Chattanooga, Knoxville among top livable cities

Thursday, October 17, 2013

photo Aerial of downtown Chattanooga shows the intersection of U.S. Highway 27 and M.L. K ing Boulevard.

Chattanooga is one of the Top 100 Best Places to Live, according to a study released Wednesday by a website that ranks quality of life and travel amenities of America's small and mid-sized cities.

Livability.com ranks Chattanooga as the 83rd best city based upon the website's review of eight quality of life measures -- economics, housing, amenities, infrastructure, demographics, social and civic capital, education and healthcare. Knoxville, which ranked as the 61st most livable city, was the only other Tennessee city on the list of top 100 cities.

The most livable cities are, in order, Palo Alto, Calif., Boulder, Colo., Berkely, Calif., Durham, N.C., and Miami Beach, Fla.

"Great cities are more than just a check-list of bars, coffee shops and museums," said Livability.com editor Matt Carmichael. "Our goal was to collect the best data available, from the best sources and the best partners to gauge the true measures of livability. Access was important, but so were utilization and affordability."

Livability recruited Ipsos Public Affairs, a leading market research firm, to conduct a survey to find out what quality of life amenities residents value most. Respondents were asked about factors that make their communities better places to live, as well as the factors they would consider in selecting another city.

Chattanooga scored high in the areas of education and amenities as well as health care.