The World's Cleanest City

3 April 2007 - 12:00pm

A new survey has named Calgary the cleanest and most sanitary city in the world.

"Mercer Human Resource Consulting ranked Calgary No. 1 in the world when measured against 215 other cities on the quality and availability of hospital and medical supplies and levels of air pollution and infectious diseases."

"'The efficiency of waste removal and sewage systems, water potability and the presence of harmful animals and insects are also taken into account,' Mercer reported today."

"Vancouver ranked third in the world, behind Zurich and Geneva, in Mercer's broader "quality of life" index, which takes into account political, social, economic and environmental factors, personal safety and health, education, transportation and public services. Toronto was 15th, Ottawa finished 18th, Montreal was 22nd and Calgary was 24th in the survey, which evaluated the cities in terms of their desirability to expatriate employees on international assignment."

Source: The Globe and Mail, April 2, 2007

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Singapore?

Where is Singepore ranked?
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Dr. Nam-Son Ngo-Viet is a planner / architect and researcher. His research focuses are physical form and human perception of urban centers in Pacific Rim countries.

The best cities are not in America...

In terms of "overall quality," not a single US city in the top twenty-five (though Honolulu and a few others make the list for world's "cleanest" cities). No surprise here, really, but still rather remarkable for a nation which is fond of preaching to the rest of the world how to live their lives. It still begs the question... why are all the best places to live outside the US...?

Christopher C.

P.S. I stand corrected... with the exception of Honolulu, not a single US city even makes the top 50 in the world. Way to go, America.

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Even if the report overestimates the costs by a factor of two and underestimates the tax-benefit by a similar amount, the conclusion would be pretty much the same: destination resorts cost local government and taxpayers money.