Air, Mortgages, Commutes and Apple

Here is our first installment of the Atlanta Rankings Project.  We are working to compile as many rankings of cities in the metro area as possible.  We will begin tracking this on another section of our website.  Until then, look for periodic updates on the New Urban Roswell blog.  

Business

The state of Georgia ranked 9th in the nation for mortgage fraud and misrepresentation in 2009.  We're heading in the right direction though.  Our previous rankings were 5, 6 & 8 in '06, '07 & '08 respectively.

Forbes annual ranking of the best cities for business puts Atlanta at #27.  This is down from a #6 ranking in 2009.  One very bright spot was our #6 ranking for colleges.  Another was the #25 ranking for potential economic growth.

Atlanta weighs in as having the fourth worst commute times out of the top 52 metro areas in the US.

Forbes has Atlanta as the nation's second most wired city.  We love our internet.

Environment

Atlanta makes it to #19 in the American Lung Association's annual rankings of cities with the most ozone pollution.  

Demographic

Peachtree City named one of the top 100 places to live in America by RelocateAmerica.

Georgians 46th in spending.  You wouldn't be able to tell by how packed he mall and restaurants are.  I guess other parts of the state balance out all of the hyper consumers here in Atlanta.

Fun

Well, it looks like Atlanta doesn't have a man card. AskMen.com has left our great city off the list of the top 29 Manliest Cities. I can live with being #30...

I guess It's now time to start ranking cities on how Apple friendly they are.  Atlanta comes in at 22.

Roswell Left Out of Top 50 Bicycling Cities

Although I only recently moved to Roswell, one of the things I noticed almost immediately was that the city supports cycling.  There is a bike box on Riverside Drive, ample signage on many cycling routes as well as a mayor supported weekly ride around town during the good weather months.  So, I was actually surprised to see that in a recent Bicycling.com ranking of the top 50 cycling cities in the US that Roswell was not on the list.  In fact, no cities in Georgia made the cut.  Maybe we were slighted because we have not been able to keep the Tour de Georgia race up and running.  The closest city on the list was Chattanooga. 

Cyclists shouldn't be discouraged though as the momentum is strong.  The recent Georgia Rides to the Capitol event had a strong showing.  Mayor Jere Wood, an avid cyclist, rode to the gold dome along with 1,200 other cyclists from Roswell and Decatur to show support for new legislation that would require automobiles to give three feet of clearance to cyclists.  That would be excellent and hopefully make the streets just a little safer.  If we keep pushing for positive things, eventually, we will get them.