Joburg In Top 5 Most Inspiring Cities In The World

While Joburg’s coastal sibling, Cape Town, often gets a lot of praise from the international media, the City of Gold has made it on the Most Inspiring Cities in the World List, and that’s something to be seriously proud of.

According to the 2014 Good City Index, Johannesburg is the second-most inspiring city in the world – after Hong Kong. The City of Gold scores high for being a Hub of Progress, City Engagement, Street Life, Defining Moments, Connectivity, Green Life, Diversity and Work Life Balance.

The Johannesburg Metro is one of only three African cities to feature in the magazine’s Top 20 list. The others are Nairobi in Kenya, which is perched at number five, while Dakar in Senegal is in position nine. 

“This is a humbling accolade,” Executive Mayor Parks Tau said in a statement, “particularly because it comes in less than a month after the 2014 MasterCard Global Destination Cities Index announced us, the City of Johannesburg, as the most popular destination city in Africa for a second consecutive year”. 

“This shows that our efforts as a city at work to promote socio-economic transformation are making an impact, not only locally, but also internationally,” Tau said.

Joburg outclassed cities such as Mexico City (third place), New Orleans in the United States (seventh), Montreal in Canada (12th), Melbourne in Australia (14th), Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (19th) and Seoul in South Korea (20th) as far as the creation of inspiration is concerned. 

Some of the things that swayed the votes of judges in Joburg’s way include the urban regeneration projects the City is undertaking, such as:  bike lanes in Soweto, mixed-use development in the once-rundown area of Newtown, the Joburg Art Fair, Diepsloot Mountain Biking Academy, Dlala Nje (a space encouraging children from three in the inner city to come together), and the vibey Maboneng precinct.