You gotta love Yuba City,
Calif., and Peoria, Ill.
Last year, Yuba City placed dead last among 300 cities
ranked by Money magazine as the best place to live in America.
Peoria last year ranked 299th.
This year, Yuba City moved up to 299th, and Peoria rose
to 298th.
There's something wonderful about that kind of consistency
in such a blatantly subjective, opinionated and skewed determination.
I can hear them in Yuba City and Peoria saying, ``We're
the worst of the best, and we love it that way.''
For the record, last place in 1996 goes to Rockford, Ill.,
which dropped to the bottom from its 1995 ranking of 293rd.
As anyone who's interested in the opinions of Money magazine
knows, the honor of best place to live in America, according to the readers
of Money magazine who provide the opinions that generate the list, belongs
to Madison, Wisc., home of the University of Wisconsin.
Money's readers are also asked
what factors they consider in selecting the best place to live. They list
a low crime rate, clean water, plentiful doctors, many hospitals, rising
home prices (that's right, rising!), good schools, low property taxes, low
income taxes and strong state government.
Did anybody mention fun? How about good neighbors and friends?
Does a short commute to work play a role?
How about distance from in-laws?
Don't laugh. I spoke to a young man retiring from the Air
Force recently who told me he and his family were returning to the States
and couldn't decide where to settle.
``I've got close relatives in Florida, New Jersey, Chicago
and Seattle,'' he said, ``so it was a tough decision.''
Where did he decide to relocate his family?
Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Apparently climate ranks low
as a factor to the readers of Money magazine, which has to be a bit odd
and suspicious when one figures that ten of the twenty top cities according
to the reader's poll are in Florida, one of the few places in the continental
United States with a sub-tropical climate.
I noted that Nashua, New Hampshire, dropped from 19th place
to 42nd place, which probably indicates nothing more than that all those
people who work in Boston, Taxachusetts, and race up I-93 across the border
to Nashua where no one pays state income tax have probably ruined Nashua's
water, schools, hospitals and roads and jacked up the crime rate along the
way.
Things change; so do bests.
In making these determinations, few seem to consider the
most obvious factor: Dwelling place.
Most of us wind up liking it where we're at.
There's a sentimental saying that goes ``Home is where
the heart is'' and I've heard it jokingly paraphrased as ``Home is where
the hat is.''
We could paraphrase it further by saying ``Best is where
the hat is.''
I have a strong suspicion many readers voted for the city
in which they live, and I further suspect that individual judgment in matters
like these changes as experience grows.
When I lived there, I'd have
picked New York City as the best place to live. Of course, I'd have to qualify
that; Brooklyn is the best place; I wouldn't ever want to live in Manhattan
or the Bronx.
By the way, New York dropped to 231st place this year after
its 141 ranking in 1995.
One summer for me, the best place to live was Fountain,
Colorado. I've never had a living experience like it before or after; it
was my first experience of the Rocky Mountains. I've also never been back
there.
Six cities in Colorado made Money's list, between Boulder's
rank at 28th and Colorado Springs' rank at 107th.
Which tells me Money magazine has almost as many subscribers
in Colorado as it has in Florida.
I have a good friend who spent several long periods working
in some obscure outpost on the Aleutian Islands. I know at the time he would
have called it the best place in the world to live, but he wouldn't want
to live there now if he was offered a six-digit paycheck _ make that seven-digit.
The only place in Alaska that
made Money's list is Anchorage, which ranked 278th after dropping eight
places from last year's poll.
Several of my favorite places never made the list: Montpelier,
Vermont, for one, the nation's smallest capital city.
Or how about Scotia, New York. My nephew and his family
would rate it the best place in America to live, but it didn't make the
list. It happens to be across a river from the Schenectady-Troy-Albany region,
which ranked near the bottom at 293rd, falling from 267th last year.
One thing's for certain, no place that Charles Kuralt ever
chronicled on his travels across the nation appeals to the readers of Money.
Perhaps I'm too cynical about this, but I have a feeling
that if we could examine the subscription list of Money magazine we'd find
a high correlation between selections of ``best place'' and the homes of
the subscribers.
It's clear that jobs have a lot to do with how Money's
readers determined what is the best place to live.
The top choice, Madison, Wisc., has the lowest unemployment
rate of any of the 300 cities on the list, while Rockford, Ill, the bottom
selection, is described by the magazine as a place noted for a work force
apparently fleeing in search of better opportunities.
Clearly, this suggests our
paraphrase should say, ``Home is where the job is.''
Of course, even if home and job are in a particular city, there's nothing
that says we have to think it the best place to live.
Something tells me it's a big factor, however, and I'll
bet lots of working folks in Yuba City and Peoria agree with me.
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Allan R. Andrews can be reached at andrews852@verizon.net