CNN Money's Top 100 places to live

[RealSNR]

Appearing in the August 2010 issue. Click the link to read more about each place.

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/money...100/index.html

Rank City Population
1 Eden Prairie, MN 64,000
2 Columbia/Ellicott City, MD 155,000
3 Newton, MA 82,000
4 Bellevue, WA 124,000
5 McKinney, TX 125,000
6 Fort Collins, CO 141,000
7 Overland Park, KS 175,000
8 Fishers, IN 69,000
9 Ames, IA 60,000
10 Rogers, AR 57,000
11 Plymouth, MN 76,000
12 Highlands Ranch, CO 98,000
13 Woodbury, MN 58,000
14 Carmel, IN 67,000
15 Eagan, MN 64,000
16 Allen, TX 84,000
17 Shawnee, KS 61,000
18 South Jordan, UT 51,000
19 Broomfield, CO 55,000
20 Apple Valley, MN 50,000
21 Missouri City, TX 75,000
22 Irvine, CA 208,000
23 Cary, NC 130,000
24 Rowlett, TX 58,000
25 Gaithersburg, MD 59,000
26 O'Fallon, MO 77,000
27 Lee's Summit, MO 89,000
28 Waltham, MA 60,000
29 Abington, PA 54,000
30 Centreville, VA 54,000
31 Rockville, MD 61,000
32 West Chester, OH 60,000
33 Loveland, CO 66,000
34 Franklin, NJ 61,000
35 Edmond, OK 83,000
36 Gilbert, AZ 216,000
37 Mentor, OH 52,000
38 Yorba Linda, CA 66,000
39 Brookline, MA 58,000
40 Chapel Hill, NC 54,000
41 Clarkstown, NY 83,000
42 Amherst, NY 115,000
43 Bolingbrook, IL 71,000
44 Coral Springs, FL 126,000
45 Orem, UT 94,000
46 Ann Arbor, MI 116,000
47 Alexandria, VA 145,000
48 Coconut Creek, FL 50,000
49 Blue Springs, MO 56,000
50 Waukesha, WI 68,000
51 Rio Rancho, NM 82,000
52 Weymouth, MA 53,000
53 White Plains, NY 57,000
54 Naperville, IL 143,000
55 West Hartford, CT 63,000
56 Mount Prospect, IL 54,000
57 Piscataway, NJ 53,000
58 Arvada, CO 107,000
59 Arlington Heights, IL 73,000
60 St. Peters, MO 56,000
61 West Jordan, UT 95,000
62 Meridian, ID 67,000
63 Pleasanton, CA 67,000
64 Shoreline, WA 54,000
65 Rocklin, CA 53,000
66 Franklin, TN 58,000
67 Stillwater, OK 53,000
68 Iowa City, IA 73,000
69 Eau Claire, WI 66,000
70 Norman, OK 109,000
71 Scottsdale, AZ 235,000
72 Wellington, FL 55,000
73 Wayne, NJ 53,000
74 Bismarck, ND 60,000
75 West Des Moines, IA 55,000
76 Roswell, GA 96,000
77 Sioux Falls, SD 161,000
78 Stamford, CT 119,000
79 Millcreek, PA 54,000
80 St. George, UT 78,000
81 Broken Arrow, OK 93,000
82 New Rochelle, NY 75,000
83 Warwick, RI 84,000
84 Bristol, CT 61,000
85 Chesapeake, VA 220,000
86 Fargo, ND 97,000
87 Hamden, CT 58,000
88 Ramapo, NY 116,000
89 Middletown, NJ 69,000
90 Norwalk, CT 83,000
91 Suffolk, VA 82,000
92 Hillsboro, OR 94,000
93 Owensboro, KY 56,000
94 Nashua, NH 87,000
95 Madison, WI 233,000
96 Appleton, WI 71,000
97 Grand Forks, ND 53,000
98 Beaverton, OR 92,000
99 Idaho Falls, ID 54,000
100 Mount Pleasant, SC 68,000

[BWillie]

Originally Posted by TheGuardian

I went to a P&L a month+ ago and must say it was better than I expected. Still, I go to Vegas, Cali, and the east coast a lot and the quality + quantity of hot women is not even close.

Still there is a trade off in terms of cost of living and those kinds of things. I have a good friend in SoCal and he makes a LOT of money. He told me you can't really live there happily without making 250K a year.

Vegas? 8 out of 10 people I saw in Vegas were either fat or old people. I've been to So Cal twice, and sure if you are in the right area's you will see alot of good looking tail but there are alot of areas as well that you don't see that at all. The common blanket view of people is that Vegas, California, East Coast, Florida is ALL good looking people, and I'm sure that is true to some extent. I haven't been to the East Coast, but to be honest w/ you I saw the most beautiful people out of all my travels in Minneapolis and in Colorado. Most would probably not expect that.

I'm sure there are studys on this kind of thing, but aside from college towns, no where I've ever gone I've really noticed a huge difference...except in the South. I'm not saying KC is the mecca of hotties, but it isn't as bad as people on the coasts and urban legends make it out to be.

[BWillie]

Ames, Iowa? I don't know about that one.

Obviously OP is going to make it, but if Shawnee and Lee's Summit are on the list then Olathe has to as well.

[doomy3]

Originally Posted by BWillie007

Vegas? 8 out of 10 people I saw in Vegas were either fat or old people. I've been to So Cal twice, and sure if you are in the right area's you will see alot of good looking tail but there are alot of areas as well that you don't see that at all. The common blanket view of people is that Vegas, California, East Coast, Florida is ALL good looking people, and I'm sure that is true to some extent. I haven't been to the East Coast, but to be honest w/ you I saw the most beautiful people out of all my travels in Minneapolis and in Colorado. Most would probably not expect that.

I'm sure there are studys on this kind of thing, but aside from college towns, no where I've ever gone I've really noticed a huge difference...except in the South. I'm not saying KC is the mecca of hotties, but it isn't as bad as people on the coasts and urban legends make it out to be.

You're out of your mind.

[BWillie]

Originally Posted by doomy3

You're out of your mind.

When I went to the clubs and stuff it was different. But if I was out walking around, at least that was what I saw during the day. I did stay in the Flamingo and then this resort off the strip because my friends parents had it for free.

[luv]

Originally Posted by BWillie007

When I went to the clubs and stuff it was different. But if I was out walking around, at least that was what I saw during the day. I did stay in the Flamingo and then this resort off the strip because my friends parents had it for free.

You do realize that area is mostly tourists, right?

[|Zach|]

Lee's Summit is a good place.

[Slayer Diablo]

Originally Posted by Metrolike

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

I've never lived in either of those places, but I've visited frequently and had friends from both...there's no way OP can win that.

[|Zach|]

I don't have qualms with OP being higher than Lee's Summit. But I don't think their attractiveness or difference is of laughable proportions in the least.

[RealSNR]

Originally Posted by Bugeater

Oh crap, here we go again, this happens every time I bring up Minneapolis. Maybe I missed all the good stuff both times I was there, but there was just nothing about the place that 'wowed' me.

To name a few things....

Pro sports teams, incredible restaurants, plenty of shopping (Mall of America ring a bell?), culture (the Minnesota Orchestra is playing like a top 5 orchestra in the WORLD right now), a bigass university, corporate jobs, beautiful parks...

I mean, really, it's a large metropolitan area. You could ask the same thing in this way: "What does Chicago have over Minneapolis besides a few more million people and an extra baseball team?"

[|Zach|]

Kansas City has a strong arts thing. The problem is Kansas Citians love the idea of things more than they love actually doing them. We have a great symphony. People don't really go.

[DaneMcCloud]

Originally Posted by SNR

To name a few things....

Pro sports teams, incredible restaurants, plenty of shopping (Mall of America ring a bell?), culture (the Minnesota Orchestra is playing like a top 5 orchestra in the WORLD right now), a bigass university, corporate jobs, beautiful parks...

I mean, really, it's a large metropolitan area. You could ask the same thing in this way: "What does Chicago have over Minneapolis besides a few more million people and an extra baseball team?"

One word: Frazod.

[Reaper16]

Anyone knocking Minneapolis can **** off. That city is amazing.

[RealSNR]

Originally Posted by Reaper16

Anyone knocking Minneapolis can **** off. That city is amazing.

I mean, what if Omaha is really just that ****ing awesome?

[HoneyBadger]

Originally Posted by SDChiefs

Yorba Linda, CA is a shithole. And its number 38 on the list. I can think of 100 cities I would rather live in than.

What part of YL have you been to? Its not called the "Land of Gracious Living" for nothing.

[Bugeater]

Originally Posted by SNR

To name a few things....

Pro sports teams, incredible restaurants, plenty of shopping (Mall of America ring a bell?), culture (the Minnesota Orchestra is playing like a top 5 orchestra in the WORLD right now), a bigass university, corporate jobs, beautiful parks...

I mean, really, it's a large metropolitan area. You could ask the same thing in this way: "What does Chicago have over Minneapolis besides a few more million people and an extra baseball team?"

Yeah yeah, that's mostly the same shit any other big city has. I didn't go to Mall of America because the people that I was visiting were sick of going there with everyone who visited. And a shopping mall isn't anything groundbreaking anyway, even if it's the biggest one ever and has a roller coaster in it. It's still a bunch of stores. Whoopee.

And it's not about what Chicago has, it's what Chicago and many other cities don't have and that's the brutal winters.

I'm not really knocking it, I just find it hard to believe that 5 of their suburbs are really in the top 20 places to live in the entire country. Heck my friends that lived up there couldn't wait to get the hell out of there and bailed the first chance they got. That's not exactly a ringing endorsement for a city.