Ten Best Cities To Live In Florida – Not

There are many wonderful places that should be considered among the best cities to live in Florida for a Florida relocation of any sort but the real thrust of this article is to identify cities that you may not want to consider or to scratch from your list if you were planning to make a move there and are open to just about anywhere in the state. If you are looking for where to retire or even if you are location independent, Florida has a reputation that involves the sun, the beach, fun, Disney and to a lesser extent other iconic places that are often portrayed in a favorable light. Unfortunately there is another side to Florida that is darker and less desirable in many respects.

What prompted me to write about this was a recent article I read about the 100 worst cities to live in and included cities all over the United States. Out of those I noticed there were several in Florida and thus this article was born in my mind.

Let’s jump right into what makes these cities the opposite of the 10 best cities to live in Florida or retire in Florida. Listed here are the 10 with the lowest crimes per thousand residents to the highest crime rates from these worst cities to live in Florida (taken from the afore mentioned worst 100 in the USA). Look carefully at the crime statistics and there is no doubt in my mind they will effect your thoughts about moving to one of them. They are definitely not the best places to retire in Florida.

City Crime Data		Violent Crime	Property Crime	Total Crime	Crime/ 1000	Crime/ sq mi
Ft Myers, Florida		1037	3749	4786	21.58	110
Miami, Florida		6461	24700	31161	17.82	602
Pompano Beach, Florida		1126	4943	6069	14.38	267
Miami Beach, Florida		1247	9182	10429	14.16	642
North Miami, Florida		750	4504	5254	12.49	490
Hallandale, Florida		399	1681	2080	11.55	435
Tallahassee, Florida		1564	9145	10709	10.39	105
Sarasota, Florida		508	3901	4409	9.67	169
Panama City, Florida		335	2354	2689	9.21	96
Melborne, Florida		591	3235	3826	8.28	101

Much of the data that is contained in this article comes from a post on neighborhodscoot [.] c0m. A paragraph from their website is below about how the crime data was compiled and what the limitations are concerning it. It was not about the top ten places to retire in but from a much larger list of the worst cities in the United States for crime. Read carefully and consider that statistics are an imperfect science and one that with every conclusion, there needs to be a reasonable scepticism since in some cases the conclusions that are drawn contain a element of subjective judgment. In turn, we cannot be responsible for the data or how you use it so put on your thinking cap before you use it to make any decision or for any important task and know that you are responsible for its use.

Here is a peek into how this data came about and if you are looking for the worst or the best cities to live in Florida you need to use more than just the data that purports to sell you on the best state to live in be it from this and other websites for that matter. Notice in the third to the last line it mentions ‘upwards of 87% accuracy’. If you turn that around that means in at least 13% of the time it is inaccurate and statically speaking that is a very significant number and one that could severely affect the direction of any conclusion. You get the idea by now I am sure. How is that for a shirking the responsibility?

Finding the best city to live in Florida or any state, region or county can be a real challenge but hopefully you will find here in this site a resource that can lead you to the best for you no matter what your criteria is. The list above should have given you a peek into what you do not want no matter if you are moving your whole family or are looking for where to retire and what statistics you want to focus on as you make your Florida relocation.

Best City To Live In USA Series; Education

In the economy that we now live in, finding the best city to live in USA can seem like a impossible task but thanks to the folks over at Money even in this strapped environment there are pockets of hope and prosperity that still shine. These results are from towns between 50,000 and 300,000 in population from the top ten out of their top 100 list. Beyond that, this post specifically focuses on one thing to find the best city to live in America; education. In the following you will see how those cities stack up against one another using this one matrix. That matrix is how those students scored against their state averages or more accurately how many of them scored higher than the state average in both math and reading.

The best place to live in America is certainly more than this one matrix but it is meant to give a glimpse into the education system in each city and help you nail down part of what it would take to make the best place to live in USA. These are not necessarily the best state to live in either but it will give you a little piece of the puzzle as you start on your journey to find the best city to live in the United States. Here are the stats I promised you for each of the top 10 small towns live in, sorted by the average:

Test scores (% above state average)	reading	Math	AVG
Newton, MA	62.00%	89.00%	76%
Fishers, IN	44.80%	39.40%	42%
Plymouth, MN	37.70%	40.00%	39%
Eden Prairie, MN	41.50%	31.70%	37%
Bellevue, WA	18.70%	37.10%	28%
Fort Collins, CO	22.40%	24.90%	24%
Ames, IA	25.90%	19.50%	23%
Rogers, AR	21.60%	21.10%	21%
Overland Park, KS	15.30%	15.30%	15%
Columbia/Ellicott City, MD	10.10%	11.50%	11%
McKinney, TX	6.30%	7.10%	7%

There are many more things that you will want to consider as you go down this path to find your best place to live. Some of those you might want to consider are:

cheapest place to live USA	cities with the best home prices
safest place to live USA	best place to retire USA
cities with the best jobs	best state to live in USA
cities with the best entertainment	best city to live in the world
cities with the best weather	greatest city to live in america

Hopefully this series will open your eyes to the possibilities that are available to you in the United States and even the ones that may be available to you all over the world to find your best city, your cheapest places to live or even the best places to retire.

Cheapest Places to Live: Fort Smith Perspective

A few weeks ago I wrote about Fort Smith receiving the dubious distinction of being one of the Cheapest Cities to Live in the United States.

It seems some in Fort Smith including City Wire reporter and blogger, Michael Smith aren't too happy with the recognition.

The Kiplinger report which bestowed the honour was quoted as saying, "Housing, grocery and transportation costs here are well below the national average. And compared with the most-expensive city on our list, New York, everything in Fort Smith is a bargain."

However, Tilley points out that being one of the cheapest places to live may not exactly be a 'badge of honor' worth wearing or publicizing. He states, "we can’t cheap our way to a better economy".

Tilley suggests that rather than promoting, 'Cheap Property' that the residents of Fort Smith lobby their representatives to shoot for recognition as a great place to live and to set a goal to be on Kiplinger's '10 Best Cities for the Next Decade' list.

Although local businesses do appreciate low labor and operating costs and an econo my where everyone gets more bang for their buck, Tilley says improving the regional economy by adding jobs and higher paying jobs in particular will create more opportunities for all and make Fort Smith a desirable place to live for better reasons.

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