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Cost of living
Housing
Crime rates
Beauty/scenary
Access to bodies of water
Weather
Schools from the lowest through college
Economy
Growth
Access to other cities
International airport?
Public transportation
Amenties
Sports
Museums/zoos/aquariums/water parks/etc
Future growth
Food
Hmm...One of these towns is not like the others. I'm curious why Boulder? It's a small city, or part of the Denver metro area depending on who you ask. The others are their own cities and the core of metro areas of ~ 2,000,000 or greater.
Still, I'll take a stab at your criteria:
Cost of living: Probably Austin
Housing: Austin
Crime rates: No clue
Beauty/scenery: Boulder, Portland
Access to bodies of water: Portland, though Austin and Pittsburg have some nice rivers too.
Weather: Boulder
Schools from the lowest through college: Austin, Boulder
Economy: Austin, Boulder
Growth: Austin
Access to other cities: Wash
International airport?: Wash
Public transportation: Wash
Amenties: Wash
Sports: Boulder
Museums/zoos/aquariums/water parks/etc: Pittsburgh
Future growth: Austin
Food: Austin
Cost of living - Austin
Housing - Too opinionated
Crime rates - Pittsburgh
Beauty/scenary(you mean scenery?) - Pittsburgh/Portland tie
Access to bodies of water - Portland/Pittsburgh tie
Weather - I like Pittsburgh's weather, but most don't so the majority of people will say Austin
Schools from the lowest through college - Pittsburgh
Economy - Austin
Growth - Austin
Access to other cities - Pittsburgh
International airport? - ? None have a "big" airport
Public transportation - Portland
Amenties - Portland
Sports - Pittsburgh
Museums/zoos/aquariums/water parks/etc - Pittsburgh
Future growth - Portland
Food - Not sure
Austin - 4
Portland - 5
Boulder - 0
Pittsburgh - 7
Its not fair to put Boulder against these other big cities. It can't really compete. Pittsburgh and Portland are two of my favorite cities, and I've haven't been to Austin yet, but I've heard and read its becoming a pretty nice city.
Cost of living - Probably Pittsburgh
Housing - Pittsburgh
Crime rates - Boulder
Beauty/scenary - Tough. Boulder probably, then Pittsburgh, then Portland but they're all pretty close to me.
Access to bodies of water -Portland, then Pittsburgh
Weather - Portland, followed by Boulder
Schools from the lowest through college - not sure.
Economy - Austin
Growth - Austin
Access to other cities - Pittsburgh
International airport? - Boulder. Yes, I'm using Denver International as the airport because it is only 45 minutes away which I think is sufficient for it to be included.
Public transportation - Portland then Pittsburgh
Amenties - Probably Portland
Sports - Pittsburgh
Museums/zoos/aquariums/water parks/etc - Toss up/not sure
Future growth - All cities seem to have a bright future
Food - Probably Austin though not sure
Cost of living- Pittsburgh and Austin
Housing- Toss up
Crime rates- Toss up
Beauty/scenery- Pittsburgh and Portland
Access to bodies of water- Pittsburgh and Portland
Weather- Pittsburgh personally, but I think most would like Boulder's weather.
Schools from the lowest through college- All of them great schools
Economy- Austin/ Pittsburgh
Growth- Austin
Access to other cities- Pittsburgh
International airport?- Boulder
Public transportation- Pittsburgh and Portland
Amenties- Pittsburgh
Sports- Pittsburgh
Museums/zoos/aquariums/water parks/etc- Pittsburgh
Future growth- All of them have a bright future
Food- Austin
Cost of living - Pittsburgh in the city, Austin in the sprawl
Housing - Pittsburgh has the most interesting housing stock, Austin the least
Crime rates - Wash
Beauty/scenary - Portland or Boulder
Access to bodies of water - Portland
Weather - Austin or Boulder
Schools from the lowest through college - Primary education wash, Portland is the only one without a big research university
Economy - Austin
Growth - Austin
Access to other cities - Pittsburgh
International airport? - Portland is the only one with flights to both Asia and Europe, although Boulder if you include Denver
Public transportation - Portland
Amenties - Portland/Pittsburgh
Sports - Pittsburgh
Museums/zoos/aquariums/water parks/etc - Pittsburgh
Future growth - Austin
Food - Portland. I'm kind of surprised people are giving this to Austin.
Well I think the cities share a lot of similarities with areas of natural beauty and growing cities. I understand that boulder may be smaller than the others but it doesn't mean people wouldn't prefer to live there over the others (as evidenced by the poll). I was just making making a criteria fpr discussion purposes.
I know absolutely nothing about Boulder, so I'm not even going to try to rank it. I've tried to provide some actual evidence.
Cost of living: Pittsburgh is the cheapest city, obviously, due to its slower growth.
Housing: Pittsburgh. Cheaper and aesthetically superior to the other two.
Crime rates: Austin is the 5th safest city over 500,000. Portland is number 7. Pittsburgh has the highest homicide rate of the three and is not on the list of safest cities under 500,000.
Beauty/scenery: Portland.
Access to bodies of water: Austin due to the Colorado, which is widely used for recreational purposes. And while it might be a stretch to call them "bodies of water," Barton Springs and Hamilton pool are unique places.
Weather: Portland. Pretty cool most of the time, from what I understand.
Schools from the lowest through college: The only city with a top 20 university of any kind is Austin, but Pittsburgh and Portland are said to have some of the best city public schools. I'll call it a tie.
Economy: Austin is number 1. Growth: Austin again.
Access to other cities: This is a tie between Austin and Pittsburgh. Austin is less than three hours from three of the largest cities in the country (Dallas, San Antonio, and Houston are both in the top 10). Pittsburgh is not that close to the other major cities in the northeast, but it's not terribly far either. Philly is 5 hours away, DC and Baltimore are a little closer.
International airport? Portland Public transportation:Portland
Sports: Pittsburgh
Museums/zoos/aquariums/water parks/etc: Pittsburgh. Its cultural institutions are damn good.
Future growth: Austin Food: Tie - In my opinion, Austin has the best local cuisine, but Portland has the stronger "foodie" scene. Don't even get me started on the lack of quality food in Pittsburgh.
Good post, thanks for taking the time to do the research. Mostly what I had expected minus Boulder. I would just like to note for the record, however, that on the link you posted, which was for public universities only, Pitt is ranked #21.
Would also like to note that the same agency ranked Carnegie Mellon #23 in a separate list for all universities public/private in the country. UT Austin is ranked #52 on that list, cf. its ranking of #16 on the list you provided of public schools only.
Overall, because Pittsburgh has two schools highly ranked and because Carnegie Mellon is the most highly ranked of all schools in the cities listed, I would argue that Pittsburgh quite clearly has the superior higher education. I just wasn't sure about K-12.
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