New York dominates the list of best small towns — What about NJ?

I’m a little perturbed. According to All Star Home, New York named a few towns with small-town charm and then ranked them in a list of America’s best hometowns.

There were no New Jersey towns. Collectively, like many states, New Jersey has some problems but that doesn’t take away from the fact that we also have some great small towns.

Now the criteria for this ranking is: community, affordable living, safety and education. As a result, here is how the country’s best hometowns rank:

RANKING THE BEST HOMETOWNS IN AMERICA

To determine the top hometowns, places were subject to four key rankings: community, affordable living, safety, and education. Since community is paramount for smaller cities and towns this was made the most important component of the ranking.

Community score was based on factors such as diversity by state, farmer’s markets in the vicinity, historical buildings, and the average winning percentage of the area’s high school football teams, how that makes it as criteria is very puzzling to me.

In the top 10, smaller cities in New York state ranked as the best hometowns in America. Elmira, Corning, Utica, and Binghamton swept the top 4 slots. All four had many farmer’s markets within 30 miles, a 66% diversity ranking (one of the best in the U.S. only topped by California) and relatively affordable home values.

New Jersey is the home to great small towns that have a warm quality of being small and enjoyable.

Lambertville, Cape May, Red Bank, Princeton, Glen Rock, Westfield, and Mountain Lakes are a few of my favorites.

I don’t agree with the criteria that All Star Home but forth to determine the best hometown in America. They used small TV markets as a guideline and of course TV affiliates and outlets are not abundant here in New Jersey. I like the quality of life, the schools, and the entertainment opportunities.

Of course, safety is a good qualification and I think we have it at most of our destination locations in New Jersey.

Here's how these towns showed up in each category:

Methodology

To come up with the ranking, they analyzed the cities named in the 50 smallest TV designated market areas with a population of less than 100,000. To determine their ranking, they compared cities across four key metrics and graded each metric on a 100-point scale. The four metrics were:

1. Community – 50 points overall

· Diversity by state – 20 points

· Historic buildings by city – 10 points

· Farmer’s markets within 30 miles – 10 points

· High school football winning percentage – 10 points

2. Safety – 20 points

3. Affordable living – 15 points

4. Education – 15 points

OK, New York, you have this one, but we’ve got a lot more going for us in New Jersey than you think.

The post above reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5 weekend host Big Joe Henry. Any opinions expressed are Big Joe’s own.

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