When it comes to living in Toronto we all have our likes and dislikes. Sometimes we may think that the grass is greener on the other side, meaning that perhaps there are better cities out there to live in. A recent survey was conducted on 140 cities globally and Toronto happened to rank fourth overall. Vancouver came in as third and Calgary took the fifth position. The scores were based on what was called lifestyle challenges. The focus was placed on infrastructure, healthcare, culture, environment, stability and education. Then added to the mix was what is also considered important lifestyle factors like telecommunication, housing, school availability both in the public and private sectors, sports opportunities, petty crime and civil unrest.
The scoring system was based on ranges from acceptable to intolerable, and were scored between one to one hundred. You may be surprised to learn that Melbourne Australia came in as being the world’s best for being livable with a score of 97.5. Following as a close second was Vienna. Toronto landed a score of 97.2.
What was noted during the taking of the survey is that terrorism played a major role in the liveability of a city and of course this is most understandable. Cities that were once considered highly enticing for living have now fallen out of that category because of the threat of terrorism and the civil wars that are raging. When it came to the U.S. the decline in some of the cities liveability status revolved around the civil unrest taking place over the deaths occurring in the black population while being held in Police custody.
All too often with our busy lifestyles we just take for granted all that Toronto has to offer. It is only when we stop to take a moment and consider surveys like this that it really hits home that we are pretty fortunate overall. Yes, we complain about our taxes, and the hassles of being delayed in our travel because of repairs to infrastructure. When you compare this to the woes that many other cities have then really these inconveniences are really not so bad.
Perhaps when frustration sets in when we are dealing with something that we don’t like in Toronto it would be worth turning on the news for a reality check. Chances are there will be some news related commentary affecting at least two or three other cities somewhere that will cause us to say, glad I don’t live there!
