[Bay2Bay]

Wisconsin Citites on Forbes Best Places for Business List

Best Places For Business


--------------------------RANKS--------------------------

Metro Areas List:

Rank....Metro Area....Cost of Doing Business..Job Growth..Edu...........Pop

31......Madison WI..............98........................42..........12.......537,800
106....Green Bay WI...........62........................91..........153......297,800
124....Milwaukee WI..........100......................178...........67....1,520,600


Small Metro Areas List:

27.....Appleton WI..............93.......................111..........58......214,700
78.....Sheboygan WI...........79.......................130.........102.....114,500
81.....La Crosse WI............118......................119...........40.....129,300
83.....Oshkosh WI..............120......................121...........52.....160,200
90.....Wausau WI................71........................86.........101.....128,500
91.....Eau Claire WI............131........................83..........57.....153,800
101....Fond du Lac WI..........76......................118.........112......99,400
112....Racine WI................108......................143..........76.....195,100
141...Janesville WI.............121......................134.........115.....157,300


http://www.forbes.com/home/lists/2006/05/03/06bestplaces_best-places-for-business_land.html

 

[dmg1mn]

Small Metros
#7 - Rochester, MN

 

[araman0]

GO APPLETON!!!!

#1 in Wisconsin...

:dance:

 

[EastSider]

Top 10:
1) Albuquerque NM
2) Raleigh NC
3) Houston TX
4) Boise ID
5) Knoxville TN
6) Phoenix AZ
7) Nashville TN
8) Durham NC
9) Fayetteville AR
10) Indianapolis IN

 

[Jason]

Madison should not be as high as it is on this list. As great of a town as it is for so many other reasons, it has become horribly unfriendly to small businesses. For example; there will soon likely be an ordinance in place requiring local businesses to provide 9 days of paid sick leave to all employees per year. So much for free enterprise. As a business operator, I have a big problem with city alderman (about 10% of which even have jobs in the private sector) telling me how to run my business. My company provides even more time off than that to salaried employees, but it's the idea that it will no longer be our decision that frustrates. This is just one of many business-unfriendly developments that have come up over the last few years in town, and the folks making these lists aren't paying attention to the things that are a little less "measurable".

 

[Bay2Bay]

^^
One of the reasons Madison probably rated highest of the three Wisconsin cities on the Large Metropolitan List is because they scored 12th for education attained by its populous. By comparison, Green Bay was a dismal 153rd in this catergory.

 

[♣628.finst]

GO APPLETON!!!!

#1 in Wisconsin...

:dance:

I think Appleton ranks 72 on small cities ranking--- note that the 3 criteria are ranked around National average.

Wisconsin cities' advantage is the population is generally more educated than National Average, with much above average high school graduation rate, however, those with bachelor degree is just around the average of United States. Therefore Wisconsin is generally a more middle-class oriented states, not the place for the most ambitious businessmen, but a typical friendly Midwestern warmness prevails in almost all Wisconsin cities--- perhaps except Milwaukee and Janesville, where Chicago influence is very strong.

 

[vid]

They forgot Genoa City? :dunno:

I hear it makes a killing in the cosmetics industry.

(And that, my friends, is why I'm gay.)

 

[UWMilwaukeeJay]

More ratings for Wis. cities

3 Wisconsin cities called smart places to live
La Crosse, Madison and Oshkosh rank on Kiplinger's Personal Finance list
By ANDREW JOHNSON
[email protected]
Posted: May 8, 2006

When Rafael Carbonell and his wife, Sol, decided to move from their home in San Francisco to a new city about a year and a half ago, they narrowed their list down to Austin, Texas, the Denver-Boulder area and Madison.
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Ultimately they chose Madison because of its regional amenities.

"What we loved about this area was this balance of urban and rural. Neither of them overwhelms you," said Carbonell, director of regional economic development for the Greater Madison Chamber of Commerce.

A new list released Monday by Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine has reaffirmed Carbonell's decision.

La Crosse, Madison and Oshkosh rank No. 16, No. 20 and No. 45, respectively, on the magazine's first list of "50 Smart Places to Live," which ranked metro areas based on cost of living, housing prices, economic vitality, education, health care, and cultural and recreational facilities.

The list gave credence to affordable living conditions, an important factor as it impacts a person's ability to confront other financial situations, said Robert Frick, a senior editor at Kiplinger's.

"We call it 'Smart' because we want to make sure people understand this is not 'Best'; this is 'Smart' in a sense that reasonable cost of living (means) great quality of life," Frick said.

Nashville, Tenn., made the top of the list, followed by Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn., and Albuquerque, N.M.

The list comes less than a week after two Wisconsin cities saw their rankings decline on Forbes magazine's annual "Best Places for Business and Careers Survey." Released Thursday, it ranked the top 200 metro areas to do business in based on economic conditions and quality of life conditions.

Madison was No. 31 on that list, down from No. 10 in 2005, and Milwaukee fell from No. 86 to No. 124.

"I think it's great news," Jennifer Alexander, president of the Greater Madison Chamber of Commerce, said of the Kiplinger's list. "There's no question the greater Madison area is a great place to live, to work, to play, to raise a family, and it shows up in the Kiplinger's survey."

Kiplinger's relied on Sperling's BestPlaces.net to score cities based on the magazine's criteria, which were selected based on reader survey responses.

One of the top criteria was home prices, which was included as an absolute standard, Frick said. Kiplinger's limited the top 50 to cities with median home prices of $300,000 or less.

Access to health care and access to education were two criteria that were weighted heavily.

Health care included such factors as the number of doctors per capita, number of hospitals and environmental factors. Education included teachers per students, the number of high school and college graduates and other factors.

"One of the things we discovered was if a place has good education, everything else seems to fall into place," Frick said.

Community leaders in La Crosse, Madison and Oshkosh said they were pleased with their city's placement on the list but were not surprised by the results.

"This is a great place to live and raise a family with the multiple opportunities for culture and education and scenic beauty," said Dave Clements, executive director of the La Crosse Area Convention and Visitors Bureau.

The survey listed the median home value in La Crosse as $117,070, representing a one-year home price change of 7.2%.

Dick Granchalek, president of the Greater La Crosse Area Chamber of Commerce said the metro area has seen a boom in new home construction. The communities of Holman and West Salem, especially, "are just bursting with new construction," he said.

La Crosse also scored an 86 on the list's cost of living index, compared with Madison, which scored a 91, and Oshkosh, which scored an 84.

Oshkosh's median home price was $118,500, representing a 6.2% one-year price change, according to the list.

"It's good to see that we rank so highly among some very outstanding communities in this country," said John Casper, president and chief executive officer of the Oshkosh Chamber of Commerce. "It really reflects a lot of what we've know for many, many years."

Casper said recent downtown revitalization efforts, including the Leach Amphitheater on the riverfront, have helped improve the city's image.

Madison's ranking in the top 20 metro areas highlights the community's economic vitality, pool of highly educated residents and natural beauty, among other things, Alexander said.

"I think you have to look at (the list) like you would a medical chart," she said. "You look at the overall factor."

Madison's median home price was $154,780, according to the list, a one-year price change of 10.5%

 

[UWMilwaukeeJay]

La Crosse is where i would like to retire to....but thats way down the road! Its a textbook midwestern city...with great presence of the Mississippi River.

 

[D-res]

La Crosse is a cool city. I was born there but my family moved when i was 4 for a job transfer. My dad was also born there and spent pretty much his entire life there before the move. He wants to retire there aswell

 

[araman0]

I have had a hard time finding many photos of La Crosse, specifically downtown, but have heard good things about the city. I need to visit it sometime.