Alexandria Named an American Dream City
It’s no surprise with Old Town being the centerpiece of Alexandria our port city was named one of the United States’ Dream Cities. Old Town definitely provides a well-rounded lifestyle in a beautiful and historic port city.
“Cities at the top of our list are walkable, with lots of restaurants and attractions. They also feature lower costs of living and crime rates so residents can get out and enjoy all the city has to offer” says Claire Etheridge, from GoodCall.com — the organization who conducted the study.
Data Analysts from Good Call looked at 461 small and mid-sized cities across America that offered a well-rounded lifestyle and came up with their list of 2017 “Overlooked Dream Cities.” As a personal side note, I’m not sure I’d agree that Alexandria is “Overlooked”.
They used the following criteria to rank cities:
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Entertainment/Recreation Amenities – The number of local arts, entertainment and recreation venues per capita
- Dining Amenities – The number of local restaurants per capita
- Affordability- The area’s cost of living percentage relative to the national average
- Walkability – A walk score number between 0 and 100 that measures the walkability of any address
- Crime Rate – The number of crime incidents per 1,000 residents
“Instead of moving to big cities, many people are looking for smaller, more affordable cities that still have fun things to do,” Etheridge went on to say.
And Old Town offers a well-rounded lifestyle with an emphasis on the arts, renowned chef driven restaurants, and unique boutique shopping that is all very walkable. Nice to see our fair city highlighted in this report.
Data sources included the U.S. Census Bureau, FBI Crime Data, Sperling’s Bestplaces, and Walk Score.
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