Missouri snubbed by Money magazine

"Maybe an ideal community should have more churches than pawn shops and tattoo parlors."

Money magazine has just released their annual list of the 100 most livable towns in the United States. The magazine each year uses a complex formula of their own design to identify the best towns in the U.S. They gauge education, income, house prices, medical facilities and a whole host of other methods for making their selections. Of course their system is subjective and is more for bragging rights than any other reason.

I was somewhat puzzled that the top ranked community in Missouri was ranked a lowly 64. Ballwin, just outside of St. Louis, took the top honors for the state. Lee's Summit, just outside of Kansas City, was the only other Missouri town in the top 100.

The magazine honors were flawed, in my opinion, on several fronts. Your town could not even be considered unless it was within 60 miles of a major airport or teaching hospital. Well as a result, very few towns in the south were selected and few in the midwest were honored as well. But the survey flaws ran deeper than geography.

For example, one California town ranked high in the education category but the average home price was above $750,000! Now that may be livable but it darned well is not affordable for most of us.

I would think that Cape Girardeau, Columbia or even Springfield should make this select list. I'm sure every state has just such examples.

Many of the top communities were located on the east and west coast near metropolitan areas. The magazine publishers need to understand that some people simply have no interest in locating near urban areas where crime is commonplace, congestion is a way of life and hospitality is a practice long forgotten.

Maybe Money magazine should change their system of judging these towns.

Maybe an ideal community should have more churches than pawn shops and tattoo parlors. Maybe an ideal community should have more parks than bars.

The magazine criticized some communities for their lack of diversity. Well maybe diversity should also be defined as a good mix of Presbyterians, Baptists, Methodists and Catholics. Maybe an ideal community should have more college graduates than people on probation or parole. And though transportation is important to any community, the proximity to a major airport doesn't matter one bit to probably 99 per cent of the American population. If I have any interest in flying cross country, a trip to St. Louis or Memphis to catch a flight is not inconvenient.

It's easy for New York-based publications to slap at the heartland because of our rustic lifestyles and lack of culture. But isn't it ironic that most urban dwellers yearn for retirement so they can vacate the rat race of city living and settle in a slower paced, quiet community?

Missouri may have been snubbed by Money magazine but we know something they don't. But I'll be darned if I'm going to travel to their headquarters to tell them. Besides, it's too much trouble to travel to a major airport in the first place.