The Best Places to Live...Includes HERE???

A nice company (that I dare quote without their express written permission) named Mercer Human Resource Consulting recently put out a survey of the best and worst places to live in the world, based upon quality of life.

Hmmm….I wonder where Sioux City ranks on this list?

Yeah, that's what I thought, too.

But there are some high points to live here in Sioux City. Like what, you ask? Well, we are the 198th largest TV market – out of the top 200. We’re known worldwide as a leading agricenter in the slaughter and butchering of all sorts of animals (pigs and cows in particular). Our fields are full of corn and soybeans. We're also home to the original Iowa loosemeat sandwich (disgusting as they may be), and there are enough Chinese buffets in this town to satisfy everyone’s craving for General Tso’s chicken and deep-fried anything. We’ve got enough stubborn, narrow minded, eccentric, stuck-in-the-50’s idiots available locally to fill a thousand villages. And hey – both Lewis AND Clark passed through here 200 years ago, and even buried one of their cohorts in our very own backyard. So there’s a lot going for us, right?

Alas, not according to the Mercer list. Their top three cities are:

* Zurich, Switzerland
* Geneva, Switzerland
* Vancouver B.C. Canada

Now, given that list, I can understand why Sioux City isn’t up quite that high. We don’t have those Alps to give us spectacular views, fresh water, or outstanding skiing. We don’t have local access to Swiss chocolate, watches, bank accounts, or army knives. (Sioux City honey and popcorn just isn’t the same.) They have cuckoo clocks; we have cuckoo people.

So Switzerland is apparently the place to be. And Sioux City? Well, I guess that we’ll just have to keep working on that. But hopefully we’re better off than the bottom three:

* Bangui in the Central African Republic
* Brazzaville, Congo Republic,
* Baghdad, Iraq

I can’t say that I’m surprised to see Baghdad on the bottom of the stack, but still -- I think it goes without saying that I’d rather be here than there. I mean, it may smell like the occasional cow’s ass here, but it’s better than stinking of a pointless war.

So here's to my hometown - with a little luck, a little clean-up, and an occasional genuine smile or two from the locals, maybe next year we'll be right up there with Zurich and Geneva. Or at least Detroit.