Businessweek.com once again teamed up with Bloomberg Rankings to evaluate data on 100 of the country’s largest cities.
They looked at leisure attributes (the number of restaurants, bars, libraries, museums, professional sports teams, and park acres by population), educational attributes (public school performance, the number of colleges, and rate of graduate-degree holders), economic factors (income and unemployment), crime, and air quality. Major professional league and minor league teams, as well as U.S.-based teams belonging to international leagues in each city were included. This year they placed greater emphasis on leisure amenities than last year.
Here is what they had to say about our great city:
Atlanta
Rank: 16
Population: 410,606
Photograph by Krista Rossow/National Geographic. Click on the image to view the Businessweek.com slideshow of the 50 best cities.
Atlanta’s combination of entertainment, cuisine, and parks rates second-best on our list. So why does “Hotlanta” rank only 16th overall? Air quality and unemployment are areas of concern. The city has greatly increased its park space in recent years. Residents can also pay homage to arguably their city’s greatest invention: The World of Coca-Cola park has educated soda pop enthusiasts for five years at its Pemberton Place location.
Bars: 146
Restaurants: 1,566
Museums: 37
Libraries: 37
Pro sports teams: 5
Park acres per 1,000 residents: 7
Colleges: 12
Percent with graduate degree: 12.7
Median household income: $59,345
Percent unemployed: 10.2
The figures come from data company Onboard Informatics and the nonprofit Trust for Public Land.
