The people of Sydney have spoken, and they sure hate tourists. According to the local results of the Time Out City Life Index – a poll of 15,000 people from 32 cities around the world – Bondi ranks as the most overrated suburb in Sydney thanks to it being too crowded, difficult to get to and overpriced.
In fact, 33 per cent of you said Bondi, Bondi Beach or Bondi Junction were the most overrated neighbourhoods in the city. Common complaints were tourists, transport and how expensive it is to live there. But also that there are better beaches than our most globally famous stretch of sand.
You said it’s “Full of wankers and superficial elite”, “seriously not worth the money or the attitude”, “aesthetically lame, culturally numb” and “everyone is there to show off their body with their green super smoothies and activewear”.
Second to Bondi, Newtown was voted both ‘most overrated’ (11 per cent) and the ‘most loved’ suburb (15 per cent). So it seems we can’t agree on our best assets. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Sadly, it seems we’re a supercritical bunch who don’t think very highly of our home city at all. In fact, we rank very close to the bottom of the list of the world’s happiest places to live. Sydney ranked at 28 on the list of 32 world cities, beating Dubai, Boston, Singapore and Istanbul. Only 37 per cent of Sydneysiders had positive feelings towards the dining scene, and only 28 per cent felt excited about Sydney's cultural offerings.
So where do we love to live? Chicago topped the list of the world’s best cities, for a second year, followed by Porto, New York, Melbourne and London. Other weird and wonderful findings were that Parisians have the most sex, Washington, DC is the dating capital, Austin is number one for live music and Mexico City is the most cultured.
That’s right, our southern friends in Melbourne are still in love with themselves and their thriving nightlife, world-class food and drink offerings and their arts and culture. Eugh! Surely, it also helps that it’s a more affordable place to live?
Apparently not. The Time Out City Life Index asked readers questions ranging from how often they go out for dinner to how they’d rate their city for affordability, safety and friendliness and it found that the key factors to making a city a great place to live were based on how regularly we go out, the city’s great culture, live music and nightlife – and whether or not we’re proud to live here. If a city offers all of that, it can afford to have flaws like affordability and feeling safe – they’re not deal-breakers when it comes to loving a city.
What else did we learn about Sydneysiders? Well the numbers speak to our collective disappointment with our city’s nightlife. Forty-four per cent of you said that it’s been a year since you last stayed up till sunrise and 66 per cent said that the last time they went to a nightclub was either in the last year, or longer than 12 months ago. Interestingly, we’re pretty healthy too. Sixty-six per cent of us have exercised in the last week and 38 per cent of us have never taken drugs. Though we do like the booze – 49 per cent of you saying you went to a bar in the last week. But, despite our efforts to inspire you with our 52 Weeks of Culture campaign, only nine per cent of you made it to the theatre in the last week (but 44 per cent of you did see at least one show last year).
For more insights into the City Life Index, check out some global stats below:
Find out why Chicago topped the list for the second year in a row.