Happy City, Boring City? Why Liveability Does Not Equate With Greatness

"Switzerland is closely followed in the happiness stakes by Iceland, Denmark, Norway and, of course, Canada. But there is another word besides happy that springs to mind when these countries are listed. That word is boring," according to an article by John Kay.

Kay goes on to poke holes in the traditionally cited metrics for measuring the world's most liveable cities, noting that many of the cities that populate these lists are not cities that "lift the spirit." Kay's conclusion, based on this, admittedly inadequate, evidence: "There is evidently a large difference between a great city and a liveable city."

Kay credits just how that difference has manifested in cities around the world to "the rise, and fall, of modernist town planning," which he also boils down to the difference between two central figures: Le Corbusier and Jane Jacobs. After that discussion about how cities arranged in Le Corbusier's more rational fashion have proven antiseptic, efficient, and boring, while the characteristics described by Jacobs as more inspiring and challenging, Kay concludes with a few more arguments about the ability of cities to enable happiness, rather than boredom.