NEW: Providence in Top 50 American Cities ‘Poised for Greatness’
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Good news: Providence has made a new list of the Top 50 American cities "poised for greatness," according to Sperling's BestPlaces.
The not-so-good news: we're 49th.
But hey. This is what they file under Room for Improvement.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTSan Francisco, Boston and Denver took top honors in a survey sponsored by Edge Shave Gel that assessed the following areas chosen for their contribution to greatness: sports, art, music, culture and cosmopolitan factors, like LEED certifications and population growth.
How they got the rankings
Sperling's broke those general areas into the following sub-sections:
(1) the City, including an analysis of the job market, housing cost and appreciation, population, percentage of young people, education level, income and investment in green living; (2) Music, identifying the most independent, homegrown music scenes; (3) Arts, examining artists per 100,000 population, paired with the presence of local art institutions; (4) Hometown Sports Heroes, the percentage of pro football, baseball or basketball players born in each city beginning in 1990; and (5) Alternative Sports, analyzing interest in alternative sports such as skateboarding, snowboarding, motocross, BMX, X games, ultimate fighting/martial arts, professional lacrosse and soccer.
Researchers said burgeoning art scenes and a commitment to the environment helped propel San Francisco, Boston and Denver to the top.
"Each of these cities landed in the top percentiles in the arts categories and in LEED certifications, while cities like Providence and Memphis barely cracked the seventh percentile in arts and were all in the bottom sixth percentile for LEED certifications," said Bert Sperling, president of Sperling's BestPlaces. "But what was most surprising to us was the number of San Francisco residents who went on to become professional athletes, about 17 per 100,000 population, which is much higher than other cities."
So should Providence be growing more pro athletes? Giving tax breaks to skateboarders? We've got a whole year to work on it... and pretty much nothing but upside.
For more information, go here.
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