by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist
A couple of weeks ago Money Magazine published its annual list of best places to live in the United States. The magazine keeps a database of over 1,800 communities across the country that meet their qualifications for entry into the competition. Those qualifications limit the size of communities from 8,500 to 50,000, and also includes those with populations of over 90,000. Income of people residing in the communities must average less that 200% of the state median - which means they can be wealthy, but not too wealthy - and they must have satisfactory education and crime scores. Also, each community in consideration must be no more than 95% white.
The absolute best place to live in the United States, according to Money Magazine, is Louisville, Colorado. The remaining nine of the top ten are Chanhassen, MN, Papillion, NE, Middleton, WI, Milton, MA, Warren, NJ, Keller, TX, Peachtree City, GA, Lake St. Louis, MO, and Mukilteo, WA. (I've been to Lake St. Louis, MO, and was not that impressed - but those folks at Money are way smarter than me. I probably took a wrong turn and missed the best part of town!)
A fair distribution of these 100 best places to live would have wound up with each of the fifty states having two. Nothing is fair, however, and many states had several best places to live, and many other states had none. Texas did the best with seven of its cities being selected for the honor. Texas was followed closely by Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Ohio, each with six. Washington, Wisconsin, and Michigan each had five of the best places to live, and Missouri, Minnesota, Utah, and Alabama had four apiece.
At the other end of the spectrum, these states contained none of the 100 best places to live in the United States: Hawaii, Alaska, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Kentucky, Tennessee, South Carolina, West Virginia, Louisiana, New York, Delaware, Vermont, and Maine. New York and Vermont really surprised me by not having any, but Arizona did not!
As I gracefully age, stuff like this becomes much more important. I'm looking for something warm - not hot - within an easy walk of the beach. Room for a big dog and a few chickens would be a plus. If you have property like that and want to trade for a double-wide in the desert - get in touch!
1 comment:
If you find property like that that someone wants to trade for a condo in Willoughby, Ohio, pass them this way, ok?
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