Mercer announced the Top 50 cities for best quality of living in 2008. Greece did not make the top 50, and Athens at #77 was again the lowest ranked city in western Europe, as has been the case for several years.

Top 50

1. Zurich, Switzerland
2. Vienna, Austria - tie
2. Geneva, Switzerland - tie
4. Vancouver, Canada
5. Auckland, New Zealand
6. Dusseldorf, Germany
7. Munich, Germany - tie
7. Frankfurt, Germany - tie
9. Bern, Switzerland
10. Sydney, Australia
11. Copenhagen, Denmark
12. Wellington, New Zealand
13. Amsterdam, The Netherlands
14. Brussels, Belgium
15. Toronto, Canada
16. Berlin, Germany
17. Melbourne, Australia - tie
17. Luxembourg, Luxembourg - tie
19. Ottawa, Canada
20. Stockholm, Sweden
21. Perth, Australia
22. Montreal, Canada
23. Nurnberg, Germany
24. Oslo, Norway
25. Dublin, Ireland - tie
25. Calgary, Canada - tie
27. Hamburg, Germany
28. Honolulu, Hawaii (USA)
29. San Francisco, CA (USA) - tie
29. Helsinki, Finland - tie
29. Adelaide, Australia - tie
32. Singapore, Singapore
32. Paris, France
34. Brisbane, Australia
35. Tokyo, Japan
36. Lyon, France
37. Boston, MA (USA)
38. Yokohama, Japan - tie
38. London, UK - tie
40. Kobe, Japan
41. Milan, Italy
42. Barcelona, Spain
43. Madrid, Spain
44. Washington DC, USA - tie
44. Osaka, Japan - tie
44. Lisbon, Portugal - tie
44. Chicago, IL (USA) - tie
48. Portland, OR
49. New York City, NY (USA)
50. Seattle, WA (USA)

The analysis is based on an evaluation of 39 quality of living criteria that include political, socio-cultural, economic and environmental factors, personal safety and health, education, transport and public services, recreation, housing and availability/affordability of consumer goods. Mercer Human Resource Consulting performs this assessment on an annual basis to determine living conditions for expatriate employees.

While some dispute that this does not apply to the everyday person, it is important to point out that expats use the same public services, institutions and spaces as local residents. Therefore, it is essentially a quality of living analysis for everyone.

Of course “quality” is subjective, not necessarily definitive. In the end, it comes down to personal preference, circumstances and options. One man’s castle is another man’s ghetto.

To see the Top 50 cities on the survey compared to last year’s ranking, click Top 50.

Ranking for all cities surveyed

Mercer has 350 cities in its database, but narrows the survey to only 215 cities and selection changes annually. To see if your city in the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Europe or America made the list and how it fared, click 2008 Quality of Living Ranking.

I also found an interesting interactive table by International Living that, although it lists no protocol or explanation, allows you to select by country or by element. Click, “Quality of Life Index.”

Related posts

The cost of living survey is typically released before quality of living stats, but the 2008 edition has not yet been published. It will be linked here when that changes. In the meantime:

“Athens, Greece: Quality of living vs. cost of living 2007“
“Minimum salary vs. cost and quality of living in the EU“
“Benefits of living in the EU vs. USA“

Our home in the southern suburbs of Athens is close to the mountains and minutes from the beach, which many believe is envious. I’m not convinced of that.

Sure, I like the sight of trees from my window, the walking trail and the open fields next door where I can hear “the nightbird” (gionis) birp all night. But as it looks more like summer, our area is choked with more traffic, more pulsing music at all hours and more bugs.

Today was a very buggy and birdy type day. After getting only disturbed sleep from another noisy night, I opened sliding doors to both the front and back balconies to get a cross draft. Within hours, a bird had flown into the house because (of course) there are no screen doors. As it flapped furiously, I cursed the fact I couldn’t pass this task to my fiancé and chased it around the house with hopes I could return it safely outside again. Done.

I go into the kitchen, and a green bean on the counter starts moving — it’s a hoppity green grasshopper. How it got in, I don’t know since the window wasn’t open. I put a Tupperware bowl over him and left a note for the man of the house to take him outside. He didn’t, as he thought it would be amusing if I dealt with that too. Fine. I slip a piece of paper under the bowl and release him outside, and (strangely) a man in NY who calls me ‘grasshoppa’ sends me an e-mail after that.

My fiancé had the idea of taking a drive along the beach and stopping at a no-name taverna to get something to eat for a change of pace, but within minutes we encountered roads choked with traffic and turned back. Apparently everyone had the same idea.

Arriving home, we both smack at a yellow jacket before I’m told my swatting duties are not needed, the door is closed and the incident is over…or so it seems. After it was flattened and squashed into a napkin, I found he’d crawled out of the garbage can and was struggling for life on the kitchen floor. Admirable. That’s what my friend Niko calls, “duro, duro.”

I happily took a phone call from friends G and C visiting from Sweden. I was supposed to meet them on Rhodes sometime during their two weeks, but honestly couldn’t see spending more than a month’s wages on a few days within Greece when I can get better value by visiting them in SE instead. Anyway, I need a break from Greece after being here continuously for two years. It turned out fine since they were busy doing the ‘hello’ and ‘goodbye’ tour with three young children, entertaining relatives who joined them for a portion of their vacation, and visiting several villages to see dozens here. They depart exhausted, needing a vacation to recover from their vacation.

I love talking to them because they spent a year on sabbatical in Greece during my first year here, so we share a common history of learning Greek, dealing with dysfunctional landlords, scaring away kamaki and delighting in old yellow trolleys that jerked and stalled. They also helped me move out of my cockroach house in Plaka at 6:00 one morning. We had a good laugh about that tonight.

Hours later, I went into the bathroom we just cleaned yesterday and what was on the shower wall? A cockroach the size of a yam. Blah! No Tupperware, no releasing into the wild, just a good old-fashioned smack with a flip flop and off to the eternal nap!

Apparently, my critter karma is fully zen. Kala ohm!

Related posts

“One apartment, hold the mold“
“Roasting season is upon us“

On May 28th, after months of careful deliberation about this site’s future, An American in Athens became livingingreece.gr

Many know me and this site as An American in Athens, and this will continue to be true so it’s not necessary to change the name (just the link). However, I know that many people bypassed or discounted this Web site as purely a blog of no value to them or disrespected me as a writer based on the name alone. In fact, only one-fourth of this Web site is personal, while the majority of articles are practical and based on meticulous research and 11 years of wisdom and experience. After a year, the site is very content heavy and something needed to be done.

My stats have suffered a dramatic hit since the change, which I knew in advance, and my special feature box on Google is now gone (wah! ). But the mission has always been about providing quality information in the long term and not worrying about hits in the short term, so I believe this site will eventually rebound.

All permalinks will automatically redirect to the new one without incident, but I would appreciate if everyone would update the link if you’d like to keep me around, and RSS readers and Google alerts should be changed to livingingreece.gr to continue receiving notifications. There will be a day in the near future when americaninathens.com and livingingreece.gr co-exist on the same site, but there is a larger metamorphosis in progress right now to give everyone a better reader experience.

Thank you to everyone who has shown me continued support!

Related posts

“One“
“American in Athens in Eleftheros Typos“ 

Residents of Ioannina, Volos, Larissa, Iraklion, Hania, Patras, Kavala, Serres, Thessaloniki and Piraeus

What is the biggest problem?
48 percent, traffic
15 percent, unemployment
15 percent, cleanliness
13 percent, pollution

General view of your city?
90 percent, parking is “a very big problem”
80 percent, life is too expensive
80 percent, ample opportunities to have a good time
75 percent, not enough open spaces, such as parks and squares
71 percent, city is heavily polluted
>46 percent, pessimistic about the future

* Survey conducted by Public Issue on behalf of Kathimerini.

Residents of Athens

General view of Athens?
65 percent, “dissatisfied” with quality of life, want to live elsewhere
39 percent, traffic getting worse
25 percent, mounting trash piles
17 percent, pollution

How do you feel about Athens Mayor Nikitas Kaklamanis?
84 percent, term coincides with deterioration in parking
79 percent, a peak in crime
69 percent, an aggravation of the city’s pollution
56 percent, disappointed overall

Nai or Oxi?
89 percent back creation of bicycle lanes
76 percent support demolition of old buildings to create space
54 percent think demonstrations should be restricted in the kentro
47 percent object to toll charges, as majority are car owners
33 percent claim sensitivity to importance of recycling (However, 70 percent of those recycling claimed to do so only five times a month; 15 percent, three or four times; 15 percent, once or twice)

* Survey conducted by Public Issue on behalf of Kathimerini.

Sources

“City life becomes a drag” - Kathimerini

“City life tires Athenians” - Kathimerini

“Reclaim the city and do it now” - Commentary in Kathimerini

Lamb spits are in full spin mode for Easter this morning, but to us it’s just another day. In fact, I’m even working.

Easter in Athens

My fiancé opted to lie about our whereabouts this week to escape going to his dad’s village for Pascha (Easter). I don’t agree with lying, but it wasn’t my choice to make. Because we refused to be controlled and I didn’t like the idea of being paraded around church as the exotic American, we went to his mom’s village last year (see, “My village or yours“). Therefore, we were plied with guilt for the past year democratically obligated to attend the three-day Egg-stravaganza in his dad’s village this year. Attending the Christmas “thing” and dedicated dinners apparently counts for nothing.

The Pascha “thing” is different than the Christmas “thing,” namely because the theme of death continues past Christ’s resurrection at midnight Saturday. My fiance’s cousin was hit by a drunk driver and died tragically many years ago, so Aunt Eleni has forbidden all music, dancing and general merriment of any kind on Pascha Sunday. I’m told that it’s just a bunch of relatives eating, dispensing unsolicited advice, fighting, sleeping and starting the cycle over again. We get that on a regular basis already around the theme, “Where’s my grandchildren?” except without the traffic and 5-hour drive.

So instead of waking up in the village this morning to the sound of goat bells, I woke up to the sound of my landlords screaming, hammering and setting up a spit that has been groaning and squeaking for hours. The dog downstairs appears a bit nervous right now, presumably because he sees a roasting carcass that looks something like him.

You also wouldn’t know we’re in the southern suburbs of Athens. People from congested neighborhoods have come by bus or car and taken to our streets, beaches and roadside patches of land to start fires and create their own Pascha, which explains why the air is wrought with smoke even though our neighborhood is empty.

Holy programming

Anyone who has ever watched TV in Greece during Holy Week knows that there is virtually no regular programming at night, just movies with a biblical theme, and Solomon, Claudius, Caesar, King David. I like tunics and cassocks as much as the next girl, but every night on every channel of every hour? After seeing three crucifixions in one night, my fiancé said he was “Jes’d” out.

On the “news” last night, I was appalled by how a TV hostess exchanged her supposed star presence in a village for a free Paschal vacation, then demanded that all residents roast their lamb indoors and hide their red eggs because she doesn’t like them. This was followed by a plethora of footage about taking the light.

To Fos

It occurred to me that nearly everyone I know has a “taking the light” story.

The first one I heard was about Pavlos’ father. Before firecrackers were banned during Holy Week (though I assure you it’s alive and well), Pavlos’ father had various parts of his body burned and refused to get the light after enduring too many years of this. But because they are firm believers in tradition, Pavlos’ mother ended up locking him out of the house until he went.

In Yannis’ village, the masses bum rushed the priest when he appeared with the light and put it out. Putting out the light is bad, in case you didn’t know. The next year, the priest refused to come out of the church and scolded everyone from behind the door about their behavior the previous year. The mayor stepped forward and convinced the priest to let him in, and the light appeared after negotiations ended. The priest agreed to come out only if everyone stayed in their positions and respectfully took the light in an orderly manner. It’s been peaceful ever since.

Someone attending Nikos’ church grabbed the light from the priest and ran off with it one year, so a decision had to be made to light another or forget the whole thing. After some discussion, another was lit, but somehow the moment was lost.

My fiancé told me that in his dad’s village, people are so aggressive that they once kicked down the church door when the priest was hesitant to come out.

Why all this fuss for the light? In addition to what it symbolizes, the first person to take the light is said to be blessed more than others for the whole year.

I think we’re all blessed if we believe we are, and that’s that

Christos Anesti!