The best Capital City

[lrfox 2]

Providence, Rhode Island... best state capital. I'm from Mass. so i'm partial to Boston, but Prov. frequently gets ranked the best city in America to live in. Good balance of smalltown/ big city, not far from NYC or Boston, GREAT shopping, nightlife, restaurants, GREAT Italian district (Federal Hill), and excellent educational institutions for a small city (Brown, RISD, URI, Providence College, Johnson and Whales). all in a city of 165,000 (1,250,000 metro).

Prov. Downtown

Brown University

Waterfires on the Providence River

one more

[PhilsCafe 8]

Vienna, Austria... it's a beautiful and diverse city. And it's actually the only other capital I've ever visited.

[suomi2005 52]

Helsinki Finland is the best capital it is as many says a small big city only about 570000 inhabitants but has everything and it is close with nature.

[belfastuniguy 18]

ahhhhhh London, love that city, such a fantastic place to live/shop/enjoy life and work. (I would vote Belfast, but not just yet, give it a few years)

[Micah 16]

London.

Without London, there wouldn't be Radio 2. *Listens to it online*

Though, there would be the Vicar of Dibley and the Proclaimers without London... hmm...

If I could go back to London, I'd go back there in a heart beat.

My second choice is Paris and then DC.

[daniel01 0]

i have to go with Rome

Because it is such a beautiful city.

and has a lot of history to it

daniel01

[ExiL3 10]

I have been to a most of the capitals in Northern, Western, Central Europe and I have been to London. Though I can't choose which is the best, they all have something to them that attract me.

take care,

[crazyyaya 4]

any west european capital full of rich history and culture

[josefmayor 8]

I would have to go with Amsterdam, due to its beautiful canals with its increadible architecture.

[david1314 44]

I would agree except for it's dubious status as "Capital"....

[Krio 626]

I would say Oslo, Norway, allthough it's one of the most expensive cities on Earth it is safe and clean. After Oslo, I would say Helsinki, Finland with same reasons.

[Panda Tar 0]

Bras

[Marla_Singer 46]

Many wrong things have been said about the comparison between Washington DC and Paris. Firstly, the size comparison between both. Washington is actually larger than the city of Paris. Here are the stats:

Washington, DC

Population: 581,530

Land area: 159 km² (61.4 mi² )

Pop. density: 3,481 inh./km² (9,015/mi² )

City of Paris

Population: 2,153,600

Land area: 105 km² (40.6 mi² )

Pop. density: 20,510/km² (53,099/mi² )

The City of Paris in itself is 33% smaller than Washington, DC and despite this it's 4 times more populous. Actually, excluding the outlying uninhabited woods of Boulogne and Vincennes, the City of Paris is actually twice smaller than DC (87 km² compared with 159 km² ). This being said, both agglomerations of Paris and Washington are far bigger than their central administrative city. However the population of the Paris agglomeration represents 10.2 million people whereas the Washington agglomeration only represents 3.9 million people. Actually, the Paris agglomeration is even larger than the London agglomeration (8.5 million people), which is often considered as an example of large city.

Considering this, many comments having been made about Paris appear short-sighted, especially those considering it as "a city of the past". I doubt any megacity could be considered as such. Paris is a hyper-dense city (only the island of Manhattan can challenge it in the western world). It's vibrant, huge and populous. Furthermore, there are many very modern districts in Paris (La Défense, Val de Seine, the Stade de France area), it's just not the places where tourist goes.

All this to say that many people over here apparently talk about Paris without even knowing it. And I don't consider a 2-day tourist trip to be an experience of Paris. Hell, It's been 24 years I live in Paris and the city continues to surprize me with whole districts I wasn't even aware they existed.

[montrouge 2]

Yes Paris urban area is bigger than London urban area, but London metro area (14 million inh) is bigger than Paris metro area (12 million)

Yes when we come about economy, modernity, street life, high-rises, Paris is soo underated.

Welcome in the 19th arrondissement of Paris

[diva613 0]

Ottawa all the way... not that I am biased or anything ... lol 

I mean Ottawa has weird bylaws, but it is still my favorite capital...

Ottawa has - A BRT (Bus Rapid Transit System) second to none, if i were to drive downtown, it would take an hour and half, to get there by transit, it takes me 25 minutes, (On a really bad day 40 minutes damn snow...) 

School System - We have four distinct boards that are funded publically, the English Public board, and the English Catholic board, and than their counterparts in French. 

During the winter, we have a 8 km skating rink, (WE STILL HOLD THE RECORD HAHAHA WINNIPEG!)  where there is a main festival celebrating the Canadian Winter.

I have to say that there is alot more about Canada's Capital, but I must say for a World Capital, we embrace our roots, back from the day that we were called Bytowne, when we were a logging community, I have to say my heart goes to Ottawa.

[diva613 0]

Second, if you built skyscrapers above the monuments, the city loses it's character.  It's a city of great historical importance.  The mouments represent that. quote>

I agree there, no offence to people who live in Toronto, but look at that, Queen's Park is beautiful and classical that is where the Members of Parliament from Ontario meet, and it is shrouded by many many beautifully architectural masterpieces, it takes away from it in my opinion, that rule is a good rule, and I thank the men and women who made it a Bylaw in Ottawa.

[hijodecordoba 74]

tough decision. i would choose Buenos Aires obviously , but in general i would say, that there are so many great places and capitals in the world and you should live in every single one of them at least a few years. that would be fantastic. i defenetly prefer cities with amazing skylines

[mencc1701 0]

Originally posted by: diva613 Ottawa all the way... not that I am biased or anything ... lol 

I mean Ottawa has weird bylaws, but it is still my favorite capital...

quote>

 

Seconded, and well said.

Ottawa is a beautiful city. It often gets overshadowed by Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver in this country, but I think that helps give it some of it's charm. It's a very understated place, both as a city and a capital... it's not really in your face and overly grandiose, but it is proud and impressive at the same time. 

Add in the clean and beautiful downtown core, historic areas like the Glebe, Byward Market, Sandy Hill, etc. and beautiful setting and you have a truly great city.

Not that Ottawa is totally without problems - it's getting to be a bit sprawling, and could really stand to have a good east-west LRT system, but then, what city doesn't?

[NoahJ14 0]

Well because I am Australian I feel obliged to choose Canberra, but I don't want to because to me Canberra seems a little out-classed by some of the other great capitals like Paris, London and Tokyo. The capital that I personally like the most however, is Abu Dhabi, the capital of the UAE.