Decatur Ranks #36 Among “Top Small Towns” in the Country
Decatur Metro | June 3, 2015 | 10:42 am
Here’s a city/town ranker from a website you may have heard of before.
Livability.com has expanded its list of the “Top 10 Best Small Towns” to the “Top 100 Best Small Towns” for the first time ever. And apparently you don’t need to go too far beyond the Top 10 for Decatur to show up.
Here we are at #36…
Retaining a small-town feel despite its proximity to Atlanta, Decatur features four historic districts along with a vibrant entertainment and nightlife scene thanks to popular venues like Eddie’s Attic, Wahoo Grill, Brick Store Pub, Carpe Diem and The Square Pub. This progressive community includes Agnes Scott College, Columbia Theological Seminary and Georgia Perimeter College, while Decatur City School District has earned several academic accolades.
Livability ranks the small towns using a “robust methodology”. And since you all are big on the details of methodology used for these sorts of things, here’s a link to the full methodology and a summary blurb…
We used a similar structure, dividing our 40-plus data points into eight categories of livability: the economy; health care; housing; social and civic capital; education; amenities; demographics, and infrastructure. We score each sub-ranking on a scale from 1-100, and then weight the sub-scores based on an exclusive national survey about livability and quality of place issues. The survey is conducted for Livability by Ipsos Public Affairs, one of the leading global market research firms. Therefore, this list isn’t just based just on our research and priorities for great places. This list is also based on your assessments of what is most valued in your communities.
The data used comes from a variety of public and private sources. For starters, we rely on data from The U.S. Census Bureau and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Affairs, as well asEsri, Walk Score and Great Schools; nonprofits like Americans for the Arts; and variables we created exclusively for this study. We were advised by a stellar board of advisors, all of whom are experts in livability-related fields.
With all that in mind, here are Decatur’s scores across the various metrics that resulted in a #36 ranking…
Decatur is the only small “town” in Georgia to make the cut, but many other Southern towns made the list including:
- #4 – St. Augustine, FL
- #17 – Falls Church, VA
- #26 – Maitland, FL
- #38 – Williamsburg, VA
- #48 – Beaufort, SC
- #55 – Carrboro, NC
- #57 – Brevard, NC
- #63 – Hendersonville, NC
- #83 – Fort Walton Beach, FL
- #95 – Harrison, AK
- #99 – Oxford, MS
Photo courtesy of the City of Decatur
Carpe Diem, huh? Glad to see their methodology includes the most up-to-date information.
I miss that place. I mean, back when it was thriving, not the limping-along, someone-please-buy-me version that existed for its last several years.
Harrison, AK? Is this a town in Alaska or should it be AR?
Ha! oops!
Interesting to see that of the towns listed on the southern list, it looks like they all pretty much have one thing in common that Decatur lacks: proximity to a body of water, or a large state/national forest. There are certainly opportunities for outdoor recreation within reasonable driving distances of Decatur, but it’s a shame some of those amenities are not a little closer.
That’s why we need a whitewater course built in the downtown. Perhaps the giant slip n slide could be our trial balloon.
Many of these towns are quite nice but they are . . .how do I say it? . . . in the middle of nowhere.
I’d rather have easy access to a big city (even Atlanta!) than live way up in the mountains or way out in the desert. Also, I wouldn’t want to live in Florida, so all those towns are out too.
This particular list defines “small town” as under 20,000 population. Decatur barely squeaked under the limit.
Oxford is nearly 21k according to google, and when Ole Miss is playing at home it’s several times that.
So this is to be our last hurrah as a small town – the three new apartment buildings and our populations propensity to procreate will soon push us into the medium town category! Think we can take down Asheville?
our small town can beat up yours