Winston-Salem ranked as one of 50 best U.S. cities

Winston-Salem's reputation as an inviting place to live got another national boost Wednesday with its ranking among the top large cities in America.

The city was listed at No. 46 out of the 100 cities BusinessWeek.com evaluated for its 2011 report.

The Tarheel State shone brightly in the report, with five cities placing in the top 46, including Raleigh being selected as the nation's best city. Charlotte was ranked No. 20, while Greensboro was ranked No. 31 and Durham No. 37.

"As the BusinessWeek rankings demonstrate, our cities are thriving, vibrant places to live, visit, do business and get a first-class education," said U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan, D-N.C. "This comes as no surprise to anyone who lives in North Carolina.

"Our great state takes pride in staying ahead of the curve, and our cities are well prepared to become leaders in the 21st-century economy."

The ranking is the second in recent weeks that touted Winston-Salem as a good place to live. On Sept. 15, CNNMoney.com chose Winston-Salem for its annual top 25 list of best places to retire, largely on the strength of its "long-standing tradition supporting the arts," as well as the presence and influence of the UNC School of the Arts. The city was also lauded for its "bustling downtown arts district." Winston-Salem was the only North Carolina city on the list.

BusinessWeek.com said in its comments about Winston-Salem that "in the heart of North Carolina, Winston-Salem has a high amount of park land compared with other cities, boasts good schools, and is home to a number of institutions of higher education, including Wake Forest University."

"The city would have been ranked higher had it not been for a relatively low median household income and a high rate of property crime."

Although local officials were pleased with the overall ranking, they questioned the weight the report put on the city's property crime rate.

According to Winston-Salem Police Department data, there was a 3.2 percent decline in property crimes in the first quarter of 2011 compared with the first quarter of 2010, from 2,056 to 1,991.

"We have found in the past that communities report crimes differently," said Gayle Anderson, chief executive and president of the Winston-Salem Chamber of Commerce. "The way we do it tends to make our rate appear to be higher, although in reality it is not."

Winston-Salem Mayor Allen Joines said the ranking helps validate the city "as a good place to do business."

"I believe we should have ranked higher, but we were apparently penalized for what they perceived as a high property crime rate," Joines said. "Our overall crime rate has gone down for the past three years, and I feel that should have offset any of the negative.

"Also, our unemployment rate has been a full point lower than Greensboro during the whole recessionary period, (and that) should also demonstrate a stronger economy."

The BusinessWeek rankings were based on 16 criteria:

• the number of restaurants, bars, and museums per capita;

• the number of colleges, libraries and professional sports teams;

• the income, poverty, unemployment, violent crime, property crime and foreclosure rates;

• the percentage of the population with a bachelor's degrees or higher;

• public school performance;

• park acres per 1,000 residents; and

• air quality.

The data came from the U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Sperling's BestPlaces, GreatSchools, Onboard Informatics, RealtyTrac and the Trust for Public Land.

BusinessWeek.com said that because "living in great cities can be expensive, affordability was not taken into account."

The report's authors touted Raleigh for "showing the cultural graces that go along with anchoring the so-called Research Triangle, home to N.C. State University, Duke University and UNC Chapel Hill."

That included having 867 restaurants, 110 bars and 51 museums, as well as thriving entertainment, social and sports scenes and having 12,512 park acres — "equal to several times the green space per capita in cities like New York and Los Angeles," according to the Trust for Public Land.

"True, Raleigh may not be the center of the tech universe like San Francisco, a hub of higher education on the same scale as Boston, or a vibrant 24-hour metropolis like New York, but all those cities also offered higher unemployment, a dearth of parks, worse public education, and other negative factors that weighed against them," the authors said.

The authors liked Charlotte as a pedestrian-friendly city with a light rail line, as well as having more than 1,000 restaurants, 70 museums, two pro sports teams and several major corporate headquarters.

Greensboro was touted for its restaurants, bars, museums and high number of acres of parks per person. The authors said its score also was affected by high levels of violent and property crime.

Durham was noted for its parks, restaurants, air quality, Duke University's medical center, below-average unemployment rate and one of the lower rates of foreclosures among cities on its list.

Anderson said the BusinessWeek.com report likely will carry some weight with how the business community and site selectors view Winston-Salem.

"There are so many rankings that come out, that it's impossible to know the effect of any single one," Anderson said.

"But cumulatively, Winston-Salem has been well-positioned as a good place to work, live, retire, etc."