News Release From the City of Charlottesville Web Site:

Find this article at: http://www.charlottesville.org/index.aspx?recordid=11&page=635

Charlottesville Rated Best Place to Live in America

Posted Date: 3/30/2004

CHARLOTTESVILLE, VIRGINIA – Frommer's Cities Ranked and Rated has named Charlottesville the Best Place to Live in America! The new publication rated over 400 cities in the United States and Canada in ten different categories, and found that Charlottesville attained the top overall rating.

The ten evaluated categories included Economy & Jobs, Cost of Living, Climate, Education, Health & Healthcare, Crime, Transportation, Leisure, Arts & Culture and overall Quality of Life.

"We are thrilled to be recognized as the best place to live in our great country," said Mayor Maurice Cox. “"The residents of our area are the critical element in making Charlottesville a wonderful community, and from a local government perspective, we are simply honored to play a role in maintaining our city’s high quality of life."

According to the book, Charlottesville has "a special mix of college-town and historic amenities and is clean and heavily shaded."

The rankings were released in the USA Today newspaper this morning and live on The Today Show on NBC.

The top ten cities in the book are (1)Charlottesville, VA - (2)Santa Fe, NM - (3)San Luis Obispo, CA - (4)Santa Maria-Lompoc - (5)Honolulu, HI - (6)Ann Arbor, MI - (7)Atlanta, GA - (8)Asheville, NC - (9)Reno, NV - (10)Corvallis, OR.

---

Article in USA Today:

Find this article at: http://www.usatoday.com/life/lifestyle/2004-03-29-best-cities-main_x.htm

'Mr. Jefferson would be proud': Charlottesville is No. 1

By Bob Minzesheimer, USA TODAY

Charlottesville, Va., where Thomas Jefferson founded and designed the University of Virginia, is the best place to live in the USA, according to a book out today. (Related story: See which cities are emerging as great places to live)

Charlottesville, Va. is home to Thomas Jefferson's home, Monticello, and the college he designed, the University of Virginia.

Cities Ranked & Rated (Wiley, $24.99) gives high marks to several other college towns, including Ann Arbor, Mich. (No. 6) and Corvallis, Ore. (No. 10).

At the bottom of the rankings of 331 metropolitan areas are Laredo, Texas (No. 331), Stockton, Calif. (No. 330) and Newburgh, N.Y. (329).

The 820-page book by Bert Sperling and Peter Sander rates cities in 10 categories but give the most weight to three categories they say most affect daily life: cost of living, climate and one subjective measure: quality of life.

The book says Charlottesville's high housing prices are the only "negative and directly reflect the quality of life and resistance to sprawl. ... Mr. Jefferson would be proud."

10 great places

Cities Ranked & Rated's top 10 cities and metropolitan areas:

1. Charlottesville, Va.
2. Santa Fe
3. San Luis Obispo, Calif.
4. Santa Barbara, Calif.
5. Honolulu
6. Ann Arbor, Mich.
7. Atlanta
8. Asheville, N.C.
9. Reno
10. Corvallis, Ore.

But Laredo's "bustle, lack of intellectual stimulation, poverty, high crime rate and heat will try anyone's patience."

Sander, who lives in a suburb of Sacramento (No. 85) says statistics alone can't measure "good planning and livable infrastructure. A good place is not only pedestrian-friendly but has something worth walking to."

Sperling, who lives in Portland, Ore., (No. 12), notes that cities with the most resources, such as New York (No. 40), Los Angeles (No. 54) and Chicago (No. 155) don't top the list. The high ratings of smaller cities such as Santa Fe (No. 2), Asheville, N.C. (No. 8) and Reno (No. 9) reflect "an increasing trend of people searching for alternatives to the big-city lifestyle."

As for Laredo, he hopes residents realize that "the conditions which contributed to this ranking are not permanent."

In 1986, Sperling created Money magazine's first Best Places to Live list, which ranked Flint, Mich., as the worst place to live. That became fodder for Michael Moore's film Roger & Me, but Sperling says Moore recently told him, "It was the best thing that could have happened. That was exactly what I had been trying to tell people: that Flint had become a wasteland."

In the new book, Flint is ranked No. 234 and praised for creating a broader economy and cultural attractions.

---

From MSNBC:

Find this article at: http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4625179/

Think your city is best? See the latest rankings The latest issue of ‘Cities Ranked and Rated’ is just out. ‘Today’ talked to the authors about what makes a metropolis great (or bad)

Today show

Updated: 11:29 a.m. ET March 30, 2004

Thinking about relocating? Or just curious how your city compares with others across the nation? Well, the answers to your questions are here, as featured in the annually updated book "Cities Ranked and Rated." The book’s authors, Bert Sterling and Peter Sander, talked to the “Today” show about their findings.

How did you decide who makes it to the top?

PETER: "We look at over a hundred pieces of information about each place. We group those into nine categories — including, economy and jobs, cost of living, climate, education, arts and culture. We add in a factor for intangibles and another for consistency across categories, press a button, and voila."

"Cities Ranked and Rated": The Top 10

1. Charlottesville, VA
2. Santa Fe, NM
3. San Luis Obispo, CA (includes Atascadero and Paso Robles)
4. Santa Barbara, CA (includes Santa Maria and Lompoc)
5. Honolulu, HI
6. Ann Arbor, MI
7. Atlanta, GA
8. Asheville, NC
9. Reno, NV
10. Corvallis, OR
(See the complete Top 50 list at the end of this article.)

In general, what places make it to the top of the list?

BERT: College towns do especially well. They have plenty to do, nice downtowns, pleasant surroundings ... and usually aren't too crowded. The strength in higher education spills over into all levels of education, and most have excellent health care facilities. State capitals — which tend to be clean, economically stable, and usually have strong cultural ties — are good. Finally, places that score consistently high across all categories also tend to do well."

Were there any surprises in your findings?

PETER: "Yes, quite a few. For instance, highly ranked cities are found all across the country, not just in the Sun Belt like everybody thinks. There are interesting cross-sections — like our so-called "Big City Bargains" — a big city with a low cost of living) — like Pittsburgh, Indianapolis and Jacksonville, FL.

And what about the bad news? Let's take a look at the bottom of your "principal metropolitan areas" list. How would you characterize the less fortunate cities at the bottom?

327. Kankakee, IL
328. Merced, CA
329. Newburgh, NY
330. Stockton-Lodi, CA
331. Laredo, TX

BERT: "Areas at the bottom typically have … high unemployment, crime and cost of living combined with low educational attainment, a lack of amenities and not much to do. That said, most places at the bottom of the list, such as Stockton-Lodi, recognize their shortcomings and are actively working to improve."

If I'm young and single, just starting out, what places would I find attractive? PETER: "Younger singles are interested in building their careers and financial footing. They want lots to do, and of course lots of other singles. Of course, the places that rank highest overall are good bets, but for singles in particular we would choose the Norfolk area in Virginia (#17), Austin TX (#22) and from a little farther down the list, San Antonio, TX (#93)."

And what if I have a family with kids? Where are the best places for families?

BERT: "Families look for many things, including good and affordable housing, quality education and more 'daytime' things to do like parks, museums and outdoor recreation. We would choose Olympia, WA (#16), Pittsburgh, PA (#28), and as a dark horse, Lexington, KY (#91)for families."

Ok, now I've lived a prosperous career and family life, and I'm starting to think about retirement. Where should I look?

PETER: "Well, first of all, you've brought up a very important value of this book — it isn't just to figure out where you should be now, it's to plan a future, too. ... People approaching retirement are thinking more about healthcare, leisure and overall cost of living and less about jobs, housing costs and general education. Our choices would be Roanoke, VA (#11), Bellingham, WA (#38), and a dark horse from far down the list — Sheboygan, WI (#199). Another dark horse, Fayetteville , NC (#250), is also attractive.

What makes some of these cities "dark horses"?

BERT: "The dark horses may not score well in all categories but do have strong characteristics attractive to certain segments of the population. They are also on an upward path. We would expect them to rank higher overall in the next edition of 'Cities Ranked & Rated.'"

Virginia, Texas and Washington seem to be mentioned a lot. Is there a pattern here?

BERT: "Yes, there is. These states tend to have favorable business climates, which lead to favorable economic circumstances for their residents. They are physically attractive and have good climates. They also tend to be socially and politically progressive, considerate of their futures but also of their past. All of these things work together to create an environment conducive to better living."

"Cities Ranked and Rated": The Top 50

Charlottesville, VA
Santa Fe, NM
San Luis Obispo-Atascadero-Paso Robles, CA
Santa Barbara-Santa Maria-Lompoc, CA
Honolulu, HI
Ann Arbor, MI
Atlanta, GA
Asheville, NC
Reno, NV
Corvallis, OR
Roanoke, VA
Portland-Vancouver, OR-WA
Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill, NC
Bryan-College Station, TX
Lynchburg, VA
Olympia, WA
Norfolk-Virginia Beach-Newport News, VA-NC
Colorado Springs, CO
Nassau-Suffolk, NY
Pueblo, CO
Eugene-Springfield, OR
Austin-San Marcos, TX
Lafayette, IN
Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN-WI
Dover, DE
Washington, DC-MD-VA-WV
Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers, AR
Pittsburgh, PA
Bloomington, IN
Stamford-Norwalk, CT
State College, PA
Abilene, TX
Champaign-Urbana, IL
Athens, GA
Wichita, KS
Fort Worth-Arlington, TX
Madison, WI
Bellingham, WA
Las Cruces, NM
New York, NY
Dayton-Springfield, OH
Bloomington-Normal, IL
Sarasota-Bradenton, FL
Bremerton, WA
Albuquerque, NM
Harrisburg-Lebanon-Carlisle, PA
Evansville-Henderson, IN-KY
Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL
Punta Gorda, FL
Columbia, SC

© 2006 MSNBC Interactive