City Rankings

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.

Minneapolis knows it will never win any beauty contests, or become a tourist destination. But city leaders know what makes the city great: it works.

Planetizen regular Chris Whitis features some stunning shots of several of the winners of our recent Top 100 Public Spaces crowdsourcing survey.

Elizabeth Farrelly suggests that happiness is only a possible side benefit to the true goal of cities, which is "...getting stuff done and, more importantly, generating the ideas that get stuff done."

A new report by planning consultant Zach Taylor exposes the politics behind the scenes of "Best Cities" lists. Taylor believes the motives behind all the parties involved are often not transparent.

Each year, the American Planning Association singles out neighborhoods that "...represent the gold standard in terms of having a true sense of place, cultural and historical interest, community involvement, and a vision for tomorrow."

Travel+Leisure polls its readers for the best cities for foodies, with New Orleans taking the top spot.

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."

GOOD compiles a subjective list of the best cities to live a decent life cheaply while you wait for the jobs to reappear. Austin tops the list of "artsy, cheap, liberal oases."

In USA Today, Florida picks 10 neighborhoods that give a "slice of local urban life," ranging from Miami's Wynwood and Design District to Fort Worth, Texas' West 7th community.

A new finding by Univ. of Wisconsin Population Health Institute reveals that when the health variable is isolated, suburban living beats living in the city and in rural areas.

The Council of Community & Economic Research pulled together data on the 340+ urban areas in the U.S. and determined which are the most affordable to live in. Texas cities come out on top.

Predictable cities like San Francisco, Seattle, and Portland are in the Top 10, but cities like San Diego and San Jose also hold prominent spots on the list.

Area Development Online looks for the most desirable locations to locate a business, and finds that smaller cities are outperforming larger ones. Austin, Texas was the indisputable winner.

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".

Fast Company chooses Houston as its 2011 City of the Year, citing its sense of opportunity and general affordability as the major reasons for its selection.

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".

INRIX, a traffic analysis company, recently released its 100 Most Congested Metros list. Los Angeles and New York predictably come out on top, but the more interesting finding is that traffic has increased significantly.

As WalletPop notes, "some city neighborhoods are actually safer than most neighborhoods in America regardless of whether they are urban or rural." The area around Cahuenga Blvd. in L.A. comes out on top, with a crime rate of .96 per thousand.