Money Magazine List of Best Places to Live

[mastein]

Money Magazine has come out with their annual list of best places to live. As it happens they rated the area I live as #1 in the East for towns under 100K people. (see http://money.cnn.com/best/bplive/ for details.) Sugarland Run happens to be a development, NOT a town. I have never received mail with "Sugarland Run, VA" in the address, nor do we have ANY of our services beyond a homeowners association who administers the community services including a community center, outdoor pool, trails etc., and ensures that the outsides of our homes meet the requirements of the HOA agreement. Now here is the question. . .Do I write in and tell Money Magazine their #1 doesn't really exist? Or do I (to paraphrase Harry Chapin) continue to live in the Town that Made America Famous?

[pippin]

1. This is ideal???

"California living in a highly planned community where little is left to chance . . .
Nestled in the foothills of the Santa Ana Mountains, 5,000-acre Rancho Santa Margarita was incorporated only in 2000 and is almost an homage to urban planning, with palm trees evenly spaced and traffic lights synchronized to the second. There are 10 parks, four pools, numerous recreational fields and a man-made swimming lagoon, all held in common and maintained with dues paid into a homeowners' association." ugh!

[DBoon]

6. And an unlimited supply of Soma...

"suffer little children" said the Controller

[kalian]

11. The worse part....that sounds like planned communism....

I kid you not: that is EXACTLY how I see these California "planned
communities"..where everything is controlled.
Its pathetic...but its just so happens that my father lives in
one of those "neighborhoods" and I know all too well what he has
to live through. He complains about it...and I just don't understand
why he just doesn't sell the damned place and move away... :eyes:

[eyesroll]

2. I really can't buy that having a certain number of libraries, sports teams

restaurants and so on within a 30-mile radius is indicative of "quality of life."

First of all, there are a lot fewer people living within 30 miles of me than, say, within 30 miles of O'Hare Airport. Likewise, there are fewer of these establishments (but more bars than average -- I do live in Wisconsin). I wonder what the per-capita breakdown is.

Second: How many of these restaurants are McDonald's? Are two decrepit, poorly-lit, outdated libraries weighted more favorably than one large, modern one? Does the Museum of First Lady Paper Dolls count for the same weight as an art institute or a children's museum? I would also say that the Green Bay Packers count way more toward quality of life here than the Bucks or the Brewers, but they don't count because they're too far away. (Believe me: People here think nothing of schlepping up to Lambeau Field if they get tickets.)

[Xandor]

3. Write and tell them

I live not far from you, in the sprawl of Fairfax County. There's no "there" there. It's not a bad existence, but it sure doesn't offer the same kind of civic amenities that a real town would. I've often found Money's rankings to be slightly surreal, because they often ignore on-the-ground realities behind the geopolitical entities that they use.

On edit: By the way, this ranking for Sugarland Run was also mentioned in a Washington Post article this morning. And... I wonder how many of the "bars" that they say are nearby are really nothing more than the faux "bar" often found in chain restaurants. Not exactly your friendly corner tavern kinda thing.

[mastein]

4. Dranesville

Since you know the area, one of the other "towns" to make the list was Dranesville, VA. Last time I checked, the only way to get mail to someone there is to put "Herndon, VA" on the last line of the address.

[meegbear]

5. I did Boston ....

Under Colleges, universities and professional schools
(index based on availability within 30-mile radius; 0 - least, 100 - most), it got a City Status of 40 and a rank of 104 out of 1261.

The Education Data link says:
ABOUT EDUCATION DATA
Facilities data: These are the numbers of facilities of each type within 30 miles of the city's geographic center.

If Boston is the "college Capital" of the US, with the most schools, how can it be 40?

[TrogL]

7. How totally US-centric

Friends tell me Vancouver, B.C. is nice. So is Sydney, Australia.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

8. All these places are sloburbs

miles and miles of housing tracts interspersed with chain stores.

I have firsthand knowledge of Woodbury, MN, since one of my brothers (the right-wing one) lives there, and it gives me the creeps. If there's a single business that not's a chain store in that whole suburb, I haven't found it yet.

These are "high-quality" places to live if you want to see only other affluent white people and have a totally predictable shopping experience.

[mastein]

9. Suburban Racism

The funny thing about Sugarland, and yet one more reason why I don't understand the rating in Money Magazine is that we are one of the very areas in the county that has a significant minority population, and a diverse one at that. The home prices in developments surrounding ours are significantly higher because they do not have the mixed housing that we do. Our development is also older than most of the homes in the area (our house was built in 73-74) which I am sure also plays a role.

As for the shopping experience, if one were to take Sugarland Run only we have a 7-11 a childcare center and a small strip of shops including another convienence store, a Pizza Hut take out, a Chinese take out, a beauty salon run by SE Asian immigrants, a florist and a laundramat (all save the PH and 7-11 privately owned). If you go outside of the development most of the shops are chains, but even the chains tend to be locally held franchises and we do buy a fair amount of our produce at Farmers markets in the summertime. So on some level a goodly chunck of the money stays in the community.

[RainDog]

10. LOL

these ratings just show what the money mag people think is worthwhile...The Woodlands, in TX, is like an office park, to me. There is no city there....it was built outside of Houston as a place for suburbanites to walk to their jobs, or carpool, if they were not employed by the cos. in the development.

Santa Cruz didn't get in there? Please.

Granger, IN is in there, but Bloomington, IN isn't?

that's ludicrous, frankly, if you're familiar with Indiana.

funny thing is that this list takes none of Richard Florida's "Creative Class" notes...that cities where younger professionals want to move are diverse, have a thriving "subculture," and are not full of newly coined houses with no imput from anyone other than the people who share your street name.

There is no amount of money which would make me want to live in a McBurb.

[tomhunter]

12. money mag knows f*** all

frankly, if money magazine is recommending it i wouldn't go near the place...