Rhode Island’s Best Communities 2012
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
What's the best community in Rhode Island?
What is the best place in Rhode Island to live, whether you're a young single, a starting family, or empty-nesters? What city or town combines affordability, safety, schools, arts, culture and recreation and nightlife in the very best balance? GoLocalProv's 3rd Annual RI's Best Communities takes a close, analytical look at all 39 cities and towns in the state to come up with that very answer. After more than 100 hours of analyzing almost 900 data points, we have the answer for 2012.
Starting today: An entire week devoted to Best Communities 2012
With updated data and formulas, GoLocalProv reveals the very latest look at every community from one end of the state to the other. Starting today, we reveal the rankings, starting from the bottom of the list at #39. Every day we'll reveal more communities, moving up the list toward the Top 10, which will appear on Friday. What day will your town make the list? And at what ranking? Which towns ranked lower than yours? Which ones higher? We'll have more towns every day, all week, plus a full, downloadable chart on Friday comparing all 39 communities. Don't miss a day of it.
How GoLocalProv ranks Rhode Island's communities
To translate "great community" into a quantifiable assessment, we went to the data. With rankings created nationally by leading media sources like Kiplinger's and Money Magazine, we created our own set of criteria for what makes a community great. Our researchers spent hours poring over measures from public sources that help define a great place to live. We gathered and assessed housing prices, tax rates, median household incomes, crime statistics, and school performance on standardized tests in elementary, middle, and high schools. We counted places to go out and have fun, from bars and restaurants, to theaters, historic sites and museums, and golf courses. We even counted libraries. (For a full explanation of our methodology and sources, go here.)
New in 2012: A updated formula
Once the data was collected, GoLocal applied its proprietary ranking formula that combines and weighs these measures. New for this year: GoLocal carefully revised its ranking formula for 2012 to get even closer to what we feel defines community best. While education has always been in the Best Communities ranking formula, it now has more weight than in previous years. GoLocal also established separate weightings for arts & culture and restaurants & bars, to allow towns with strengths in one or the other to emerge more clearly. For more on the formula and methology, go here. What emerged for 2012 was a new set of analytical snapshots of our communities - in education, housing, safety, affordability, and culture... and of course, what community combined everything into the best overall package.
What the rankings mean... to you
This is Rhode Island, remember, and we're expecting to hear from you. How do you feel about your town's ranking? What do the measures we use tell you about your community? Join the conversation about RI's Best Communities here in comments, on your town's profile, and on Facebook, here. Share the piece, talk to your friends and neighbors, and enjoy the biggest backyard conversation Rhode Island has ever seen.
And stay tuned all week.
Research by Scott O'Leary, Meia Geddes, Frankie Dobbs, Hannah Strom-Weber and Jake Costello.
For more Best Communities 2012 coverage, don't miss GoLocalTV, fresh every day at 4pm and on demand 24/7, here.
Related Articles
- CHART: RI’s Best Communities 2012, From #1 to #39
- The Top 10: RI’s Best Communities 2012
- RI’s Best Communities 2012: How We Got the Rankings
- PODCAST: RI’s Best Communities 2012
- Central Falls #39: RI’s Best Communities 2012
- Woonsocket #38: RI’s Best Communities 2012
- Pawtucket #37: RI’s Best Communities 2012
- New Shoreham #36: RI’s Best Communities 2012
- North Providence #35: RI’s Best Communities 2012
- Johnston #34: RI’s Best Communities 2012
- Warren #33: RI’s Best Communities 2012
- East Providence #32: RI’s Best Communities 2012
- Tiverton #31: RI’s Best Communities 2012
- Scituate #30: RI’s Best Communities 2012
- Lincoln #29: RI’s Best Communities 2012
- West Warwick #28: RI’s Best Communities 2012
- Cumberland #27: RI’s Best Communities 2012
- Burrillville #26: RI’s Best Communities 2012
- West Greenwich #25: RI’s Best Communities 2012
- Westerly #24: RI’s Best Communities 2012
- Foster #23: RI’s Best Communities 2012
- Narragansett #22: RI’s Best Communities 2012
- Newport #21: RI’s Best Communities 2012
- North Smithfield #20: RI’s Best Communities 2012
- Charlestown #19: RI’s Best Communities 2012
- Middletown #18: RI’s Best Communities 2012
- Coventry #17: RI’s Best Communities 2012
- Exeter #16: RI’s Best Communities 2012
- Cranston #15: RI’s Best Communities 2012
- Little Compton #14: RI’s Best Communities 2012
- Smithfield #13: RI’s Best Communities 2012
- Jamestown #12: RI’s Best Communities 2012
- Bristol #11: RI’s Best Communities 2012
- Glocester #10: RI’s Best Communities 2012
- Richmond #9: RI’s Best Communities 2012
- Portsmouth #8: RI’s Best Communities 2012
- Barrington #7: RI’s Best Communities 2012
- Hopkinton #6: RI’s Best Communities 2012
- North Kingstown #5: RI’s Best Communities 2012
- Warwick #4: RI’s Best Communities 2012
- Providence #3: RI’s Best Communities 2012
- East Greenwich #2: RI’s Best Communities 2012
- South Kingstown #1: RI’s Best Communities 2012
Comments:
pearl fanch
9:06am on Monday, June 25, 2012
This should be interesting.
The bottom few should be obvious, as well as the top few.
pearl fanch
9:10am on Monday, June 25, 2012
Um, someone forgot to write down Providence. How is Prov. not one of the worst 3 or 4 places to live? The most crime, most violent crime, most corrupt govt in the NATION.
Property values are in the toilet, poverty running rampant. Yeah, I can't wait to move there.
Koko LaRue
2:20pm on Monday, June 25, 2012
Warren's Population: 2000 Census = 11,360
Warren's Population: 2010 Census = 10,611
Numeric Difference: = -749
Percent DECLINE: = -6.6%
The last sentence in the Warren article stated the following: "Warren has enjoyed a diverse and vibrant history and it continues to grow in population and industry."
Wrong info, Projo needs to fact check their own info before publishing it.
As for growing industry let's ask the former employees of Blount Seafood of Jamiel's Shoe World about that claim.
Koko LaRue
2:33pm on Monday, June 25, 2012
As well as the former employees of:
Bank of America
The Bridal Gown Shop
Tuscan Tavern
Bristol County Dodge
Nancy's Fancies Antiques
Plus others I didn't list because I've made the point of how ill informed the Projo writers can be.
Paul Marshall
8:34am on Tuesday, June 26, 2012
@ KoKo: U R RIGHT! If you look past the political spin, our state is actually SHRINKING! Our kids leave afte h.s. and the liberals have chased-off entrepreneurs and investors with "class warfare" and "social justice" hate-speech, and punishment.
The illegals come here to fill the void so these same spinners don't lose a precious seat in Congress.
How does it feel to be 'played for a sucker' Rhode Island?
Want change? BE the change.
STOP VOTING DEMOCrat. Please.
Elizabeth Smith
3:11pm on Thursday, June 28, 2012
YAY E.G. in the top ten!!!!! But where???? #1 school system in the state according to Go Local! Can't wait until tomorrow!
Caroline Evans
10:16am on Friday, June 29, 2012
In all reality.... these kind of rating systems are a sad joke.
It is someone with no ideas looking to pick up some grant money or sell an article or two and/or are marketing hype by real estate brokers looking for some ad copy and free positive publicity for their market area..
The ratings are inevitably arbitrary garbage dreamed up to yield foregone conclusions.... the foregone conclusion depending on the motives of the concluder.
Imagine the lunacy of ranking Providence 3rd... a dirty rundown corrupt pesthole.. bankrupt and soon to collapse.... infrastructure is a wreck ... incompetent officials galore.... idle obese govt unions dawdling around taking much and doing little..... the very essence of a doomed city that you'd have to be a fool to live in if you could escape.... and yet this crazy rating scheme tallies it up as some wonderful place?
Have you EVER lived in Providence??? Can you operate a calculator? Can you read? Do you read, at all? Do you have any idea at all what is going on in that town? Or are the ratings based upon the occasional social foray into a selected venue?
Koko LaRue
10:09pm on Friday, June 29, 2012
The day that Providence actually becomes a more desirable place to live and raise a family over my hometown of Little Compton is the day I pack up and move to Hawaii. No slight to the fine residents of Fox Point but compared to the picture postcard beauty of Sakonnet Point during sunrise or sunset. The breath taking beauty of a ride down Main Road in Tiverton through Little Compton is 18 miles of indescribable New England beauty. What does a drive down Main Street in Providence yield to the viewer? I'll let the reader be the judge of that, however I must admit my favorite viewing location on Providence's Main Street is where the old Sears Roebuck used to be close to the former Anderson Little clothing store. Providence has some very pretty areas along its east side and downtown district but that hardly should put that ahead of such wonderful RI towns as Little Compton, Tiverton, Jamestown, Narragansett, Block Island to name but a few. As Rhode Islanders we're all proud of Providence but the politicians make it one of the least desirable places in RI to live and work, and cetrainly not number three in desirability. The city's citizens however make Providence a wonderful place to visit.
Koko LaRue
10:21pm on Friday, June 29, 2012
Caroline, your observations and subsequent conclusions on the veracity of this self-serving 'List' are precisely 100% on target correct. If you are living where you want to live then your town is number one to you. This is just another attempt by this Progressive yellow journalism rag to drive a wedge between the residents of the state. If Roger Williams were alive today he'd probably burn the Journal building to the ground himself out of disgust and contempt.
Koko LaRue
10:35pm on Friday, June 29, 2012
@Paul,
You my friend are right. For proof of what one party rule can do to a municipality one need only look to Detroit. Search 'Detroit' in a YouTUBE search and you'll soon become horrified at what 70 years of one party [Democrats] rule that's beholden to corrupt unions can do to a municipality. RI is headed on the road to becoming New England's 'Detroit'.