Raleigh plummets in “Best Places to Live” rankings

Raleigh plummets in latest rankings of U.S. News and World Reports’ “Best Places to Live in the US” dropping 149 spots to 155.

This year US News increased the number of cities considered in the rankings from 150 to 850.

What the results show is that big cities fare poorly against smaller cities.

Raleigh was a perennial top 10 city when only being compared against other large cities. But, when the candidate pool was expanded most larger cities performed poorly. It seems smaller cities are more popular than large, dense, urban, vibrant locales.

When the rankings were limited to the top 150 cities, all of them had populations over 175,000. Raleigh weighs in at just over 476,000. And Raleigh was usually in the top 10, coming in at #6 last year. But, that has all changed now that smaller cities are in the rankings.

In this year’s results, only 9 of the top 100 cities have populations over 150,000. And, only one of the top 25 is over 150,000.

The data also show that the difference isn’t due to cost of living or even traffic concerns. Check out the four local cities in the list. Raleigh, Durham, Cary and Chapel Hill.

Cary and Apex both have higher home prices, higher rents and no better commute times than Raleigh or Durham. But, they both landed in the top 10 while Raleigh and Durham struggled to 155 and 202 respectively.

There was a time, about ten years ago, when Raleigh’s mayor proudly stated that we were a big city that had managed to keep its small-town charm, emphasizing that strong neighborhoods were the very foundation of our city. Back then, Raleigh residents truly had a voice in shaping the direction of our city, primarily through the Citizens Advisory Councils, or CACs.

However, things shifted with the election of a mayor who prioritized growth above all else.

Consequently, the grass roots CACs were dismantled and replaced by top-down engagement control, leading to a corresponding decline in attention to residents’ voices and their quality of life.

Now, many Raleigh residents feel powerless as the city seems driven by what appears to be greed disguised as progressivism. We’re becoming a city that no longer seems to prioritize the well-being of its residents as we rapidly move toward a future dominated by towering 30-story buildings looming over our neighborhoods.