Link: Urban Trekker Blog.

Good to see that Richmond is getting some recognition nationally!  Richmond ranked #26 on the list from Kiplinger’s Personal Finance of "50 Smart Places to Live".

To come up with this list of cities, we began by surveying you, our
readers, to see what factors you consider most important when choosing
a place to live. The top two were cost of living and cost of housing.
Quality health care and a low crime rate were also among your top
requirements.

We then asked Bert Sperling, co-author of Cities Ranked & Rated
(Wiley, $25) and host of BestPlaces.net, to design a database to take
these factors into account. Other key criteria used were weather,
education (primary, secondary and higher), cultural amenities and
transportation.

Unfortunately, no database could
allow for another top priority: proximity to family.

To broaden the appeal of the cities on the list, we also factored in
economic vitality — we gave points to well-diversified economies that
are good places to start or expand businesses. In addition, we looked
at quality of life, which by our definition means the variety of
cultural and recreational activities available.

With this tentative list in hand, we sent six writers out to
investigate the top cities, with instructions to examine in particular
the price of housing, the character of neighborhoods and the ease of
living. Were commutes reasonable? Did suburbs have personalities? Were
downtowns clean, interesting and vibrant? Based on all of our findings,
a panel of eight writers and editors ranked the cities.

Congratulations, Richmond!