jamesnixon.com
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Melbourne’s Slipping,
So Let’s Change The Rules.
Melbourne has not been the most livable city in the world since last century.
That’s on the Mercer’s annual survey of the Most Livable City In The World based on 39 factors that never change, and using New York City as a baseline of 100.
It has now slipped to 17th.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World's_Most_Livable_Cities)
But never fail to let the truth get in the way of a good story.
In 2004 The Age used a U.K. Expat lifestyle survey to call us number one.
(http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/02/06/1075854028808.html)
And this year the ABC said we are number three.
(http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/06/09/2592740.htm)
But who are we comparing with? And who is the survey for?
The EIU is a London generated survey advising EXPATS where is the best place to work and live. And sure, if you had been pocketing British pounds all your life, Melbourne would be a great place to live. You’d be as rich as an Aussie Pilot in Saigon.
But it’s the locals that Mercers’ study looks at, (they also have an expat study list but we’ll ignore that for now).
And the Mercers study shows what all Melbournians know. The living is not getting easier. With traffic congested, trains that can’t handle the heat and ongoing water restrictions due to a lack of planning by the most over-governing politicians in the world.
The least the press can do is report the facts correctly. First to seventeenth in a decade. That should be news. And a plan to arrest the decline should be implemented.
16th October 2009
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