I'm approaching the end of my research. In fact, I'd say all of my internet-based research is complete, I just need a bit more time to polish it up and post it. Then I'll write a few posts to review each city, both for my own mind and for your reading pleasure. (It
IS a pleasure, right?
RIGHT?!)
Kind of like when I undertake to clean my home, I've gotten all of the obvious things put away, and now I'm left with those hodge podge items that don't really have a place (like wrapping paper -- where the hell does it go?). In the case of my research, the hodge podge items are the quality of healthcare in each city, what I call "county character" and how well equipped each city is to sustain itself and its people. I'll explain each of these chunks of research below.
Health Care. At the suggestion of my dad, I researched the state of health care in each community. I found a fair amount of very basic information at the state level, but finding information about each city or metropolitan area was hard. The best I came up with were some studies of hospitals, which, from what I've seen, are often the flagship medical facility in town, and the quality of all other healthcare (prevention, wellness programs, etc.) correlates to the quality of the hospital. So I'm trusting -- without
knowing -- that a city with an esteemed hospital or hospitals will have pretty good healthcare in doctors' offices, urgent care centers, etc. So...
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| I didn't have a photo of a hospital, so here is a photo of a mental patient. |
In 2011, HealthGrades.com studied all 5,000 hospitals in the country across 26 different medical procedures and diagnoses and ranked the top 50 cities for quality hospital care. Each city on the list with a rank for good hospital care is a city that made the top 50 for hospital care.
Separately, US News & World Report reviewed and ranked specific hospitals for overall quality, and for highest quality in a particular field. I listed those specific hospitals, too, if they are in one of the cities on my list.
Los Angeles: #36 in good hospital care. UCLA Medical Center = #5 hospital in the country, #2 for geriatrics.
Chicago: #16 in good hospital care. Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago = #1 in rehabilitation.
Philadelphia: U Penn = #10 hospital in the country. Wills Eye Hospital = #3 for ophthalmology.
Columbus: #43 in good hospital care.
DC:
Denver: #35 in good hospital care.
Portland:
Raleigh: Duke U (in Durham) = #9 hospital in the country.
Cleveland: #13 in good hospital care. Cleveland Clinic = #4 hospital in the country, #1 in cardiology & heart surgery, #2 in gastroenterology, # 2 in nephrology, #3 in pulmonology, #3 in rheumatology, #2 in urology. This is where you want to be if you get really sick.
Des Moines: #38 in good hospital care.
Asheville:
County Character: As I was trying to research health care, and having little luck, I stumbled across an unusual demographics website called Patchwork Nation, which presents demographic data in ways I haven't found elsewhere. It breaks down the U.S. by county and by congressional district, and classifies each county and district by a mix of demographics including income, race, education, political leanings, etc. It's a more detailed look at America than a state-by-state assessment, especially when comparing two different categories of data, like voting habits and how they align with income, etc.
While the following information isn't the same kind of hard data as most of my research, I felt it worth noting the community types of each county on my list. The website included a general breakdown of major religions in each county, too, so I took note of the predominant religion or religions.
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| An old church in Philadelphia. |
The lingo:
Industrial Metropolis: Densely populated, highly diverse urban centers; incomes trend higher than the national average and voters lean Democratic.
Service Worker Center: Midsize and small towns with economies fueled by hotels, stores and restaurants and lower-than-average median household income by county.
Boom Town: Fast growing communities with rapidly diversifying populations.
Evangelical Epicenter: Communities with a high proportion of evangelical Christians, found mostly in small towns and suburbs; slightly older than the U.S. average; loyal Republican voters.
Monied 'Burb: Wealthier, highly educated communities with a median household income of $15,000 above the national county average.
The counties:
Los Angeles County: Industrial Metropolis (40% Catholic)
Chicago/Cook County: Industrial Metropolis (40% Catholic)
Philadelphia County: Industrial Metropolis (35% Catholic)
Columbus/Franklin County: Industrial Metropolis (13% Catholic then Mainline Protestant, Evangelical)
DC (only): Industrial Metropolis (35% Catholic, then Mainline Protestant, Muslim, Evangelical)
Denver County: Industrial Metropolis (35% Catholic)
Portland/Multnomah County: Monied 'Burb (25% Catholic, then Evangelical, Mainline Protestant)
Raleigh/Wake County: Boom Town (22% Evangelical, then Mainline Protestant, Catholic)
Cleveland/Cuyahoga County: Industrial Metropolis (40% Catholic)
Des Moines County: Service Worker Center (25% Mainline Protestant, then Catholic, Evangelical, Lutheran)
Asheville/Buncombe County: Evangelical Epicenter (40% Evangelical) Um.
Did you notice that every Industrial Metropolis on my list has more Catholics than any other religion, and every city that is something else has a different dominant religion?
Sustainability: And finally (for today), while researching both pollution and natural disasters (the subjects of a future post), I stumbled across information about city sustainability. For those of you who aren't familiar with all this entails, you should check out SustainLane.com for a much more detailed explanation, but basically, sustainability means a location's ability to weather economic and environmental problems, as well as quality-of-life factors such as ease of commutes, low pollution, good tap water, etc.
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| Day laborers at a local DC farm. |
I decided to look into this further because it wasn't even an area I knew about before. And because it's related to something I am aware of -- the increasing needs for fresh water around the globe. Places that don't have their own water, or not enough of it, worry me. A lot of these sustainability factors are similar to a city running out of water: They measure things that, if something fails, could be catastrophic to a location.
SustainLane assessed only the 50 largest metropolitan areas (which is too bad; I wanted to see more info!) so sadly, Raleigh, Des Moines and Asheville weren't reviewed. One mitigating factor in not having information about those three cities is, because they are all smaller, they are not as susceptible to problems that larger cities could face, such as having to import water, traffic congestion, not having a place to bury their garbage, etc.
The 8 cities were all ranked in every sustainability factor, but I only made note when a city made the top 10 or bottom 10.
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| Buy your locally grown food and see a play in Greenbelt, Maryland. |
The Lingo:
City innovation means government incentives & programs for sustainable living.
Green economy means LEED buildings, farmers' markets, clean public-private partnerships, etc.
Housing affordability means people can live close to the city center, which reduces sprawl and saves local farmland.
Knowledge base measures a city's planning and coordination with federal govt, etc.
Transit ridership is miles traveled and square miles of system.
Natural disasters: hurricanes, major flooding, catastrophic hail, tornado super-outbreaks and earthquakes, taking into consideration potential frequency of disaster as well as the extent of damage.
Planning includes parks, limiting sprawl, bike and pedestrian plans, mass transit, regional plans.
Waste diversion means garbage is recycled or composted instead of going in a landfill.
Water supply includes distance in miles from primary source of untreated drinking water, dependence of water on snowpack, level of drought or other conflict, population growth rate and gallons of water consumed per person per day.
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| A Portland car charging station. Do these even exist in other cities? |
The cities -- high ranks:
LA: #6 in city innovation, #4 in knowledge base, #4 in transit ridership, #4 in waste diversion
Chicago: #4 in overall sustainability, #7 in commuting, #1 in city innovation, #2 in transit ridership, #10 in waste diversion, #1 in water supply
Philadelphia: #8 in overall sustainability, #5 in commuting, #7 in local food, #9 in transit ridership, #8 low natural disaster risk
Columbus: #10 in green economy, #4 in knowledge base
DC: #1 in commuting, #2 in green building, #5 in local food, #7 in transit ridership
Denver: #6 in energy use, #5 in green building, #4 in knowledge base, #8 in planning
Portland: #1 in overall sustainability, #2 air quality, #1 in city innovation, #1 in energy use, #1 in green building, #1 in green economy, #1 in knowledge base, #8 in local food, #3 in planning, #2 in tap water quality [My friend Kristian agrees: “The tap water is the best I've found.”], #7 in waste diversion. By almost all accounts, Portland is the most sustainable city.
Cleveland: #8 in green economy, #2 in local food, #1 in low street congestion, #3 low natural disaster risk, #1 in water supply
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| "Portland Composts!" |
The cities -- low ranks:
LA: #49 air quality, #49 in housing affordability, #43 in local food, #49 in low street congestion, #43 low natural disaster risk, #46 in tap water quality, #46 in water supply. While LA ranks really high in a number of factors, it ranks really low in some of the most basic human needs, like access to fresh water and local food. Sounds dangerous.
Chicago: #43 air quality
Philadelphia:
Columbus: #43 in tap water quality
DC: #45 in low street congestion, #40 in tap water quality
Denver: #43 in waste diversion
Portland:
Cleveland: #43 in planning
[Update: What's up with the weird font problems?! Ignore the different colored text and fonts; it doesn't mean anything, although I like how it makes Kristian's quote stand out so much.]
