Columbia ranked seventh in a recent Forbes magazine list compiling "America's Top 25 Towns to Live Well."

The May 4 article describes the town as being "packed with restaurants, parks and music venues" and notes it is "zoned against big boxes, making it exceptionally small business friendly." Maryland as a state was quite popular on the Forbes list, with Maryland towns filling out six of the 25 spots.

Columbia ranked highest among the Maryland towns, ahead of Rockville, Germantown, Silver Spring, Potomac and North Potomac.

Boulder, Colo., was No. 1 on the Forbes list.

The magazine looked favorably on Columbia's quality of life, including its schools and restaurants, and its high concentration of professionals, who make up about 27 percent of the population. Although it has a lot of small businesses, Columbia did not do as well when it came to the number of start-up companies and patents, the magazine noted.

To compile the list, Forbes enlisted ZoomProspector.com, a consulting firm that specializes in corporate relocation. They looked at places with fewer than 100,000 residents, and analyzed factors such as median income, average commute, number of small businesses, professional education of residents, and the number of restaurants, bars and cultural institutions.

In 2008, Forbes included Howard County at the No. 17 spot in its list of "Best Places to Raise a Family."

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user comments (5)

user citizentaxpayerjane says...

It's #7 now, as-is. After we add 13,000 more people with cars and homes to downtown, and 500 to Wilde Lake, and hundreds more in other villages, we'll be #700.

Posted 2:22 PM, 05.14.09 | Permalink

user zoomprospector says...

To learn more about Columbia ranking no. 7 on Forbes' top 25 towns to live well, here is the Columbia Maryland profile page on ZoomProspector: http://zoomprospector.com/CommunityDetail.aspx?id=12763&f=1

Posted 12:18 PM, 05.15.09 | Permalink

user mrhappy21046 says...

eliminate section 8 housing in Columbia and we're number 1

Posted 4:29 PM, 05.15.09 | Permalink

user lisbonite says...

Wow, Mr. Happy. Judging by your comment, I'd gladly double or triple the Section 8 housing in my neighborhood rather than have you as a neighbor.

Posted 4:39 PM, 05.15.09 | Permalink

user horace says...

As a Columbia resident, I support the county plan that GGP conceived and I am glad to hear the Planning Board members agree that Downtown Columbia should be a more urban place, and the 5,500 new homes shouldn't be automatically dismissed as too many. We're #7 this year. Let's shoot for #1 next year after the plan is approved by the County Council!

Posted 11:38 AM, 05.18.09 | Permalink