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V O L . X X V I I N O. X V J U LY 2 6 , 2 0 2 1 6 B U S I N E S S M A I N E Business news from around the state Kennebec Savings Bank was established in 1870 to help every member of our community save, thrive and grow. Serving the Maine banking community for over 150 years. Visit www.KennebecSavings.Bank to view a complete list of our residential and commercial products. Portland cracks top 10 'best places to live,' but US News ranking adds warning B y W i l l i a m H a l l For the first time, Portland has cracked the top 10 in the prestigious U.S. News & World Report annual ranking of the country's "best places to live." Portland is No. 8 on this year's list, which was released July 13. That ranking, made among the coun- try's 150 largest metropoli- tan areas, jumps from No. 19 on last year's list. Previously, Portland ranked No. 26, No. 27 and No. 23 from 2017 to 2019, respectively. This year's score puts the city between two Florida ones: Naples, No. 7, and Sarasota, No. 9. The top- ranked city in the U.S. was Boulder, Colo., and No. 150 was San Juan, P.R. In its rankings report, U.S. News praised the "artful living," "do-it-yourself attitude" and "dozens of local entrepreneurs" in Maine's largest city. But the magazine publisher also included a cautionary note. "Though more people discover its charms, Portland is at a crossroads on how to move forward. New devel- opment is often met with opposition, while demand for affordable housing is high. An aging housing stock combined with a tight market on mid-tier units has left middle-income earners struggling to settle in Portland." The Best Places rankings are widely used as mar- keting tools by cities — as well as real estate firms, site selection consultants and companies looking to hire. Over recent years, Portland has touted its rank- ings on a variety of similar lists. This year's U.S. News analysis compared cities on the basis of 11 criteria in five categories: the local job market, housing affordability, quality of life, net migration and a "desirability index" based on a poll in May of 3,600 people across the U.S. about where they'd like to live. Individual criteria ranged from unemployment rates to crime rates to a composite evaluation for the well- being of residents, based on their satisfaction with vari- ous aspects of their day-to-day lives. U.S. News said it obtained recent data from a variety of sources, including the U.S. Census, U.S. Department of Labor and the FBI. Each city received scores on a 10-point scale within the five categories. Portland's marks were: local job market, 7.6; housing affordability, 6.6; quality of life, 7.4; net migration, 6.6; and desirability, 7.9. Portland's scores also made it No. 9 in a ranking of the cities for their quality of life, and No. 1 when it came to safety. Earlier this year, U.S. News released its annual ranking of the "best states," in which Maine placed No. No. 27, up from its last ranking, No. 32, in 2019. U.S. News & World Report, which has produced the namesake magazine since 1933, calls itself "the global authority in rankings." It launched its first annual ranking in 1983, with the release of an "America's Best Colleges" report. F I L E P H O T O B R I E F Portland was the only Maine city evaluated by U.S. News. Across New England, the overall rank- ings for other cities are: 31 Boston 53 Hartford, Conn. 67 Manchester, N.H. 83 Worcester, Mass. 106 Providence, R.I. 109 Springfield, Mass. 111 New Haven, Conn.

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