Springs too big to qualify for list of best places to live
Colorado Springs is no longer No. 1 on Money magazine’s annual list of Best Places to Live in America.
But politicians and business leaders would sooner raise taxes than allow the No. 1 ranking to be wrestled away.
Money released its 20th annual list of Best Places to Live this week. The list can be found at www.CNNMoney.com; CNN is Money’s online partner and both are part of the Time Warner Inc. media empire.
This year, however, Money limited its rankings to communities with populations of 7,500 to 50,000.
With a population of nearly 375,000, Colorado Springs is nowhere to be found — seemingly a comedown from 2006. That’s when Money published lists for big and small cities and ranked the Springs as No. 1 in the nation among communities with populations of 300,000 or more.
Craig Matters, Money’s executive editor, said more sources of data — crime statistics, school test scores, housing prices and the like — and the ability to access that information electronically gives the magazine the flexibility to examine different-size communities. This year, it chose small cities, he said.
Also, to appeal to wider audiences, Money doesn’t want to examine the same groups of cities each year, he added.
Last year, Colorado Springs finished ahead of Austin, Texas, Mesa, Ariz., Raleigh, N.C., and San Diego when it topped Money’s ranking of best big cities on factors such as housing prices, education, health, weather, leisure and quality-of-life issues.
It was a ranking business leaders and elected officials wore like a graduation cap on the last day of school. Money’s ranking found its way into politicians’ speeches, economic development ads and tourism brochures.
Now, they don’t want to give it up.
“All that means,” Springs Mayor Lionel Rivera said of Money’s latest rankings, “is that we’re the reigning champion. We’re the No. 1 big city in America, according to CNN and Money magazine.”
Will Temby, president of the Greater Colorado Springs Chamber of Commerce, said business and civic leaders are proud of last year’s ranking.
“We feel confident that if their methodology had included communities of our size and larger, we would have still fared well by all of their criteria,” Temby said.
It’s possible Money might return to a large city ranking next year, Matters added.
By the way, this year’s No. 1 city — albeit of the smaller variety — was Middleton, Wis., a town of 17,400 outside the state capital of Madison.
“Citizens there feel they have the best of both worlds — a tightknit community with all the cultural and economic benefits of nearby Madison,” Matters said in a statement when the list was released. “People there truly feel at home.”
Two Colorado communities — Louisville, outside Boulder, and Parker, south of Denver — made this year’s small cities list, ranking No. 3 and No. 26, respectively.
Rivera, however, still wears the Springs’ No. 1 ranking like the U.S. flag pin he typically sports on his lapel.
“No one’s dethroned us,” Rivera said. “It’s something we can keep in the Experience Colorado Springs, Economic Development Corp. and Chamber of Commerce quiver.”
CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0228 or rich.laden@gazette.com
