Out of the top 100 small U.S. towns to live in, Irvine falls at No. 22.
So says CNN's Money Magazine, which ranked cities with populations of 50,000 to 300,000 based on a variety of criteria, including percentages of white, super-rich or out-of-work people versus the state median (the fewer, the better).
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Read all the criteria here.
Last year, Money chose cities with populations of 8,500 to 50,000, which would have disqualified Irvine, which has an estimated population of 208,000.
Irvine is the only California city listed until one reaches No. 38, which is occupied by Yorba Linda. The Golden State is also represented by Pleasanton (63) and Rocklin (65).
The top spot goes to Eden Prairie, MN.
Just imagine how much better Irvine will do in these rankings if
it ever manages to build the Great Park.
Routinely named the safest city in America, Irvine has received other distinctions lately. City cops were honored for their contributions to soldiers. Mayor Sukhee Kang was among 46 prominent immigrants honored by the Carnegie
Corporation for making significant
contributions to the country.
Still, if you are rich and single, you may want to look next door to the master-planned city. Newport Beach was named by Money the best place to live in the country if you've got cash but no ring on your finger.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.