CNN Go has published a lit of the most livable cities in the world (along with the 1o worst). The top 10 are mainly in Canada or Australia (except for two in Europe and one in New Zealand, but none in the U.S); the 10 worst are mainly in Africa or the middle-east. Makes one wonder, why is that?
The world’s top liveable cities:
1. Melbourne, Australia
2. Vienna, Austria
3. Vancouver, Canada
4. Toronto, Canada
5. Calgary, Canada
6. Sydney, Australia
7. Helsinki, Finland
8. Perth, Australia
9. Adelaide, Australia
10. Auckland, New Zealand
And the worst cities on the planet:
131: Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire
132: Tehran, Iran
133: Douala, Cameroon
134: Karachi, Pakistan
135: Tripoli, Libya
136: Algiers, Algeria
137: Lagos, Nigeria
138: Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea
139: Dhaka, Bangladesh
140: Harare, Zimbabwe
Tom's News and Views 
Good to see Austtralia ranking so high. But Australian cities need to do three things.
1. Deal with suburban sprawl – the cities are driven by suburban sprawl, which reduces the possibilities of the public transport network to cope in outer areas, and provides problems for service provision
2. Examine and come up with plans for renewable energies. Australia – the land of summer sunshine, is so far behind the 8 ball it is embarassing (compared to European locations)).
3. Food and water security will be huge issue in the future. The “food miles” issue – how far the average calory of food travels from production to conumption in Australia is an indictment, and cities need better water conservation and recycling.
I was in Australia quite a while back(1976) but thoroughly enjoyed my time in Sydney.