty big change in the buzz from the last time I was here. But if you want anything close to a big-city buzz....well, might as well leave right now, because it's going to be a long time before it builds to current Montreal/Toronto levels.

And for sure, I think Calgary (and Canada in general) does a lot of the boring, but fundemental, things in life really well....which in the end are really important of course. It's nice to know that while they might not be perfect, you don't really have to worry about health care or education here. It's never going to be the most interesting or passionate of places, but you'd also be very hard pressed to find a country where all your basics of life are so well covered. I guess that's the trade-off with Canada....you might not always live the most interesting life, but chances are, you're going to lead a pretty safe and long one.

Oh and Vienna, the #1 city on this list, is pretty boring too.

[Flame Of Liberty]

Originally Posted by MrMastodonFarm

The fact that you had to say they are new shorts is both confusing and amusing. I mean, why?


Australia is a racist wasteland.

Because we're not only racists, we are superficial racists, showing up at your local beach wearing last-year fashion gets your ostracised from the sauv-blanc sipping society.

[Flame Of Liberty]

Originally Posted by evman150

I've lived my whole life less than four blocks from a beach.

I used to go a lot when I was little, now I pretty much never go.

Swimming in water that doesn't freeze your balls solid makes a bit of difference too.