Best Cities

The safest cities. The best cities. The happiest cities. We see the rankings all the time. But do they matter. Yes, says Samuel Arbesman, who surveyed 310 US residents by using Amazon's Mechanical Turk service.

Good planning is attracting young hipsters to cities throughout the world, writes Christopher F. Schuetze.

At least, the favorite town of Outside Magazine's readership, in a survey of almost 22,000 readers. Outside says the factors that make Chattanooga hot range from "epic singletrack to progressive city planning."

Jarrett Walker looks at a recent "Top Cities for Transit" list that ranks Honolulu #1, and says the criteria that the Brookings Institution used are "especially perverse".

Edwin Heathcote of the Financial Times says that lists of the "Best Cities" often fail because they select cities that are the most "livable", ignoring what makes cities "lovable".

Joel Kotkin puts forward the premise that smaller urban regions are more nimble than big cities. Kotkin dubs these smaller cities like Austin, Columbus and Raleigh-Durham "efficient cities."

A new study looks at the best cities in the world for science, using publication rates in as the basis. The researchers

The American Planning Association has released its 2010 selections for great public spaces, streets and neighborhoods, ranging from a sculpture garden in Alabama to New York's transformed Bryant Park.

Publishers and marketing folks admit that the barrage of lists titled "Top 10 Places To...." is inspired purely by the public's inability to resist clicking them.

The American Institute of Economic Research ranks the best cities and towns in which to attend college, using academic achievement, quality of life, and professional opportunities as factors.

Outside Magazine compiles their top 25 U.S. towns for outdoor adventure. Considered alongside the availability of great kayaking and biking were stats like percentage of college graduates and cost of living.

Public Servant Blog dares to compile a completely subjective list of the Top 20 Urban Planning Successes of All Time, with selections ranging from the obvious (Amsterdam) to the less so (Marimont, Ohio). See if you agree.

Eden Prairie, Minnesota tops Money Magazine's recent list of Best Places to Live 2010. Blogger Chris O'Leary points out that Eden Prairie is devoid of anything to separate it from any other suburb, and in fact has no downtown at all.

Apparently metropolises are out- CNN Money's annual list of the "Best Places to Live" is filled with small cities like Eden Prairie, Minnesota and Overland Park, Kansas.

London-based consulting company Mercer released their yearly rankings of the 25 most liveable cities, and no American cities make the grade. Vienna is number one, and Vancouver takes fourth.

Richard Florida and his team have ranked the Best Places for Recent College Grads using nine different indicators, including the number of singles, unemployment rate, rental housing stock, and of course, creative capital.

AskMen.com ranks the Top 29 cities in the world to be a man, using a highly scientific ranking system based on the price of an iPod, the city's GDP, the ratio of men to women, and - the efficiency of public transit?

Real Simple magazine offers its survey of America's top "time saving" cities, or those that make getting around and getting things done as easy (and green) as possible.

In a study released by Siemens AG and The Economist Intelligence Unit, Copenhagen tops the list of the greenest cities in Europe (out of a pool of 30 cities that were considered).