Outside Magazine Names Atlanta 3rd Best City
In its August issue, Outside Magazine names Atlanta the third best city in the United States, just behind Colorado Springs, Colorado and Seattle, Washington.
Photo by Jonathan Springston, Senior Staff Writer, Atlanta Progressive News
Here’s how Outside compiled their rankings:
First, we started with the 100 most populated cities in America, using public data to rank them on factors like cost of living, unemployment, nightlife, commute time, and access to green spaces. Then we took the 28 candidates with the highest overall averages and put them through a second round of number crunching, comparing things like the percentage of the population with college degrees, income level in relation to home prices, and weather. The wild card? Our own multisport factor, which rated each of our finalists on a scale of 1 to 5 for quality and proximity to biking, running, paddling, hiking, and skiing. After adding it all up, we had our top ten.
So what did Outside like so much about Atlanta? The Chattahoochee River (”home to some of the best trout fishing in the South”), the recently LEED-certified Philips Arena (”the first sports stadium of its kind in North America”), affordable homes prices (”especially in the up-and-coming Eastside neighborhoods”), and Piedmont Park (”the big city’s green jewel”).
The magazine seemed especially impressed by the BeltLine project:
While commuting by car is a legitimate gripe, the recently launched Beltline Initiative will help ease some congestion: A 22-mile-long “live-work-play” corridor—including parks, trails, and green space—it’s one of the most progressive urban-planning projects in the country.
Read Outside’s entire Atlanta entry and compare it to the rest of the top ten.