Global Cities

[calamity]

A true miracle of efficient government mixed with the ingenuity of its people is not a city in the US. It's in South Korea. Meet Seoul.

Korea, South Infrastructure, power, and communications, Information about Infrastructure, power, and communications in Korea, South

www.nationsencyclopedia.com

South Korea has a very advanced and modern infrastructure, which has been expanding since the 1960s. Both the South Korean government and the private sector are involved in the financing, construction, and operation of various infrastructure projects and services. Over the first 20 years of the 21st century, the government will spend more than US$300 billion on airports, roads, railways, and mega-resorts. Additionally, it will spend US$60 billion on the construction of more than 100 new power-generation facilities.

The result? An uber overachieving nation that puts most of the rest of the world to shame.

 

[calamity]

Where Seoul is homogenous, a city made up of people from similar culture and ethnicity, Toronto is the opposite. Like most North American cities, Toronto is diverse and rich in multiculturalism. However, unlike many if not all US cities of similar size, Toronto is not a cesspit of poverty and crime. It's actually quite functional and very safe.

Crime in Toronto has been relatively low in comparison to other major cities, but recently, it saw a record number of shootings in 2019. In 2017, a ranking of 60 cities by The Economist ranked Toronto as the 24th safest major city in the world, behind Tokyo, London, Paris, and Seoul, but one of the safest major cities in North America.

The numbers bear this out.

Even though Toronto is the fourth largest city in North America, it has a relatively low homicide rate that fluctuated between 2.1 and 3.8, worse than most of Europe, but comparable to modern day New York.[4][5] per 100,000 people over the 2010s decade, which is lower than other major cities such as Atlanta (19.0), Chicago (18.5), Boston (9.0), San Francisco (8.6), New York City (5.1), and San Jose (4.6).[6][7] In 2007, Toronto's robbery rate also ranked relatively high, with 407.1 robberies per 100,000 people, compared to Detroit (675.1), Chicago (588.6), Los Angeles (348.5), Vancouver (366.2), New York City (265.9), Montreal (235.3), San Diego (158.8), and Portland (150.5).

Poverty in Toronto is 11.3%, far lower than poverty rates in the larger US cities.

U.S. poverty rate: top 25 most populated cities 2019 | Statista

This statistic shows the percentage of people who live below the poverty level in the top 25 most populated cities in the U.S.

www.statista.com

Meet Toronto


I can say a few bad things about T-town, however. One is the weather. Horrible weather. another is traffic. In all my years, I never sat in worse traffic jams than I did in Toronto. A third is pollution. On sunny days, you can see the yellow cloud hovering over the city and wafting out over Lake Ontario when looking north from the QEW just west of St Catharines. Surprisingly, these days, Buffalo is cleaner than Toronto.

 

[calamity]

Next up, Vladivostok, the most improbable Russian city. It's 7 days away from Moscow by train, and about that many hours by jet plane.

How did Russia acquire it? The Chinese lost it, a causality of the British Opium Wars.

 

[Lord Tammerlain]

Singapore is truly a global city, all based on international trade, the only place that could be called a city state in today’s world

 

[lemmiwinx]

I thought my city Atlanta was something but we just got knocked down. We were going to host our country's national sport baseball's All Star game but it got cancelled. All because our legislature passed a voting rights bill that required voter ID. Needless to say I'm very sad it got cancelled.

 

[Lovebug]

We order a lot of SK stuff. Very efficient and clean folks about. Ok, that has nothing to do with the topic, but c'mon, you have to admire the standards. Seems to be paying off.

 

[calamity]

I thought my city Atlanta was something but we just got knocked down. We were going to host our country's national sport baseball's All Star game but it got cancelled. All because our legislature passed a voting rights bill that required voter ID. Needless to say I'm very sad it got cancelled.

Fire the Republicans running Georgia, and your city too can be cool like Singapore and Seoul. One of these days people will realize the luddite GOP holds this nation back.

 

[calamity]

We order a lot of SK stuff. Very efficient and clean folks about. Ok, that has nothing to do with the topic, but c'mon, you have to admire the standards. Seems to be paying off.

Very few people complain about the quality of SK products.

 

[lemmiwinx]

Fire the Republicans running Georgia, and your city too can be cool like Singapore and Seoul. One of these days people will realize the luddite GOP holds this nation back.

By some miracle the Cobb county community has figured out a way to keep all the money they were going to get even though we lost the MLB All Star game. Amazing how government works when the graft is settled like this. As far as the Cobb county commission cares we still got our payout even if they took the game away from us.

 

[calamity]

By some miracle the Cobb county community has figured out a way to keep all the money they were going to get even though we lost the MLB All Star game. Amazing how government works when the graft is settled like this. As far as the Cobb county commission cares we still got our payout even if they took the game away from us.

The reason no US city holds a candle to Seoul is Republican mismanagement of the federal government. We are literally falling back to be more like Bogotá than Singapore.

 

[lemmiwinx]

The reason no US city holds a candle to Seoul is Republican mismanagement of the federal government. We are literally falling back to be more like Bogotá than Singapore.

Seoul doesn't have to deal with people who think the world revolves around them and they deserve 40 acres and a mule for reparations. But don't get me started on that. Seoul seems like a nice place to live but unfortunately it's too close to North Korean artillery positions for my taste.

 

[beefheart]

Next up, Vladivostok, the most improbable Russian city. It's 7 days away from Moscow by train, and about that many hours by jet plane.

How did Russia acquire it? The Chinese lost it, a causality of the British Opium Wars.

I almost went there once in my airline employee days, I was going to take the Trans-Siberian rail all the way there, problem was flying home. I had bennies with Korean, but they only did a once a week flight from there to Seoul, too risky for standby, and I didn't have the bucks to pay for a flight.

 

[calamity]

I almost went there once in my airline employee days, I was going to take the Trans-Siberian rail all the way there, problem was flying home. I had bennies with Korean, but they only did a once a week flight from there to Seoul, too risky for standby, and I didn't have the bucks to pay for a flight.

My ex works for an airline, so I know exactly what you mean.

 

[Lovebug]

Very few people complain about the quality of SK products.

I love me some Kimchee and YakiMandu. A friend of mine's parents, back in the day, owned a Korean restaurant. We often ordered from them on night shift. Since we knew them personally, they added their personal love to all the dishes. Their bibimbap was to die for.

 

[calamity]

I love me some Kimchee and YakiMandu. A friend of mine's parents, back in the day, owned a Korean restaurant. We often ordered from them on night shift. Since we knew them personally, they added their personal love to all the dishes. Their bibimbap was to die for.

I miss Chicago for that very reason. We had some of the best ethnic restaurants there.

 

[Individual]

One advantage South Korea has over the U.S is that the vast majority of the population are Korean, therefore politicians can't easily divide voters based on race, color, not to mention the fact that the size vastly reduces the amount of infrastructure required to serve all the population which is about the same as the population of California and Pennsylvania combined in an area slightly smaller than Kentucky and slightly larger than Indiana.