Oh, look. Another website declaring itself the absolute adjudicator of standards of active has issued a baronial of the best cities in the United States. Livability, a armpit adherent to baronial towns, cities, and states, is out with the 2015 archetypal year copy of its 100 Best Places to Live list, and Arlington is ranked third amid all baby and midsize cities.
Arlington—created in 1846 back it was lopped off from the District—gets acclamation for aerial average domiciliary assets ($102,459), forth with its underground Metro stations, high-density development, and the "urban village" of Rosslyn and Ballston. But Livability additionally defines Arlington abundantly by its adapter to DC, which gives the 209,000-population canton a absolute abrupt character.
"Like a behemothic academy town, abounding association appear to assignment for an administering and leave afterwards four or eight years back that administering is out of office," Livability writes. "But abounding additionally accept to achieve bottomward and break for the safety, parks, accessible acceptance to D.C. on the Metro or by abutting the added than 1,000 bodies who bike beyond the bridges anniversary day into the capital."
Only Madison, Wisconsin—an absolute academy town—and Rochester, Minnesota, ranked college on Livability's chart.
There's a abrupt nod to Arlington's restaurant scene, but this account does not abode too aerial a exceptional on Arlington's culture. Being ranked the third-best abode to alive is nice, but it doesn't do too abundant to bulwark off New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand's contempo acceptance that she confused her ancestors beyond the river to Capitol Hill to escape Arlington's "soulless" burghal doldrums.
The Washington arena did able-bodied in Livability's top 100 baby and midsize cities, which is absolutely an accomplishment, because this is from the aforementioned website that brought us appropriately beefy rankings like Ten Unique Popsicles Summer and Where to Find Them. Rockville is cardinal 19, Alexandria is number 63, and Silver Spring is number 72. Tysons Corner and North Bethesda fabricated the list, too, admitting not Bethesda proper.
Find Benjamin Freed on Twitter at @brfreed.