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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
87 of 90 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Tons of Great Indices but it Misses an Important One,
By A Customer
This review is from: Places Rated Almanac (Paperback)
I've used the Places Rated Almanac (PRA) for my last two moves. It is well worth a purchase, especially for people who may be moving to areas that are totally unresearched.The problem that I have with PRA is the lack of an index on the culture or "mood" of the cities involved. There certainly is a difference in culture between, Charleston S.C., Joplin, MO., and Phoenix, AZ. even if the score the same on the other indices. Moving to a new city is, in some ways,like marrying another person by mail. It's great to know the age, weight, IQ, favorite hobbies of the individual, but not knowing their behavior or quirks can be disastrous. In my case, even with the last two PRA highly rated cities that I moved to, adverse culture was among the top reasons why I ended up leaving. What would I recommend to the publishers of PRA? Hire a part time anthropologist. Look for possible indices (such as population inflow vs. outflow, town hall meeting topics, newspaper headlines, suicide rate, major religious activities, etc.). Scale the cities based on parameters such as "citizen involvement", "cohesiveness", "tolerance", and "skeletons in the closet". This is not as "tangible" as the elevation or average temperature, but it sure would help users of the PRA match their own cultural values with candidate cities.
79 of 84 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good with one caveat.......,
By
This review is from: Places Rated Almanac (Paperback)
or a senior executive contemplating relocation, this is an outstanding reference book---with one caveat. WHAT IS GOOD ABOUT THIS BOOK 350 statistical metropolitan areas are compared on such issues as job markets, cost of living, housing markets, educational standards, crime rates, health care, recreational facilities, climate, etc. The information is presented in an unbiased manner. ONE CAVEAT The last chapter of the book sums up all the different factors and statistically derives the top ten areas to live. The assumption behind the last chapter is that all people will give all factors equal weight. That assumption is bogus, to say the least. For example, with a sixteen year old daughter we would rate educational facilities higher than transportation. On the other hand, an 80 year old retiree might rate transportation and health resources higher than education! Skip the last chapter and focus on the facts in the rest of this great reference book. If you order this book, make sure you are getting the latest latest edition of PLACES Laurence J. Stybel Board of Directors Resource Center
54 of 57 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Love this book,
By "nycathyj" (Steamburg, NY USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Places Rated Almanac (Special Millennium Edition) (Paperback)
This book is just great. I have bought every retirement-places-rated type of book that I can get my hands on and this author is by far the best. The millennium edition is twice as big as the last edition and every subject is covered that anyone would want to know about an area; cost of living, transportation, jobs, education, climate, crime, the arts, health care, recreation. I can't wait for the next edition to come out! We're not retiring any time soon so it's helpful to really be able to study and evaluate where we are going to want to retire.
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