New Jack City
April 14th, 2004, 01:06 AM
USA Today
First the list...
'Most livable' in the USA
Ala.: Birmingham
Ark.: Fayetteville
Calif.: Riverside, Sacramento, San Diego, San Jose, Santa Rosa, Ventura
Colo.: Denver
Fla.: Jacksonville, St. Petersburg
Ind.: Elkhart
Ky. : Louisville
Mass.: Salem
Mich.: Grand Rapids, Marquette County, Traverse City
Minn.: St. Paul
Miss.: Jackson
Mo.: Kansas City
N.C.: Charlotte, Winston-Salem
Okla.: Tulsa
Ohio: Cincinnati
S.C.: Columbia
Tenn.: Memphis/Shelby County
Texas: Fort Worth
Va.: Richmond, Roanoke
Wash.: Tacoma/Pierce County
Source: Partners for Livable Communities
What some of this year's winners have done:
•Tacoma, Wash. This port and lumber industrial center south of Seattle once was known for noxious smells spewing from its pulp mills and factories. The "Tacoma Aroma" began to fade along with jobs in the early 1990s as a recession and environmental crackdowns took their toll.
Tacoma has reinvented itself. The city owns a telecommunications system that offers high-speed Internet access to every corner of the city — a plus for attracting business. The University of Washington took over vacant warehouses in a desolate part of the city and opened a Tacoma campus. Three museums sit across the street. The best known is Museum of Glass: International Center for Contemporary Art, a tribute to Dale Chihuly, a Tacoma native who helped establish the Northwest as a major glass art center.
Next to it is an urban village of condos, apartments and retail built on 27 acres of land once contaminated by industrial pollution. The city bought and cleaned the land. Light rail opened last year. Tacoma is attracting artists and professionals from more expensive housing markets in Seattle, 50 minutes away on commuter rail.
"They turned the ugly duckling of Puget Sound into the most wired city in the country and a quality-of-life city," McNulty says.
•Elkhart, Ind. This city of 52,000 people in the heart of northern Indiana's Amish country is within 115 miles of Chicago, Detroit and Indianapolis. It's also the manufacturing center of recreational vehicles and musical instruments.
Six years ago, the city began buying and demolishing old industrial buildings along the banks of the Elkhart and St. Joseph rivers, which converge downtown. Riverwalk Commons — park, corporate offices, restaurants and planned condos — was created.
•Tulsa. The onetime oil city diversified in the 1990s, attracting major companies such as American Airlines' maintenance operations and MCI, formerly known as Worldcom. But the 9/11 terrorist attacks hurt he airline industry, and one of the largest accounting frauds in corporate history rocked Worldcom-MCI. The region lost 25,000 jobs.
City officials and citizens have spent the past 18 months setting a new vision for Tulsa in education, quality of life and economic development. The result was four initiatives to be funded by a sales tax increase. Foundations offered millions in matching funds if voters approved the proposals. They did — by more than 60%.
•Ventura, Calif. Once an oil and farming town between Santa Barbara and Los Angeles, the oceanside city is the base of Patagonia sports retailer and copier king Kinko's. Now, it's attracting high-tech startups.
Unlike many other California cities, where housing prices have exploded, "most of the people who work here also live here," says William Fulton, an urban planning consultant recently elected to the city council. But that's changing. People who work in Santa Barbara, where the median housing price is $800,000-plus, find Ventura's $500,000 listings a bargain.
•St. Paul. Tired of just being one of Minnesota's Twin Cities, St. Paul wants to stand apart as the intellectual capital of the Midwest. "We are siblings, but we are certainly not twins," St. Paul Mayor Randy Kelly says of Minneapolis, the city across the Mississippi River.
After 40 years of population declines, the state capital of 300,000 has rebounded. St. Paul has 10 colleges and universities within city limits (18 in the region), which makes it second only to Boston in the number of higher education institutions per capita.
The city built a $100 million science museum, the Xcel Energy Center arena and a history center. It's leveraging private and foundation money to build 5,000 housing units. At least 20% have to be affordable for lower-income families.
"People are hungering to live in communities that are safe, clean and affordable and have a sense of place and the kinds of amenities that enrich their lives," Kelly says.
More about the method of selection here:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2004-04-11-most-livable_x.htm
First the list...
'Most livable' in the USA
Ala.: Birmingham
Ark.: Fayetteville
Calif.: Riverside, Sacramento, San Diego, San Jose, Santa Rosa, Ventura
Colo.: Denver
Fla.: Jacksonville, St. Petersburg
Ind.: Elkhart
Ky. : Louisville
Mass.: Salem
Mich.: Grand Rapids, Marquette County, Traverse City
Minn.: St. Paul
Miss.: Jackson
Mo.: Kansas City
N.C.: Charlotte, Winston-Salem
Okla.: Tulsa
Ohio: Cincinnati
S.C.: Columbia
Tenn.: Memphis/Shelby County
Texas: Fort Worth
Va.: Richmond, Roanoke
Wash.: Tacoma/Pierce County
Source: Partners for Livable Communities
What some of this year's winners have done:
•Tacoma, Wash. This port and lumber industrial center south of Seattle once was known for noxious smells spewing from its pulp mills and factories. The "Tacoma Aroma" began to fade along with jobs in the early 1990s as a recession and environmental crackdowns took their toll.
Tacoma has reinvented itself. The city owns a telecommunications system that offers high-speed Internet access to every corner of the city — a plus for attracting business. The University of Washington took over vacant warehouses in a desolate part of the city and opened a Tacoma campus. Three museums sit across the street. The best known is Museum of Glass: International Center for Contemporary Art, a tribute to Dale Chihuly, a Tacoma native who helped establish the Northwest as a major glass art center.
Next to it is an urban village of condos, apartments and retail built on 27 acres of land once contaminated by industrial pollution. The city bought and cleaned the land. Light rail opened last year. Tacoma is attracting artists and professionals from more expensive housing markets in Seattle, 50 minutes away on commuter rail.
"They turned the ugly duckling of Puget Sound into the most wired city in the country and a quality-of-life city," McNulty says.
•Elkhart, Ind. This city of 52,000 people in the heart of northern Indiana's Amish country is within 115 miles of Chicago, Detroit and Indianapolis. It's also the manufacturing center of recreational vehicles and musical instruments.
Six years ago, the city began buying and demolishing old industrial buildings along the banks of the Elkhart and St. Joseph rivers, which converge downtown. Riverwalk Commons — park, corporate offices, restaurants and planned condos — was created.
•Tulsa. The onetime oil city diversified in the 1990s, attracting major companies such as American Airlines' maintenance operations and MCI, formerly known as Worldcom. But the 9/11 terrorist attacks hurt he airline industry, and one of the largest accounting frauds in corporate history rocked Worldcom-MCI. The region lost 25,000 jobs.
City officials and citizens have spent the past 18 months setting a new vision for Tulsa in education, quality of life and economic development. The result was four initiatives to be funded by a sales tax increase. Foundations offered millions in matching funds if voters approved the proposals. They did — by more than 60%.
•Ventura, Calif. Once an oil and farming town between Santa Barbara and Los Angeles, the oceanside city is the base of Patagonia sports retailer and copier king Kinko's. Now, it's attracting high-tech startups.
Unlike many other California cities, where housing prices have exploded, "most of the people who work here also live here," says William Fulton, an urban planning consultant recently elected to the city council. But that's changing. People who work in Santa Barbara, where the median housing price is $800,000-plus, find Ventura's $500,000 listings a bargain.
•St. Paul. Tired of just being one of Minnesota's Twin Cities, St. Paul wants to stand apart as the intellectual capital of the Midwest. "We are siblings, but we are certainly not twins," St. Paul Mayor Randy Kelly says of Minneapolis, the city across the Mississippi River.
After 40 years of population declines, the state capital of 300,000 has rebounded. St. Paul has 10 colleges and universities within city limits (18 in the region), which makes it second only to Boston in the number of higher education institutions per capita.
The city built a $100 million science museum, the Xcel Energy Center arena and a history center. It's leveraging private and foundation money to build 5,000 housing units. At least 20% have to be affordable for lower-income families.
"People are hungering to live in communities that are safe, clean and affordable and have a sense of place and the kinds of amenities that enrich their lives," Kelly says.
More about the method of selection here:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2004-04-11-most-livable_x.htm