What makes a town a great place to live? Maybe it is how many people live there. Maybe it is how good the schools are if you have children. Maybe it is a safe place to live. Maybe the property value is great there.
These factors are among those measured by Money Magazine to calculate what it considers to be the best place to live in the United States. For its latest issue, it has chosen the town of Moorestown, New Jersey, which is actually a suburb of Philadelphia.
“Everything you’d want in a nice small hometown America is right here in Moorestown,” said one seventy-two-year-old man named Joseph Wujcik who grew up there. Geoff Mulvihill of AP writes:
There are century-old mansions in one part of town, newer “McMansions” in another and neighborhoods of postwar suburban-style homes that help account for the $375,000 median price tag on a single-family home. There’s a buzzing downtown full of law offices, antique shops and independent shops such as the beloved Peter Pan Bakery and Happy Hippo toys. A large mall sits near the border.
Moorestown is still a place where the community musical production (this summer, it’s “Oklahoma!”) is one of the biggest events of the year. And each February, the town takes a week to celebrate being nice. This year, child “kindness ambassadors” met with the mayor to talk about passing along civility.
The town is home to a number of players for the Philadelphia Eagles including quarterback, Donovan McNabb. The people of Moorestown are proud of their city’s new title.
“It’s a point of civic pride. It ends up on all their stationery, on all their Web sites,” said Craig Matters, a senior editor at Money. “It’s not like these places have inferiority complexes to begin with.”
Craig is probably right about the stationery. The mayor of Moorestown has already said that the town will use its new title to attract people and businesses.
“It’s gratifying to see a prestigious publication like Money magazine did independent research and came to the same conclusion that many Moorestown residents have already come to,” said Mayor Kevin Aberant.
Chris is a staff writer for Murdok. Visit Murdok for the latest ebusiness news.
