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I sorted the spreadsheet by ranking. No huge surprises. The affluent places that don't have a high percentage of their population at the poverty level rank highly. There aren't many poor people who can afford to live in San Francisco. The only surprise to me in the top-10 is Charleston. I don't know the city well enough to understand why it's top-10. Much of South Carolina has pretty big chunks of people at poverty level.
I sorted the spreadsheet by ranking. No huge surprises. The affluent places that don't have a high percentage of their population at the poverty level rank highly. There aren't many poor people who can afford to live in San Francisco. The only surprise to me in the top-10 is Charleston. I don't know the city well enough to understand why it's top-10. Much of South Carolina has pretty big chunks of people at poverty level.
I also wasn't expecting Vegas to be dead last.
That doesn't explain the high placement of Chicago or the three high-ranking areas in Metro NY? While we're on than subject, I'd like to see a list without multiple entries for the same metro. DC AND Bethesda-Rockville?
I sorted the spreadsheet by ranking. No huge surprises. The affluent places that don't have a high percentage of their population at the poverty level rank highly. There aren't many poor people who can afford to live in San Francisco. The only surprise to me in the top-10 is Charleston. I don't know the city well enough to understand why it's top-10. Much of South Carolina has pretty big chunks of people at poverty level.
I also wasn't expecting Vegas to be dead last.
You've obviously never been to Charleston. If you had, you wouldn't be asking that question. It's an incredibly cosmopolitan and wealthy city -- the No. 1 small city in the country for QOL, dining, shopping, the arts, etc.
I'm not suprised Vegas is dead last. People with college degrees usually aspire to something more than being a craps dealer or cocktail waitress.
YIt's an incredibly cosmopolitan and wealthy city -- the No. 1 small city in the country for QOL, dining, shopping, the arts, etc.
This is definitely not true. Charleston city and metro aren't unusually wealthy. Median household incomes are in line with national averages. "Cosmopolitan" is subjective but I don't think anyone would agree that Charleston is "incredibly cosmopolitan".
And "#1 small city in the country for x, y, z" is just totally subjective. You could say this for any metro.
This is a very arbitrary metric (5 miles from core). It's going to depend on where that magical circle lands. I do demographic mapping for a retail company and we use 3 mile circles as a very cursory evaluation tool but would never believe an arbitrary circle (which doesn't take into account geography, traffic patterns, regional dynamics) was particularly useful to compare.
I sorted the spreadsheet by ranking. No huge surprises. The affluent places that don't have a high percentage of their population at the poverty level rank highly. There aren't many poor people who can afford to live in San Francisco. The only surprise to me in the top-10 is Charleston. I don't know the city well enough to understand why it's top-10. Much of South Carolina has pretty big chunks of people at poverty level.
Also, with respect to SC as a whole, Columbia (the only other SC metro that was ranked) comes in at a respectable #19.
Quote:
Originally Posted by NOLA101
This is definitely not true. Charleston city and metro aren't unusually wealthy. Median household incomes are in line with national averages.
Well being that we're talking about a five-mile radius from the core, that would include all of the peninsula and close-in, affluent neighborhoods. Zooming in on that area, it's pretty easy to see how wealthy Charleston is if you're familiar with the city.
This is definitely not true. Charleston city and metro aren't unusually wealthy. Median household incomes are in line with national averages. "Cosmopolitan" is subjective but I don't think anyone would agree that Charleston is "incredibly cosmopolitan".
And "#1 small city in the country for x, y, z" is just totally subjective. You could say this for any metro.
Someone else who's obviously never been to Charleston ...
I sorted the spreadsheet by ranking. No huge surprises. The affluent places that don't have a high percentage of their population at the poverty level rank highly. There aren't many poor people who can afford to live in San Francisco. The only surprise to me in the top-10 is Charleston. I don't know the city well enough to understand why it's top-10. Much of South Carolina has pretty big chunks of people at poverty level.
I also wasn't expecting Vegas to be dead last.
The poor counties in South Carolina are outside the state's major metropolitan areas, while Charleston is culturally rich, heavily gentrified and with a lot of upscale areas. I'm also guessing that a 5 mile radius from the urban core takes in a lot of unpoplated territory in the Atlantic Ocean or the rivers surrounding the city center, so the less affluent parts of the metro area are outside this radius.
Las Vegas has very low educational attainment due to their predominance of service jobs and lack of white collar professional positions. The economy in that area is very narrow relative to its large population. It's also likely that the more affluent neighborhoods are further away from the urban core - higher income families don't want to live near the bustle of the Strip.
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