To help communities determine what makes a community "cool" to potential relocators, we've identified seven indexes that attract talent: Vitality, Learning, Earning, After Hours, Around Town, Social Capital and Cost of Lifestyle. This article focuses on the VITALITY index, and takes you behind the stats to help you determine YOUR community's score.
NOTE: The scores for each index are based on two sets of data: (1) quantitative (numbers and stats) and (2) qualitative (focus groups). Here are the things to look and listen for....
VITALITY
To determine your community's "Vitality" score we measure attributes including your:
Air and Water Quality
Number of Sunny Days
Life Expectancy
Miles of Parks, Trails and Recreation Areas
Fruit and Vegetable Consumption
In focus groups we listen for the following voices:
"This is a very healthy community."
"The parks here are great."
"Check out the Farmer's Market."
"Curbside recycling? We have that."
"This is a great place to enjoy the outdoors."
"Yes, you can get vegetarian food here."
How do Communities earn a high "Vitality" score?
Nashville's Mayor Purcell is committed to putting every Nashvillian within a ten minute walk of a public park, trail or recreation area.
Minneapolis recycles everything from metal to microfiber. Alexandria, LA is committed to recycling education.
Year round farmer's markets like the one proposed in Cedar Rapids, IA is more than a market; it's an experience. Think of Pike Market in Seattle or the newly reinvigorated Edmonton (Canada) City Market. http://www.discoveralberta.com
On a 1-10 scale (10 = perfect) what score does YOUR community earn in the Vitality index?
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