ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, October 22, 1996 TAG: 9610220063
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: NEW YORK
SOURCE: Associated Press
Seattle, where a relaxing life is possible despite all that coffee, topped Fortune magazine's list of the 15 best U.S. cities for mixing work with family life.
Toronto, ``the safest city in North America,'' headed its list of the five best international cities.
Fortune for the first time went beyond evaluating cities on business criteria. With help from the Arthur Andersen consulting firm, it examined quality of life issues: crime, school quality, availability of culture, the comforts of the suburbs and their accessibility.
``Life in a shady `burb' is not so wonderful if you have to spend hours in traffic getting there,'' it said in dropping New York off the list entirely.
Among things checked were the number of doctors, state and local taxes, and the costs of a martini, real estate and movie tickets. Fortune also interviewed executives and economic development experts.
The list, in the Nov. 11 issue, puts Denver second to Seattle, followed by Philadelphia, Minneapolis and Raleigh-Durham, N.C.
No. 6 St. Louis was followed by Cincinnati, Washington, Pittsburgh, Dallas-Fort Worth, Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Milwaukee and Nashville, Tenn.
Earlier this year, Money magazine named Madison, Wis., as the best place to live, based on a poll of what readers value and on its own research on 300 metropolitan areas. It listed Seattle ninth. Fortune did not even mention Madison.
Fortune extolled Seattle's summer sunlight from morning till 10:30 p.m. - plenty of light to enjoy kayaking even during the workweek.
``You've gotta hate Seattle,'' the magazine reported tongue-in-cheek. ``Kayaking, skiing, mountain-biking, plain-old biking, hiking, blading. Then comes the weekend and the end of this tedium called work.''
The ranking also mentioned Seattle's clean air, availability of skilled labor, business structure and growth potential. The commute, though, ranked as average.
Toronto won points for low crime, clean streets, green spaces and accessibility to art, literature and movies. The best cities after Toronto were London, Singapore, Paris and Hong Kong.
LENGTH: Short : 48 linesby CNB