Main Street America Lesson Plan
Places Rated Almanac (by David Savageau and Richard Boyer, Prentice Hall Travel, 1994) is a widely used for rating and ranking cities. All metropolitan areas of the United States are rated in 10 categories, including jobs, housing costs, education, crime and recreational facilities.
The ratings are established by using the following criteria:
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Housing establishes the annual payment on a 15-year, eight percent mortgage for an average-priced home after making a 20 percent down payment.
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Jobs looks at the number of new jobs and the percent increase of new jobs.
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Education uses a formula that measures two-year and four-year college enrollment.
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Crime rates both violent crime and property crime.
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Recreation looks at the number of public golf courses, good restaurants, zoos, aquariums, professional sports teams, miles of coastline, national forests, parks wildlife refuges and state parks.
For more accurate descriptions go to either Places Rated Almanac or Data-Driven Mathematics: Exploring Symbols, (by Gail Burrill, Miriam Clifford and Richard Scheaffer, New York: Dale Seymour Publications, 1998).
Below are listed the ratings for the following cities from Places Rated Almanac. These ratings are based on the criteria specified above.
| City | Housing | Jobs | Education | Crime | Recreation |
| Boston, MA | $18,903 | 3,456 | 4,178 | 1,051 | 2,278 |
| Washington, DC | $15,466 | 16,288 | 3,764 | 1,028 | 1,857 |
| Atlanta, GA | $8,676 | 16,777 | 1,692 | 1,474 | 1,822 |
| San Diego, CA | $20,322 | 14,772 | 2,335 | 1,266 | 3,800 |
| Terra Haute, IN | $4,116 | 2,028 | 290 | 823 | 1,100 |
| Lincoln, NE | $6,362 | 2,457 | 554 | 993 | 1,486 |
| Greenville, SC | $6,911 | 3,477 | 377 | 882 | 900 |
| Salem, OR | $6,226 | 2,787 | 237 | 869 | 1,784 |
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Look at the data above. In which areas do you think a high rating would be bad?
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In which categories would you expect bigger cities to do better?
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In which category are the ratings most variable? Why do you think this is?
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Rank the cities in regard to recreation, using 1 as the highest rank. Why do you think this is true?
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Do you think the beauty of the city would have an effect on your choice of where you would want to live? Can this be rated? How?
Click here to get answers to the above questions.
Table is from Data Driven Mathematics Exploring Symbols listed above.
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