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Shocker: Raleigh drops eight spots on a "Best Of" list

Submitted by dbracken on 05/26/2009 - 14:53

The personal finance magazine Kiplinger's has released its 2009 list of the top cities in the U.S., and Raleigh is ranked 10th. While most cities would likely be happy with a top ten finish, Raleigh ranked second on Kiplinger's 2008 list and has been the Tiger Woods of municipalities when it comes to these sorts of rankings in recent years. (Raleigh's abundance of accolades has been mentioned as a reason why City Manager Russell Allen was recently given a 5 percent raise.)

Why the drop in the Kiplinger's list? It likely has something to do with the Raleigh area's unemployment rate, which has doubled over the last year to 8.6 percent, as Kipplinger's notes.

If there is a connection among many of the cities ranked in the top ten it is that most are state capitals or university towns, meaning they are places with a large number of relatively stable public-sector jobs. The top ten cities, from one to nine, are: Huntsville, Albuquerque, Washington D.C. , Charlottesville, Athens, Olympia, Madison, Austin and Flagstaff. (Huntsville doesn't have a major university and is not the capital, but it is a major center for the missile-defense and aerospace industries.)

The question for Raleigh and the politicians who love citing the city's rankings is whether Kiplinger's is a sign of things to come or an aberation. These things tend to go in cycles, and it could be that the list-makers are looking for some new city to anoint.

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Fri, 11/06/2009 - 07:21 — trentonwilmore

You sound like a barely post-adolescent hotdog with a big ego, a smart mouth, and minimal accomplishments. If you find Raleigh is inadequate for someone as cool as you, well, the highways are wide open and the whole world is out there just waiting to marvel at you

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Raleigh has done some good things.

Wed, 11/04/2009 - 09:50 — Iftikhar

Raleigh has done some good things. Your center city needs more work and Glenwood Avenue out to Crabtree looks a bit threadbare to me. You also need a rail line. Still, I'd pick Raleigh over all those other cities except D.C., Austin and maybe Madison. Flagstaff is snowed in during the winter. Albuquerque is gritty and hot with no discenible center. Athens is too rowdy, even though not too far from Atlanta. Huntsville has air quality issues and is too small....

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Wed, 11/04/2009 - 04:22 — rr2009

The only downside is the poor poor state of public education in Wake County (I can't tell it's any better than Charleston SC - wow that's saying a lot) - but NC State makes up for that for my oldest son. I also have a constant knee pain and looking for ways how to relieve pain...Having been away I am very appreciate of what the Raleigh is and any limitations are truly worth in comparison to other locales.

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Wed, 11/04/2009 - 04:23 — rr2009

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Time to change...

Sun, 07/05/2009 - 02:40 — Nathanial12

After being away for a generation, my family was thrilled to return to Raleigh. Even though I was born in Charlotte, and have lived all over, Raleigh is the ultimate hook for us.

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Sun, 05/31/2009 - 08:07 — kahunsley

As a person who considers Alabama "home," I must take issue with your statement "Huntsville doesn't have a major university." I beg to differ. The University of Alabama-Huntsville is one of the strongest engineering universities in the country. Just because it doesn't have a sports program the caliber of those we have in Raleigh does not make it any less a major university. UAH students spend more time studying. You might also note that Huntsville has the most PhD's per capita.

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Wed, 05/27/2009 - 01:12 — Joseph_de_Maistre

mrcrosby>>I have yet to figure out why Raleigh is even on the list to start with. Raleigh is as lame as it gets. Borrrrrring

all of you who think it is

Tue, 05/26/2009 - 21:33 — mdhillison

all of you who think it is lame or less than ideal, please feel free to leave. The less people moving here at this point, the better.

if all the northerners would

Tue, 05/26/2009 - 20:31 — swisspfau

if all the northerners would stop moving down here it would go back to a wonderful place to live

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Tue, 05/26/2009 - 17:12 — davet

I'm not a particular fan of Raleigh, but it has done some good things. Your center city needs more work (although you have done quite a bit to it) and Glenwood Avenue out to Crabtree looks a bit threadbare to me (and it shouldn't-maybe it's just the poor pavement.) You also need a rail line. Still, I'd pick Raleigh over all those other cities except D.C., Austin and maybe Madison (if I could get used to the cold.) Flagstaff is snowed in during the winter. Albuquerque is gritty and hot with no discenible center. Athens is too rowdy, even though not too far from Atlanta. Huntsville has air quality issues and is too small. No thanks to Mr. Jefferson's Very Stuffy FFVs. I hear Olympia is a bit rundown-why not just go to Seattle? The truth is that any city is what you make of it. But you want it to big enough to generate jobs and have some interesting things to do. It certainly doesn't hurt if it's clean and pretty and has historic neighborhoods or districts with lots of trees. JMO.

time to change city council people

Tue, 05/26/2009 - 16:00 — tboard47

"why City Manager Russell Allen was recently given a 5 percent raise"

Regardless of an absolute idiotic city council or maybe because of it.......

No surprise

Tue, 05/26/2009 - 15:39 — mrcrosby

I have yet to figure out why Raleigh is even on the list to start with. Raleigh is as lame as it gets. Borrrrrring

Raleigh

Tue, 05/26/2009 - 15:29 — jbrooksws

After being away for a generation, my family was thrilled to return to Raleigh. Even though I was born in Charlotte, and have lived all over, Raleigh is the ultimate hook for us.

The only downside is the poor poor state of public education in Wake County (I can't tell it's any better than Charleston SC - wow that's saying a lot) - but NC State makes up for that for my oldest son. Having been away I am very appreciate of what the Raleigh is and any limitations are truly worth in comparison to other locales.

In the top ten out of how many hundreds of cities? I'll take that any day. It's great to be home!

Shocker: Raleigh drops eight spots on a "Best Of" list

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David Bracken

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