The Best Places

In their April 2007 issue, Mens Journal lists the 50 best places to live in the U.S. Instead of one big list, they’ve posted categories with the top 5 in areas such as best adventure cities, best commuter towns, etc. One place that caught my eye was Truth or Consequences, NM, which was listed in the “best hideaways” category, and it will probably end up on our short list of places to visit on a trip next month.

Other cities and towns from out target area include Flagstaff, AZ in the healthiest places list, Santa Fe, NM (cleanest places), and Phoenix, AZ and Las Vegas, NV, both of which made the sunniest places list.

The Advocate has published its first ever list of the best places to live for gays and lesbians. The ten cities, in alphabetical order are:

• Columbus, OH
• Dallas, TX
• Ferndale, MI
• Ithaca, NY
• Lexington, KY
• Missoula, MT
• Portland, OR
• San Diego, CA
• Santa Fe, NM
• Tucson, AZ

This isn’t one of our criteria, but it is a good indicator if you’re looking for culture and a blue state to settle in. Besides, I plan to carry “best place” lists from other resources, and I’ve started a category to that effect with this post. Note that a couple of cities on our list show up here — Tucson and Santa Fe.