There’s an interesting article (“An Inside Look at Europe’s Coolest Cities”) in the international edition of Spiegel Online on what might be the most pressing question of our time: Not how to live, but *where*. The article argues that so called “second cities” such as Dublin or Amsterdam offer a higher quality of living and working than for example NYC, London or Berlin. Given that I’ve just been to Dublin, where a single street has more nice cafés than all of Manhattan, I find myself nodding here.
Of course I am surprised that no city in the Alps––or in Switzerland in particular––is mentioned. But still, I largely agree with the piece. Using one of the main arguments of the authors (that cities beyond a certain size become inefficient), and adding the fact that modern technology allows you a productive life from pretty much anywhere, I guess one could make the point that ultimately life *in the country* is even more desirable. But maybe that’s just me, typing this amidst the thick smog and construction noise of Manhattan, on a flaky wireless connection (I have super stable high speed wireless in a small village at 6000 feet in the Dolomites––why oh why does it never seem to work reliably in the “Big Apple”?).