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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.
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Topics on this page:
| London elections 2012 | Most expensive cities | Polluted US cities| Mayor of Ljubljana | Best cities | Cities of Opportunity | Mayor Johnson and Rochester | Mayor of Tokyo | Capital Cities | Mayor of Buenos Aires | Hydrofracking | Rightsizing cities | Largest cities | Mexico's de facto powers | Tea Party Patriots | Code of Ethics | Richest cities | Urban poor | Southampton City Hall | Great Lakes | Transport India |
COMMENTS
London elections 2012
From 'English Passport', London, UK: The English Democrats is the equivalent of the Scottish National Party (Currently in Govt in Scotland) and Plaid Cymru (Previous in Coalition Govt in Wales). The suggestion that the English Democrats is Fringe or obscure is wrong - if the English Democrats had the same media coverage of the Conservative Party, the English Democrats would be the next UK Govt. Posted 5 April 2012
Most expensive cities
From Gary Sherwin, Dublin, Ireland: Are you seriously not going to mention Dublin in this article. We choose to go to Prague (no 47 in this list) for stag and hen nights based on the fact that it's incredibly cheap. Whoever wrote this did not do their homework. I'm not going to argue the prices of particular items like iPods or Big Macs, however I will say that in relation to this list, Dublin with an average price of 5 Euro for a pint of beer should most definitely be on it. I'd like you to prove me wrong please. Editor's note: In Mercer's 2011 'Cost of Living Index' Dublin was placed 58th, down from 42nd in 2010 and down from 10th in 2005. Dublin is the 13th 'most expensive' city in Europe. The Swiss bank UBS ranks Dublin as the 20th most expensive city in the world. Posted 25 January 2012
From Alaa, Amman, Jordan: Amman has been the most expensive Arab city for many years. I used to stay in many Arab and Middle Eastern cities. They are much cheaper, about 10 or 20 times cheaper. Posted 9 May 2011
From Tony, Sydney, Australia: I find it hard to believe that your list would rank Singapore as number 11, while Sydney is way down at number 24. As an IT professional who has lived and worked in both Singapore and Sydney, I would have to disagree with your list. Sydney is way, way more expensive than Singapore (in terms of transportation, groceries, apartment rentals, food, phone bills, internet bills, etc). You might argue it is made up for in wages but the taxes here in Sydney are quite high coupled with high expenses.
I think whoever came up with this list should provide specific details to back up the rankings. Personally, I don’t see how Singapore would be way up there in the list. Singapore is the only first world country I know where I can take a train from airport to city in just under US$3. In Sydney, it costs US$16. In Singapore, I can buy a cup of coffee in any of their numerous Kopitiams for under $1. Here in Sydney, it cost $2 or more. Average meal in Singapore in their numerous hawker centres is less than $4. Here in Sydney, it costs around $10 per meal. A one-room rental within city centre in Singapore would cost around $1000 per month. Here in Sydney, it costs around $500 per week. The list goes on and on. Posted 26 March 2011
Polluted US cities
From Mick Dee, Boise, Idaho,USA: Your article on most and least polluted air in cities refers to "Boise City, ID" as one of the cleanest. Boise City is in Iowa but Boise, which is never referred to as Boise City is in Idaho. Further, Boise Idaho has, statistically, one of the worst air pollution problems for it's size in the country so could not make the "clean" list but should certainly be on the "worst" list. Editor's note: The data was supplied by the American Lung Association but the correspondent is correct in saying that Boise, Idaho, is never referred to as Boise City. Posted 1 January 2012
From Bobby Torres, Las Vegas, USA: On the most polluted US cities article my city, Las Vegas was not listed, not even on the cleanest cities. What does that mean? Editor's note: Las Vegas is not one of the cleanest nor the most polluted US cities. Posted 9 May 2011
Mayor of Ljubljana
From Carniolus, Ljubljana, Slovenia: Zoran Jankovic, the mayor of Ljubljana is so 'successful' and popular just because he is the member of post communist community that rules Slovenia. You have no idea what is going on in Slovenia. The restoration of communist ‘values’ that was established after elections in 2008 and now confirmed on the recent elections has established back the totalitarian system from communist times. The democracy is vanishing and ex-communists like Zoran Jankovic are taking over the country. I am very sorry that your editor is not capable of judging the value of this mayor from a critical distance and is accepting all data from a press release written by the mayor’s staff. Posted 20 December 2011
Best cities
From Gabriele Poggiali, Florence, Italy: I refer to Mercer's rankings on life-quality etc. in a sample of 420 cities. The city of Florence (Italy) never shows in these rankings. Does it not qualify for any ranking (safety, richness etc) or is it not included in the sample? Editor's note: Florence is not included in the sample of 420 cities. Posted 3 December 2011
From Anon, Tbilisis, Georgia: Tbilisi is one of the safest cities in Europe regarding crime. You place it as one of the worst in the world, update your data guys, it's ridiculous. Posted 1 December 2011
From Sameer Hirekerur, Osmanabad, India: I read the articles about the most livable cities in the world. Some facts are there to make cities top of the list. Yet, I think it would be better to not only see whether the conditions in the cities make it livable or not but also see if the city is involved in global financial trades. It's obvious that cities like Vienna top the list because no doubt they do have better living conditions than others. But the question is, are there any multinational company's manufacturing centres in the cities like Vienna etc? I hope you will also take note of the most important factor that is population. The populations of cities like Vienna are less as compared to those of London, New York City, London or Rio de Janeiro and why forget, the city of dreams, Mumbai. Now these cities are much involved in commercial trades as compared to those of the less populated cities. So it is obvious that the metropolitans are under much pressure to manage the city. But on the other hand, having limited population makes it easier to manage the cities with less population making them lead the table. Posted 31 March 2011
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 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
Cities of Opportunity
From Mike, Springfield, USA: PricewaterhouseCoopers. You changed your metrics just enough to cause Chicago to drop three slots. You lowered Chicago’s status by at least 30%! What was your purpose in doing this? It is not valid that a change you make in already established criteria should, itself make a change in the rankings and that is what you did. These rankings of the cities are always subjective, in that those responsible for the study decide what criteria and metrics will be the basis for the rankings. One could rank cities on 10 variables, 25 variables or a 100 variables of one‚s choosing which would then produce rankings of the cities in various orders. If you were going to change the rules of your ranking engine you could have changed it in a way which would have left the top five rankings the same as your previous edition. For instance with Chicago, your change in the metrics caused Chicago to drop. What could have been done and IMO should have been done would be to change the metrics so that there was no net effect to the rankings.
If your change caused Chicago to drop lower in the rank then you could have added a metric which have negated this effect. Such as add a metric for the total amount of commercial office space in the cities. Then let the established metrics thru time establish the subsequent rankings. IMO, to change the rankings by manipulating the metrics is not valid. Also, it seems to me one could advocate that the entire metropolitan area should be included in the ranking and not just the core city. In many instances a city‚s suburbs, in terms of geographic area, population, GDP and so on are larger and even much larger than the core city. For instance the city had 2 top 500 companies, but the suburbs had an additional 5, shouldn‚t that be included in the tally?
Another issue I have with city rankings is the comparing of cities which vary greatly in size. IMO, with respect to certain metrics, one just can not make a valid comparison between cities which vary greatly in size due to the effect this variance in size, itself, has on the ranking. You ranked Stockholm higher than Chicago, metro Stockholm is only about 2 million, while metro Chicago is about 9.6 million how can you justify this? It does not seem valid to me. This is like saying Stockholm is more educated because 20% have masters degrees, while in Chicago only 10% have masters degrees. BUT 960,000 have masters in Chicago, while 400,000 have masters in Stockholm. Posted 7 June 2011
Mayor Johnson and Rochester
From Frank Rossi, Seattle, WA, USA: Conservatives from Reagan to the Tea Party have weakened the social contract that gave the federal and state governments the responsibility to develop solutions to social problems. Local governments are expected to pick up the slack, but federal and state budget cuts have made the task impossible (at the same time, big businesses are getting shocking public subsidies supposedly to create jobs, which never happens as promised). Citizen empowerment will never be a noble solution in the United States. It's a reflection of government shirking its responsibilities. Citizens are left to their own devices to solve social problems that government and business policies created. In Rochester, like Seattle, the city government is behind citizens. Citizen empowerment even in the best circumstances is always fragile because local governments are kept weak at the expense of businesses who write the rules. Posted 7 April 2011
Mayor of Tokyo
From Rene B, Netherlands / Japan: Please take Tokyo off the list of City Mayors Code of Ethics as long as Shintaro Ishihara is mayor. He has a history of making outrageous statements, but his statement about "the divine punishment" was beyond believe. Governor of Tokyo Shintaro Ishihara has proclaimed the recent earthquake and tsunami were divine punishment for the sinful depravity the Japanese people now embody.
Asahi press club journalists quote him as saying the following when asked “How should the Japanese people view the quake?” in connection with the recent power trouble: “The identity of the Japanese people is greed. This tsunami represents a good opportunity to cleanse this greed, and one we must avail ourselves of. Indeed, I think this is divine punishment.”
Below a few other comment of his:
Shintaro Ishihara also said, "Third-country nations and foreigners who have entered Japan illegally have perpetuated heinous crimes. In the event of a major earthquake, riots could break out, and there is a limit to the police's ability to cope with such a situation alone." He later apologized for this remark which was particularly insensitive in the light that as many as 7,000 Koreans were lynched after they were blamed for looting and setting fires and even causing the Great Tokyo Earthquake in 1923.
Tokyo mayor-governor Shintaro Ishihara used the word sangokujin, a derogatory term that means people from third countries, to refer to the immigrants. The term was used after World War II to tell Koreans and Chinese to leave Japan. He has also blamed Iranians in Japan for dealing drugs and Chinese immigrants for playing a major role in Japan's rising crime rate and warned of “genetic pollution” from China if too many Chinese immigrants were let in. These and other remarks won Ishihara the title of the Le Pen of Japan. Posted 26 March 2011
Capital cities
From 'Concerned citizen': I am writing to inform you of an error on your page listing capital cities of the countries of the world. Beside "Israel - Jerusalem", you so boldly claim that the international community does not recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital. I am here to inform you that you are wrong. If you look on any credible world map or globe, you will see Jerusalem highlighted as Israel's capital. Jerusalem has always been Israel's capital. The fact that the Jordanians ethnically cleansed "East Jerusalem" of Jews in 1948 until it was recaptured by Israel in 1967 has no bearing on Jerusalem's status as Israel's capital (before 1948 there were always Jews in Jerusalem!!). Tel Aviv is not, never has been and never will be Israel's capital, even though embassies are mostly located there. I hope your website error was made due to ignorance and not due to the anti-Israel bias that is brewing in Arab countries (who, by the way, were friendly with their local Jews until the last seven decades or so) and their supporters. Posted 26 March 2011
Mayor of Buenos Aires
From David G, Buenos Aires, Argentina: Robberies are a very popular way to get easy money in Buenos Aires. City government spends public funds on new park benches and tourist attractions. The mayor, Mauricio Macri, blames the president but he is the one in charge of the police, but does nothing to protect the people. Almost every other stores on our block get robbed at gun point. We never see a police officer around here. Posted 26 March 2011
Most expensive cities
From Alaa, Amman, Jordan: Amman has been the most expensive Arab city for many years. I used to stay in many Arab and Middle Eastern cities. They are much cheaper, about 10 or 20 times cheaper. Posted 9 May 2011
From Tony, Sydney, Australia: I find it hard to believe that your list would rank Singapore as number 11, while Sydney is way down at number 24. As an IT professional who has lived and worked in both Singapore and Sydney, I would have to disagree with your list. Sydney is way, way more expensive than Singapore (in terms of transportation, groceries, apartment rentals, food, phone bills, internet bills, etc). You might argue it is made up for in wages but the taxes here in Sydney are quite high coupled with high expenses.
I think whoever came up with this list should provide specific details to back up the rankings. Personally, I don’t see how Singapore would be way up there in the list. Singapore is the only first world country I know where I can take a train from airport to city in just under US$3. In Sydney, it costs US$16. In Singapore, I can buy a cup of coffee in any of their numerous Kopitiams for under $1. Here in Sydney, it cost $2 or more. Average meal in Singapore in their numerous hawker centres is less than $4. Here in Sydney, it costs around $10 per meal. A one-room rental within city centre in Singapore would cost around $1000 per month. Here in Sydney, it costs around $500 per week. The list goes on and on. Posted 26 March 2011
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 Richard Lu, Shanghai, China: The article and the table are good except Taiwan has been wrongly regarded as seperate from China. Pls note Taiwan is a province of the People's Repubic of China just as Fujian. Please stick to your one China policy. Posted 7 June 2011
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
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
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
Tea Party Patriots
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
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
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.
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
