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Future Cities: Shaping Europe from the bottom up

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  • Regions
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  • London
  • Vienna
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  • Euobserver
The 2016 edition of EUobserver's Regions & Cities magazine looks at the cities of the future in Europe. While the EU is grappling with challenging problems - Brexit, migration, the economy, terrorism, to name a few - many European cities are reinventing themselves and tackling these problems in their own way.

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RICH IN CULTURE AND MONEY These surveys are designed to advise multinationals on the levels of compensation they should offer their staff. Using them to evaluate a city is like appreciating a tune by looking at the sheet music. a disproportionately high level of culture because of its history as an imperial centre serving tens of millions of people. “In the US you would need to be a city of 6 million to offer a comparable quality of cultural life,” he says. eastern European states to the EU. not shy of using the surveys: “It's another anchor for us. Even people who don't really know much about Vienna, they know about these quality of life surveys.” He lists an impressive range of other “anchors” - Vienna is the biggest university town in the Germanspeaking world, one of Europe's fastest-growing cities, one of its youngest, and the only capital city with productive vineyards. He does not even resort to Vienna's staples - the palaces, coffee shops, operas, nearby ski slopes, forests, mountains, rivers or anyone by the name Strauss. That said, culture is certainly one of the main reasons for Vienna's international fame and fortune. Some traditions die hard in Vienna - like the introduction of Vienna re-established itself as a hub between east the service sector is by far the most important for its economy. HISTORICAL MELTING POT The administration, economics and culture of Vienna appear to map a perfect city. But Vienna is not a utopia. Just like in any other city, petty gripes can correspondent is not consoled by life-quality surveys when, day after day, people refuse to help lift Florence's pushchair up or down the precipitous steps of the city's old-fashioned trams. immigration - the city of 1.8 million people has added 250,000 residents in the past 15 years, most of them immigrants. Photo: Joseph Boyle FUTURE CITIES OCTOBER 2016 — 19

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