“You need other young people around to bounce ideas off of — to get excited with. That’s No. 1 most important,” said Bert Sperling of Sperling’s Best Places, according to www.forum.skyscraper.com.
Other important characteristics of a great city for teens and tweens?
There has to be a strong indie culture — a lot of bands, artists and other creative types. Sperling researched this via Bandcamp, which helps artists sell their music and merchandise to fans, ReverbNation, the site site that offers tools for musicians and shares their music, and Kickstarter, a grassroots-fundraising site for creative projects and inventions.
Other important cultural ingredients include the city being green and, contrary to their older predecessors, the city should be fairly or reasonably diverse (whatever that means).
Of course, there has to be some semblance of economic development. Sperling says young people don’t always make money a priority, there have to be jobs there and the city has to be somewhat affordable.
Using the aforementioned criteria, along with the ones listed below, Sperling’s Best Places compiled the 10 best cities for young people.
10. Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington (Minn.-Wis.)
Metro population: 3.1 million
Unemployment rate: 7.9 percent
Cost of living index: 103 (100 is average)
What draws young people to the Twin Cities area?
“First of all, it’s a very ‘nice,’ city,” Sperling said. “The people are very nice.”
Plus, it’s clean, it’s green and there are jobs, says msn.com.
