Quality of life is one of those elastic phrases that can be stretched to fit definitions broad and narrow, and any ranking, no matter how objective, leaves room for ample debate and interpretation.
Researcher and demographer Scott Thomas of American City Business Journals put together an exhaustive study and came up with a quality of life ranking for nearly 3,800 communities using 20 different criteria that cover everything from ease of commuting to household incomes to housing stock to educational attainment and cost of living.
The top communities for quality of life, according to Thomas’ rankings: East: Scarsdale, NY; South: West University Place, TX; Midwest: Winnetka, IL; and West: Hillsborough, CA.
Overall, the top 10 tilts heavily toward affluent suburbs of major cities such as New York, Chicago, Houston, San Francisco and Washington D.C. And there’s nothing wrong with that at all.
You can’t argue with the facts – yet everyone does. The Thomas ranking gives weight to areas with such attributes as high household incomes, high home values and high educational attainment. And it certainly can be suggested that those attributes create a favorable quality of life.
Therein lies the debate in assessing what makes a community truly livable. One person’s quality of life imperative is another person’s who cares?
Wichita, KS, which ranked, No. 1,932 on the list, was named by Money magazine as one of the 10 best cities in the nation in which to live, in part because of its impressive recreation options, including one of the largest YMCA systems in the country.
RelocateAmerica.com ranked Charlotte, NC, No. 1 on its Best Places to Live list based on not only its education and economy, but on factors that included parks and recreation options. Charlotte ranked 1,225 on Thomas’ list.
Fort Worth, TX, which ranked 2,416, on the list, has numerous examples of revitalized neighborhoods with unique shops, restaurants, and arts and entertainment venues that are a major draw for young professionals.
So, why do Wichita, Charlotte and Fort Worth top of the list of middling communities as places to live? The likely answer, of course, is it depends on whom you ask and what you ask about.
Perhaps the most important question a community can ask is what attributes does it have, or more simply put: Why would someone want to live here?
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