An annual list ranking America’s top college towns has named Logan, Utah as one of the top 10 Best College Towns, 2014.
Livability.com editor Matt Carmichael says for a mid-sized city, having a college or university town can help move a place from being a good place to live to being a great place to live. Gary Saxton is director of the Logan Downtown Business Alliance. He says he is not surprised that Logan was listed as number two in the rankings.
“All of these little things coming out about Logan add up to bigger things happening. It really is a defined, coordinated effort by the city, the downtown and our economic development planning. We are showing up on these lists because we are making it happen,” Saxton said.
Livibility editors took a football-themed approach when creating the list. They broke things down by conferences, grouped cities according to how their colleges were divided by the Football Bowl Subdivision and chose the best college town in each division. Saxton says by calculating livability aspects and skewing the list toward measuring the impact Utah State University had on the city they were able to determine what would make life better for college-aged people.
Logan’s well-educated population, high employment, and affordable housing helped give the college town its high ranking.
“They look at the number of professionals that are living and working in the area. And then they look at natural attractions such as our hiking, skiing, biking and they natural beauty. They look at those features of those community that are attractive to a general population,” Saxton said.
10 Best College Towns, 2014
- Ames, Iowa
- Logan, Utah
- Oxford, Ohio
- Fayetteville, Arkansas
- Tempe, Arizona
- Charlottesville, Virginia
- Champaign, Illinois
- Moscow, Idaho
- South Bend, Indiana
- Hattiesburg, Mississippi
Click here to see what Livability says about Logan.
Livability also ranks Salt Lake City as the 8th best place to live in the country.
