Forbes Best Places for Business

[johnnydr87]

Confession: I stole this ranking from strmchser in AR board.

Here's the top 25:

http://www.forbes.com/2006/05/03/06bestpla...iness_land.html

Metro Area Cost of Doing Business1 Job Growth2 Educational Attainment3 Population

1 Albuquerque NM 1 60 54 793,100

2 Raleigh NC 43 52 11 934,200

3 Houston TX 21 77 70 5,257,100

4 Boise ID 51 22 91 534,100

5 Knoxville TN 26 35 93 654,200

6 Phoenix AZ 55 16 88 3,813,000

7 Nashville TN 28 64 79 1,414,000

8 Durham NC 24 117 6 457,600

9 Fayetteville AR 23 7 141 399,700

10 Indianapolis IN 47 80 64 1,637,300

11 Des Moines IA 45 62 43 516,000

12 Rockingham County NH 93 106 37 414,200

13 Oklahoma City OK 4 98 102 1,152,500

14 Huntsville AL 14 45 28 364,800

15 Atlanta GA 37 104 35 4,806,700

16 Fort Collins CO 70 53 7 274,400

17 Washington DC-Northern VA 159 30 8 4,054,900

18 Albany NY 134 108 42 846,500

19 Poughkeepsie NY 110 55 100 671,400

20 Portland OR 8 115 49 2,089,100

21 Lexington KY 2 145 36 430,900

22 Little Rock AR 38 85 106 643,600

23 Mercer NJ 169 32 21 368,500

24 Asheville NC 19 84 121 391,500

25 Dallas TX 60 141 32 3,885,400

Arkansas has Fayetteville (#9) and Little Rock (#22) in the top 25. Not bad for a poor little ole' southern state. Our other sizable metro, Fort Smith was #85.

Here's a map of the eastern US and locations of the best metros:

Comments?

[dimebag1980]

The south definitely made a statement on that list... but I certainly wish my state would have represented better.

Anyway, here's what I posted today on the Louisiana forum:

After reading on the Arkansas forum about Fayetteville, AR being #9 on Forbes' Best Places for Business 2006 list, and Little Rock being #22, I decided to check Louisiana larger metros and see where we ranked. Boy was I unpleasantly surprised. I thought we'd be pretty far back, but I didn't realize it would look like this:

127. New Orleans, LA

134. Baton Rouge, LA

135. Shreveport, LA

173. Lafayette, LA

And to be quite honest, of these four I didn't expect to see Lafayette that far behind.

By the way... congrats to Fayetteville for being in the TOP 10!!

[jmanhsv]

Huntsville dropped a few places from last year... We were #6 in 05. But I'm glad that the city beat more recognizable tech cities like Austin, Atlanta, and DC.

[TBurban]

Im surprised Richmond didnt make the top 25. Now Im not saying that Fortune 500 Companies have all things to do with business, but it helps.

After MeadWestvaco comes to town, greater Richmond with nine Fortune 500 companies will out shadow Charlotte, Cincinnati, Minneapolis, Philadelphia and St. Louis, which have seven each. The top five listed cities are New York City with 44 companies, Houston with 23, Atlanta with 14, Dallas with 11 and Chicago with 10.

Article Here

[dimebag1980]

Huntsville dropped a few places from last year... We were #6 in 05. But I'm glad that the city beat more recognizable tech cities like Austin, Atlanta, and DC.

Very well-done. Even if they dropped, #14 is still something to be proud of. As I posted previously, all the Louisiana metros ranked between 127 and 173... talk about heart-breaking!