Fort Collins has been named the best place to raise kids in Colorado by Business Week magazine.
The Choice City was selected above runners-up Aurora and Loveland, based on the magazine’s criteria, which considered cities with at least 50,000 residents and a median family income of $40,000 to $100,000.
The magazine lauded Fort Collins’ walking paths, proximity to CSU and low crime, “excellent schools” and “a vibrant downtown known as Old Town.”
“I can’t help but agree,” said Mayor Doug Hut- chinson, who grew up in Fort Collins. “We have a really world-class school system from kindergarten through the university level.”
The magazine said it also considered museums, parks, crime rates, job growth and diversity.
It also noted that college towns tend to ride out economic downturns better than other cities.
“We weighted school performance and safety most heavily but also gave strong weight to amenities and affordability. Bear in mind with this list, the organizing principle was affordability,” the article says.
“While the median household income varies by state, we purposely weighted the results to prevent pricing out most readers. That’s why, for example, Greenwich, Conn., with its good private schools, low crime and abundance of cultural amenities, was left out. It simply costs too much to live there.”
Nationally, other cities selected by the magazine include Boise, Idaho, Burlington, Vt., and Edison, N.J.
The Business Week award is the latest in a string of accolades received by Fort Collins, which this year was named the second-best place to live in the country by Money magazine.
In 2006, the city was named the best place to live in the country by Money magazine.
This year’s awards also rank Fort Collins as a great college town for adults, as tech-friendly, and as one of the top eight enriching towns for art and music lovers by “Where to Retire” magazine in April 2008.