[Kerrigan]

Which of these major cities do you think stands as the premier city of the civilised world?

I'm torn between New York and London; New York may be the most influential city in the world, but London sets the standard for stateliness, austerity, and charm, which to me are the most important qualities in any city.

Of this list, I think the worst city is Los Angeles.

[waxcrash]

Depends on the criteria…

For architecture, I'd say it's a tie between New York, Chicago, and Hong Kong.

For business and finance, I'd say Hong Kong.

For the arts and culture, I'd say Paris.

For fashion, I'd say Milan and New York.

[budster101]

New York sucks. It's a filthy city. Chicago is way better and still it's filthy too.
L.A.: Are you joking? It's worse than New York...

I'm going to say Sydney Australia, and I'm from Chicago... but we have the best food, and Architecture, and Police... (Ok, that's pushing it) We got da-cubs, da-bears, da-bulls, and da-sox...

Your list is flawed.

[Kerrigan]

I've never been to Hong Kong, but a friend of mine's dad works for Norman Foster so I'm a little familiar with some of the great buildings there.

[ManOfSteal]

Chicago.

[Fred_Cokebottle]

Paris of course!

[budster101]

Ok, Chicago. (Changed my vote.)

[budster101]

Paris? Why Paris? What is so great about Paris? Nobody even baths there.

[Scandalous Ion Cannon]

Toronto

[kiwibabe]

Rome

I visited there and fell in love with the place, the people, the food, the weather, the history.

[budster101]

Rome was nice. Chicago is better.

[tobster]

Missing both Hong Kong and Dubai... odd.

Doesn't matter though since Reykjavík is the premier one, and that is missing from the list also. In a vote it would score good. With all 5 of us Icelanders here on MacNN.

- tobs

[budster101]

Iceland.... hmmm

[Kevin]

All of the above have too much crime for me.

[Kerrigan]

I tried to pick the world's top cities. Places like Chicago, Toronto, Dubai, etc., are all quite nice but there are perhaps a thousand cities of the same class.

Basically, the poll would have never ended if I listed a city like Chicago. Then it would need to include other smaller cities like Boston, Orlando, Amsterdam, Oslo, Miami, and so on. These smaller cities are fine but they do not fit in a poll with New York or Tokyo.

[mitchell_pgh]

Where Else But...

[mitchell_pgh]

Moscow

[Captain Obvious]

L.A. is on there but not Chicago?
Los Angeles is a cesspool. It has the worst city planning of any major city in North America and has no redeemable qualities apart from the temperate climate. Worst selection choices in a poll in the history of MacNN.

[budster101]

San Francisco blows L.A. away.

Your poll is flawed.
You needed to apply some criteria to your cities.

- Cleanliness
- Public Transportation
- Food
- Entertainment
- Crime Rate
- Climate (Weather in general)
- Business
- Architecture
- Culture in general
- Other attributes (Free Wi-Fi for all...)
- Taxes
- Rent / Home Value / Pricing
- School Systems
- Government (If out of country) It could be a factor.

:

[sminch]

anything but tokyo - interesting for a week or so, but horrible as all buggery after that.

from the list i'll vote for paris, but i'd be going for melbourne, wellington, or berlin in preference.

sminch

[Ji Eun]

it's between ny, tokyo, paris and london really.

my guess is new york. when new york was attacked the global economy took a real body blow. can't imagine that happening to the same extent if the others were attacked lke that. ny is the global financial capital, period.

[Kerrigan]

Originally Posted by budster101

Your poll is flawed.
You needed to apply some criteria to your cities.

I understand where you are going, but this poll is NOT for peoples' favourite cities. As I said in the original post, this is for people to vote on the world's premier city. Premier, as the dictionary defines it, first in status or importance. That is the criteria. New York is far more important than Chicago. LA is likewise more important than San Francisco. I agree that the cities aren't nicer but they are more important.

[Randman]

New York.

Like it or not, the world revolves around it. Business? Someone mentioned Hong Kong, Heard of Wall Street?

New York can be considered in just about every category someone can mention, which makes it premier in my book. And I've been to every city on that list save for Rome.

Dubai? Lots of money but a few years away from being totally influential. Singapore could be in there as could Sydney. Those three would round out the top 10, imo (though I would think Berlin might give Rome a challenge as well)

[simonjames]

I trust anyone choosing to voten in this poll has real first-hand experience and has lived in each of these cities or in the very least visited them for a month or more.

The poll is also flawed as it is attempting to compare tier one cities (London, Tokyo, Paris & New York) with tier three cities (Rome & Beijing). See also

Of the 7 cities listed I have been to 6 (though Rome & New York only twice and Tokyo once) - my personal favourites are London and Paris. But - to live in a nice fashion in any of these cities you have to have a bucket load of money and the day-to-day living conditions come no where near to the standard enjoyed in any of the tier two cities. (IMO) They're all nice to visit but Sydney is way better.

[Kerrigan]

I admit that I put Rome & Beijing as gap fillers for the poll. That is of course why they are at the bottom ;-)

[besson3c]

Montreal is a great place to visit - beautiful architecture, a lot of history.

[paul w]

It has to have city in the title.

I'm going with...Rapid City.

[budster101]

"See Rock City"

[Andy8]

Hong Kong, still one of the best low tax, free economies on the planet.

[budster101]

That doesn't make it "Premiere" though... not according to our thread creator.

VEGAS BABY! It's primo.

[jcadam]

Of the cities on the list, I have only been to Los Angeles. And it's the biggest collection of freaks you'll ever see.....

[Kevin]

Originally Posted by budster101

Paris? Why Paris? What is so great about Paris? Nobody even baths there.

[Athens]

your missing a very important option, OTHER.

For overall good quality of life I would say Vancouver and Sydney

For multiculturalism Toronto hands down, Vancouver and New York is good too.

For Safety, (Large Cities) New York and Toronto. New York has become a much much safer city in the past decade, a total turn around. And Toronto is suppose to be the safest city of its size in the world.

For the arts, architecture and stuff like that another poster listed ones that I agree with, think it was waxcrasher so I wont repeat them.

[Railroader]

I think each city in the poll has it's merits and claims to fame. They all seem pretty equal other than L.A. L.A. is pretty scummy.

If I had to pick a large city other than one in Michigan to live in, I would choose San Diego, CA. VERY nice city!

[Oisín]

As has been said earlier, your poll is flawed.

I don't see Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwillllantisili ogogogoch anywhere in there, making it completely useless.

[argothian22 (French)]

Originally Posted by budster101

.. Nobody even baths there.

Are you crazy ?

Nobody even Kill there !!

[smacintush]

What's the matter with you people? Chicago is a sh*thole. There is great food there, I'll give them that, but that's not enough to overshadow the sh*ttyness of that city.

[jdiddy]

I'm from LA but this poll is owned by NYC.

[Athens]

until all the frenchies tell there friends to come here and vote for Paris hehe

[Randman]

Too many people are saying X and Y are nice cities to live in. That's not the question. The question is what's the premier city in the world and that has to be New York City.

[Oisín]

Originally Posted by argothian22 (French)

Are you crazy ?

No, he was joking.

Nobody even Kill there !!

Of course they do.

[Doofy]

There's only one city which comes out on top of the OP's criteria...

...Monte Carlo.


And where the heck is Geneva? That should rate highly on the World's cities list.

[moonmonkey]

Beijing? Rome? how did they get on the list.

What about Hong Kong, I think it has to be to most amazing city in the world (and yes I have been everywhere).

Even Shanghai is better than Beijing.

[Athens]

Of that list I had to pick New York

[Railroader]

Originally Posted by Doofy

There's only one city which comes out on top of the OP's criteria...

...Monte Carlo.


And where the heck is Geneva? That should rate highly on the World's cities list.

Well said.

[Railroader]

Originally Posted by Randman

Too many people are saying X and Y are nice cities to live in. That's not the question. The question is what's the premier city in the world and that has to be New York City.

The point is that the poll is flawed. To fix it all you wuold have to do is add "other" as an option.

[Nicko]

Another vote for Hong Kong.

I was there a few months ago and I know bird flu was a horrible thing, but it really gave the city incentive to clean up (not that is was that dirty to begin with). I swear, you could probably go into any toilet and lick the seat without getting a horrible disease, it was THAT clean! ...err ok mb not that clean.

Besides being clean, its safe, tax free, and has the best shopping in the world for just about everything. Oh and the FOOD...can't forget that

[Randman]

HK is a good city to visit but it's part of the PRC. Shanghai is starting to overtake it in just about every category.

[Captain Obvious]

Originally Posted by smacintush

What's the matter with you people? Chicago is a sh*thole. There is great food there, I'll give them that, but that's not enough to overshadow the sh*ttyness of that city.

I find that humorous coming from someone in Indiana. As far as I can tell there is no other real city of consequence within 700 miles of here. The collective semi-urban regions in the Midwest could disappear tomorrow and have less of a ripple effect than if just the downtown center of Chicago went away. Detroit & Milwaukee: Wastelands. Indianapolis, St. Louis & Detroit: Ghettos. Minneapolis & Columbus, did anyone even show up to live there?

There are only 9 cities in the United States with over a million people within the actual boundaries. Chicago is the only one in the Midwest. Detroit comes damned close but its a withering city that's losing the business and industries that once made it thrive.

Originally Posted by Kerrigan

I understand where you are going, but this poll is NOT for peoples' favourite cities. As I said in the original post, this is for people to vote on the world's premier city. Premier, as the dictionary defines it, first in status or importance. That is the criteria. New York is far more important than Chicago. LA is likewise more important than San Francisco. I agree that the cities aren't nicer but they are more important.

Basically, the poll would have never ended if I listed a city like Chicago. Then it would need to include other smaller cities like Boston, Orlando, Amsterdam, Oslo, Miami, and so on. These smaller cities are fine but they do not fit in a poll with New York or Tokyo.

Do you even know what you are talking about? Boston has less than one-fifth the population of Chicago. You say you want the most influential city in the world and you add Paris and Rome to the list? You are on crack. Forget favorite cities based on personal prefs. Money is the only thing that influences the entire world. You failed to put up places that meet your own criteria of status and importance.

CBOT, the Stock Exchange, Options Exchange, and the Merc comprise the most business done in this country outside of NYC. There are not a thousand cities of the same class in the world. You'd be lucky to name more than 10 in terms of its overall influence on the world's financial markets.
L.A. has the entertainment industry but that is the depth of its influence in the world.

[Doofy]

Originally Posted by Captain Obvious

Money is the only thing that influences the entire world.

This is, of course, not true.

Ladies and gents, I give you The Geneva Convention - it's caused more strife and suffering than any amount of money because armies are no longer able to go in and get the job done in the shortest time possible.

Oh. And if some guy wasn't working at CERN in the late 80's we wouldn't be here right now. Nor would any of your online retailers such as Amazon. And Apple wouldn't be selling anywhere near the amount of machines they do (because, let's face it most of our purchases are done online).

So, that's settled. Geneva it is.