Why Vienna Works and what American Cities can Learn from Them

Vienna (Wien) this year was rated as a best city in the world to live based on many characteristics. This made me decide to check out what the report was all about. So we headed to Vienna to spend a month among locals and see what the city had to offer. So we hopped on Austrian Airlines from Cairo and got into Vienna on May 3rd.  Rented an apartment in the 4th district about a block from St. Charles's Church (German: Karlskirche).

Mercer ranks Vienna No. 1 for having the world's highest quality of life, and particularly notes the city's harmonious political and social environment. In just 10 years Vienna has turned its fortune with decisive leadership and an eye on the future.

Vienna is alive with its architecture from the past, harmony between old and new, a contrast of styles and materials and so varied from its magnificent Baroque buildings to Art Nouveau to the latest architecture. It has over 100 museums, over 27 castles and more than 150 palaces. Utmost attention has been paid to preserve its past by blending the new. The city is extremely well connected with its public transportation with underground metro, trams, buses, taxi and bicycle network.

Urban planner in Vienna decided to create an environmentally friendly (no exhaust fumes, no noise and green) and health conscious mode of transportation to keep its public fit by providing a vast bicycle network of 1,200 kilometers. The "City Bikes Wien” (www.citybikewien.at) is among the most modern free city bike systems worldwide. There are more than 60 bike stations, open 24 hours day, seven days a week. Once you register you can use any bike for up to one hour free of charge and drop them off to any bike stations. All this has made the City of Vienna decide to raise the share of bicycles in overall traffic to eight percent. Coming from America, with our utter dependence on automobiles, this was a total surprise, during our entire stay we did not rely on driving.

Vienna is the world’s capital of music with every type of music imaginable form classical, opera, musicals, dance, pop, rock, electronica, jazz & more. City is brimming with its outdoor festivals, free events for its public, and these are happening almost weekly. The city has a very art centric policies which encourages its youth to stay away from the crime.

All across the city we encountered musical, recreational and sports activities. On almost all public squares young and the old people alike were out with their picnic baskets, wines and beers. But there was no police presence. They allowed their public to enjoy outdoor activities at day and night without being threatened by law enforcement.

During our entire stay we hardly saw any police or law enforcement officers, unlike in the United States. 

We walked a lot around Vienna, and were surprised to see access to grocery markets. Every block there was at least one grocery market which in turn takes our reliability on driving. Also we did not come across too many super/hyper markets, instead many local pop and mom stores. I believe this is a great way to spread the wealth and keep it within the community instead of sending it all to the big fat cats and corporations.

During our stay we had to use their health care system (without insurance) and were pleasantly surprised to find the accessibility and cost of care.

By talking to the locals we learned that they love this moment in their history and they are very satisfied where there are compared to the global problems. They do not give a pass to their politicians, by being educated they demand better from their politicians.

Currently Austria boasts one the best economies in the world with unemployment at just 3.8%. Our politicians instead of just providing lip-service could learn something from their political leaders and create an “America-first agenda” and help its faltering economy. For this our public needs to demand better results from our leaders and from our government.