Lexington is 5th best-run city in the U.S.; Louisville 10th, new ranking says
Lexington is the fifth best-run city in the United States, according to a new analysis that crunched a lot of economic, health, crime and other data and then factored in how much the city spends per resident.
When compared to 150 of the country’s largest cities, Lexington was the fifth best in operating efficiency, according to WalletHub.
Kentucky had a good showing in this study as Louisville was ranked 10th.
Being fifth best doesn’t mean Lexington doesn’t have problems. Its combined rankings for financial stability, education, health, safety, economy and infrastructure/pollution put it just below the top third for quality of city services. It didn’t get great marks for health or economy, and it got an unfavorable score for its infrastructure, which included road quality, commute times, water quality, and other data.
WalletHub is a personal-finance website that has received growing attention for its frequent data-driven studies on a number of issues. For this review, it culled data from Moody’s Investors Service, the U.S. Census Bureau, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Centers for Disease Control, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, FBI, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and more.
After evaluating the cities to get their quality of city services scores, WalletHub used the cities’ total budget per capita to determine final rankings. So, Lexington and Louisville residents get their money’s worth, according to this study.
“We can learn how well city officials manage and spend public funds by comparing the quality of services residents receive against the city’s total budget,” the study said.
The worst-run cities? Memphis and Chattanooga, Tenn.; Flint, Mich.; Oakland, Calif.; Hartford, Conn.; Cleveland; San Francisco; New York, Detroit and Washington D.C.
Other best-run cities? Tops were Nampa, Idaho; Provo, Utah; Boise, Idaho and Missoula, Mont. After Lexington and before Louisville in the rankings were Las Cruces, N.M.; Billings, Mont.; Bismark, N.D.; and Fort Wayne, Ind.
This story was originally published July 10, 2017 at 10:52 AM with the headline "Lexington is 5th best-run city in the U.S.; Louisville 10th, new ranking says."