July 1, 1998

Counterpoint: Fort Collins, Boulder deserve rankings as West’s best cities

Suddenly, CNN flashed the Money Magazine ratings for Best Places to Live on my hotel-room TV screen in Fargo, ND. The announcer proclaimed Seattle as the best big city in the West, Boulder as the best midsize city and Fort Collins as the best small city.

But wait. Fort Collins’ population is 109,000 compared with Boulder’s 95,000. Occasionally, even CNN makes a mistake.

Upon my return to Colorado, I picked up back issues of the local newspaper. Sure enough, there is a front-page graphic proclaiming Fort Collins as best in cities with populations from 100,000 to 250,000, placing it within my population number.

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But in reading the accompanying article, the Fort Collins ranking is for best small city.

With a little research, the survey results are explained, and CNN is vindicated. More importantly, the Money Magazine rankings show that Northern Colorado ranks clearly as the best place to live in all of the West. Fort Collins and Boulder are both classed first in their category, and Greeley is fourth in the small-cities category.

Money Magazine has been conducting its rankings of best places to live for 12 years. It asked people to rank 37 characteristics in choosing a place to live. The top-rated characteristics are, in order: clean water, low crime, clean air, good public schools and low property taxes. The five lowest-rated characteristics are: skiing close by, local symphony, major-league sports, local amusement park and local repertory theaters. Other factors include: low home prices, forecast and recent job growth, low unemployment and short commutes.

Each year, the magazine compiles data on these characteristics for the 300 largest metropolitan statistical areas. Rankings are produced for four regions of the country and divided into big, midsized and small cities.

Rankings are based on population of the MSA, not by size of the named city. For example, Boulder is ranked for the Boulder/Longmont MSA, with an estimated population of 258,000. Fort Collins’ ranking is based upon the Fort Collins/Loveland MSA, population 222,000. Thus, Boulder falls in the midsize range of 250,000 to 999,999 and Fort Collins in the small-cities range of 100,000 to 249,999.

What was outstanding about Fort Collins and Greeley? Both cities showed 246 sunny days — well above the 213 days in the national average. Greeley’s pro-sports index was 76, No. 1 in its category. The Fort Collins index was 60, which was fifth. No doubt both benefited from the Denver sports teams, but Greeley’s involvement as the Broncos summer camp site clearly made it the top of the class.

Greeley rated No. 2 in job growth since 1997 and No. 3 in EPA watershed rating and recent unemployment rate.

When all these factors are combined with nearby colleges, a good overall economy in Colorado and low residential property taxes throughout the state, it is not hard to understand why Boulder/Longmont, Fort Collins/Loveland and Greeley all received outstanding ratings in the Money Magazine survey. These cities in Northern Colorado received high marks in all of the most desirable categories (clean water, low crime, clean air, good public schools and low property taxes) as surveyed. Hopefully we can maintain these rankings and these benefits for our citizens for years to come.

Former Fort Collins mayor John Knezovich is a certified public accountant.

Suddenly, CNN flashed the Money Magazine ratings for Best Places to Live on my hotel-room TV screen in Fargo, ND. The announcer proclaimed Seattle as the best big city in the West, Boulder as the best midsize city and Fort Collins as the best small city.

But wait. Fort Collins’ population is 109,000 compared with Boulder’s 95,000. Occasionally, even CNN makes a mistake.

Upon my return to Colorado, I picked up back issues of the local newspaper. Sure enough, there is a front-page graphic proclaiming Fort Collins as best in cities with populations from 100,000 to 250,000, placing…

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