Philadelphia Revisited

There were a few things I liked about Philly when I visited it before my travels last summer. One of those things was the local color – as in: people. /Pauses, thinks about how that sounded./ As in: people with vibrant personalities. It made me LOL when drivers would lean out their windows and yell “stoopit!” at people blocking traffic. I liked how the men seemed to check me out just a little, and women would eye the men as well. Nothing creepy, just... a healthy interest in members of the opposite sex.

Easy to look at.

Another thing I liked was the physical surroundings. Downtown, especially, has some nice buildings and a decent amount of parks for sitting and people watching. The historical districts add to the beauty of the town as well. I could see myself living downtown and being pleased with what I saw as I walked to work every day.

The oldest residential street in Philly.

Having said that, there are some downsides to both of these factors. While I appreciate a populace that's not afraid to speak (or yell) its mind, it could get wearying listening to profanity everywhere. I might be embarrassed when people came to visit. It might make me feel negative, which I don't like feeling. (Despite me having a generally pessimistic view on a lot of things in life, I always find myself pleasantly surprised when life exceeds my expectations. Genuine meanness and coarseness really wears me down, though.)

Also hurting Philly on the friendliness assessment is that I don't know anyone at all in the city. Now, two of my closest friends grew up in the outer suburbs, and still go back home fairly regularly, so I could see them sometimes. But that's different from having friends already living there to show me around and advise me on stuff. I would be able to get to DC on a very easy and short train ride, but getting to Cleveland to see my parents would almost certainly require a flight.

Philadelphia at night.

And while downtown Philly is pretty nice, it's surrounded by a giant ring of ugly. Now, maybe in the heyday of Philadelphia, the parts of the city that were just outside of downtown might have ranged from very glamorous to charming to at least acceptably attractive. Now, though, the whole inner ring around downtown needs a bath and a serious spring cleaning. Which is too bad, as living a mile or two from downtown might provide the kind of home I'd otherwise like. But not if I'm in the midst of a heap of garbage (or worse, just a plain old bad part of town). I've spent some time in a few suburbs of Philly. Enough to know there are plenty of nice and attractive, and in some cases, older and architecturally interesting suburban neighborhoods. But at this point in my life, those are too far away from where I'd probably want to be.

Is this the norm, or is it garbage day?  I do not know.

Geographically, Philly doesn't stand out to me as particularly interesting. Its main perk is that it is only 1.5 hours to the ocean (which isn't all that close). Otherwise, it's flat and has a river.

Things I think I'd like about Philly:

• Wide variety of dining options. I've eaten out a lot in Philly, and liked almost everything. Many places have free live entertainment (music). Many restaurants are BYOB, with no corking fees. That means I can bring my $10 bottle of wine instead of paying $25 for the same bottle! (I forget why this is, by the way. Something about liquor laws, I think.)
• I sense a genuineness about the people who live there. Not a lot of putting on airs. I wouldn't say I found the people “friendly” like they are in the midwest. But I also think people would be frank and open; not overly reserved or fake friendly. I think I would meet people fairly easily.
• It's one of the few cities in the U.S. with older architecture. As in, pre-Revolutionary War. As you know, I like old buildings and ruins and graveyards, and there just aren't that many in the U.S. I could see myself going for walks or jogs through the old neighborhoods, and possibly living there as well, finances permitting.

Philly's Vietnam War Memorial (I think).

Things I think I would not like about Philly:

• While parts of Philly look really nice and would probably make a good home, a huge swath of the city just looks like a big dump.
• The sports fans. They are notoriously obnoxious. :(
• I think I'd always wonder why I traded one big East Coast city (DC) for an even bigger East Coast city. Only, one where I didn't know anyone, would have a hard time finding a job in my field, might not value education as much, and might not have as much stuff to do. As I went through times in my life where I wasn't as happy about something (say, lack of a job, or being ill, or just being in the doldrums) I think I'd grow to dislike my surroundings and more, dislike myself for not trying something different. This isn't really meant to be a knock on Philly. More of some speculation that, for what I'm hoping to do with myself at this point in life, Philly probably isn't the best move for me.

  

  The Eastern State Penitentiary.  Real cool to visit; wouldn't want to feel like I'm living there.

Chicago Revisited

Chicago was not one of my “audition” cities because I'd been there several times before and I already knew I liked it. Looking back on my stop there last summer, maybe I could have learned more by visiting some new neighborhoods, but I figure I've seen more of Chicago over the years than I saw of most of my audition cities during my deliberate explorations.

I added Chicago to my list because it's always been my favorite city in the U.S. to visit. And it doesn't hurt that it's a place where I could continue working in the same field. I've always liked the midwestern feel to the people. They seem down to earth and friendly, and I don't get that sense of self-importance that I sometimes pick up in big cities. I have several friends in town, so I know I'd have an easy start to building my own social circle. And in my experience, strangers tend to chit chat with one another in Chicago, so I am not worried that I will have a hard time making friends on my own.

I met this furry friend on the campus of Northwestern's Law School.

In terms of how it looks, I've long considered Chicago to be the best-looking city in the U.S., at least in terms of its architecture and art. Other cities might have better natural beauty, but I've always tended to prefer man-made beauty to natural beauty, and architecture to other forms of visual arts. So I really like how Chicago looks. I've been warned by others that Chicago's downtown can be “dark” because all the tall building block out the sun. But by now, you all know how I feel about the sun, so that doesn't sound like a downside to me.

Cloudy & rainy can be just as cool as bright & sunny!

Chicago's terrain is not as varied as some places. Flying into the city, one can see that it is just flat as far as the eye can see. I very much like how it's on Lake Michigan, though. That adds some natural visual interest. And having grown up about ½ mile from Lake Erie, I've always liked having a big body of water nearby to physically orient myself to the world.

Navy Pier

Three things I think I'd like about Chicago:

• Being back in the Midwest. It's a slightly slower and more laid-back pace to life than on the east coast. People have more time for another, and don't take themselves so seriously. Yes, I'm generalizing, but in my experience, people in the Midwest trend towards these characteristics.
• Community theater. Chicago is big on community theater and other low-key entertainment options. I like going out for culture, but don't always like the cost involved. Once in a while I spring on something like a Broadway show or the ballet, but I know I'd go out more if I had many lower-cost and easily accessible entertainment options.
• I don't know how to phrase this as “something I'd like about Chicago” but it's always been my favorite place to visit in the U.S. I've been there maybe 10 times, a few for work, but most for fun. I like the different neighborhoods, the bars, the range of things to do. When I was overseas and I met foreigners who expressed an interest in visiting New York City, I always told them to visit Chicago instead. It's prettier, there is just as much to do, and the people are nicer. So maybe I can just say that I have a general enthusiasm for the place.

Cool architecture, probably by someone famous like so many buildings in Chicago.

Three things I think I'd dislike about Chicago:

• Winter!
• It's the third biggest metropolitan area in the country. It's taken me 90 minutes to travel from one suburb to another. There are people everywhere. Although I've discovered that in big cities, I could make a little bubble for myself in a neighborhood and live as if it's a mini-city. But as soon as I want to venture out of my bubble, it's gonna be a pain in the ass.
• I don't think it will be as cheap as my research and my friends tell me. I don't mean I'm expecting prices to be as low as Des Moines or Cleveland, but I suspect prices for things like rent and dinners out will be much closer to DC than to smaller cities. High prices make me unhappy, even if I have a correspondingly high income.

Los Angeles Revisted

Re-visited in my head, not in reality.

As noted in an earlier post, I had not expected to like LA, but I left it with a really good feeling. From the start of my trip, I'd wanted to add a city in California to audition, but I never actually settled on one. But having spent 4 days and nights in LA, I got a feel for the place and decided afterward to make it an audition city, although I did not explore it in the same way I explored other places.

The Chinese Theater.

I expected the people to be very snooty and plastic. And maybe there are people like that there, but most of the people I encountered were casually friendly and more down-to-earth. Two of my friends work in industries that bring them in constant contact with “the beautiful people” and they reported a mixed bag when it comes to this group: Some people are very nice and approachable, while others are used to throwing their money around and getting their way. But this isn't a group of people I expect to come in contact with much; I figure if I lived in LA, my group would be fellow professionals, maybe artists and white and pink collar workers. Plus whoever I got to know in my neighborhood, like shopkeepers, waitresses, bartenders, etc. In other words – normal people. In short, among the things that surprised me about LA was that I was not put off by the people as I expected to be.

I was also impressed by how much my friends seemed to know their neighbors. In DC, I lived in the same large apartment building for 10 years, and when I left it, I knew 3 (THREE!) people by name. When I lived in Raleigh, for example, I knew every other tenant in my 12-unit building by name, and everyone looked out for one another. So I'm on the lookout for a place where people know each others' names and look out for each other in the gentle way neighbors should. And from my limited experience there, LA seemed to be like that.

Speaking of friends, I have a handful of friends in LA. Let's say 5, and presumably I would make more friends through those friends. None of my family live there, though, and LA is very far away from them, so I'd have to plan visits to see my loved ones carefully. So, moving to LA wouldn't be the best choice in terms of maintaining most of the friendships I currently have.

Hey, there's one of my friends now!

Switching gears: I found LA to be quite beautiful. As much as I am annoyed by the sun, it sure felt nice being somewhere where the weather is always mild. Well, OK, it reached over 100 degrees one day in the middle of October, but generally, the weather is pretty constant and nice. But more than the weather, in the parts of LA I saw, people seem to take a lot of care of their homes and buildings. The architecture isn't the most stunning overall, but there is pleasing variety to the houses and apartment buildings. And things are landscaped well, kept up, and I didn't notice a lot of visual clutter. (Unlike, say, Charleston, West Virginia, which would be so pretty if they knocked down all the parking garages and billboards, and cleaned some of that junk up!) So I give LA high marks in beauty, both natural and man-made.

At The Getty.

Near the ocean.

Finally, you can't beat the variety of terrain. The city itself is flat, but it's right on the ocean in one direction and surrounded my mountains and valleys in other directions. There's a little something for every taste. Except, of course, that it is all city. There's no ability to drive, say, 30 minutes and be out in the middle of nowhere, because it's just too big.

Three things I think I'd like about LA:

• I will be warm. I don't like being cold, especially inside. While I like winter and the snow, if I am cold, I am unhappy. And sadly, being inside in winter doesn't guarantee I am warm, because that cold seeps in! And it is rarely cold in LA. (The unrelenting sun might start to bother me, though.)
• The housing selection looks like it would suit me really well. Lots of charming bungalow houses and garden-style apartments, all with lots of yard spaces and trees. And many neighborhoods are walkable. While I will probably need a car there, I don't think I'd need it for every trip, assuming I picked the right place to live. And in fact, at least one of my friends in LA does not even own a car!
• The wide variety of food to eat and things to do. LA seems to have every kind of cuisine and so many things to do.

Three things I think I'd dislike about LA:

• It is enormous. It took me about 80 minutes on a Saturday afternoon just to get out of the city. It is large in land area and population, and much of it is really crowded, especially the roads. While I expect there are a number of neighborhoods I could live and work in, and have the experience of living in a small city within a bigger metropolitan area, any time I wanted to venture out of that little bubble, it will be a hassle. Traffic, parking, waiting in lines, all of that.
• I fear – but do not know – that there is a lot superficiality and not a lot of depth. Do people read books, or just People Magazine? Do people keep fit (good) or do they obsess about their looks, spending hours each day in the gym and getting too much plastic surgery (bad)? Do people form intimate and lasting friendships, or is the friendliness mostly on the surface, like being polite to one another and knowing names, without knowing much else? I don't know if my fears are grounded in reality, but it's something I wonder.  (After writing this, but before posting it, one of my friends in LA offered the unsolicited comment that a lot of people there are "plastic" in both looks and personality.  So, it's not just me who suspects it's kind of shallow.)
• It's really far away from people I care about. That means every visit back east will take a lot of travel time and a lot of money. Spending, say, a weekend in Cleveland would be almost out of the question because it would be such a pain and expense to get there.

City Thoughts Coming Up...

Before I make my chart, or whatever I'm going to do to compare my 11 cities in a systematic way, I wanted to write down the most subjective information about them that I know or that I've learned. To my organize my thoughts, as well as let you know what I'm thinking about, I plan to consider:

• My impressions of the people
• The number of friends and loved one in the city
• What I think of the physical surroundings (beauty, terrain, location in the country)
• Special reminders from my blog
• What I think I would like best about living in the city
• What I think I would like least about living in the city

This was the view from my living room for 10 years.  Usually without the rainbow, though.

Once I've written these all out, I'll get to work on organizing and ranking the results of me research. I've discovered that just reading so much about the cities has helped form my thoughts already. I have no idea at this point which city might become “number one” in my ranking system of all of these factors. In the end, I don't think that will particularly matter. Instead, this exercise will have educated me and forced me to think about what's important to me, and where I'm most likely to find it. It's possible that a city or two will really shine when it comes to objective factors, and I may put it on my list of places to search for a job. Or a city might be such a clear loser in almost every objective factor that it will drop from the list of contenders. We'll see. Watch this spot over the next few days for each city's (penultimate?) post.

Cities: Crime, Disasters, Pollution & Poverty

This post captures a hodge podge of categories that measure bad stuff.  Now, some cities in some other categories of my research have some less-than-stellar statistics.  But the things I've measured -- population, education, housing prices, etc. are not by themselves "bad."  Sadly, my research doesn't cover every city in every category, either because the cities were too small to be included in a study or because the city didn't keep data in the right way to inform the study.  I may make more efforts to find out the missing information.

So without further ado...

Crime Rates: From the FBI Uniform Crime Reports 2009. Based on number of violent crimes per 100,000 people. City rank first; metropolitan area rank second.

LA: 158^th & 73^rd worst crime rates.

Chicago: City & metro area both N/A. The FBI report noted that Illinois keeps statistics in a way incompatible with the FBI's method.

Philadelphia: 30^th & 94^th worst crime rates.

Columbus: 49^th & 79^th worst crime rates.

DC: 22^nd & 125^th worst crime rates.

Denver: 141^st & 152^nd worst crime rates.

Portland: 174^th & 208^th worst crime rate (metro area is below national average).

Raleigh: 236^th & 258^th worst crime rates (city slight below national average and metro area significantly below national average).  Apparently a very safe place.  Except I once had a tire slashed, along with everyone else in a quarter mile radius.  Really.  :( 

Cleveland: 7^th & 97^th worst crime rates.  I never realized Cleveland was so menacing!

Des Moines: 165^th & 248^th worst crime rates (metro area significantly below national average)

Asheville: City N/A & 253^rd worst crime rate (significantly below national average)

Property crime.  Even Graceland is not immune.

Safety from Natural Disasters: City rankings from SustainLane.com, which considered hurricanes, major flooding, catastrophic hail, tornado super-outbreaks, and earthquakes, taking into consideration potential frequency of disaster as well as the extent of damage. Rank shown is relative safety from natural disasters out of the 50 largest cities in the U.S.

LA: #43, which is deemed “endangered.”

Chicago: #12

Philadelphia: #8

Columbus: #39

DC: #27

Denver: #13

Portland: #30

Raleigh: Not ranked, but in my experience, very susceptible to hurricanes, even that far inland, which are enormously destructive.

Cleveland: #3, which is the safest city on the list.

Des Moines: Not ranked, but my guess is Des Moines gets hail and tornadoes.

Asheville: Not ranked, and I don't have enough knowledge of the area to guess at its dangers. Paul, any ideas? :)

But this New York Times/Sperling's Best Places map tells a different story, showing Portland as being the safest from natural disasters, and Chicago, Philadelphia and Raleigh being in moderately dangerous areas. And all the rest in between.

Yellowstone, after a forest fire.

Air Pollution:  From an American Lung Association study, 2011, based on ozone and daily & long-term particle pollution.  The study listed only the cleanest and dirtiest cities, so any city without notes is neither particularly clean nor particularly dirty.  No pun intended.

Air and aesthetic pollution.

LA: 2^nd most polluted city. 1^st most polluted in ozone. 2^nd most polluted in year-round particles. 4^th most polluted in short-term particles.  Well, that's the stereotype about LA, right?  Too bad LA didn't prove to be different from the stereotype in this regard, as it has in some others.

Chicago: 17^th in short-term particles.

Philadelphia: 24^th in year-round particles. 20^th in short-term particles.

Columbus:

DC: 14^th in ozone.

Denver:

Portland: 24^th in short-term particles.

Raleigh:

Cleveland: 12^th in year-round particles.

Des Moines:

Asheville: On the list of cleanest short-term particle cities (list is unranked).  Nice!

OK OK.  This fish didn't die from air pollution!  But it died from something, alright?

Poverty Rate & Rank: From a Brookings Institute 2011 study of the largest 100 metropolitan areas.  Percentage of people in the metro area living in poverty, and the area's rank among the 100 areas.  Low numbers are better.

LA: 7.8% #63

Chicago: 14.4% #28

Philadelphia: 21.4% #15

Columbus: 13.7% #30

DC: 6% #78

Denver: 4% #84

Portland: 1.1% #97.  The least impoverished.

Raleigh: 6.5% #72

Cleveland: 23.5% #7.  The most impoverished.

Des Moines: 2.9% #90

Asheville: Too small to be included in the study.

Cities: Healthcare, County Character & Sustainability

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...

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.

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.  

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.

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.

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

"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.]

Cities: Education

This was a hard category to research.  I'm glad I'm not a parent trying to find a good school system for my kids.  Maybe it's easier when one knows the exact schools their kids might attend, instead of trying to learn about a whole county.  I opted to research the entire county (when I could), knowing that inner cities often aren't the best measure for the educational opportunities and attitudes of a whole region.  My data notes where I have only city info.

Little Rock's Central High School

Anyway, I added this broad category of things to research not because I'm planning to return to school or send kids of my own to school, but because I value education and would prefer to live in a community where other people value education too.  Turned out to be really hard to measure how much everyone in a county values education.  So I turned to some statistics that I hope reveal both how educated the populace is, and how much support there is for education generally.

High School Graduation Rate by County: County data from Patchworknation.org (2000). USA Today/EPE Research Center for primary city only (2006).

LA County: 69.90%. LA only: 44.2%.  This is low.

Chicago/Cook County: 77.70%. Chicago only: 52.2%

Philadelphia County: 71.20%. Philly only: 55.5%

Columbus/Franklin County: 85.70%

DC only: 77.80%. (Montgomery County: 81.5%. Fairfax County: 82.5%. PG County: 67.3%.)

Denver County: 78.90%. Denver only: 46.8%.  Low.

Portland/Multnomah County: 85.60%

Raleigh/Wake County: 89.30%. 82.2%.

Cleveland/Cuyahoga County: 81.60%. Cleveland only: 43.8%.  Low.

Des Moines County: 85.80%

Asheville/Buncombe County: 81.90%

Annual Public Education Spending City Only: (Bestplaces.net)  I have no idea if there is a correlation between spending per student and the quality of the education.

LA: $5,843 per student

Chicago: $4,528 per student  Surprisingly low considering Chicago's generally high cost of living.

Philadelphia: $4,897 per student

Columbus: $5,990 per student

DC: $8,030 per student

Denver: $4,375 per student

Portland: $5,386 per student

Raleigh: $4,478 per student

Cleveland: $8,393 per student  Surprisingly high considering Cleveland's general low cost of living.

Des Moines: $5,007 per student

Asheville: $5,558 per student

One-room schoolhouse, Fredericksburg, Iowa

Number of Students per Teacher in Public Schools City Only: (Bestplaces.net)

LA: 21.6 students per teacher.  Is that a lot?

Chicago: 20.2 students per teacher.  Ditto?

Philadelphia: 18.4 students per teacher

Columbus: 17.8 students per teacher

DC: 12.1 students per teacher.  Sounds low.

Denver: 18.8 students per teacher

Portland: 17.5 students per teacher

Raleigh: 16 students per teacher

Cleveland: 12.2 students per teacher  I suppose when 56% of the students drop out, that leaves a good student/teacher ratio behind.

Des Moines: 13.9 students per teacher

Asheville: 13.5 students per teacher

So all of that was about K-12 education.  I also researched post-high school graduation information.  I started with looking at how many colleges were in each metropolitan area.

Hendrix College, Arkansas

Colleges:  I couldn't be bothered writing down every single college in town; just some flagship schools an

LA: At least 6, including USC & UCLA.

Chicago: At least 12 in the area, including Chicago & Northwestern.

Philadelphia: A whole bunch, including UPenn, Temple & St. Joe's.

Columbus: Ohio State, plus others.

DC: At least 6, more in suburbs. Including my alma mater American U.

Denver: Several. Colorado U is 45 minutes away in Boulder.

Portland: A bunch, including Reed & Portland State.

Raleigh: NC State, others nearby like UNC & Duke, my other alma mater.

Cleveland: Cleveland State, CWRU.

Des Moines: Drake & Grand View. Iowa State in Ames is 45 minutes away.

Asheville: Several, including UNC Asheville & Western Carolina.

Percentage of elitist and indoctrinated snobs.  Oh wait, that's what the pompous and anti-intellectual blowhard Rick Santorum calls them.  I call them people age 25 and over with bachelor's degree or higher.  Data from US Census, Patchworknation.org.

Los Angeles County: 29%, 25%

Chicago/Cook County: 33.2%, 28%

Philadelphia County: 22.2%, 18%  This is low.

Columbus/Franklin County: 35%, 32%

DC: 49%, 39%  This is high.

Denver County: 40%, 35%

Portland/Multnomah County: 37.5%, 31%

Raleigh/Wake County: 47.4%, 44%  This is high.

Cleveland/Cuyahoga County: 28.2%, 25%

Des Moines County: 32.8%, 16%  I'm not sure why those two numbers are so different.

Asheville/Buncombe County: 31.2%, 25%

Adult Illiteracy Rate Per County (2003): Patchworknation.org

Los Angeles County: 33.5%  Ouch.  Due to large number of immigrants??

Chicago/Cook County: 19.2%

Philadelphia County: 22%

Columbus/Franklin County: 12.8%

DC: 19.1%

Denver County: 15.5%

Portland/Multnomah County: 10.7%

Raleigh/Wake County: 11.2%

Cleveland/Cuyahoga County: 9.3%

Des Moines County: 7.5%  That's very good.

Asheville/Buncombe County: 10.2%

OK OK, this is a bookstore, not a library.

And finally, I looked into the quality of public libraries in all of these places, believing that people who value education in youth also value life-long learning, and free and easy access to knowledge.  Plus, I really like libraries.

Quality of Public Libraries: Ranked by Hennen's American Public Library Ratings 2010 (haplr-index.com), which reviewed 7,930 public library systems in the U.S.

LA County Public Library: 9^th percentile of libraries serving over 500,000 people.  That's bad.

Chicago:  No data.

Philadelphia Public Library: 33^rd percentile of libraries for communities over 500,000 people.

Columbus Metropolitan Library: 96^th percentile of libraries for communities over 500,000 people. Rank #2.  Wow.

DC:  No data.

Denver Public Library: 96^th percentile of libraries for communities over 500,000 people.  Rank #4!

Portland/Multnomah County Public Library: 97^th percentile of libraries for communities over 500,000 people.  Rank #3!

Raleigh/Wake County Public Library: 64^th percentile of libraries for communities over 500,000 people.  I used to be a page at one of the Wake County libraries.  Libraries are great places to meet other people.

Cleveland/Cuyahoga County Public Library: 100^th percentile of libraries for communities over 500,000 people.  Rank #1!  Wow!!  (My hometown's Lakewood Public Library is in the 98^th percentile for communities between 50-100,000 people.  Rank #10.)

Des Moines Public Library: 77^th percentile for communities between 100-250,000 people.

Asheville/Buncombe County Public Library: 64^th percentile for communities between 100-250,000 people.

I was delighted to see that Cleveland, Columbus, Portland and Denver were the top 4 public libraries in the country!

Inside Evanston, Illinois's public library.