8. America's Best City

 

 

Ask most people which city they would most want to live (0)  and usually their answers would be shaped by such realities as proximity to their jobs and what they can afford. But suppose you could (1)  to live anywhere you wanted regardless of cost? What (2)  you could live in a city that offered a wealth of culture, entertainment, good schools, low crime, and plenty of green space? Many people might opt for obvious choices such as New York or San Francisco, but great as they are, data reveal other cities are even better.

Wearebusiness.au (3)  months working with data that would help us to identify the best cities in the U.S. We looked at a range of positive metrics around quality of (4)  counted up restaurants, evaluated school scores, (5)  considered the number of colleges and pro sports teams. All these factors and more add up to a city that would seem to offer it all. When we began the process we had no idea which cities would come out on top. The winner? Raleigh, N.C.

To most residents of Raleigh, it may not come as a (6)  that their city earned the title of America’s Best City. Raleigh shows the cultural graces that go along (7)  anchoring the so-called Research Triangle, home to North Carolina State University, Duke University, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Among its many attributes, the city sports 867 restaurants, 110 bars, and 51 museums, according to Onboard Informatics, as (8)  as a thriving social scene, good schools, and 12,512 park acres, equal (9)  several times the green space per capita in cities like New York and Los Angeles, according to the Trust for Public Land. It also offers a great deal on nights and weekends – from concerts and opera, to the NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes and college sports, to the 30,000-square-foot State Farmers Market.