Chicago 2016 can crow (sort of) over city rankings
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Chicago isn’t near the top of the list, but it did beat two of its 2016 Olympic rivals in the 2009 global city rankings issued Tuesday by Mercer, a global provider of consulting, outsourcing and investment services.
Tokyo, fourth finalist for the 2016 Summer Games, was well ahead of the 2016 competition in both quality of life and infrastructure.
Rio de Janeiro, which the International Olympic Committee’s evaluation commission is visiting this week, was far down the list of the 215 cities ranked.
Tokyo was 35th in quality of life; Chicago tied for 44th, Madrid 48th, and Rio 117th.
And Tokyo was a runaway leader in infrastructure: 12th to 28th for Chicago, 43rd for Madrid and 100th for Rio.
The point differences in the quality of life index among Tokyo (102.2), Chicago (100.3) and Madrid (100.2) were negligible, but Rio (74.4) was clearly outclassed.
Mercer’s city with the best quality of life? Vienna. Worst? Baghdad. Best infrastructure? Singapore. Worst? Baghdad.
-- Philip Hersh
Associated Press
