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We invite our readers to debate the issues and personalities discussed in articles published by City Mayors. We also welcome suggestions on how our coverage of cities and their people could be improved and extended. Praise us. Criticise us. Write for us.Below we publish a cross-sections of recent and pertinent comments by City Mayors readers. If you wish to join our worldwide dialogue on urban affairs, then please post your views, comments or suggestions using our online form.
Topics on this page:
| Love Parade tragedy | Expensive cities | Best cities | Hydrofracking | Rightsizing cities | Best cities | Largest cities | Mexico's de facto powers | Mayor of Doncaster | Tea Party Patriots | Code of Ethics | Richest cities | Urban poor | Southampton City Hall | Great Lakes | Transport India |
COMMENTS
Love Parade tragedy
From Gerard Urbanozo, PeopleBrowsr Inc, Sydney Australia: The Love Parade tragedy is definitely something that could have been avoided only if the organizers were keen on their crowd control plans/ strategies. This event has been going on for several years and so far the event has been running without a hitch.
What went wrong this year? Is it the change of venue? Or was the crowd rowdier than the previous years? At any rate, whatever change implemented, this should not have happened. Memorials are now being offered to those who died. Germany and other countries are in mourning because of lives lost. What‚s sad is that these people went to the Love Parade to show their love for music and for life. It is such an unfortunate event!
I, with my team at PeopleBrowsr have come up with a similar report representing sentiments of the general public on different issues, topics and interests. Visit www.peoplebrowsr.com for more information. Posted 2 August 2010
Most expensive cities
From John, Toronto, Canada: Although the cost of living surveys are a rough guideline for companies seeking to relocate employees, these surveys are seriously flawed and in my opinion are not a true indication of the cost of day-to-day living. Some cities on the list make sense but other simply don't. Posted 20 July 2010
Best cities
From Professor H Murakami, Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto, Japan: The result of this reseach is interesting and correspond to my observations and experiences. I am not satisfied that my fovorite city Kyoto (as big as Kobe) is not included. This historical, cultural an high-tech city comes normally among the best five in our domestic similar researches.
Economic attractiveness and quality of life are quite different matters, which many readers would suggest. In Japan many people seem to prefer Kobe to Tokyo as a place to live or visit. So it would be more inforamative to show the result sorted in several factors. Or at least the data can be categorized in the economy, the amanity for visiters and the life for local residents. Or one can separate between big and middle-sized cities. I feel often uncomfortable in Tokyo, but must admit that this city has achieved very great improvement in transportation and parks etc. as a congested super- metropolice. And the amenity of the metropolice London is still more impressive! Posted 26 July 2010
From Danita, Munich, Germany: Please also include in your measurement parameters a Boring Index, Foreigners Non-assimilation & Integration Index, Shop working hours Index (just to be Practical, Pragmatical), client service policies efficiency index (restaurants, governmental buildings), Bureaucracy Index, etc. Then, we will compare your overall happiness and satisfaction regarding to living in a city and I will have my own winner: Toronto, Canada. Tolerance, respect, honesty, alcohol restriction on the streets; can you please consider these factors too? Thanks. Posted 23 July 2010
From James D, Edinburgh, UK: In Reply to David's comment, I disagree with the notion that Paris, New York, etc, are better cities than Bern, Luxembourg, Geneva, Zurich, Vienna, etc. As an extensive traveller of Europe and US, I totally agree with the Mercer survey. These top ranking classy cities are streets ahead of Paris, New York, etc. It is not surprising either that no USA city features in the Top 30. Mercer use wide ranging criteria in their surveys. It is best city to Live in, not a survey for popular weekend break cities. Nor is it a survey of popular low-cost-flight holiday destinations. Posted 1 July 2010
From David J, Brighton, UK: Read the message boards across the media and there is a hot debate as to how places like Bern and Luxembourg manage to rate more highly than Barcelona or Paris, or why no city from the USA features in the top 30 and - even more controversially - only two Asian cities feature in the top 40.
The great difficulty of such surveys is that different people would use different criteria for what constitutes 'Quality of Life'. Although Mercer have gone to great lengths to try to be objective, (and claims that it is objective) the very choice and weighting of criteria is, of itself, a very subjective business.
Perhaps the Mercer project might equally be entitled 'the best governed cities', since items like public services, crime and public transportation links rank so highly. Had 'governance' been chosen in the title, I suspect many commentators would have been less worried. Issues such as the ethnic diversity of the city and the climate are critical factors for many people's quality of life (for good or bad).
Of course, the Index is designed to be used by organisations posting people around the world. Even so, the idea that the average person would prefer to be posted to Bern or Dusseldorf (ranked 6) over Paris, New York, Hong Kong or London, will seem to many as a little odd...Posted 30 May 2010
From Kenneth J E, Annan, Scotland: The City of Edinburgh in the UK is consistently voted in a cross section of polls as being the most desirable place to stay in the UK yet the city was omitted from your poll completely. The omission was even commented on UK's national radio BBC2. Has your organisation got something against this most beautiful city? Posted 28 May 2010
From Citizen, Madrid: I´ve been living in both, Barcelona and Madrid, and I really believe that Madrid has by FAR much better quality of life than BCN. Posted 28 May 2010
From David S, Birmingham, UK: I am surprised Birmingham is left out as there are numerous parks in the city including Sutton Park which at 2,400 acres is the largest urban park in Europe.Also worth mentioning is Cannon Hill Park close to the city centre,Handsworth Park, King's Heath Park and the fact that within the city boundary there are large reservoirs at Bartley Green. Posted 28 May 2010
From Govinda, Ontario, Canada: The best city rating for MELBOURNE should be withdrawn immediately. Worst failure is going on is continuous attacks on Asian students. Many Asians in the past few months were either attacked or killed by a very limited group of uneducated local youth. I am afraid that Mayor don't have any role in this serial attacks, but its his responsibility to stop it at any instance. If it can't be stopped, its the complete failure of his position. Its ridiculous to rate Melbourne as best city in the world to live in the presence of brutal killings. Its becoming the bloodiest city. The City should be ruled by a person who could stop these attacks. Someone needs to protect the Melbourne city, its people and its number one rating. Posted 9 January 2010
Editor's reply: Melbourne is ranked 18th in the world/
From Edward XU. Melbourne, Australia: i believe that melbourne is the best city in the world.1.good weather.2.hardly to have any natraral disarsts.3.0% of the chance melbourne will have the war.4.nice people.5.good medicare systerm.6.good invirament.7.beautiful beaches around. Posted 24 July 2009
From José Pablo Melaza, Paris, France: What makes a city better than any other one? Are you sure that your rankings work for everybody? I used to live in some of the better-considered cities in the world. I was not happier than when I lived in some other places situated much lower in the list. Definitely, I think that this too personal. Would you prefer living in Zürich rather than Madrid? No way. Posted 22 October 2009
Hydrofracking
From Paul Chew, Baltimore, US: Hydrofracking for gas is wrong. It pollutes the environment and destroys the ground water of the area surrounding it. It lowers properties values and makes it unlivable. It harms people, animals, and plants. It destroys peoples lives. It has to stop! They need to find another way to extract gas. Posted 25 June 2010
Rightsizing cities
From DGK, Philadelphia, US: Regarding Tony Favro’s article American cities seek to discover their right size. This is the biggest mistake this country could make since the Urban Renewal debacle of the 1960s. This will kill cities, not revitalize them. The only way that this should be permitted is if there is a complete moratorium on suburban development. Just because a city lost 50% of its population does not mean it should lose 50% of its older buildings. It is not green, it is not revitalization and it makes no economic sense.
Old buildings should be reused to accommodate modern uses without hurting their unique historical and architectural features. While many of these cites are losing people new construction is occurring in suburban areas. Cities need to reduce taxes on property owners and businesses and revitalize urban areas with strong historic preservation legislation creating an economic and aesthetic environment that will attract and keep residents.
If these cities continue or invoke new right-sizing projects and suddenly cities become attractive to new residents where will they live and work, all the buildings will be gone and expensive new construction will negate their moving in to these cities. Instead the leaders of this movement need to look at cities and communities that work. None of them have included this idiotic plan. Cities, that work, have old buildings and history the residents are proud of and subsequently they have strong economies, good public transit and stable populations. Posted 23 June 2010
Largest cities
From Liaquat Ali, Karachi: I recently saw your determination of Karachi to be the largest city in the world: I have performed a study at the end of 2008 to make the same
determination. I am trying to compare my methodology with yours. Posted 14 April 2010
From Sonja Lyneham, Sydney: Cities and metropolitan regions in Australia are planned and managed by state governments rather than mayors who are responsible for local government authorities which vary in size. In the case of Sydney, the city of Sydney is the CBD and the population, size of the city as published in your table does not co-incide with the area that falls within the responsibility of the Mayor of the City of Sydney. The size of LGA's in Australia vary significantly. In the case of Brisbane, the local government area (LGA) extends over a far larger area, although the city and metropolitan area now extends beyond the boundaries of the Brisbane City Council LGA. The agencies responsible for infrastructure within the cities and metropolitan area are State Government entities with funding allocation from State Government treasuries. Posted 14 April 2010
Editor's reply: Publishing urban population figures for Australian cities has often been fraught with difficulties. In the past we have taken a narrow view and only measured a city’s core resident populations, which in the case of Melbourne, is tiny compared to the population of Greater Melbourne – 90,000 versus 3.6 million. We have now been persuaded that the latter figure is a truer reflection of the size of Melbourne.
From Rory Clarke, OECD, Paris: I am interested in knowing the definition used for London city and metro zone, and Paris metro zone. It seems to change from year to year. My understanding was that Paris built environment has over 10 million (inner suburbs etc), and that to get over 10 million for London you need to bring in green belts and outlying towns. So not a comparable figure, or am I mistaken?
As for Dublin, its tiny administrative centre kicks it off the list, but it’s actual city size (city reality) is close to 1.5 million.
Cheers and thanks for interesting info. Posted 22 February 2010
Editor's reply: You are right, there is no common definition and/or list of European metro areas, although we do understand that within Eurostat and even your own organistions efforts are being made to arrive at a definition that could be applied to Europe’s principal conurbations. We believe it may be best to use commuting statistics, i.e. a community belongs to a city’s metro area if, for example, more than 25 per cent of its workforce travel to work to the core city. Other economic activities, such as shopping, could also be taken into consideration.
As far as Paris is concerned our figure for the city’s metro area corresponds to INSEE’s ‘aire urbaine’. Our figure for London’ s metro area includes residents from home county communities adjacent to Greater London. The home counties are Kent, Surrey, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and Essex. Communities, which are part of London’s metro area, include for example Reigate to the south, Dartford to the south-east, Brentwood to the east and Wycombe to the north. As you rightly say home county communities have no administrative links with London and many are located within the city’s green belt.
From Anon, Seattle, USA: Internet posting for NY City Metro land area (8700 sq.km) is completely inaccurate. If this number were to be correct, then everything from Trenton, NJ to Bridgeport, CT would need to be considered a part of the NY City Metro area. It would need to include most of the northern half of the state of New Jersey into Pennsylvania, and a region extending north up the Hudson valley to Newburgh. More than half of Long Island (3600 sq.km) would be included. The U.S. Census Bureau (2006) lists NYC with population of 8.2 Million in an area of 303 square miles. This is 775 sq.km, or 10,580 persons per sq.km. Posted 16 January 2010
Editor's reply: Our 2010 research gives NYC a population of 8.36 million, with a metro area population of just over 20 million.
From Peter Smulik. Cape town, South Africa: since the new demographics of creating 5 "metropoles" in SA, their ranking in your tables is incorrect. the largest city metro in SA by area today is Cape Town, and I would invite you to visit SA's offical data to verify this. Indeed, interestingly, the Table Mountain NP which lies within the city limits, alone measures 200 sq km, and to my knowledge Cape Town's total area now is almost 3000 sq km, with 3.5 Mill inhabitants. Furthermore, there are sepearte city metros in and around Johannesburg, ie Jbg itself, Tshwane and Ekurhuleni (East Rand). Posted 29 March 2009
Editor's reply: Our 2010 research ranks Johannesburg above Cape Town
Mexico's de facto powers
From Adriana, Mexico City: Excellent article! I just want to add that Mexicans have in fact "nothing" to celebrate about the so called "independence". Mexican people are hostages of a corrupt government and criminal gangs. But that is not all; not long ago Chavez called Mexico "the puppy of the USA".¡He is wrong! A puppy is cared for. The USA regards Mexico as its servant. Mexico cannot take a step without the permission of "Uncle Sam", so with all these antecedents a true independence is still far to reach. Education is the answer. Education awakens conscience! That is what neither governments nor the church want. Posted 4 May 2010
Mayor of Doncaster
From Ruddie, Doncaster UK: Mayor Peter Davies is a breath of fresh air in,what has become, the stench from the mansion house...........After years of Labour leadership the town centre has become a feral playground where the good folk of Doncaster can't go about their business without fear. Give Peter Davies a chance, we elected him to do a job and 9 months is not a long time to put right the absolute destruction caused by previous regimes. Posted 19 March 2010
Tea Party Patriots
From Troy Denson, Washington DC: This article that I am commenting about, regarding the Tea Partiers' ‘regional-geographics’, ‘political-polarity’, and ‘social-disparities’...in and of itself can be viewed as quite partisan. Although, many of us urbanites generally support the decisions and approaches towards the decisions of the President, it can be quite understandable "how" and "why" there is discomfort of conservatives.
First, the ‘Tea-Partiers’ politicians and government officials, who are largely Republican, are not submitting the correct reasons for debating the President’s & Democrats' decisions. Unfortunately, Capital Hill's Republicans' non-negotiable approaches to decision-making, they are viewed strictly as partisan and not for the people that they say that they are representing. Therefore, ‘Tea-Partiers’ have found it necessary to assimilate and rally due to their feelings of misrepresentation by their federal officials... who are Republicans.
Second, it is quite unfortunate that racists and radical opportunists have infiltrated the population of ‘Tea-Partiers’. Consequently, due to the presence of ill-populists among this movement, the possible values within their overt ‘conservative message’ is unable to resonate without the stain of devalued racist and minority verbiage...which is covert "un-Americanism".
I have no doubt in my mind that the originators of this idea of the ‘Tea Party’ movement had good intentions; however, due to their allowing mainstream-Republicans, political extremists, and social radicals to speak alongside them, core-conservatives' good intentions can very well be lose.
Regarding the liberal decisions that have been made from Capital Hill, and have been supported by Caucasian, African American, and minority citizens... it is unfortunate that such good policy is supported by Republicans only when Republicans originate it, but has been criticized since a Democrat submits a similar policy. The psychological term for that is "all or nothing" mentality. For example, CHiPs, a public health-care plan for children, which was largely supported by both parties and the American people, was a Republican idea that came into fruition. Before President Bush left office, there were debates regarding increasing the amounts to cover more children and possibly adults in some states. This same planned, ‘repackaged’ with a different name and providing a public health-care option, not only for covering more citizens, but also for driving soaring insurance prices down... has been largely denounced by the very originators of CHiPs. Although, this is quite humorous.
Tea-Partiers should separate themselves from the Republican Capital Hill, so that their reasoning and method for constructive debate will result in ‘good and acceptable’ policies.
In conclusion, I am quite sure that the President, as well as Democrats on Capital Hill, all understand the value in a ‘Tea Party’ group, because it enables them to know how they can better serve rural and exurb citizens of our great country. In short, the ‘freedom of speech’ is always good on both, micro and macro levels...only when it is not mingled with unfruitful and productive distractions.
However, in a democracy, everyone has the freedom of their expression. Posted 22 April 2010
From Van425. Atlanta, USA: It amazes me how a seemingly educated individual like Tony Favro can be so out of touch with a popular, main-stream American movement. In his attempts to marginalize the Tea Party movement of Americans fighting back against what amounts to domestic government imperialism, he manages to completely miss the movement's goals. These goals are simply to end the large-government bureaucracy that takes more and more control of citizens' daily lives in the attempts to create a cradle-to-grave entitlement system that currently robs western Europe of any semblance of economic growth. Any individual that takes an economics course understands that you make an entire society better off by encouraging personal investment and success through, yes, capitalism. Favro instead aims to pull racism and segregation into the mix, when the real aims are economic-focused with no regard to race. Nice try Favro, but I believe Americans are less impressionable than you think. We note this each
and every day as citizens begin to look past the mantra of false hopes and harmful changes to see the President's true colors. Posted 23 February 2010
City Mayors Code of Ethics
From Saïd S S, Ankara, Turkey: Your Charter of Ethics has been devised by Westerners and might be applicable in Western Europe and North America. It does not take into account historical, cultural and religious circumstances in Asia and Africa. High-minded aims do not solve the problems of the poor in mega cities of the developing world. Posted 9 January 2010
From Executive Director, ULI Daniel Rose Center for Public Leadership in Land Use, Washington DC, USA: The charter is generally very good, but articles 6, 7, and 8 all focus on fairly flagrant violations of broader human ethics. The other articles focus on high-minded aspirational ethics, but those 3 represent actions that are normally prohibited in most cities' legal codes anyways, so they stand for little more than a reminder to not conduct illegal affairs. They should be combined into one and moved towards the end of the list to retain the focus on the more aspirational articles. Many thanks. Posted 30 November 2009
From Jerry T, London, UK: Your charter fails to address the issue of competence. Too many politicians in local government use their positions to make a name for themselves and indirectly advance their business interests and careers. They may not dip into the petty cash but by hiding their real reasons for seeking office in local government, they are also acting dishonestly.
From Prof Hugo G A, Buenos Aires, Argentina: Great idea. I would add the following comment to article 8: All high level public servants should publish their estate declaration in internet at taking office and bring it up to date constantly. Through this we could see if there is any unjustified increase on their wealth while in office. This is a demand often made in countries such as Argentina where we can see how their wealth increases just with such public functions. Posted 19 November 2009
From Sonia P S, San Fernanado, Philippines: Good governance does not only require city mayors to be transparent, accountable , dedicated leaders , among others BUT they should also improve their capability and capacity to LEAD by empowering themselves, other government leaders, and public managers with the necessary effective management tools/systems to be able to effectively reform the system, introduce mechanisms for citizens participation in governance among others. City mayors should have the vision of their city say in 10 to 15 years and they should be able to institutionalize a system in which governments even beyond their term of office may continue with programs that have been started by them. Posted 18 November 2009
From Jimmy K T, San Francisco, USA: Your Code of Ethics should include an Article dealing with broken election promises. Mayoral candidates will say anything to get elected, particularly when they are after the support of minority groups. Once in office, they act as though their promises never existed.
Richest cities
From Dr. D.A. Simarmata, Jalarta, Indonesia: I am very glad to have such a list of the richest cities in the world. This is very valuable for comparing the cities from each countries, and to make a comparison with its country's economic development. I have seen other lists, and again they are all amazing to be used in development studies between countries, and how their cities are compared from one country to the others.
Hoping to have a countinous report like these. Posted 14 September 2009
From G.Sathyanarayana, Hyderabad, India: In India the most prosperous states are Punjab and Gujrath. Though Maharastra is prosperous it is lopsided and Mumbai make it all for the rest of Maharashtra. Similarly Bangalore is the IT cpital of India. But, surprisingly the list of richest cities. One city that is Surat makes it to the list. Kolkatta also made to the list. It is also surprising that excepting the status of metro city, other development indicators (apparetly) in my view may not support that Kolkatta should have made it to this list. Posted 13 September 2009
From Gustavo, Belo Horizonte, Brazil: I just can't understand why the Brazilian city MANAUS, the richest in the Amazon Rain Forest, isn't at the list. Please be careful and pay attention to the new rich places on world. Power is not always at the same place! Posted 28 February 2009
From Subhabrata Dasgupta, Hyderabad, India: The methodology that u have used to rank the cities is quite astounding, but it will be a preferrable option if you rank the cities according to the major factors of developement like infrastructure, GDP,consumption expenditure, savings and so on. also one thing that is desired is not just the ranking of 2007, but also a historical ranking say upto 1995 so that it can be at a comprable ground among the cities as to how they have faired in the last 15 odd years. Posted 31 January 2008
The world’s urban poor
From Afework A., Hawassa, Ethiopia: The article is good. It gave me some insight into the insecurity of the poor especially in relation to crimes. But I want to read more about crime, especially rural crimes in developing countries. I would appreciate if some reading material on the issue could be forwarded for me.
From George R., Sao Paulo, Brazil: This article brings to the spotlight something that has long been known, but has always been put under topics like terrorism. That is criminality and the poorer victims. In Rio de Janeiro, the populations in the slums are put under the thumb of the drug lords, covering for them under threats. Actual law offers no protection in such places. In São Paulo, not long ago, a maniac was preying on poor children around the slums. It is obvious that crime damages mostly the defenceless, and because of that this issue deserves more attention. It's happening around the entire world, as I'm sure there are such stories out there; criminality against the poor must receive due attention soon, mostly in Africa, as they will be mostly urban by 2030, and by then crime will be a major issue there.
From Sulaiman T., Douala, Cameroon: African governments need to put priorities straight for rural-urban migration. Crime rates are increasing daily and cities are becoming hell on earth. Urban poor are targets of these social risk and vulnerability myths.
Southampton City Hall
From R M Cameron, Southampton: Note that the motto salus populi sprema est lex appears on the frontage of Southampton's Civic Centre BUT the motto apparently belongs to neighbouring Eastleigh. for anyone interested, this comes from Cicero, de legibus III iii, but this does nothing to resolve the mystery. Posted 22 April 2010
Great Lakes
From Michael K, USA: I read with a great deal of interest Mr. Favro's article on the City Mayors about looming North American water shortages and problems associated with diversion of water out the Great Lakes. Mr. Favro is justifiably concerned about future inter-governmental wrangling over a dwindling resource, i.e. Great Lakes fresh water. I share his concern. There is no question that the current laws, treaties and the especially the jurisdiction of the International Joint Commission ( which was defined almost a 100 years ago, before the kinds of water shortages we are facing today were contemplated) are not adequate to deal with the looming water shortages. In the face of such legislative and jurisdictional inadequacies and impasses the importance of and need for people like David Ullrich and the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative is obvious.
As I read his article, Mr. Favro sees a future in which more and more people and more and more governments are squabbling over less and less water. He seems to see nothing but doom and gloom. I would share Mr. Favro's negative view of the future of Great Lake fresh water if I did not know that there exists a credible proposal to replenish the Great Lakes with enormous amounts of fresh water that are currently lost to Hudson/James Bay. This can be done without diverting any water away from any existing uses or users. The proposal is called the GRAND Canal of North America or the GNAC and the designer is an engineer by the name of Thomas Kierans.
From Michael P., Chicago, USA
Unsustainable growth in south eastern and south western US states is not our problem. We have many historic examples of water diversion gone horribly wrong. The Aurel Sea and the Colorado River. People living in the great lakes states take this issue very seriously though our politicians may not. Be warned, this topic should not be taken under serious consideration and it will not happen under any circumstances without a fight. If you live in the south eastern and western states I am truly sorry for your present difficulties. However, I tell you now you will get not get one drop.
Transport
From Pratheksha, Karur, India: If you have visited Delhi it is hard to believe that India has the lowest car ownership in the world. Only 7 out of 1000 people own a car. Now the government has apparently chosen to put the car at the core of its industrial policy. Roads, which are already clogged up, (except for a few in New-Delhi), haven't been built for cars. Posted 19 January 2010
VOTE NOW and decide who should win this year's World Mayor Prize
World Mayor 2010:
VOTE NOW
City Mayors, the international think tank on urban affairs, is seeking voting for the 2010 World Mayor Prize. The Prize, which has been awarded since 2004, honours mayors with the vision, passion and skills to make their cities incredible places to live in, work in and visit. The World Mayor Project aims to show what outstanding mayors can achieve and raise their profiles nationally and internationally.
The organisers of the World Mayor Project are looking for city leaders who excel in qualities like: leadership and vision, management abilities and integrity, social and economic awareness, ability to provide security and to protect the environment as well as the will and ability to foster good relations between communities from different cultural, racial and social backgrounds
Previous winners
and runner-ups:
In 2004: Winner: Edi Rama (Tirana); Runner-up: Andrés Manuel López Obrador (Mexico City}; In third place - Walter Veltroni (Rome)
In 2005: Winner – Dora Bakoyannis (Athens); Runner-up - Hazel McCallion (Mississauga); In third place - Alvaro Arzú (Guatemala City)
In 2006: Winner – John So (Melbourne); Runner up – Job Cohen (Amsterdam); In third place - Stephen Reed (Harrisburg)
In 2008: Winner – Helen Zille (Cape Town); Runner up - Elmar Ledergerber (Zurich); In third place - Leopoldo López (Chacao)