Metro Augusta best place to live in GA (Atlanta, Columbus: best cities, home)

[johndoeboy]

Metro Augusta has recieved alot of national recogniton in 2005-2007

National Recognition

Augusta was rated 19th out of 150 metropolitan areas by Forbes Magazine as the best in the cost of doing business, which includes price of labor, energy, taxes, and office space.


In Expansion Magazine, Augusta MSA was ranked 36 out of 362 hottest cities for manufacturing expansions and relocations.


Augusta was chosen among the top ten places in the south with plenty of talented labor.*


Augusta’s new Southern Business and Development Corporate Park has been voted one of the top ten New Super Sites in the South.*


Evans, Georgia was voted number 32 of the top 100 places to live in the U.S. by CNN’s Money Magazine based on education, environment, housing affordability, taxes, commute times and job market.


Aiken, South Carolina was voted 3rd best small market in the south for business potential and quality of life.*

Embracing the Vision - Augusta, GA
(Source: Southern Business and Development Magazine


Augusta is at the top of the charts in the state of GA in population and workforce growth Augusta Metro Chamber of Commerce (http://www.augustagausa.com/ourtown/index.shtml - broken link)


Augusta named number 1 place to live and retire by the wall street journal.
Pretty, accurate portrait 082306 - The Augusta Chronicle



Cnn Money Magazine
MONEY Magazine: Best places to live 2006: Augusta-Richmond County ...



Augusta is one of sperling's best places to live
Moderator cut: link



In 2006 augusta was ranked by forbes again for one of the best cities for doing business
Augusta GA, Best Places For Business 2006 - Forbes.com



Augusta one of the best places to retire
MONEY Magazine: Best places to retire 2005: Augusta, GA snapshot


Martinez, GA
Martinez is a suburb of augusta
MONEY Magazine: Best places to live 2007: Martinez, GA snapshot


Evans, GA
Evans is a suburb of augusta
CNN/Money: Best places to live top 100 (2)

[DisgustaTruth]

THis post is a little misleading... First of all you present this as though Augusta ranks near the top of these various "Best of" lists.. which in most of them it does not. For the most part Augusta falls midway down.
The Forbes list you cite puts Augusta at #159 out of about 300 cities (with 300 being the worst).. so Augusta is somewhere in the middle and actually in the lower half. On the list of The Cost of doing business.. Augusta ranks 79.. not #19.. this is accurate.. the Augusta area is an inexpensive area.. housing is cheap compared to most metro areas and general cost of living is low.
That "embracing the vision" link is a PR publication put together by a group of local Augusta boosters.. it's full of a lot of exagerations.. which is common in "Boosterism". It's not an independent, objective appraisal.. Local boosters always claim their city or area is #1.
In that same Forbes ranking (Best place for doing business).. Atlanta ranks #15, Savannah ranks #99 and Augusta ranks #159.. so Augusta actually takes the third spot for Georgia cities on that list. Columbus ranked #181
As for the Sperling list.. again Augusta did not rank even in the top 100.. it came in at #164 out of around 300 metro
area.. on the lower end..
Atlanta came in at #7, Athens came in at #34 , Columbus at #110, and Savannah at #156.. all ahead of Augusta.
Also the reference you provided about the Walll Street Journal ranking Augusta the #1 city to retire is also incorrect. No where did it say that. The Wall Street Journal did an overall article on Augusta, but did not name it as the #1 city to retire in.. not sure where you came up with that.. but the refernce you provided certainly didn't say that.

Augusta on top of the state in population? Really? I think that honor goes to metro Atlanta.. Augusta has actually lost close to 6,000 residents since the last census. IT is still technically the 2nd largest city by population (something like 189,600or so) but the area is actually growing slower than the state average.But in the latest census estinates Columbus is closing in on Augusta and is expected to overtake Augusta as the second largest city in Georgia by the 2010 census.

As for the link citing Augusta on Money Magazines Best Places to live..... Augusta isn't even on the list.. Money rannked the top 100.. and Augusta didn't make that list. What you provided is a page of general stats and info Money compiled on Augusta.. it did not rank it in the top 100. Click on the Full list and you won't find Augusta.
On the 2007 ranking Martinez did place in at #76 not bad.. still behing Suwanee and Peachtree city... but considering that Martinez isn't a town but rather just really a zipcode not sure how Money Magazine did their methodology and there are a lot of obscure names on that list.. it's an odd list.
The lead of this post is misleading implying that Augusta is ranking as the #1 place in Georgia on these various lists.. it doesn't .. It comes in at about average.. which isn't that bad really.. but it certainly is not how you are portraying it in this post.

[johndoeboy]

Wallstreet Journal had augusta as the number 1 place in the united states to live and retire. It was on the news in augusta everyday because it was the wall street journal.

Augusta was ranked by forbes more than once so it was number 19 in one ranking.


You keep saying augusta is losing popuation but richmond county has gained population along with metro augusta. I have seen on other boards where ppl have told you that augusta population has increased in the city and metro. So where do you get your facts from.

[DisgustaTruth]

Ok so where is a reference citing this?... The link you provided did not state this.
Again I checked out your Forbes link and it had Augusta ranked at #74 for cost of doing business and #159 overall ..these are all from the references YOU provided.
I would think Augusta being ranked the #1 place to retire by The Wall Street Journal would be big news... why is it so hard to find a reference? A check of the Wall Street Journal and Augusta chronicle archives shows no articles on this.

As far as the population stats for Richmond County all you have to do is go to the us census bureau's website: Census Bureau Home Page type in richmond county Georgia and you can see all of the population figures.... and you will see that Richmond County has lost over 5,000 ppl since the last census. And the US census bureau is pretty much THE SOURCE for valid population figures.