How Many People Were Murdered There Last Year?
Written: Jul 15 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Very well laid out information on Metropolitan Places
Cons: Small cities and towns in California (& other states with lots of metropolitan areas) are not included
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| Mrsfitts's Full Review: Places Rated Almanac Books |
Note: The Books category seems mighty wonky to me. I have a book listed as Electronic Media here, so I input the ISBN number and get a 1993 version of this book -which also claims it's Electronic. I have only the Millennium Edition paperback version. But at 684 pages, I can understand why someone would want Electronic
Hubby and I are getting up there in years. The kids are grown, the dogs are old, and we've been at the same job 22 & 20 years respectively. It's that time of the life that thoughts turn towards RETIREMENT! But Where?
This is when our research takes us to the Places Rated Almanac.
I bought this $25 Special Millennium Edition which contains:
"All 354 Metropolitan Areas ranked for:
*Living Costs (Taxes, food, housing)
*Transportation (Trains, planes & busses)
*Job Outlook (Retirement area? Industrial area?)
*Education (Who's spending for school improvements)
*Climate (How much rain, snow, humidity, hot days cold days)
*Crime (Violent, property, reported)
*The Arts (Theatres, Operas, Museums)
*Health Care (Where doctors & hospitals are)
*Recreation (Fishing, camping, amusement parks, auto racing & GOLF!)
Hubby & I already knew what was most important to us in our retirement, but on page 29 there is a 72 question survey which acts like a Myers-Briggs personality test. What kind of Place Person are you?
The test did match exactly what we wanted for our retirement place. We had 4 categories that we rated the highest, & the results of the test confirmed that we were looking for the places that had the best results in Cost of Living, Climate, Crime and Health Care.
We then skipped over to page 579; Rankings: Putting It All Together. They have the top 35 in each category highlighted. This made it easy to find the best in the 4 categories we wanted.
Here's where the Bad News comes in. The best places in the US and Canada for Climate, are not the best places for Crime! It seems that great weather attracts criminals? Or could it be that the best Cost of Living Areas had the worst Crime? We were able to find good Health Care matched with good Climate, Cost of Living and Crime.
Well, we looked anyway. We found several cities that weren't too bad on Climate, with better Cost of Living and Crime. After careful search through the 6+ pages of statistics, we made our choices. Then, we saw that our choices matched the little box area on page 585. They already had the 5 metro areas with the highest average score in those 4 categories!
Johnson City-Kingsport-Bristol, TN-VA
Roanoke, VA
Huntington-Ashland, WV-KY-OH
Augusta-Aiken, GA-SC
and Asheville, NC
I'm glad to know that the tools in this book are available. I should've read more thoroughly before jumping in with both feet. Oh well, it was a fun exercise. The Putting It All Together section makes it pretty easy to compare the 9 categories when choosing a place to live.
Places like Tampa, FL are high ranking in Transportation, Jobs, Climate, and Recreation. Houston is in the top 35 in Transportation and Jobs. Fresno is in the top 35 only in Climate. I've been to Fresno often. I don't think their climate is that great! There can be Tule fog where you don't see the sun from November to February. Also, it gets too hot to go out to your pool in the Summer! But that's my opinion. They factor how many days of sun an area gets, and how few days of freeze.
After all that research, we decided that we're Californian natives, and we'll take our chances with the Crime and High Cost of Living. There are actually very nice places to live in California that are relatively inexpensive and low crime. These are small mountain communities, so they don't show up in this book. It was still fun doing the research. I learned a lot about all those states I haven't been to. I know which month to visit my friends back East!
Note: I did find a discrepancy on the Cost of Living category. The average house in my area currently costs over $500,000. (Yes, that's the average, not the high-end) The housing price listed in the book is only $278,400. Those prices haven't been that low since the recession that ended in the early '90s. They did have the average income just about right though. It would've been nice to buy a $280k house with a $111k income!
Recommended:
Yes
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Mrsfitts
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Member: Pam Fitts
Location: SF Bay Area, CA
Reviews written: 203
Trusted by: 442 members
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You Teach The Best What You Need Most To Learn
-Illusions, Richard Bach
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