Shifting Lenses

Over spring break, my family took a trip to Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It’s a city that consistently ranks highly on the “most livable” lists, and having been there, I can see why. The surveys look at things like safety, education, healthcare, culture, and public transport, and I definitely experienced many of those positive aspects firsthand.

The walkability is fantastic, and it’s clear that education is a huge priority there as their license plates even say “the education state.” Culturally, Melbourne is vibrant.  In fact, our Uber driver even mentioned there’s a festival every weekend. The mass transit is also a bit above what we have in the US, feeling cleaner and safer, though it definitely gets crowded in the central zone. 

It wasn’t a perfect picture, though. There were homeless people in some areas, and a few streets didn’t feel entirely safe to walk at night. There was a bit of grit, and it didn’t have that perfectly clean, utopian feel I’ve grown accustomed to living in Singapore. My perspective is definitely skewed by my current home country!

Despite not being a utopia, I truly loved Melbourne. It struck me as a more realistic vision of what US cities could be. We probably can’t reach Singapore’s level of safety, but Australia’s seems achievable. Spending time there really made me wonder what’s possible back in the USA. A city like Melbourne feels within reach, but the question is, how do we get there? I think government policy plays a huge role, but that’s intertwined with culture, which is so much harder to shift.