Area 54th in Forbes' top places to live list
Reno-Sparks is ranked 54th among Fortune Small Business magazine's top 100 places to live and launch a business in America.
The April issue examined 296 metropolitan areas, giving points on business factors such as tax rates, job growth and number of airline flight connections.
Next, lifestyle factors such as parks, recreation and arts venues, health care and average temperature were factored in, along with population growth, crime rates, traffic and housing costs in specific hubs within metro areas.
The Reno-Sparks scores: 77 for quality of life, 60 for launching a business and 16 for percent of new businesses for an overall 54th place.
Analysts cited 4,000 new business licenses in 2007, investment in gaming and ski industries and minimal traffic.
Several other Western cities scored higher, notably Bellevue, Wash., outside of Seattle, No. 1; Portland, Ore., 6th; Denver, 7th; Salt Lake City, 15th; Boise, Idaho, 19th; and Scottsdale, Ariz., 25th.
Even so, Chuck Alvey, CEO of the Reno-based Economic Development Authority of Western Nevada, was pleased with the area's quality of life score against 295 other entries.
"Would I like to see a 57 or a 22? Yeah, but it's very subjective," he said. "I have family and friends who think Michigan and Ohio have the greatest quality of life in the world. What's important is what people here think the quality of life is here.
"That (54th overall) is pretty good."
Good enough, the report showed, to beat other thriving Western cities, including Honolulu, 67th; San Luis Obispo, Calif., 78th; Bend, Ore., 87th; Eugene, Ore., 96th; and Henderson, adjacent to Las Vegas, at 98th place.
