monocle zooms in on cities

on the plane ride back from israel, i managed to get through an entire issue of the london-based magazine, monocle. all in all, i like the magazine--its generally more sophisticated than american magazines and is absolutely free of any starstruck qualities that tend to invade even the best of arts/culture print journalism. however, my main criticism of monocle is that it is too eurocentric (and japan-obsessed). besides for only featuring fewer than 3 mentions of the americas, as they call it, in a survey of the world's top 20 cities, new york didn't make the cut. this makes no sense to me. i understand that not everyone can make it in new york and there actually is a contigent of people who are not as obsessed with the city as new yorkers are, but come on. it should have at least made the top 3.

anyway, here is monocle's list of the world's top 20 most liveable cities (the first ten got major 1-2 page spreads on them; the second half of the list took up only 1/3 of a page in barely significant columns):
1. munich
2. copenhagen
3. zurich
4. tokyo
5. vienna
6. helsinki
7. sydney
8. stockholm
9. honolulu
10. madrid
11. melbourne
12. montreal
13. barcelona
14. kyoto
15. vancouver
16. auckland
17. singapore
18. hamburg
19. paris
20. geneva

in my opinion, this list is wack. how did paris barely make the cut at number 19?

while browsing the monocle website, trying to find an answer to my qualms with this list, i came upon monocle's miniscule guide to new york. at least they like american hamburgers.