Melbourne #1 again, " a springboard for an Olympic bid"

[Platypus]

Melbourne again tops the world's most liveable city index, a couple of months after coming second to London for world's best sports city. Lord Mayor Doyle says this is a potential springboard to launching a bid to host the Olympics as soon as 2024. Which, of course, won't happen, but it's nice anyway.

Rest of the top ten are freezing EuroTowns or Queen's dominions, with Canada having three in the top 5, Australia 4 in the top ten, and Auckland squeaking in at 10th place. No US cities in the top 25.

[Platypus]

I'd much prefer for us to host the Youth Olympic games and wait until at least 2032 to bid, although realistically our earliest hope is 2040.

[Platypus]

No US cities in the top 25.

Of course not. These lists tend to penalize cities with large non-white/Asian populations.

Which is why half of Canada and Australia are in there...?

It penalises crime, and if crime in America=non whites, that's something your cities need to work on.

[Platypus]

Melbourne is lovely. It will always be my home base. I've lived away and will again - currently starting plans for a couple of years in Chile! - but I know I'll always come home to Melbourne. I can turn on Joy or 774 or Triple J, or the World Service. I can get the world's best coffee in any cafe in town, I CAN GO TO THE FOOTY!, I can walk through any street at 3am without fear, I can have a laugh with Dot on the tram... Dot's a great old lady, I went to school with her granddaughters and am always pleased to spot her on the tram.

In Melbourne, I can head to any of... 600? 1000? 4000 parks? Wherever I live, there's one around the corner, and if I don't like them, the inner city is ringed by some stunners and the outer areas have huge reserves of native bushlands. I got a great, public, education and I'm serviced by great public hospitals. I trust the coppers here more than anywhere I've been...although a copper's a copper... and I see a heritage of great advances in democracy, equality, science, sports, art, MUSIC, infrastructure, business, unionism, multiculturalism, food, so much all around me. I love this city, and I have my reasons!

But, at the end of the day, they're MY reasons. You don't know Dot, you haven't experienced the Domain on a January arvo, you don't love the Western Bulldogs, you've not helped a bogan find her shoes at Flemington, you've not walked into a random cafe in the suburbs and had the best coffee of your life. I can't expect you to love Melbourne. I can't love NYC or London: I've never been to Picadilly, Harlem, Hyde Park, Central Park, Lord's, Yankee Stadium, Brooklyn, or Chelsea. I'd love to visit and fall in love with those cities, and I hope you all visit us and fall in love with Melbourne.

My opinion is that it's the best city for me to live in, because it is the city I live in and have learnt to love. I don't need a ranking to back me up, but if it helps more people learn to love Melbourne, that's very welcome.



You might even discover our ethnic diversity.