An aspect of living in a big city that doesn’t really come with living in the suburbs or smaller cities is civic pride. How many times have you seen someone wearing an I Love New York shirt or heard someone assign himself or herself a certain characteristic or personality trait simply based on where they live?
Mayors of big cities tend to make bets with each other when their sporting teams face off in a championship game, with the payout typically being the losing city has to fly the winning city’s flag outside of city hall or something similar. Basically, civic pride often boils down to a nationwide my-dad-can-beat-up-your-dad argument.
Now, according to Business Insider, a new list by U.S. News & World Report has named the top 12 big cities in the country to live and is going to add more fuel to the fire of which city truly is best. Big cities for this list are defined as metros with populations above 2.5 million people. They were scored on a variety of factors including affordable housing, access to well-paying jobs, a low cost of living, and quality healthcare.
The largest city in the top 12 was Dallas-Fort Worth, coming in at number 8 and number 21 overall. Other cities on the list were Houston, San Diego, Atlanta, and Seattle. The number one ranked big city was also the smallest big city, by population, on the list.
The Mile High city of Denver, Colorado can boast that it is, at least according to U.S. News & World Report, the best big city in the country to live in right now. Fire up the t-shirt presses, Denver, and get that civic pride on full display.
