America's Top 50 Cities

[BigSqwert]

It's impossible to say what's "best" for everyone, of course. But where's the fun in not trying? Welcome to Businessweek.com’s second America’s Best Cities ranking. With assistance from Bloomberg Rankings, Businessweek.com evaluated 100 of the country’s largest cities based on leisure attributes (the number of restaurants, bars, libraries, museums, professional sports teams, and park acres by population); educational attributes (public school performance, the number of colleges, and graduate degree holders), economic factors (2011 income and June and July 2012 unemployment), crime, and air quality. Major professional league and minor league teams, as well as U.S.-based teams belonging to international leagues in that city were included. The greatest weighting was placed on leisure amenities, followed by educational metrics and economic metrics, and then crime and air quality. The data come from Onboard Informatics, except for park acreage, which comes from the Trust for Public Land. As the methodology has changed since the 2011 ranking, a city’s rise or fall compared with last year does not suggest that it has gotten “better” or “worse.”

 

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San Francisco gets top honors.

 

My new hometown Seattle is the runner up.

 

Chicago at #28

Rank: 28

Population: 2,679,998

 

The Windy City, America’s third-largest metropolis, would rank much higher if it were evaluated purely on its strong universities and thriving entertainment. Chicago is as hot as any city, thanks to its fine dining in such neighborhoods as Lincoln Park, nightlife in its more than 800 bars, and strong acting chops honed at such places as Second City and the Steppenwolf Theatre Co. To climb higher in the list, however, Chicago must address its increasing gang violence and high crime, as well as poor air quality and major economic issues.

 

Bars: 807

Restaurants: 6,438

Museums: 76

Libraries: 99

Pro sports teams: 8

Park acres per 1,000 residents: 4

Colleges: 42

Percent with graduate degree: 9.3

Median household income: $56,121

Percent unemployed: 9.8

 

Even before seeing this I ranked SF #1. And I do love living in Seattle. Everything is so much cleaner and you can actually breathe fresh air. Chicago should be a few notches higher but I understand how it can get dinged with the huge uptick in homicides.

 

 

Edited September 27, 2012 by BigSqwert

[LittleHurt05]

San Francisco #1? Did they not take housing prices into account?

[ChiSox_Sonix]

Rochester, NY being on the list makes me want to scream. I don't think the people doing this list have ever been there.

 

Denver at #6 was nice. Visited this year and absolutely loved it.

[Steve9347]

Portland #5 might not even be high enough. The wife and I visited there last month and it was just amazing.

[DukeNukeEm]

Its impossible to compare the American megacities (NYC, Bay Area, LA and Chicago) to their smaller counterparts. Just doesn't work like that.

[bigruss]

Rochester, NY being on the list makes me want to scream. I don't think the people doing this list have ever been there.

 

Denver at #6 was nice. Visited this year and absolutely loved it.

 

I was there this summer, that city is a complete s***hole. We stayed at the Hyatt Regency, which was nice, but were surrounded by slum. During the conference, we had some city official talk about the city and he started rattling off a bunch of number rankings and we barely kept the laughter inside of us.

[Jenksismyhero]

 

I was there this summer, that city is a complete s***hole. We stayed at the Hyatt Regency, which was nice, but were surrounded by slum. During the conference, we had some city official talk about the city and he started rattling off a bunch of number rankings and we barely kept the laughter inside of us.

 

Denver has a nice downtown area, but everything else is pretty meh. The dog food factory in the middle of town on the interstate is awful. But it's all about the location. Being so close to the various parks in the Rockies would be awesome. I'm jealous of my friends that live there.

 

San Fran is a fun city, but I'm a little surprised that they weren't docked for their homeless problem. They're everywhere.

 

And yeah, you can't really deny that Chicago has a huge gang/violence problem. It's a third world in some parts of the city. The violence gets reported but it's all white noise at this point. "14 kids died in shootings last night? That sucks.... hey there's this new bar I want to go check out..."

[bigruss]

Denver has a nice downtown area, but everything else is pretty meh. The dog food factory in the middle of town on the interstate is awful. But it's all about the location. Being so close to the various parks in the Rockies would be awesome. I'm jealous of my friends that live there.

 

San Fran is a fun city, but I'm a little surprised that they weren't docked for their homeless problem. They're everywhere.

 

And yeah, you can't really deny that Chicago has a huge gang/violence problem. It's a third world in some parts of the city. The violence gets reported but it's all white noise at this point. "14 kids died in shootings last night? That sucks.... hey there's this new bar I want to go check out..."

My post was towards Rochester just fyi, I've only seen Denver once when I was really young so I can't comment on it much.

[GoSox05]

I love Seattle, would like to live there one day.

 

 

 

[flippedoutpunk]

did they take into account that people in san fransisco love the smell of their own farts?

 

[dasox24]

Atlanta at #16? Sweet, but I wouldn't have guessed that. I thought we'd be lower.

[DukeNukeEm]

Seriously, on what planet is Scottsdale AZ a better city than Los Angeles? I dont even like LA (at all) but Scottsdale is a damn suburb.

[witesoxfan]

Seriously, on what planet is Scottsdale AZ a better city than Los Angeles? I dont even like LA (at all) but Scottsdale is a damn suburb.

 

On planet earth. How many 16,000 square foot homes does Paul Konerko have in Los Angeles?

 

Scottsdale 1, Los Angeles 0

[DukeNukeEm]

But I mean, if were grading cities, I just dont see how the two can be even stacked up against each other.

 

I was in Bismarck a few weeks ago. ND (Williston especially) is one of the strangest places I've been.

[farmteam]

St. Paul ahead of Minneapolis? Silly.

[ChiliIrishHammock24]

It seems a heavy part of the rankings were based on household income. Look through the list, it's pretty much is ascending order (there are deviations, of course). So is it the city that makes the income so high, or do rich people just choose to live there?

[cabiness42]

With me having strong ties to my family in Indiana, Chicago and Indianapolis are the only big cities I'd actually consider living in, but if that weren't a factor, here's how I'd rate cities that I have spent significant time in, based on cost of living, climate (I'm more of a cold weather person), traffic congestion, crime, politics and entertainment:

 

5-star: Dallas, Denver

4-star: Chicago, Indianapolis, Minneapolis, Nashville, San Diego

3-star: Atlanta, Charlotte, Cincinnati, Houston, Las Vegas, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, Phoenix

2-star: Baltimore, Detroit, Jacksonville, New York, San Antonio, San Francisco, Washington

1-star: Memphis, Miami, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Saint Louis, Seattle

Edited October 1, 2012 by HickoryHuskers

[NorthSideSox72]

Places like Scotssdale and Arlington are not cities, they are suburbs, and should be part of their actual cities for the list to be useful. Unless it is a list of best suburbs. And smaller towns should be a seperate list too.

 

Also... Tulsa? Lincoln? Seriously?

 

[NorthSideSox72]

With me having strong ties to my family in Indiana, Chicago and Indianapolis are the only big cities I'd actually consider living in, but if that weren't a factor, here's how I'd rate cities that I have spent significant time in, based on cost of living, climate (I'm more of a cold weather person), traffic congestion, crime, politics and entertainment:

 

5-star: Dallas, Denver

4-star: Chicago, Indianapolis, Minneapolis, Nashville, San Diego

3-star: Atlanta, Charlotte, Cincinnati, Houston, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, Phoenix

2-star: Baltimore, Detroit, Jacksonville, New York, San Antonio, San Francisco, Washington

1-star: Memphis, Miami, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Saint Louis, Seattle

Yeah, some cities are great for visiting, but not great for living in. Memphis being a prime example. Same with New Orleans.

 

[bmags]

Yeah, some cities are great for visiting, but not great for living in. Memphis being a prime example. Same with New Orleans.

 

But Miami and Seattle?

[dasox24]

Yeah, some cities are great for visiting, but not great for living in. Memphis being a prime example. Same with New Orleans.

I don't agree at all. It has it's faults, but so does every city. I really love Memphis. There are a lot of great things about it. Then again, I grew up in Memphis so maybe I'm biased b/c of the "home" feeling it provides.

[cabiness42]

But Miami and Seattle?

 

I'm not into having 250+ cloudy/rainy days per year, I'm not into coffee, and Seattle is really far from the rest of the country, so it rates pretty low in my book. The entire state of Florida is too humid for my tastes.

[bmags]

I'm not into having 250+ cloudy/rainy days per year, I'm not into coffee, and Seattle is really far from the rest of the country, so it rates pretty low in my book. The entire state of Florida is too humid for my tastes.

 

I think you should visit seattle. I feel like that's saying someone would never live in Chicago because they don't like deep dish or snow.

[BigSqwert]

I'm not into having 250+ cloudy/rainy days per year, I'm not into coffee, and Seattle is really far from the rest of the country, so it rates pretty low in my book. The entire state of Florida is too humid for my tastes.

Granted I've only lived here a year now but the whole rain thing seems really overblown. There were so many days in the winter where it drizzled for a few hours in morning and the sun would come out for the rest of the day. Combine that with a large portion of plant life that stays green year round and the winter isn't all that bad. And this past summer was nicer than any I can recall in Chicago. But to each their own.

[NorthSideSox72]

I don't agree at all. It has it's faults, but so does every city. I really love Memphis. There are a lot of great things about it. Then again, I grew up in Memphis so maybe I'm biased b/c of the "home" feeling it provides.

I lived in Memphis for about 3.5 years. Crime rate dwarfs that of Chicago, schools are awful, the neighborhoods are more segregated than any I've seen in any other American city, and the summers are horribly muggy. City government is completely screwed up, they thought it was a good idea to spend a few hundred million for a new stadium for a basketball team that couldn't fill the one they had, but they couldn't find $15M to get the asbestos out of their schools buildings. That's what I see as awful.

 

There were some good things - music, food, bars, tolerable winters... but again, most of that is more important for visiting than living there. Also loved having Shelby Farms there. But if I had to make a list of cities to live in, it would probably be near the bottom of my list.