Ouch.This months issue of a magazine called Best Life names Honolulu the best city in the United States to raise a family and Alexandria among one of the worst.
Honolulu, the magazine says, has plenty of museums, parks and pediatricians contributing to a good quality of life. Schools spend almost $9,000 per pupil, unemployment ranks less than half the national average, and you can play on the island of Oahus 125 beaches, the magazine reports.
Alexandria, it claims, has among its attributes, multihour commutes, expensive houses and divorcing friends and neighbors.
Hmpph. The magazine did not report that Alexandria spends almost $13,000 per year per pupil educated, 14 parks and a swell river which fronts at least two sandy volleyball courts.
The magazine said that television executives seized the idea long ago: American families value where they plant their roots. The Cosbys had Brooklyn. The Cunninghams, Milwaukee. The Simpsons, Springfield. But fathers face reality when theyre not in prime time. They want to raise their children somewhere safe, where they can attend good schools with favorable student-teacher ratios, above-average test scores, and respectable budgets.
Best Life editors said they used categories and data from the U.S. Census Bureau, National Center for Education Statistics, the FBI, the American Association of Museums, the National Center for Health Statistics and the American Bar Association to evaluate 257 cities.
Alexandria ranked near the bottom of the 100-city list at number 98. Arlington ranked 97th, and only Winston-Salem, N.C. and Lexington, KY. ranked 99th and 100th, respectively.
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