It can't be just that it's the "silly season," the tired dog days of summer when newspapers and television have nothing much to write about. These days there are too many burning stories to tell, mostly of disease, disaster, doom and death, so it must be that the media want to lighten the gloom, so several have asked the question — what is the most pleasant city to live in?
The question posed is an interesting, but is being asked in a silly way. It is time to be sensible about one of the most important questions of our lives, where we live and how and how well we live. The question is relevant because more and more people on planet Earth are becoming urban-dwellers. A hundred years ago only 20 percent of the population lived in urban areas; today more than half of the 7 billion people do; and by 2030 more than 70 percent of us will be city dwellers.
Let us see what the surveys say. Monocle magazine has grand ambitions. It describes itself as "a magazine briefing on global affairs, business, culture, design and much more," and aims to serve "a globally minded audience of readers ... hungry for opportunities and experiences beyond their national borders." It claims to sell more than 77,000 copies of each issue, a lot for a magazine that is a real heavy weight, with 292 pages in the July/August issue, costing £7 or $14, or $24 if bought at news stands in Japan.