If the name of your magazine is “Money,” then I guess you have to sell money’s impact on everything in life. Money magazine’s latest buzz, to hit the newsstands two days before Christmas: “America’s Hottest Towns.”
It caught my eye because one of the top six picked was Woodbury, Minnesota. I once lived there. It is about as good as suburban living gets — lots of parks, trails, lakes, and access to services and shopping.
But how did Woodbury and the other winners finish high among the 1200 communities examined? The driving standard was a high “housing premium ratio,” which means people paid more to live there than their incomes would have indicated.
This superficial standard misses a more important story, ironically hinted at in Money’s own explanation that it considered only communities that were “close to major cultural and recreational offerings.” In other words, in metropolitan regions. Woodbury is only five miles from St. Paul and 14 miles from Minneapolis. Plano is part of the Dallas region, Naperville part of Chicagoland — you get the picture.
Woodbury is even more special than the editors of Money know. In the Twin Cities region, Woodbury has distinguished itself for taking a regional perspective. William Hargis, mayor for many years, led this suburb to take more than its share of the growth pressure — including commercial employment and even affordable housing in its development.
Just north of Woodbury stands Lake Elmo, with the same terrain and proximity to regional assets. But Lake Elmo’s locked in staunch resistance to allowing more people to move in. Lake Elmo took the Metropolitan Council to court when the Council refused to approve its comprehensive plan — and lost. This week the Minnesota Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling that the regional government has the authority to assert regional over local interests — in this case requiring the city’s plan to accommodate more development.
So Woodbury took the population increase and ranks as a better place. Even if the criteria are suspect, I’m glad Woodbury had its day in the sun. Some day the city-ranking folks will figure out though that none of these places will be stars for long unless their regions are also successes.