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Beauty contest exposes its flaws
(by Barbara Christian - June 13, 2012)
WINDOW ON MAIN STREET
Beauty contest exposes its flaws
Just laid down the six bucks, so you won't have to.
That chunk of change got me the June issue of the magazine named after the big city to our west. Every year -- through guesswork, statistical alchemy and/or infinite wisdom -- it chooses this area's 20 "best" suburbs.
A total of 77 suburbs were surveyed. In our circulation area, for some reason, Auburn, Bentleyville, Gates Mills, Hunting Valley, Russell and South Russell were not included. Chardon was on the list, but most of the other towns in Geauga County were not, while Painesville in distant Lake County and Lorain in more distant Lorain County were.
In case you are wondering, the "best" of the suburbs is based on about a dozen standards.
The annual beauty contest is annoying, because the "bests" are based on statistics. "Figures lie," as the saying goes.
Chagrin Falls is proud of the idea that you can walk everywhere in the village thanks to an aggressive sidewalk-building and maintenance program. But Chagrin Falls is nowhere to be found among the top 15 burbs in the "highest percent of roads with sidewalks" criterion.
In fact, Chagrin Falls is at 41 percent when it comes to how many of our streets have sidewalks. That's just not right, and village Administrator Ben Himes doesn't think that's right either.
Diversity of population also is included among the "best suburb" criteria, and, sadly, Chagrin Falls ranked dead last on that list.
Another touchy subject each year is the safety category. Of the 77 towns, Moreland Hills ranked first, Chester Township was fourth, Orange took 14th place, and Pepper Pike was 16th.
Chagrin Falls is down at No. 20 for safety, even though it had not one murder, robbery or rape. But the old town did have 11 assaults, possibly due to evening fun seekers and Blossom Time. Kidding.
Meanwhile, Bainbridge was 41st in safety, and Solon ranked 45th most safe or least unsafe town, depending on your pessimism-to-optimism ratio.
The good news is Solon was named second best suburb overall -- the big-enchilada category -- making up ground lost to its safety rating due to ranking first in the magazine's heavily weighed education criteria.
The rating-the-suburbs issue, maybe as a consolation prize, included several sidebar articles on a few of the towns, and Chagrin Falls was among those chosen for special attention.
The headline on its short pieces is "For the View Finder." It draws attention not to the village's most famous view, the falls, but to that controversial condo development on West Orange Street and its "panoramic views (which) capture the ambiance of the East Side village's downtown."
The magazine's editors should have fact checked that with the homeowner who lives behind the development and whose former panoramic view now features the back of the new condo and the construction crew's porta-potty.
Winners or losers, let's remember, as in all beauty contests, the contestants have had a little work done.
That in mind, may we suggest next year the big-city magazine consider three new criteria for judging the suburbs -- swimsuit, evening gown and talent.
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