Dubai = Greatest City in The World?

[NU Star]

There are clearly a lot of ways to determine the greatest city in the world, but at the rate it is going, it seems like in 20 years, a lot of people will be agreeing that it deserves this broad title. As long as oil prices stay strong, I can't imagine anything coming close in pure awesomeness.


Arguable World's Best Hotel:



Inarguably World's Best Golfer:


Future World's Tallest Building:



World's Greatest Landscaping:

Current Dubai Overhead


Future Overhead


A Whole Lot of Cranes:

[hawk59]

building a bunch of cool things in the desert doesn't make a great city

[private joker]

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building a bunch of cool things in the desert doesn't make a great city

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Yeah, from what I've heard from people who have been there is that there's a ton of cool things in the desert, but that the city is fairly dull and soulless. It's like Vegas but nobody is having any fun at all.

[Daddy Warbucks]

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building a bunch of cool things in the desert doesn't make a great city

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Yeah, from what I've heard from people who have been there is that there's a ton of cool things in the desert, but that the city is fairly dull and soulless. It's like Vegas but nobody is having any fun at all.

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Having been to both, i can say Dubai compares in many ways to Vegas. It's a cool and fun place to be, but the whole country revolves around money, and there's a huge amount of people humping crappy jobs for very little money to bring you your experience. There's also a ton of hookers everywhere.

I'd say its a fairly depressing place to live for a long period of time.

[aheravi]

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Having been to both, i can say Dubai compares in many ways to Vegas. It's a cool and fun place to be, but the whole country revolves around money, and there's a huge amount of people humping crappy jobs for very little money to bring you your experience. There's also a ton of hookers everywhere.

I'd say its a fairly depressing place to live for a long period of time.

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Been there a few times, but not in several years. It's interesting, but I definitely wouldn't make it out to be one of the top world cities.

Seemed like tons of Germans were vacationing there. I think it's rivaling Bahrain for 'fun' (Bahrain being the Saudis weekend party venue).

Still, it's BALLS ASS HOT. Yes, Vegas gets hot, too, but because of the Gulf, it's also BALLS ASS HUMID. The combination makes it unbearable.

[dc_publius]

IMO, people and depth and breadth of activities make cities great. Looking at a cool bunch of buildings gets old really fast, and chances are that most Dubai residents don't swing golf balls off of the top of that hotel, or live on Palm island. Dubai is basically a desert not only georgraphically, but also culturally and socially. They are making big strides to make themselves into a real city by buying/making one awesome item of everything in each field to get some recognition in that field, but they are not even close to being a nice city... yet.

[tuq]

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Looking at a cool bunch of buildings gets old really fast, and chances are that most Dubai residents don't swing golf balls off of the top of that hotel, or live on Palm island.

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True - the most obvious thing not mentioned yet (possibly because it is so obvious) is that a city that looks great from a satellite may not be fun nor practical from the ground. As "cool" as these future improvements are from 34,000 feet, what do their general cultural and infrastructural plans look like?

[Soh]

Vegas?

[Narcileptico]

Yea, because my number 1 criteria for greatest city in the world is how tall their tallest building is.

[PhilipBass]

And what will happen when the oil dries up?