I wanted to post this story from Cleveland.com and Plain Dealer reporter John Campanelli.
Cleveland has moved out of Mom’s basement.
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How to make the list
Forbes.com bases its rankings on seven things: cost of living alone, job growth, perceived coolness, culture, nightlife, online dating participation, and the percentage of singles in the population.
Cleveland scored in the top 10 for cost of living alone (an index determined by the average cost of a metro area’s one-bedroom apartment rent, a movie ticket, a six-pack of Heineken — factored with entry-level salary data) and nightlife (the number of restaurants, bars and nightclubs per capita).
For singles, our city is suddenly a good catch, almost a hottie, at least according to Forbes.com’s annual ranking of the best cities for single people, released this week.
Cleveland rocketed to 14th best among the country’s 40 largest metro areas in the 2009 standings, an astounding improvement after 2008’s dismal ranking of 38th.
Pittsburgh (24th), Columbus (28th), Detroit (34th) and Cincinnati (38th) remain lame and will not get our phone numbers.
New York City was tops on the list, surprising no one. The worst city for singles? Jacksonville, Fla.
1. New York City
2. Boston
3. Chicago
4. Seattle
5. Washington, D.C.
6. Atlanta
7. San Francisco
8. Los Angeles
9. Milwaukee
10. Philadelphia
The bottom 10 cities for singles
31. Indianapolis
32. Charlotte, N.C.
33. Tampa/St. Petersburg, Fla.
34. Detroit
35. Sacramento, Calif.
36. Memphis, Tenn.
37. Kansas City
38. Cincinnati
39. Salt Lake City
40. Jacksonville, Fla.
– Forbes.com
The standings are based on seven categories: cost of living, job growth, perceived coolness, culture, nightlife, online dating participation, and the percentage of singles in the population.
We soared in nightlife, said Lauren Sherman, the Forbes.com reporter who compiled the rankings.
“Cleveland has over 4,000 bars, clubs and restaurants [4,385 to be exact]. In Austin, that metro area has only 2,000,” she said. “So even though Austin is thought of as this hip, cool town, there are many more bars and clubs in Cleveland.”
Also helping us is our low cost of living.
“The average rent on a one-bedroom apartment is $540 a month,” said Sherman. “That’s cheapest in the country.”
In addition, the rankings now use data from metro areas, not just cities.
“Tons of single people live in the suburbs,” said Sherman.
Samantha Fryberger, spokeswoman for Positively Cleveland, isn’t surprised that we’re suddenly hanging with the cool kids.
“We have a really good scene for young people, that’s clear,” she said.
Still, she does admit to being a bit baffled by all these city lists, mentioning that in June alone, Cleveland was named one of the nation’s most fun cities by Ritz Crackers and the nation’s most boring city by a travel Web site.
“You’re up one moment,” she added, “and down the next.”
Kinda like being single.
This post was written by a DCA City Advocate. To learn more about the City Advocate Program, please click here.
