The Ideal “Second City”

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”?).