Bangor ranks No. 2 on best places list

BANGOR – Greater Bangor once again has received high marks from a national guide to the best places to live.

The Bangor area ranked No. 2 among 17 with populations of 100,000 and under in the recently released 2004 edition of “Cities Ranked & Rated.”

The Bangor metropolitan statistical area, with a population of roughly 91,000, comprises Bangor, Brewer, Eddington, Glenburn, Hampden, Hermon, Holden, Kenduskeag, Milford, Old Town, Orono, Orrington, the Penobscot Indian Nation, Winterport and Veazie.

“Those of us who live in Bangor already know that it’s a convenient city that offers a superb quality of life,” Sally Bates, business and economic development officer for Bangor’s Department of Community and Economic Development, said Wednesday.

“Individuals and companies look very closely at quality-of-life factors when deciding where to locate,” she said. “When we are marketing our city, it is very helpful to have an independent source, like ‘Cities Ranked & Rated,’ substantiate our claims to excellence.”

“We’re just the right size, people can get to know each other, our government is stable and progressive and it supports education and the arts,” said Rod McKay, the city’s community and economic development director, as did the guide’s authors, Bert Sperling and Peter Sander.

Here’s how the Bangor area ranked in its population group:

. second in arts and culture.

. fifth in recreation.

. sixth in economy and jobs.

. seventh in education.

. ninth in cost of living, climate and crime.

. 14th in transportation.

. 14th in health care.

The authors listed as assets Greater Bangor’s attractive setting, nearby university and outdoor recreation and as weaknesses its harsh winters, low future job growth and arts and culture.

The hundreds of area residents involved in the National Folk Festival and in the emerging creative economy would disagree with the last weakness, which seems to contradict Bangor’s No. 2 ranking in the arts and culture category.

The guide, published by Wiley Publishing Inc. of Hoboken, N.J., compares more than 400 metro areas in the United States and Canada in 10 categories.

The only area comparable in population that ranked higher than Bangor was Corvallis, an Oregon college town. The guide listed its educated population, nearby recreation and college-town amenities as among its strengths, and its cost of living, clouds and rain and quality of housing as weaknesses.

Bangor also fared well overall, at 142 among the 403 metro areas explored in the guide. Portland and Lewiston-Auburn, the only other two metro areas in Maine, ranked 236 and 313.

“I think this ranking just validates what we’ve been trying to accomplish, from what we’ve been doing on the waterfront, our emphasis on the arts and culture to the City Forest, and what we’re trying to do to protect the environment,” said Bangor City Council Chairman Dan Tremble.

“The ranking also [evaluated] the quality of the schools we have in Bangor and that we’re trying to create a positive business environment here as well. Obviously, it was good to see we were second in the nation [in the 100,000 and under group],” he said. “I was surprised to see we ranked higher than Portland.”

Bangor has made regular appearances in similar guides since at least 1995, when it was named one of the top 10 municipalities in the nation by World Trade magazine.

In 1997 and 1999, the Bangor metro area ranked No. 1 among those of comparable size.

Bangor was rated the 19th most family-friendly city in the nation in a parents’ survey in the April 1997 issue of Reader’s Digest. The only Maine community to make the top 50, Bangor was among those listed in a story titled “The Best Places to Raise a Family.”

In October 2002, Bangor was named one of a dozen “pockets of prosperity” by Business Week because of its relatively low unemployment and ability to create jobs the previous year.