Massachusetts has many "best small cities in America"

[OutdoorLover]

You have to sort the table by the column headers to order them by a given metric. The most affordable city in the table is Wildwood, MO, followed by Madison, MS. In terms of "Best" Total Score, the ranking is below, and this isn't ranked by the fanciest or most expensive, it's a composite of Affordability, Economic Health, Education & Health, Quality of Life, and Safety. And they do describe the methodology used to get the ranking, and while I acknowledge this is only one ranking, I do think it's a rational system. If you look at the Methodology link for example, Affordability is scored as follows...

Affordability – Total Points: 20
Median Household Income: Full Weight (~4.00 Points)
Cost of Living: Full Weight (~4.00 Points)
Homeownership Rate: Full Weight (~4.00 Points)
Housing Costs: Full Weight (~4.00 Points) *Note: This composite metric consists of: (Median Home Price / Median Annual Household Income), (Median Annual Gross Rent / Median Annual Household Income)
Share of Households with Severe Housing Cost Burden: Full Weight (~4.00 Points)

Note too, that there are over 1,300 cities ranked, and all of those listed in this subset actually score closely together.

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Percentile City Total Score(sorted by)
99 Lancaster, PA 71.04
99 Carmel, IN 70.91
99 Fair Lawn, NJ 70.59
99 Lexington, MA 70.58
99 Brentwood, TN 70.57
99 Melrose, MA 70.42
99 Zionsville, IN 69.9
99 Needham, MA 69.88
99 Portland, ME 69.82
99 Westfield, IN 69.8
99 Milton, MA 69.72
99 Sammamish, WA 69.7
99 Dublin, OH 69.31
99 Brookfield, WI 69.23
99 Leawood, KS 69.06
99 Apex, NC 68.93
99 Arlington, MA 68.92
99 Burlington, MA 68.85
99 Newton, MA 68.83
98 Princeton, NJ 68.71
98 Redmond, WA 68.71
98 Randolph, MA 68.58
98 Ridgewood, NJ 68.56
98 Leesburg, VA 68.53
98 Saratoga Springs, NY 68.46
98 Fishers, IN 68.42
98 Castle Rock, CO 68.38
98 Wake Forest, NC 68.36
98 Medford, MA 68.35
98 Reading, MA 68.33
98 Saratoga Springs, NY 68.46

[FCMA]

Why is this list classifying a number of moderate-sized MA suburbs as “small cities”?

There’s nothing urban about Burlington for example. It’s bland suburban sprawl.

[robr2]

Originally Posted by FCMA

Why is this list classifying a number of moderate-sized MA suburbs as “small cities”?

There’s nothing urban about Burlington for example. It’s bland suburban sprawl.

It's simply a word choice. The difference between a town and city is the way it's government is organized. Town meeting style of government is not common outside of the northeast where even places smaller than a 26K person town like Burlington have a mayor and a city council.

Here in Burlington we have people who are afraid we might change our status from a town to a city but the reality is that we are a big, small town. The population of 26K swells to over 100K during the day but all the action is situated at one end of town.

[robr2]

Originally Posted by BostonBornMassMade

Pretty much my thought, lotta highways/wide roads, an okay but large mall, office parks, ranches, capes and bland condos. Sparsely developed main roads. To me, I've definitely never thought of it as someplace as nice as Melrose or Newton. I worked for a moving company on the Billerica/ Burlington (Father and Son) one summer. I guess Ive always thus associated Burlington with Billerica and the mall

The difference between Burlington and places like Melrose is that there isn't a cohesive downtown. Unfortunately in the late 60's when Burlington grew it's fastest, there was little control over zoning along Rt. 3A and the result is the mish-mash of strip malls, a few houses, banks, and gas stations. There was an attempt to create an overlay district that tightly controlled how things could be redeveloped and a few things did happen - some condos and townhouses and the CVS architecture but then 2008 hit and the plan was abandoned.

It's difficult to force building owners to tear down what is profitable for them simply to fit a look. Maybe the state re-striping 3A to a real one lane from the high school to the Billerica line might create some enthusiasm for prettier infrastructure as traffic slows and needs some place to shop.

[matrix5k]

The author probably doesn't know the difference between city and town. I sure didn't until I bought a home.

The restriping of 3A to one lane will be a nightmare for traffic. It already is as is.

[robr2]

Originally Posted by matrix5k

The author probably doesn't know the difference between city and town. I sure didn't until I bought a home.

The restriping of 3A to one lane will be a nightmare for traffic. It already is as is.

It will create slower traffic but at least it will be more controlled. Currently, the two unofficial lanes creates a race track environment with people hitting curbs and crossing the double yellow if they don't have enough room in "their" lane.

Billerica restriped over a decade ago and it's a much more pleasant drive.