Posted on 09/24/2014 8:19:02 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
There are plenty of benefits to living in big cities like New York and San Francisco.
But do they really offer the highest quality of life?
Residential resource company Livability recently released its annual list of the 100 best places to live in the US, looking at factors like access to schools, hospitals, and infrastructure; affordability and income; and how residents take advantage of those opportunities. (You can read the complete methodology here.)
Livability looked at more than 2,000 small- to mid-size cities in the US, with populations ranging from 20,000 to 350,000, to compile its ranking.
20. Eugene, Oregon
Located near the McKenzie and Willamette rivers, Eugene is an outdoorsy city with tons of water sports and a health-conscious attitude. The city is also home to the University of Oregon and has numerous performing arts and cultural venues.
Population: 156,222
Median Household Income: $41,525
Median Home Price: $244,600
19. Rockville, Maryland
Rockville is a wealthy city on the outskirts of Washington, D.C. It is home to bio-medical and technology companies, with a 100,000-square-foot library and a popular town square.
Population: 60,960
Median Household Income: $97,667
Median Home Price: $481,700
18. Salt Lake City
Salt Lake City offers a ton of recreational activities for residents, thanks to its proximity to the mountains and ski resorts. The University of Utah lends a lot to the city's culture.
Population: 186,740
Median Household Income: $44,510
Median Home Price: $240,600
17. Overland Park, Kansas
Livability gave Overland Park, the second-largest city in Kansas, high marks with regards to its sports facilities and schools. The city attracts families and young professionals with a good balance of residential, retail, and office space.
Population: 174,503
Median Household Income: $72,074
Median Home Price: $224,300
16. Santa Barbara, California
Santa Barbara has beautiful beaches, shopping centers, performing arts venues,
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Ranking Methodology
Making a Best Places to Live list is part art and part science, but we wanted to lean as much on the science as we could.
Our editors have broad experience studying and writing about what makes a city a great place to live and work. But we wanted other perspectives as well. So we once again partnered with the research team at the Martin Prosperity Institute. The Institute, directed by Richard Florida, is part of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto and is the leading think-tank on the role of location, place and city-regions in global economic prosperity.
We plotted out what we would measure and how. We also wanted your perspective. It’s easy to think about what makes a top city from a theoretical point of view. But we needed to know how the various aspects of livability impacted everyday lives. Ipsos Public Affairs, one of the leading global market research firms, conducted an exclusive survey for us so we could find out.
This list isn't based just on our beliefs and research. This list is also based on your assessments of is most valued in your communities.
We spent months collecting and poring over data and methodologies from public sources like the U.S. Census Bureau and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Affairs, as well as leading private-sector sources including Esri, Walk Score and Great Schools; nonprofits like Americans for the Arts; and variables we created exclusively for this study. We were advised in the project by a stellar panel of experts in livability-related fields.
We analyzed data on more than 2,000 cities throughout the U.S. For our ranking, we focused in on the small to mid-sized cities with populations between 20,000 and 350,000. The results were then weighted based on the priorities set forth by you and your fellow citizens based on our 2,000-person, demographically-balanced survey.
We made a series of improvements from our inaugural list. Specifically, we wanted to add some more variables about health care; look at the role of proximity to institutions like hospitals, colleges and universities; and create a better balance between our survey questions and the topics we were measuring. We created some new variables including a measure of racial and ethnic diversity and a rather unique look at the diversity of housing stock. We shifted some variables from one category to another if we thought it might be a better fit or create more balance between the categories.
Therefore, it’s not a completely apples-to-apples comparison to look at the rank of a city last year and this year. Some cities move up and down, some fall off the list entirely and many new cities join the ranks of our Best Places to Live. That’s OK. If a city was on last year’s list but not this year’s, it doesn’t mean that it’s now a bad place to live. These are the top 5 percent of the cities in our population universe. They’re all pretty stellar.
The goal is always to get smarter about how we evaluate places, be attuned to changing definitions of livability and always be on the hunt for better sources of data and methodologies for measuring.
As with our inaugural list, we focused on four guiding principles:
Access
Start with the basics: A city needs good schools, hospitals, airports and infrastructure, low crime, and a good climate. Then add amenities like parks, golf courses, farmers markets, and arts and culture. Finally, the natural and built environment are factors as well.
Affordability
Affordability is about more than just cost. Income comes into play, too. We layered several variables related to spending on broad categories like housing, transportation, health care and food, as well as data about income to ensure we were finding cities where livability isn't a luxury but is the norm.
Choice
The more options a city offers, the more it can be livable for everyone. For example, by looking at the percentage of commuters who don't drive alone, you can gauge if there are transportation options. We rewarded cities that offer residents the most flexibility in choosing a hospital, school, park, farmers market and commuting mode.
Utilization
Finally, having all of these great things is important, but so is using them. Esri provided us with lifestyle variables that allowed us to see which residents were making the most of their opportunities in their cities.
We wanted the list to celebrate cities that were livable for everyone. We know any list like this is going to create some argument. You’ll wonder why your city isn’t on the list or why it isn’t ranked higher – unless you live in Madison. Those 234,000 people will be very happy with their ranking. No one can make an unassailable methodology, but we want ours to be as transparent as possible. Let us know what you think.
What’s this? A list of liberal hot spots?
Interesting how most of those are college towns, or larger cities with good sized universities therein.
Hmmmm....the Business Insider picks a load of lefty college-town logpiles along with de facto Washington DC aka Arlington VA. Have the selectors actually been in business?
Small favors: ‘sustainability’ wasn’t a criterion.
Where’s Newark and Camden.
Ahh, Eugene...where the men shave their legs and the women don’t.
At last a list that does not list Texas. It is really bad down here...
You know the writer is an addled Liberal when he asks whether the quality of life is best in an American city - ANY American city.
It’s a sure sign that he knows absolutely nothing about ‘quality of life’.
It’s like a list of some alternate locations for the Kremlin.
Seriously! Eugene, Oregon is even more hipster/lefty than Portland, and has high taxes and few jobs.
Bezerkey lol
Gdansk is on Mormon mission in Eugene. Big challenge
Grandson
I rather like college towns and live in a nice one which is thankfully not on this list.
Berkeley??? really? It must have changed a lot since the decade I last visited. Any place with dead end streets to deter drug deals, with more than 5% of houses having bars on their windows, or with an aggressive panhandler every 100 ft should automatically get disqualified.
When the only southern town on the list is weird Asheville, NC, I don’t pay much attention to the list.
Or Detroit & Ferguson, MO?
Where’s East St. Louis?
Ashville is an elistist, nose-turned-up community. In other words, it’s a southern country-club town.
Hate it with a passion!
Seems like a leftist wrote this screed.
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