According to the IHT’s and Monocle’s quality of life special, aka Urban Manifesto, Munich takes the number one spot. Interestingly enough, continental America is entirely disregarded, thanks to low ratings on crime rates, state education and health care - only Honolulu takes spot nine.

I am sure the editors know how to target their readers in those top ten cities, as they missed out on some great American cities, for example: San Francisco and Boston. Then again, they fall out of their desired target audience. Quality of life is highly subjective and weather wise Munich makes for cold winters. Let alone the much praised Gemütlichkeit or tolerance, both on the lower scale of my rate card. I feel more “gemütlich” in Berlin or Hamburg for that matter. And the Oktoberfest has more beer fights than college greek life; if it weren’t for the yearly event, they would loose a third of their tourist visitors.

Even the term manifesto seems out of whack. Rather take the Cluetrain Manifesto as a reprentative sample of a serious social idea with legs. As if words meant anything. Granted, if the streets are clean and the tram is punctual, it still doesn’t account for quality of life. I’d rather enjoy unfinished aesthetics of urban culture and discover the complex social fabric of diverse walks of life.

Trust me, Munich is a cocoon playground and on near prententious bogey with LA. To take a step back, the city was the launching pad of the facist movement in the 1920s and big opponent of the Weimar Republic. Talk about an image make-over, hey, even Angelina Jolie can’t compete.