Small city, big reputation

This Austin suburb parks top spot on list of America's best small cities

Hooray for Cedar Park.

It's not just Austin proper that is garnering national attention — the spotlight's on Central Texas' suburbs, too.

On October 28, personal finance website WalletHub ranked Cedar Park the 10th best small city in the U.S. Only one other Texas city appeared in the top 20: Southlake, at No. 14. Leawood, Kansas, a suburb of Kansas City, sits at No. 1.

To compile this list, WalletHub sifted through 42 sets of data for more than 1,200 U.S. cities with populations between 25,000 and 100,000. Among the rating factors for livability were housing costs, quality of public schools, and restaurants per capita.

Cedar Park’s two biggest calling cards are its economic health, ranked No. 3 by WalletHub, and affordability, ranked No. 49. However, it falls short in safety (No. 284), education and health (No. 369), and quality of life (No. 393).

A 2019 survey of 440 Cedar Park households found that compared with hundreds of cities nationwide, the suburb ranked 68th for overall quality of life and 36th for being a good place to raise children. Ninety-one percent of those surveyed rated Cedar Park’s quality of life as good or excellent, while 96 percent lauded the city as a good place to raise children.

RealPage, a provider of real estate software and data analytics, notes that Cedar Park “boasts plentiful park systems, prime shopping destinations, and top-ranked public schools.”

In the last decade, Cedar Park has seen quite the population boom. In July 2018, the Census Bureau counted 76,999 residents in the Williamson County suburb, up 39.7 percent from April 2010. It’s now the third largest city in the Austin metro area.

Southlake, a Dallas-Fort Worth suburb, stood out in two areas: economic health (No. 7) and affordability (No. 7). In the three other general buckets, Southlake didn’t fare as well in the WalletHub ranking: safety, No. 229; education and health, No. 475; quality of life, No. 554.

Whatever its drawbacks may be, Niche.com, a provider of quality-of-life data, describes Southlake as offering a “rural feel” in one of the best places to live in Texas. This desirable setting has drawn thousands of new residents in recent years. As of July 2018, Southlake’s estimated population stood at 32,269, up 21.4 percent from April 2010, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

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Texas races to the bottom in new list of best states for cyclists

Photo by Justin Wallace on Unsplash

If you've ridden your bicycle in Austin, you already know how true this is.

In what will come as no surprise to cyclists around Austin, the state of Texas is not a good place for bicycle riding. According to a new report of the "Most Cycling-Friendly States in the U.S.," Texas comes in at No. 47 — meaning that only three other states are worse.

The report, from Philadelphia personal injury law firm KaplunMarx, examines all 50 states based on six metrics: Air quality index, the number of cyclist deaths per one million residents, bike routes per square mile, local government actions supporting cycling, federal funding for cycling projects, and bicycle laws.

Texas musters a mere 31 points out of 100 for its "cycling friendly score."

The most cycling-friendly state in the U.S.: Minnesota, which earned 84 points to claim the title.

According to the report's findings, there have been 15 local government actions per capita in Texas that integrate pedestrians and cyclists in transportation projects. Texas' has a 41 air quality index value, and there are approximately 1.2 bike routes per 1,000 square miles in the state.

On cyclist deaths, Texas does a little better, with three cyclist deaths per one million residents in Texas — about nine percent lower than the national average.

According to KaplunMarx founding partner Ted Kaplun, there is an average of 857 cyclist fatalities in the U.S. every year. He adds that every measure or community effort to improve cyclist-friendliness is beneficial for all Americans.

"It's crucial for all states to continually assess and enhance their cycling provisions, learning from both high-ranking peers and their own experiences," he says.

Top-ranking Minnesota has only one cyclist death per one million state residents. It also has about 27.2 bike routes per 1,000 square miles.

After Minnesota, the remaining top five best states for cyclists are Massachusetts (No. 2), Rhode Island (No. 3), Washington (No. 4), and Iowa (No. 5).

At the bottom of the list are Nevada (No. 48), Arizona (No. 49), and Utah (No. 50) — all of which performed far worse than Texas to be declared the three least cycling-friendly states.

The entire country still has areas for improvement when it comes to creating a safer environment for cyclists, regardless of where each state landed on the list, according to Kaplun.

"With over 53 million Americans riding bicycles regularly, the importance of cycling-friendly infrastructure and safety measures cannot be overstated," said Kaplun in the report. "This isn't just about rankings – it's about enhancing the quality of life, promoting sustainable transportation, and most crucially, saving lives."

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