In the past three years I have visited Toronto, Ontario, Canada – London, U.K. – Paris, France. All three and their surrounding communities had wide well paved highways and smooth city boulevards and streets. All three had excellent public transportation systems. Unfortunately Los Angeles (my home town) has old crumbling highways and streets as well as an inadequate public transit system.
Ali Velshi, on CNN’s Your Money program a few weeks ago had a segment on the ten best cities for infrastructure in the world. Not one American city made the list. The list was prepared a by a human resources company named Mercer that has offices around the world.
1. Singapore, Singapore
2. Frankfurt, Germany (tie)
2. Munich, Germany (tie)
4. Copenhagen, Denmark
5. Düsseldorf, Germany
6. Hong Kong, Hong Kong
6. London, UK (tie)
8. Sydney, Australia
9. Hamburg, Germany (tie)
9. Vancouver, Canada (tie)
American cities in this list?
13. Atlanta, Georgia
15. Dallas, Texas
22. Washington, D.C.
28. Chicago
30. New York
Number 30 was the last city in the review.
Paris skyline from the Eiffel Tower
Consider some of those other cities such as Paris, France. “Paris (number 12) is one of the world’s leading business and cultural centers and its influences in politics, education, entertainment, media, science and arts contribute to its status as one of the world’s major global cities.”
The leaders of the United States keep telling us Americans that we are the greatest country in the world. They tell us that we are the exceptional country. If that is accurate then why are our cities so lacking?
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