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Is Peachtree City slipping in the "Top 100" rankings?Sometimes I get bored. That's when I come online and read the musings that sometimes are confused with news articles on The Citizen. So, in my most recent state of boredom, I navigated my web browser to the article entitled: "Haddix: Just say no to PTC big box permit." I don't really care whether or not the "big box" gets built or not. I do, however, care when I read statements like this: He [Haddix] also argues that the city’s steady drop off the annual “best places to live” rankings has to do with deviating from the comprehensive plan and allowing large retail centers to be built. Apparently, PTC is falling apart here. Unbeliever that I am (can you really believe what's in The Citizen?), I went to the source, the forum site donhaddix.com. Now I'm not sure if Don Haddix himself started this site, but it's the most confusing stuff I've ever attempted to read. I looked through the "54 Abandonment" topic, guessing since that was the "most read" it must be on the same topic in the Citizen article. So in going through that, sure enough, Haddix himself states PTC is the Atlanta Falcons of cities (that's bottom of the rankings, kids): PTC is on the wrong path. We are becoming what many of us moved here not to be. In 2005 and 2006 we were ranked number 8 in places to live. We are not even in the top 100 now. OK, like I said, I'm bored. I went to my best friend Google, and I said "Hey Google, tell me more about this best places to live stuff". And Google said, "Here ya go!". Apparently Peachtree City is, or was, on the CNN/Money "Best Places to Live" lists, so I'll assume that's what Mr. Haddix is referring to. First things first...the list has been published for three years. Now that's an enduring comparison So the most recent information is 2007...Hey - PTC is number 64! Cool... OK, let's go back to 2006...CRUD! They didn't make it! More on that later... Let's go back to the pioneer days of this survey, all the way back to 2005! So why the big descrepancy in two years? Well, I did a little more reading as to HOW and WHY the cities that were picked were picked. OK, get some coffee, this is BOOORINNG.
2,876 - Start with places that have populations above 7,500 and under 50,000. 974 - Screen out retirement-oriented communities, places where income is less than 90% or more than 180% of the state median and towns that are more than 95% white. 678 - Eliminate towns with low education scores, high crime rates, declines or sharp increases in population, projected job losses or lack of access to airports or teaching hospitals. 466 - Rank remaining places based on job, income and cost-of-living data; housing affordability; school quality; arts and leisure opportunities; ease of living; health-care access; and racial diversity. 70 - Gather more data on job markets, housing prices, schools and ambience. Interview community leaders and residents by phone. 25 - Visit and do more interviews. Assess the sense of community, vibrancy of town center, natural surroundings, amenities, real estate and congestion. 1 - Give Middleton, Wis., the nod, based on data and qualitative findings. 2006: 745 - Start with places that have populations exceeding 50,000. 670 - Screen out cities of more than 300,000 people and retirement havens where more than 40% of the residents are over 50. 201 - Eliminate cities with low education scores, high crime rates, absurdly high housing costs, declines in employment or income less than 90% of the state median. Remove bedroom communities and places where people identify themselves as being from a smaller locale within the area. 90 - Once we narrowed down our list to 201 small cities, we ranked the remaining places based on what matters most: A Money/ICR poll of 1,005 Americans found that ample job opportunities, good schools, and low crime are the most important characteristics people look for in a place to live. Meanwhile, the most disliked attributes are congestion, high crime, and lack of job opportunities. Using this information, we ranked places using 38 quality-of-life indicators and 6 economic opportunity measures in the following categories: Ease of Living, Health, Education, Crime, Park space, Arts and Leisure. Rank remaining places on economic opportunity, taking into account income, job growth and affordability; quality-of-life indicators, including risk of violent crime and property crime, quality of public schools, arts and leisure, park space and incidence of stress-related ailments; and "ease of living" gauges such as commute times, divorce rates, population density and weather. Limit counties to one city each, unless the No. 2 city has more than 75,000 in population and a distinct identity. 50 - Cull more data on job markets, housing prices, schools, ambience, weather and taxes. Interview local officials, residents and community leaders by phone. 20 - Visit and do more interviews. Assess congestion, natural surroundings, the vibrancy of town centers and sense of community. 1 - Award No. 1 rank to Fort Collins, based on data and qualitative findings. 2005: OnBoard maintains a database of nearly 40,000 places. To narrow our search, we began by considering only those with population above 14,000, above-median household income, population growth and real estate appreciation over the past 5 years. Those restrictions led to a list of roughly 1,100 places. From there, we eliminated places that aren't within 60 miles of a major airport and 30 miles of a major teaching hospital. We also eliminate towns with low education scores or that fall below the 25th percentile in any two of the following: unemployment, income growth, crime, or arts resources. That left 850 towns, which we reviewed, weighing economic, education and safety factors twice as much as arts, leisure and park space. We then limited any metropolitan area to one or two places to arrive at the list of 100 finalists. To pick the winners, we culled more data on education, environment, housing affordability, taxes, commute times and job market. MONEY writers also interviewed residents and community leaders. Our focus on income, crime rates and education rendered meaningless any comparisons between big cities and the relatively affluent suburbs or small cities that make up this list. Big cities couldn't compete on those particular numbers and, of course, they offer plenty of quality-of-life benefits that suburbs don't have. We'll look at big cities as part of another project in the future. Also, a note on the definition of "place:" In assembling this list, we examined data from the zip codes that correspond to a place name designated by the postal service. We do this because we can get more and better -- that is, more accurate -- data about an area using zip codes than by using Census designations or by looking only at an incorporated area, which often is a small part of what most people would consider a "place." That's why our list gives an area population and not just the population of a municipality. In a few cases, in fact, there is no incorporated municipality corresponding to the place name. OK, cliff notes? Well, in 2007, the focus was on smaller communities, and PTC made the top 100 out of over 2,000, so that's cool. And if you look, compared to the top 10, the city is pretty well up there on the stats that they used to compare. Notice that PTC is woefully behind in the development of ski resorts and movie theaters. Hmmm...maybe they do need more retail! In 2006, the lists were for areas larger than PTC's population. So we couldn't have made the list. In 2005, well, the town just kicked butt. So what have we learned? 1. PTC is not "off the list". The 2008 hasn't come out yet, and it's possible PTC may not be eligible for it. OK, back to the real world! PTC_factchecker's blog | login to post comments
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