Twin Cities’ Embarrassment of Riches
1. Eden Prairie, MN
2. Columbia/Ellicott City, MD
3. Newton, MA
4. Bellevue, WA
5. McKinney, TX
6. Fort Collins, CO
7. Overland Park, KS
8. Fishers, IN
9. Ames, IA
10. Rogers, AR
Now here’s the Money list sorted by metro area and how many of its suburbs made the list (and how highly they placed):
1. Twin Cities — 5 total (#1, #11, #13, #15, #20)
2. Washington, D.C. — 5 total (#2, #25, #30, #31, #47)
3. Kansas City — 4 total (#7, #17, #27, #49)
4. New York — 10 total (#34, #41, #53, #57, #73, #78, #82, #88, #89, #90)
5. Boston — 5 total (#3, #28, #39, #52, #94)
6. Chicago — 4 total (#43, #54 #56 #59)
7. Denver — 3 total (#12, #19, #58)
8. Dallas — 3 total (#5, #16, #24)
9. Salt Lake City — 3 total (#18, #45, #61)
10. Miami — 3 total (#44, #48, #72)
Apples and Oranges
Co-mingled on the Money list of “metro” cities (read, suburbs) are genuinely autonomous, small cities.
So, in the Midwest, along with Plymouth (#11) and Eagan (#15), you also find Ames, Iowa (#9); Eau Claire, WI (#69); and Bismarck, ND (#74).
It’s hard to imagine many families seriously comparing Plymouth and Eau Claire in the same breath.
The “Places Rated” Franchise
Perhaps the best way to understand Money’s “Best Places” list is as a money-making, journalistic “franchise.”
As such franchises go, it’s certainly not as lucrative as U.S. News & World Report’s college rankings (and now, graduate schools).
And it will never be as glitzy as, say, People’s 100 Most Beautiful People.
But it’s still a good one, because it’s inherently subjective, lends itself to so many permutations (brand extensions?), and can be constantly updated.
The surest sign that the rankings have taken hold is that the “contestants” start to tout their high scores — and begin lobbying to preserve/increase them (as colleges now routinely do with U.S. News & World Report).
