Uploaded on 2017-03-05 by Anna A.

Among the 5 most livable cities I know, also regarding the world rankings, I would mention: 1) Vienna, Austria 2) Copenhagen, Denmark 3) Barcelona, Spain 4) Berlin, Germany 5) Prague, Czech Republic In my opinion, there are a lot of factors making a city livable which are also interconnected, but I would name the following characteristics — social environment and political system, that ends up in overall political stability level, crime rates and the legal system work; — secondly, medical health and medical services development; — education, access to schools and universities for the citizens, status of higher educational institutions; — housing system development; — transportation services and built environment (how well-developed the transit system is, existence of pedestrian streets and public spaces etc) If I describe my home city – Moscow with regard to mentioned characteristics, it will be quite difficult to call it sustainable and livable. Even though in recent years there have been considerable changes (new pedestrian and bicycle lanes were built, transport network is expanding, new public places are opening), there are problems with overall socio-political situation in the country along with medical services – and all that affects the city and the possible directions of its further development. In order to make a step forward livability, decision-makers need to put a focus on citizens and communities, analyse the ways they use the city, their preferences and needs. Since it is difficult to change some of the governmental approaches, we need to keep on improving services and facilities. * The photo was taken from the internet, source – http://varlamov.ru/891918.html