My wife subscribes to a womans magazine, called, Self . Its pretty good, I think, and often has some interesting information. Todays issue had an article on the safest metropolitan areas in the U.S, (for a woman) to live. I thought many of you on the forum would like to see some of the things they listed. They considered factors like crime, availability and quality of medical facilities, local foods and eating trends, and environmental criteria.

They included a short run-down on each of the top ten best cities.

HEALTHIEST LOCATIONS:

1 Provo, Utah

2 Nassau-Suffolk Counties, New York

3 Stamford, Conn.

4 Portland, Maine

5 San Francisco

6 Appleton, Wisconsin

7 Burlington, Vermont

8 Honolulu

9 Boston

10 Boulder, Colo.

11 Bergen-Passaic, NJ

12 Fargo, ND

13 Orange County, CA

14 San Louis Obispo-Atascadero-Paso Robles, CA

15 Middlesex-Somerset-Hunterdon, NJ

16 Washington, DC (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

17 Portsmouth-Rochester, NH

18 San Jose, CA

19 Green Bay, WI

20 Billings, MT

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I was not surprised to see that the area where we live, down on the bayou country below Beaumont-Port Arthur, Texas, did not make the top ten. But then, I saw the WORST ten:

1 Beaumont-Port Arthur, TX

2 Bakersfield, CA

3 Flint, MI

4 Memphis

5 Atlantic City

6 Modesto, CA

7 Stockton, CA

8 Lafayette, LA

9 Rockford IL

10 Baton Rouge,LA

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AND some other tid-bits from the article:

TOP 10 CANCER CITIES

1 Jersey City

2 New York

3 Bergen Passaic, NJ

4 Newark, NJ

5 Middlesex-Somerset-Hunterdon, NJ

6 Monmouth-Ocean City, NJ

7 Atlantic City-Cape May, NJ

8 Nassau-Suffolk, NY

9 Philadelphia

10 Newburgh, NY

-

And still more, from their survey:

-Dirtiest drinking water----Huntsville, AL

-Best Pap testing rate-----Galveston, TX

-Least fit city-----Fort Wayne, IN

-Highest happiness level-------Billings, MT

-Cleanest city---Nashville

-Fewest M.D.s per capita------Brazoria, TX

-Highest Suicide rate-----Reno, NV

-Dirtiest city---Philadelphia

-Highest rape rate------St. Louis

-Safest place to drive------Lawrence, MASS

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I dont know how they came up with some of these, but like I said, the magazine is called Self, and its the October issue. Buy one, or they probably have a web-site with more info., if you wish. Youll have to pardon me now, I have to go put a for sale sign on the lawn.

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-- Lon Frank (lgal@exp.net), September 29, 2000

Answers

I would think one of the lower rape rate cities (for women) is SF, CA.

I wonder why my home area of Bergen-Passaic NJ is ranked as the 11th healthiest location while at the same time it is ranked as the 3rd highest cancer location.(interesting that NJ, NYC area and Philly account for the highest cancer locations (actually, not surprising, there are many chemical plants and refineries in those places)

-- Lars (lars@indy.net), September 29, 2000.

TOP 10 CANCER CITIES: Anyone else notice a trend in this list? Do NJ Turnpike/Garden State Parkway/I-95 ring any bells? How many NJ/NY metro children are living within a hop-skip-jump of one or more Superfund sites?

Get out of there! Get out while your DNA is still reasonably intact.

-- Bingo1 (howe9@shentel.net), September 29, 2000.

Lars,

It said the 10 SAFEST cities, not necessarily the healthiest, per se.

And I was surprized that my area was black-listed for high incidence of rape, rather than cancer or repsiratory disease.

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-- Lon Frank (lgal@exp.net), September 29, 2000.

Very informative, Lon. Thank you

Bingo, I agree...very frightening about NJ and cancer.

If I had to pick one place, I would have to choose the happiest city - Billings, MT =)

-- cin (cin@=0.)), September 29, 2000.

Yeah, cin, but I think I could personally raise the happiness level of Honolulu, if I lived there.

Billings sounds nice, too. It doesn't get cold there does, it?

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-- Lon Frank (lgal@exp.net), September 29, 2000.

-Dirtiest city---Philadelphia

Whoever did the ratings hasn't been around much. Granted Philadelphia wouldn't rank on my list of cleaner cities, but certainly wouldn't be the one to make it to the top. What cities did the author compare it to? And what criterias? Did s/he only compare subways, or included neighborhood streets, public places and restaurant restrooms?

Center City philadelphia (business district and midle class neighborhoods) is among the cleanest cities I've been too in the norhteast, and I've been to at least 50 big ones. Not to compare with San Diego, but certainly better than NY city.

I agree with the I/95 corridor, nasty area.

-- (noway@no.how), September 29, 2000.

OH, I just found these; they musta missed them in the magazine article.

-City with the greatest number of trot lines per capita: Geezerville-on-the-Bayou

-City most likely to have gator tacos on the menus of fine restaurants: Geezerville-on-the-Bayou

-City most abundant in amateur health care practitioners: Geezerville-on-the-Bayou

-Safest city in which to drive a pireaux: Geezerville-on-the-Bayou

-City where it is most suitable to drop in on your neighbors at suppertime with nothing but a possum, two ears of corn, and a jar of jiggle juice: Geezerville-on-the-Bayou

-City with the lowest number of real teeth per capita: Geezerville-on-the-Bayou

TOP TEN CITIES TO GET GATOR BIT IN:

1 Geezerville-on-the-Bayou

2 Geezerville-on-the-Bayou

3 Geezerville-on-the-Bayou

4 Someplace in Florida

5 Geezerville-on-th

-- Lon Frank (lgal@exp.net), September 29, 2000.

-Highest happiness level-------Billings, MT

Exactly what does this mean? I know Billings very goodly and this doesn't fit my experience. Eugene is the happiest city and also the highest one [if you know what I mean].

Someone ask if Billings is cold. That depends on what you call cold. It is warm compared to Bozeman which is 120 or so miles to the west. It is cold compared to Key West. All relative. Happiest city; wow, no subjective opinions here.

Best wishes,,,,

Z

-- Z1X4Y7 (Z1X4Y7@aol.com), September 29, 2000.

Don't get me wrong, I like Billings, but these surveys are silly. Here is one of the top stories in the Gazette today:

Billings

Point is that it is a nice town, but not that much different than other nice, small cities. My complaint is not with Billings but with these meaningless, puff, surveys.

Best wishes,,,

Z

-- Z1X4Y7 (Z1X4Y7@aol.com), September 29, 2000.

Oh, come on Z, (you got your knickers cinched up a little tight tonight or somethin?)

Its just a magazine reader poll. They asked are you happy?, and both women who answered in Billings, said Yeah, happy as clams. But of the two who answered from Eyesocket Wisconsin, one said she was just the tiniest bit pissed, but thanks for asking.

Therefore, Billings is the happiness capital of the world. Its all very scientific, and has to do with numbers and such, I imagine.

:)

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-- Lon Frank (lgal@exp.net), September 29, 2000.

lol Lon, liked your last city list...geerzerville...

-- Factfinder (FactFinder@bzn.com), September 29, 2000.

LOL..... if you asked both of the people here on the S. Ore-gone coast why Eugene was so happy, we'd just look in the garden and smile :-)

I went to a big city once... can't imagine why someone would want to live there.....

-- Mr. Slippery (ng@no.yr), September 29, 2000.

Lon:

You are probably correct. I have never heard of these people. But Brian and I have had this discussion over and over for the last 6 months.

Now, Money Mag. keeps naming my burg one of the three best places to live in the US. This keeps bringing in more and more people. Our unemployment rate is under 1%. Everytime a new company moves in for the quality of life, they have to go outside to hire new folks for the jobs. More people=more problems.

This brings up the problem of limitation of development. One that Brian is facing in the Portland area. We don't know the answer to the problem, but it will be a bigger problem in Billings. Sorry to ramble, but this is an important problem not helped by these kind of silly articles.

Best wishes,,,

Z

-- Z1X4Y7 (Z1X4Y7@aol.com), September 29, 2000.

Yeah, Z. It's a fact of good ol' American Growth Syndrome. Some sleepy little idyllic place goes and hires someone to be the Chamber of Commerce. They blab about how nice it is, place ads in magazines, etc., and soon enough it is discovered, and subsequently loved to death.

I just thankfull that no Hollywood tycoons have moved onto the bayou yet. But the widow Gaspard just put her house up for sale, and it even has indoor plumbing....(don't nobody tell Bill Gates!)

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-- Lon Frank (lgal@exp.net), September 29, 2000.

If you're worried about rape, San Francisco is safest. Most of the single men are gay and the ones that aren't gay are computer geeks not interested in sex.

-- (geeks@and.freaks), September 29, 2000.

I have altered my DNA enough all by my lonesome.

-- FS-still in NJ (gray@matter.think), September 29, 2000.