7 replies to this topic

[AnEverydayJo]

This is the top list for Quality of Life in the World. Corporations looking to relocate around the World use this list. Winston-Salem is the only North Carolina city that makes the list every year. That really says something about how great this city is to live in.

Personal Safety and Security
All of the Canadian cities covered by the survey appear in the top 20 rankings for personal safety and security. Calgary, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, and Vancouver rank jointly in position 18 with scores of 112.

In the US, Honolulu, Houston, Lexington, San Francisco, and Winston Salem rank highest in joint 45th position with scores of 104. Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Minneapolis, Pittsburgh, Portland, and New York all follow in 58th place with scores of 100. The lowest scoring city in North America is Atlanta, ranked 90 with a score of 90.5, due to street crime and burglary.

Rank City Country Index

1 Geneva Switzerland 106.5
2 Zurich Switzerland 106.5
3 Vancouver Canada 106
3 Vienna Austria 106
5 Frankfurt Germany 105.5
5 Munich Germany 105.5
5 Dusseldorf Germany 105.5
8 Auckland New Zealand 105
8 Bern Switzerland 105
8 Copenhagen Denmark 105
8 Sydney Australia 105
12 Amsterdam Netherlands 104.5
13 Brussels Belgium 104
14 Toronto Canada 103.5
14 Melbourne Australia 103.5
14 Berlin Germany 103.5
14 Luxembourg Luxembourg 103.5
14 Stockholm Sweden 103.5
14 Wellington New Zealand 103.5
20 Ottawa Canada 103
20 Perth Australia 103
22 Montreal Canada 102.5
22 Nurnberg Germany 102.5
22 Dublin Ireland 102.5
25 Calgary Canada 102
25 Adelaide Australia 102
25 Hamburg Germany 102
25 Helsinki Finland 102
25 Honolulu United States 102
25 San Francisco United States 102
31 Brisbane Australia 101.5
31 Oslo Norway 101.5
31 Paris France 101.5
34 Singapore Singapore 101
34 Tokyo Japan 101
36 Lyon France 100.5
36 Yokohama Japan 100.5
36 Boston United States 100.5
39 London England 100
39 Kobe Japan 100
39 New York United States 100
42 Madrid Spain 99
42 Portland United States 99
42 Barcelona Spain 99
42 Washington United States 99
46 Winston Salem United States 98.5
46 Lexington United States 98.5
46 Osaka United States 98.5
46 Pittsburgh United States 98.5
46 Seattle United States 98.5
51 Chicago United States 98
51 Milan United States 98
53 Lisbon Portugal 97.5
53 Nagoya Japan 97.5

For more info: http://www.mercerhr....t=1173105#notes

[JunktionFET]

Cool to see NC represented on a worldwide list, even if we are barely on it    One of the criteria they use for evaluation is our country's relationship with others, as well as a slew of other considerations... I suspect that is one of the reasons why our cities are so far down on the list.

[moonshield]

what makes winston salem great enough to warrent being put on such a list?

[eastsider]

moonshield, on Mar 20 2005, 08:06 PM, said:

what makes winston salem great enough to warrent being put on such a list?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

According to the article posted above, it would be high rankings for personal safety and security.

Congrats to WS, good news for an impressive city.

[Jerseyman4]

thats pretty suprising to me. Winston-Salem to my best of knowledge seems to retain its core population for many decades while other cities in the state are seeing a lot of newbies.

[TowerRooster]

Jerseyman4, on Mar 21 2005, 12:00 AM, said:

thats pretty suprising to me. Winston-Salem to my best of knowledge seems to retain its core population for many decades while other cities in the state are seeing a lot of newbies.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yeah, I wonder why they stay....

As a former resident of Winston-Salem (I grew up there) and current resident of Charlotte (college), I definitely am not in the least bit surprised that Winston recieved such an honor.  I love Charlotte and I think it's a great city, but many of the things that Charlotte is lacking, Winston-Salem definitely has goign for it.
-lots of historical buildings, districts, etc...
-a thriving arts community
-awesome local music scene (at least when i was there)

There are some other things that I miss about Winston-Salem that are not as easy to put in a list.  I think a lot of the neighborhoods close to Winston's downtown (while some are blighted, I'll admit) blow Charlotte's out of the water when it comes to beauty and a sense of time-enhanced authenticity (forgive me if that doesn't make any sense, I was having a hard time finding the right words).  Take the entire area around Hanes Park/Central YMCA/Reynolds High School for example (including the buena vista area).  Spend a couple years there and I can see why you never want to leave.  The neighborhoods are simply stunning and within walking distance is an awesome good size public park, a YMCA, one of the best hospitals in the Southeast (NC Babtist), and one of the nicest, oldest, and best public high schools in the state (RJReynolds... my alma mater)... and i'm not biased.... seriously, I'm not ;-)

[krazeeboi]

That's impressive....keep up the good work Winston-Salem!

[malvern]

Winston does have a very active arts community downtown and in the city proper.  The city leaders seem more (relative to the Triad metro)active when it comes to sustaining urban vitality and in promoting responsible development.  Although the demise of Krispy Kreme will substantially hinder their planned downtown HQ development.

Any official word on Krispy Kreme's downtown development?

Edited by malvern, 21 March 2005 - 10:32 AM.