Best / Worst City to Raise Your Kids

[Aloysius]

If you were intending to have children at some point - what would be the ideal city (or extended suburbs of a city) to raise your children?

Assume that your own personal likes / dislikes / career aren't factors - I'm thinking just about the kid's benefit.

Inspired by comment from my buddy last night - "West Coast kids are retarded and no way in hell I'm raising my kids in LA. Going back East to do it right."

My Best - New York City bab-ay
My Worst - Los Angeles (though I personally enjoy living in LA for the most part)

[swede123]

You really make a pretty solid case for raising kids in NY. When the time comes for me I'll definitely head there, as there is no doubt that's where I want my little ones to grow up. Thanks!

Swede

[4_2_it]

Worst - Any big city in the South unless you are willing to pay through the nose for private school.
Best - I live in the 'burbs of Philly and will say it is good, but I don't believe it is the best.

[Los Feliz Slim]

I am in the process of raising a child in LA, and I also vote for LA as worst. The only place comparable, I'm told, is NYC. School cost vs. quality of public schools and the general superficiality in both cities are my reasons.

I was raised in the suburbs of Boston, and I turned out well. Small enough to be "normal", large enough for some small-scale expanding of horizons. So Boston is good, but I think (based on nothing, really) that the Pacific Northwest would be an excellent place to raise kids.

[Aloysius]

[ QUOTE ]
You really make a pretty solid case for raising kids in NY. When the time comes for me I'll definitely head there, as there is no doubt that's where I want my little ones to grow up. Thanks!

Swede

[/ QUOTE ]

LOL touche Swede.

NYC (more extended suburbs) - public school systems alone (best in the country) make NYC a solid favorite in my book (I hate private school kids [img]/images/graemlins/mad.gif[/img]) - with a personal bias towards believing that 4 seasons, the general east coast attitude (no-nonsense) are better environments for children.

Los Angeles - have to send your kids to private school, really expensive in general - Hollywood (the industry I work in I might add) is lame and makes kids retards.

And yes, Swede, this is not super well thought out but had to respond at least a little....

[MrMon]

All in all, I think St. Louis is a good place to raise kids. I'm raising two here, public schools, and am generally happy with the situation. Now, I have to admit I happen to live in one of the best school districts in the country, but compared to other cities you get a lot of bang for the buck. Our school district has houses ranging from $150K to $3M, average is probably $400K, new construction is now $600K for 3000 SF on a quarter acre. (But I've got an 1150 SF ranch on the market for $165K if you want to take it. Needs decorating, most of the major updates have been done in the last 7 years - roof, HVAC, kitchen, windows.) There are cheaper condos and apartments. Property taxes average about 1.25% of true market value.

We're 10 miles and 30-40 minutes from downtown in rush hour.

Kids are extremely bright, parents tend to be lawyers, doctors, accountants, engineers, executives, but not always. 30% of my daughters 4th grade class have IQs above 130. High school has ~300 students per grade, 10-12 National Merit Semi-finalists per year. Kids will go to everything from the local college to the Ivys, 95% go to college.

For sports, we've got the Cardinals, Rams, & Blues (no basketball). The Zoo is hard to beat, ranked #1 by Zagat. Magic House is one of the top childrens attractions in the country. Six Flags is the local amusement park, several water parks. We definitely have 4 seasons. No place in the country is further than 4 hours by plane, excluding Alaska and Hawaii. Chicago is a 4.5 hour drive, we go several times a year.

Yes, we're flyover country, but for kids, it's great.

[imported_The Vibesman]

I think the best would correspond to school scores and crime rate.

The worst, I would say, is Fallujah.

[ QUOTE ]
All in all, I think St. Louis is a good place to raise kids. I'm raising two here, public schools, and am generally happy with the situation. Now, I have to admit I happen to live in one of the best school districts in the country, but compared to other cities you get a lot of bang for the buck. Our school district has houses ranging from $150K to $3M, average is probably $400K, new construction is now $600K for 3000 SF on a quarter acre. (But I've got an 1150 SF ranch on the market for $165K if you want to take it. Needs decorating, most of the major updates have been done in the last 7 years - roof, HVAC, kitchen, windows.) There are cheaper condos and apartments. Property taxes average about 1.25% of true market value.

We're 10 miles and 30-40 minutes from downtown in rush hour.

Kids are extremely bright, parents tend to be lawyers, doctors, accountants, engineers, executives, but not always. 30% of my daughters 4th grade class have IQs above 130. High school has ~300 students per grade, 10-12 National Merit Semi-finalists per year. Kids will go to everything from the local college to the Ivys, 95% go to college.

For sports, we've got the Cardinals, Rams, & Blues (no basketball). The Zoo is hard to beat, ranked #1 by Zagat. Magic House is one of the top childrens attractions in the country. Six Flags is the local amusement park, several water parks. We definitely have 4 seasons. No place in the country is further than 4 hours by plane, excluding Alaska and Hawaii. Chicago is a 4.5 hour drive, we go several times a year.

Yes, we're flyover country, but for kids, it's great.

[/ QUOTE ]

Plus, if you do choose to send your kids to private school, which a lot do, its only about 10k. You CAN NOT send them to city public school here, so you must live in the county to raise your kids (w/o private schooling). Otherwise, it sucks to be 20 something here, but Id imagine it would be a great place to raise kids.

[swede123]

You did quite good in your second post, I definitely see the pros and cons you list. Personally I think I'd prefer a town with a population of about 30-50K, something like a college town. Basically, a place where kids had opportunities to try different sports and activities and not be stuck in a class of nine people or whatever, and at the same time a place small enough where they'd get attention in school and not just disappear in the crowd. Location wouldn't be that critical, as long as it had distinct seasons.

Swede

[SL__72]

St Paul and the surrounding suburbs is an excellent choice.

I was just looking at cityrating.com and thought their information for the best cities was kinda funny... I wonder if their rating is based on their graphs...
Twin Cities

/edit bleh, nevermind. It just takes you to demographics if you click on a city name on the front page.