Top 10 most neighborly cities in the U.S. in 2022

[multigraincracker]

https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/business/money-report/these-are-the-top-10-most-neighborly-cities-in-the-u-s-and-only-one-is-in-the-south/3072027/

1.Rochester, New York
2.Madison, Wisconsin
3.Provo, Utah
4.Oxnard, California
5.Grand Rapids, Michigan
6.Raleigh, North Carolina
7.Milwaukee, Wisconsin
8.Poughkeepsie, New York
9.Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
10.Des Moines, Iowa

[Me.]

1. WHAT?

no NYC?

[highplainsdem]

2. Link to the Neighbor.com page with the full list of 25 cities that

Last edited Sat Oct 15, 2022, 01:07 PM - Edit history (1)

the article in the OP lists only the top 10 from, plus a long section on their methodology:

https://www.neighbor.com/storage-blog/most-neighborly-cities-2022/

FWIW, I've lived in 2 of the top 25 cities, and though they were nice enough places to live, I didn't find them any more neighborly in particular than other places I've lived.

Personally, I found NYC, Manhattan, when I lived there in the early 1970s to be a very friendly place, very welcoming. Which was not what I'd been told to expect. But most of the people I met there were, like me, people who'd been born and raised elsewhere, who'd moved to NY as adults, so in a way we were all outsiders. My impression is that small towns with almost no outsiders tend to be less friendly to newcomers, even if there are close social ties among oldtimers.

There are features of infrastructure that I believe make some cities friendlier. Lots of green space and parks, for instance. Features that make a city more walkable (or bikeable). Good, reliable, well-maintained public transportation (neither traffic jams nor dirty, unreliable public transportation you hate to use are conducive to neighborliness).

[Ocelot II]

3. The complete list:

Rochester, New York
Madison, Wisconsin
Provo, Utah
Oxnard, California
Grand Rapids, Michigan
Raleigh, North Carolina
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Poughkeepsie, New York
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
Des Moines, Iowa
San Jose, California
Colorado Springs, Colorado
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Ogden, Utah
Seattle, Washington
Salt Lake City, Utah
New Haven, Connecticut
Portland, Oregon
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Honolulu, Hawaii
Toledo, Ohio
Springfield, Massachusetts
Albany, New York
Allentown, Pennsylvania
Spokane, Washington

Oddly, few are in Southern states; I thought the South was supposed to be the friendliest, most hospitable region in the US. But a substantial number are in liberal hellhole states.

[LeftInTX]

4. Here is their list from 2020

Augusta, Georgia
Salt Lake City, Utah
Columbia, South Carolina
Lancaster, Pennsylvania
Portland, Oregon
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Washington, D.C.
Spokane, Washington
Greenville, South Carolina
Rochester, New York
Ogden, Utah
Jacksonville, Florida
Seattle, Washington
Colorado Springs, Colorado
Sacramento, California
Bridgeport, Connecticut
Lakeland, Florida
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Denver, Colorado
Grand Rapids, Michigan
Tucson, Arizona
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Charlotte, North Carolina
Honolulu, Hawaii
Fort Myers, Florida

We felt that informal volunteering (i.e. doing favors for neighbors) captured the spirit of being neighborly better than the other data points included, so that data was weighted more than the others. Here’s how everything was weighted:

Informal volunteering: 3
Charitable giving: 1.5
Community well-being: 1.5
Formal volunteering: 1
Carpooling: 1

https://www.neighbor.com/storage-blog/most-neighborly-cities-america/#infographic

Although Seattle and Portland do very well, I've heard the people aren't as "friendly". I do find people in Texas more casual as compared to people in Wisconsin. (More likely to strike up a conversation etc). However, I would rather live in Wisconsin than Texas. I would rather live in Madison, Seattle, Portland, Minneapolis than San Antonio. The survey rates volunteering and charitable giving fairly high and it deducts points for crime rates and additional points for hate crimes. So, I get the impression that superficial friendliness is not much of a factor.

For 2022 this was the criteria:
Volunteering: 3
Neighborly acts: 3
Charitable giving: 3
Nonprofits per capita: 2
Happiness: 1
Resident proximity to local parks: 1
Crime rate: -2
Incidence of hate crimes: -2

https://www.neighbor.com/storage-blog/most-neighborly-cities-2022/