Dennis RomeroOne could argue that Los Angeles is the global epicenter of many things, including the film and TV business, car culture and even rocket science. That doesn't mean the rest of the world is impressed.
Los Angeles this week dropped out of the top 50 on the latest “Quality of Living” city-ranking list published by global investment consultant Mercer. The firm based its evaluations on its own “Worldwide Quality of Living Surveys” conducted late last year in 450 global cities; 231 of those were ranked.
In a statement, the firm said L.A. dropped to 58th from last year's 49th because crime has seen an increase over the last few years. (The good news is crime recently dipped a little.) “High crime rates in Los Angeles and Chicago (47th on the list) resulted in these cities dropping nine and four places, respectively,” according to Mercer.
Perhaps making the city's showing even harder to swallow is this: Our longtime archnemesis, No. 29 San Francisco, was the highest-ranked city in the United States. It was followed by Boston (35), Honolulu (36), New York (44) and Seattle (45).
No. 5 Vancouver was the North American champ. And the best city in the world for quality of life is Vienna. It was followed by Zurich, Munich, Dusseldorf and Frankfurt.
“Even with political and economic turbulence, Western European cities continue to enjoy some of the highest quality of living worldwide,” according to Mercer.
Credit: Courtesy Mercer
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