Missouri City came in at 21 on Money magazine’s 100 Best Places To Live in America, moving up from placing 56 in 2008, the last year the magazine ranked cities from 50,000 to 300,000 population.
Neighboring Sugar Land, ranked 64 in 2008, didn’t make the list this time around.
“We polled families for what is most important for them in choosing a place to live and they told us safe streets, real estate you can afford, good schools for their kids and good jobs,” said Elizabeth Fenner, MONEY assistant managing editor, on the NBC Today show on July 12 that featured this year’s best places to live.
Missouri City’s job growth increased 25.19 percent between 2000 and 2009 compared to the best places job growth average of 15.71 percent.
“Those of us living here know what a special place we have,” said Missouri City Mayor Allen Owen. “We have been responsibly managing our growth with ongoing input from our citizens, and we all are very honored with this national recognition. I can’t credit our residents enough for their interest in keeping our city an attractive and a safe place to raise their families. We have excellent credit ratings which allow us to continue to build our infrastructure and attract businesses, such as the recent addition of Global Geophysical, Lufkin Automation and also Ben E. Keith, who has plans to begin construction. Lakeview Business Park is perfect for a company looking for a location near freeways, and the bonus is that there is a beautiful park across the street.”
Following the polling of families, MONEY’s team of editors and writers spent several months researching and reviewing data on a wide range of economic and quality-of-life indicators. Missouri City’s low crime rate was a factor contributing to its high marks for quality of life. Its property crime rate of 16 per 1,000 population was lower than the best places average of 24.
MONEY started with an initial list of 800 places with populations between 50,000 and 300,000. Data provider Onboard Informatics of New York City worked again this year with MONEY’s team to narrow the list. Information was based on such sources as available U.S. Census and Bureau of Labor Statistics data, ACCRA Cost of Living Index, county and municipal assessor’s offices and FBI incident reports. The team then called and visited cities across the country, interviewing residents, community leaders and local officials before compiling the final rankings.
Missouri City is one of only four Texas cities on the list and the only community in the Houston area. Also ranked were McKinney, Allen and Rowlett, all in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
Excuse the typo I meant Sugar Land. It is a much better City to live in than MO City
If the cities reporting this stuff would stop inflating everything it would be much better. How can anyone address problems or issues when they hide them.
Missouri City ranks as one of the least desirable place to live in my opinion. This City gets movement based on it’s proximity to Sugarland. In fact most people that live in Missouri City shop in Sugarland.
TxGal, your comment here is right on the money. Love the list.
I don’t recall what criteria was used for the survey, but obviously… it was not about anything important or of value to most folks.
The enumeration of the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others (rights) retained by the people. (Amendment IX of US Constitution)
It is time for true leadership and community support that I will continue to rally behind. Are you with me?
The more residents of this community that get involved the better!
The strong community of Meadowcreek just fired their HOA attorney. Now you know that has GOT to improve property values AND quality of living. Go Meadowcreek!!
Was that the Russell Jones lawfirm patriot? Isn’t the owner a Sugar Land city council member and the only local council member working with the Texas Municipal League (a lobby group) to over-turn the Texas Open Meetings Act that keeps government open and transparent? I wonder why he would do all that.
You guys are nit-picking. What’s wrong with City officials “borrowing” amenities from other cities, embellishing crime stats, and using well placed actors to brag about our City. This is just a another horse race to see which City can hide its problems best. Our guys (most of them) have been at this for thirty years and they know how to play the game better than anyone else in Texas. What’s wrong with that? We may not have what it takes to make the City a community but we’ve got a great PR team.
‘What’s wrong with that? We may not have what it takes to make the City a community but we’ve got a great PR team.’
Well said dos!
Yeah, all another big conspiracy!
Well,
Mo City does have El Vaquero restaurant.
That would do it.
Yep, great Ritas!
And this one
http://www.khou.com/home/related/Tracking-Property-Crimes-in-Houstons-Largest-Suburb-Communities-94586799.html
This is very much a market driven survey and they use some fairly loose guides. Much like the safest cities (Congressional Quarterly) report from Sage Pubs. These rely on self-reporting which means often fudged data from the source.
See:
http://www.khou.com/news/Crime-How-Houstons-Suburbs-Rank-94483884.html
In this BPTL survey, they allow cities to self-report amenities within 15 miles. We all know that includes restaurants and other services in several neighboring cities. This was exposed the last time they put this survey out and it included both SL and MC (but at that time SL was ranked ahead).
These are more about selling homes for the large developments and not actual improvements. More than likely SL didn’t participate as they have come and gone from this survey in the past. The best thing to do when looking at these things is take them with a grain of salt and then go look up independent research like the one KHOU used above. It is a highly reputable research firm and clearly outlines its baselines for comparison. Naturally the development community and their city level toadies will beat their chests with this when they already knew it would be coming out just like they knew the safest cities report was going to rank them last year too. The problem with that report is simple. It also relies on the cities self-reporting the actual crime and last year (and they probably will do it again this year) they included a very large segment of the city in the extra-territorial jurisdiction that they do not even service for crime (the sheriffs office handles the ETJ crimes) which tends to force the rate down by increasing the cumulative population. Not a very interesting or particularly intelligent trick but you know what they say about stats…
But that is how marketing is handled these days. – c’est la vie!
This is very much a market driven survey and they use some fairly loose guides. Much like the safest cities (Congressional Quarterly) report from Sage Pubs. These rely on self-reporting which means often fudged data from the source.
See:
http://www.khou.com/news/Crime-How-Houstons-Suburbs-Rank-94483884.html
http://www.khou.com/home/related/Tracking-Property-Crimes-in-Houstons-Largest-Suburb-Communities-94586799.html
In this BPTL survey, they allow cities to self-report amenities within 15 miles. We all know that includes restaurants and other services in several neighboring cities. This was exposed the last time they put this survey out and it included both SL and MC (but at that time SL was ranked ahead).
These are more about selling homes for the large developments and not actual improvements. More than likely SL didn’t participate as they have come and gone from this survey in the past. The best thing to do when looking at these things is take them with a grain of salt and then go look up independent research like the one KHOU used above. It is a highly reputable research firm and clearly outlines its baselines for comparison. Naturally the development community and their city level toadies will beat their chests with this when they already knew it would be coming out just like they knew the safest cities report was going to rank them last year too. The problem with that report is simple. It also relies on the cities self-reporting the actual crime and last year (and they probably will do it again this year) they included a very large segment of the city in the extra-territorial jurisdiction that they do not even service for crime (the sheriffs office handles the ETJ crimes) which tends to force the rate down by increasing the cumulative population. Not a very interesting or particularly intelligent trick but you know what they say about stats…
But that is how marketing is handled these days. – c’est la vie!
As a former resident of Mo City and a Current resident of Sugar Land, I have to wonder just exactly what criteria they are using to judge the best cities to live in.
For all the reasons you just stated, plus the fact that Sugar Land has added dozens of amenities in the past few years including the new building at the UH campus, the new Museum AND the deal for the new Minor League Ballpark, I cant possibly see how Sugar Land wouldn’t even make a list that Mo City was on. Not to take away from Mo. City… they have unique challenges, but Sugar Land was voted by another popular magazine recently as the # 2 Best City to live in, while Mo. City didn’t even rank. So… take all of this with a grain of salt.
Well this sounds great for MC, but just how distorted is the info MONEY got for these city ratings?? As a resident in MC for years, it’s pretty UN-believable to us that MC could somehow receive a # 21 ranking nationally ?? Based on WHAT – in reality ??
MC has grown both in pop. & jobs in the last 10 yrs – things are better than they USED to be (in some ways) but MC is still SEVERELY LACKING AS A CITY – IN SO MANY AREAS
Missouri City today – 2010:
NO DOWNTOWN OR TOWN CENTER, NO GATHERING PLACES FOR EVENTS
NO HOSPITAL / NO EMERGENCY MEDICAL CARE
PUBLIC SCHOOLS HAVE DECLINED
NO MOVIE THEATER FOR RESIDENTS TO ENJOY
FEW NICE RESTAURANTS (2-3) MOST ARE FAST FOOD
NO SAFE ENTERTAINMENT FOR YOUNG PEOPLE – ONLY 1 PLACE – MINIATURE GOLF
NO PUBLIC TENNIS COURTS & NO PUBLIC POOLS FOR RESIDENTS. MANY OLDER
SUBDIV. HAVE CLOSED POOLS, INCLUDING ALL OF QUAIL VALLEY
MOST OF THE FEATURES IN THE MONEY RATING EXIST ONLY OUTSIDE OF MISSOURI CITY – NOT IN MC – LIKE ACTUAL JOBS, HOSPITALS, GOOD MEDICAL CARE, SOCIAL & RECREATIONAL CENTERS, BETTER RETAIL & DINING