Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Lack of qualified baristas hurts Youngstown

The results are in and Youngstown is looking better than it did a few years ago. "Cities Ranked & Rated" is a periodic publication by a by Wiley Publishing Inc. It ranks metropolitan areas based on variables related to economy, cost of living, climate, education, health and health care, crime, transportation, leisure and arts and culture. Youngstown's score wasn't that impressive, as 269th best place to live out of 373 areas, but it is an improvement from 2004 when we were 291st.

The survey doesn't really tell us anything we didn't already know. We have a great cost of living, decent transportation but a crappy economy. The two interesting things to come out of this survey include that Youngstown lost points in the leisure section because there are only three Starbucks Coffee locations in the area compared with the national average of 13 for a region. Was this survey done by Howard Schultz? Nevermind our impressive array of parks and minor league sports teams, we need our Half-caf Double Mochachinos with extra foam!

Secondly, and to my delight, Boardman was quoted as "an unremarkable middle-class suburb." I've been saying that for years.

Source: Valley climbs 22 spots on list of best metro areas

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