Sugar Land has once against been named as one of the nation’s best cities, this time being listed as one of Forbes’ 25 “Top Towns to Live Well.”
Forbes said cities on the list “boast cultural amenities, pro-business environments, highly educated workforces and enviable salaries.”
In particular, Sugar Land received high scores for a competitive cost of living, with the report saying a six-figure salary “goes far” in providing a high quality of life for Sugar Land residents.
According to Forbes, data for the study came from ZoomProspector.com, a San Francisco-based consulting firm specializing in corporate relocation. It evaluated areas of the country with less than 100,000 people – small towns with the amenities of big cities.
Characteristics like the number of museums, parks, bars and restaurants and cultural institutions per capita were considered, as were factors indicative of a favorable business environment. Those factors include patents, venture capital funding, sole-proprietorships, start-ups and small businesses per capita.
Some of the other cities joining Sugar Land on the list included Boulder, Colo., Santa Fe, NM, Columbia, MD, and Fairfax, Va. They were all recognized as places with strong environments for start-ups and better suited than other cities to recover from economic downtimes.
Other factors considered for the listing included the quality of the labor force, median income levels, commuting time, distance to highways and airports and the share of professional level workers as defined by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
ZoomProspector.com gave increased emphasis to towns like Sugar Land with higher percentages of foreign-born workers and percentages of people aged 25-34 with bachelor’s degrees or higher.
14. May 2009 at 7:01 am
I was just wondering why Missouri City wasn’t mentioned in this survey. After all, we have far more nail salons, second hand stores, and fast food outlets than Sugar Land has. We also have been promised more green space by our City Council (a few years down the road). We only have about double the tax rate that Sugar Land has (thanks to the Golf Course and amenities). Crime is not a problem but is going up a little (a lot in some areas). Sidewalks and streets are needing repairs in MoCity but when the Council has the money, they’ll get to it. The only real problem MoCity has is the dinosaurs on the City Council who won’t leave.