Melbourne ranked number 1 by The Economist, Damascus is the worst.
Sydney best of the losers at #11.

Top 10
Melbourne
Vienna
Vancouver
Toronto
Calgary
Adelaide
Perth
Auckland
Helsinki
Hamburg

Link to The Age article here

Melbourne also has the highest population of Greeks outside of Greece. Aikhme, is there a connection?

Six years in a row.

#dynasty

I just spent a few days in Melbourne and honestly cannot see what the fuss is about. Firstly through the CBD there are homeless folk everywhere. Bourke st has no character, just shops, trams and beggars. The Yarra has a nice poo brown hue to it.

The suburbs dont get a little better, nice heritage with a highrise monstrosities plonked in the middle . Traffic is shocking (not as bad as Sydney) , the trams are cool but their cabling makes the streetscape look cluttered. Footpaths and median strips are badly maintained.

I actually think Brisbane is a prettier city than Melbourne, feels more spacious, hilly and the suburbs feel like suburbs rather than cbd sprawl. Im sure Melbourne is a great place to live but yeah pretty underwhelming.

Brisbane's waterfront is a six lane highway.

But who can stand swimming through that humidity in Brisbane? It's crazy!

Perth ranked pretty high in that list. I wasn't a huge fan of Perth. 

What is the criteria that the Economists editors use to decide?

LOL Adelaide in the top 10, this place is a shit hole. 

these list are always done by economists. 

It is literally done by The Economist magazine, yes.

From the article in OP:

The Economist's liveability survey, which originated as a guide for corporations sending employees on overseas postings, rates each city by stability, healthcare, infrastructure, education, culture and environment.
The prevalence of petty crime, weather, corruption, censorship, public transport and the quality of private and public education are among the individual factors considered.
These indicators are scored as acceptable, tolerable, uncomfortable or intolerable, then weighted to produce a rating.

"The ranking considers 30 factors related to things like safety, healthcare, educational resources, infrastructure and environment in 140 cities"

This is why Australia and Canada do well and the USA and Asia not. 

Shows how little you know.

Harsh on Damascus. Heard raving reviews.

Aleppo now basically resembles what Dresden did towards the back end of WWII. Unlike Dreseden, it's unlikely to be rebuilt. 

Possibly?  
If all the smart ones migrated to Melbourne over the years leaving Athens in the bottom half of the list.

The same group do a 'where to be born' index (quality of life). If you were born in Australia you chose well.

RIP Malbuns.

-PB

Coincides with hipster culture rampaging and infiltrating the city these last few years.

Awash with homelessness, an unsustainable sprawl further and further out, 40 year outdated transport system. 

I agree that Brissy is a more attractive city than Melbourne- especially around the river and the Eastern Suburbs. You've got the rolling hills, the jacaranda trees/ flame trees and those old-style timber houses. Plus in the late afternoon, the buildings are enveloped in this pale orange tinge as the sun goes down. I used to live in the inner-eastern suburbs and going for a bike ride was great- follow the bike paths and the roads out to Murarrie, then over the Gateway Bridge and into the CBD through Ascot along the river side. There's a lot of pretty houses and leafy streets over that way- pricey but! It's actually quite poetic- as a writer I always found Brisbane quite an easy city to describe. 

I didn't mind the humidity so much either in the summer- it usually guaranteed an afternoon storm you could sit back and watch from your balcony, drink in hand and smell the petrichor as the rain began to fall. The only thing that sucked would be the hail storms, but my car always got through unscathed, thankfully!

Mind you, I don't even think places like Canberra or the Gold Coast are as bad as a lot of people make them out to be, so maybe I'm easily pleased?

Melbourne is a dump now. Overpriced housing and full of half men and anti social women. 

Only good for a visit now

If you like soy, The Greens and being man enough to let your s/o get ploughed by other men, Melbourne is the place to be.

Inferiority complex from non-Melbournians

Agreed. Melbourne is great! What I love best is being able to sit indoors and complain about the whether, talk about AFL and try to convince everyone else that it is just like Europe. It gives me a lot of joy that I KNOW Melbourne is better than Sydney and everyone else in the world is an idiot and wrong. *takes long sip of a warm soy latte*

Sporting Capital of the World amirite?

haha, classic Vanlassen.

A human trait to have a poll on whatever.
Like seriously funny imo, I have the luxury of traveling a fair bit over my business and private life and when talking of Australian cities don't get the were betta than you and you and you city apart from the sporting diff I can understand..
I live Sydney and I have always enjoyed visiting all our cap cities/regions - were damn bloody lucky that they are clean for starters compared to some of the woeful OS less well off countries I visit over the years.
Each city has its good and bad but someone always has to have the bigger dick, wankas no.

It's a slow day at work. I need to find a thread on why people shouldn't ride bikes on the road.

Fuck you.  They're legitimate road users!!!!!

How's that for starters?

I like Melbourne.  Go down with the family in January usually, get's fucken hot that time of year.   

Melbourne's boring. It's flat, grey, the river looks like shit and there's c*nts everywhere. Don't even get me started on the coffee, the most overrated drink in history