Iowa City was ranked the No. 3 best place to live in America by Outside Magazine.
The list of the top 16 cities, published online Tuesday, puts Iowa City behind No. 2 Port Angeles, Wash., and No. 1 Chattanooga, Tenn. Iowa City was recognized for its pedestrian mall, biking culture, healthy local economy and low unemployment rate.
According to the report, the list was pared down from a list of 64 cities. Readers voted on their cities of choice to determine the final 16.
The magazine says:
“‘It’s like Boulder with an Iowa-nice twist,’ is how one 20-year resident of Iowa City describes this bucolic river town of 72,000. No, there aren’t any mountains. No legal pot, either. But the city does have a pedestrian mall to rival Pearl Street, a university with more than 30,000 students, and a bike-crazy culture. Unlike Boulder, it’s affordable. The median home price of $178,000 will get you a midcentury bungalow. Yet the local economy is extremely healthy, with an unemployment rate of just 2.3 percent, thanks to the University of Iowa and corporate employers like Oral-B Labs and Procter and Gamble.
“With no mountain climbs, cyclists here have turned to the state’s tens of thousands of miles of unpaved roads. ‘Iowa is ground zero for gravel riding,’ says Steve McGuire, the director of the university’s School of Art and Art History, who’s been riding here for 34 years. Since there’s almost no traffic once you leave the tarmac, the only real obstacle is the occasional farm dog. But don’t be fooled into thinking it’s flat. The original grinder, the Trans Iowa, climbs 10,000 feet over 320 miles. ‘It makes the Dirty Kanza’ — a notorious Kansas gravel ride — ‘look like a pussycat,’ says McGuire. To support the obsession, the city has six bike shops, including a bicycle “library” that fixes old clunkers, and a bar called Ride, which has a dish named after Gary Fisher on the breakfast menu (scrambled eggs with ham and sausage, topped with gravy). For competitive types, there’s even a gravel time-trial state championship. Being that this is Iowa, there’s also a friendly ride every Thursday night.”
Reach Andy Davis at 319-887-5404 or at aldavis@press-citizen.com, and follow him on Twitter as @BylineAndyDavis.