The financial website SmartAsset has Arlington ranked No. 1 on its list of the “hardest-working cities in America.” The website ranked 113 U.S. cities by labor market data on the average number of hours worked in a week and the average number of weeks worked per year.
The four hardest-working cities after Arlington were Anchorage, Alaska; Lincoln, Nebraska; Plano, Texas; and Virginia Beach, Virginia. Detroit ranked last on the list
But there’s a big asterisk to that fact, says an APS spokesman.
As opposed to 2010, when all APS high schools were included in the top 500, for the past couple of years the school system hasn’t even applied to be ranked by Newsweek.
Arlington has been named among the nation’s healthiest places to live.
The county was called the “third healthiest city in America” by Niche.com, the rankings site that previously called Arlington the No. 2 “Best City for Millennials,” “Best City to Live in America” and the No. 7 Suburb to Live in America.
That’s according to the Center for Digital Government and the National Association of Counties, which gave Arlington high marks for its tech related to “open government, transparency, citizen engagement, security and operations.”
This is the first time Arlington has achieved the honor.
That’s according to Niche.com, the same rankings website that recently pegged Arlington as the “Best City to Live in America” and the No. 7 Suburb to Live in America.
In the latest rankings, Arlington received high marks for the number of millennial residents, job opportunities and access to bars and restaurants. It was dinged only for a high cost of living.
The report used eight categories to rank 196 cities, including cost of living, crime rate, walkability, wellbeing, taxes, health care, weather and culture.
Arlington was ranked highly in most of the categories, with low crime and tax rates complementing “great” ratings in walkability, culture, healthcare and well-being.
But, according to Niche, Arlington didn’t rank quite as well on its new list of the “Best Suburbs to Live in America.”
Arlington is No. 7 on the list, behind McNair in Fairfax County (No. 6); Park City, Utah (No. 4) and Merrifield, also in Fairfax County (No. 2). Superior, a town near Boulder, Colorado, topped the list at No. 1.
Some Developers Are Pessimistic About the Pike — “The mood is not good,” Columbia Pike Revitalization Organization chairman John Murphy said of developers. “Some of them made big investments, big bets based on the county saying we’re going to do the streetcar. They feel betrayed, they’re not happy at all.” [Bisnow]
Board to Buy Bungalow to Bolster Benjamin Banneker — The Arlington County Board this weekend is expected to approve the purchase of a $637,500 property on 17th Street N. in order to expand Benjamin Banneker Park, near the East Falls Church Metro station. [InsideNova]
Arlington County has topped a new list of the “Best Cities to Live in America.”
Arlington received high marks for education, health and fitness, nightlife, family amenities, outdoor activities, length of commute and diversity, according to Niche.com.
Arlington Drops in Happiness Rankings — After being ranked 15th last year, Arlington has dropped out of the top 25 of the “happiest counties in America” list. [WTOP, SmartAsset]
Unsettled Weather This Weekend — Expect rain today, Saturday and Sunday, says the National Weather Service. On Sunday there’s a good chance of severe storms. [Twitter]
Arlington ranked just below No. 3 Washington, D.C. and the top two cities for parks: Minneapolis (No. 1) and Saint Paul (No. 2). The county received high marks for having parks within easy waking distance of the vast majority of residents.
“Arlington scored even better for park access, with 98% of residents living with a 10-minute walk of a park,” noted a press release. “However, its overall score was hurt because Arlington reserves only 11.2% of city area for parks. That is still above the national ParkScore average of 8.9%, but considerably behind the Twin Cities and Washington, D.C.”
An analysis by the firm Bay Alarm Medical looked at half a million geotagged tweets and found that Arlington sees about 265 sickness-related tweets per 100,000 residents. That puts Arlington No. 10 on a list of the “sickest cities” in the U.S.
New Orleans, Miami and Atlanta are No. 1-3 on the list, respectively.
