America's Best Places to Live 2008

Monday, July 14, 2008provided by

 CNNMoney.com

No. 2: Fort Collins, Colo.

Population: 129,500

Miles from Denver: 59

Hiking and biking trails: 25 miles

Average July temperature:
75°F

Pros: Environmentally minded, lots of high-tech jobs, outdoor paradise

Con: More than an hour from a major city

One of the first things you notice about this Rocky Mountain city is that practically every new road has a bike lane. Even the wheelless can get in on the action now that Fort Collins (which ranked No. 1 on our list in 2006) has a bike library in the middle of its historic downtown: Residents and visitors can check out a bicycle for up to seven days, free. “I’m generally out on my bike two to three times a week,” says Greg Churchman, 46, who owns a human-resources consulting firm. He and his wife Beth, 50, a probation officer, sometimes ride to nearby Horsetooth Reservoir with their sons James, 16, and Lucas, 14. “The park and trails system in this town are incredible,” says Beth.

Even if you’re not the outdoorsy type, Fort Collins has a ton to recommend it. Old Town, the city’s historic district, contains four microbreweries and more than two dozen restaurants, most of them with alfresco seating. A healthy concentration of bioscience and tech companies, including Agilent Technologies, Hewlett-Packard and Kodak, keeps employment opportunities high. Colorado State University occupies a scenic spot in the middle of town, providing a college-town feel and youthful energy. And the city is on the forefront of environmental planning; it just received a grant from the Department of Energy to start a solar-energy project downtown. As for health care, the award-winning Poudre Valley Health System will soon be home to a brand-new cancer center.

While the excellent schools have been overcrowded in recent years, officials have taken steps to correct the problem by moving some grades to different buildings. “I moved here for the quality of the schools and basically the quality of life,” says Tracy Riley, 39, a marketing communications specialist who arrived last year from Windsor, Calif. “Fort Collins has everything.”

Fort Collins called best place to raise kids

Safety, schools cited in Colorado ranking

The Choice City was selected above runners-up Aurora and Loveland, based on the magazine's criteria, which considered cities with at least 50,000 residents and a median family income of $40,000 to $100,000.

The magazine lauded Fort Collins' walking paths, proximity to CSU and low crime, "excellent schools" and "a vibrant downtown known as Old Town."

"I can't help but agree," said Mayor Doug Hutchinson, who grew up in Fort Collins. "We have a really world-class school system from kindergarten through the university level."

The magazine said it also considered museums, parks, crime rates, job growth and diversity.

It also noted that college towns tend to ride out economic downturns better than other cities.

"We weighted school performance and safety most heavily but also gave strong weight to amenities and affordability. Bear in mind with this list, the organizing principle was affordability," the article says.

"While the median household income varies by state, we purposely weighted the results to prevent pricing out most readers. That's why, for example, Greenwich, Conn., with its good private schools, low crime and abundance of cultural amenities, was left out. It simply costs too much to live there."

Nationally, other cities selected by the magazine include Boise, Idaho, Burlington, Vt., and Edison, N.J.

The Business Week award is the latest in a string of accolades received by Fort Collins, which this year was named the second-best place to live in the country by Money magazine.

In 2006, the city was named the best place to live in the country by Money magazine.

This year's awards also rank Fort Collins as a great college town for adults, as tech-friendly, and as one of the top eight enriching towns for art and music lovers by "Where to Retire" magazine in April 2008.