'Best' a Mixed Blessing for No. 1 City

Sperling, the co-author who produced Money magazine's Best Places to Live feature, said making the top 10 list often has a visible impact on a city's economy.

"Not only do people want to move there, it's easier for businesses to relocate," said Sperling, who lives in Portland, Ore.

The book's authors visited Charlottesville before publication and pronounced themselves charmed.

"It was like a little gem," Sperling said. "It's large enough to have the resources so you don't have to go somewhere else, yet it's still very livable and has a great historic feel. It seemed to have a good sense of itself. It's important for cities to know who they are.

"When you can travel the world and see the same thing all over, every city has to find out who they are and embrace it. Otherwise, cities like Laredo, if they're running around trying to be like everybody, they end up being like no place at all."

In Laredo, Tex. (No. 331 on the list), the Chamber of Commerce is not commenting on its low ranking.

But other cities, one-upped by Charlottesville, do not readily concede that Charlottesville has something they don't.

In Ann Arbor, Mich. (No. 6), Mayor John Hieftje said ranking in the top 10 helps local businesses attract top-flight talent.

"We're the only city in the top 20 in the Midwest," Hieftje said in a telephone interview. "If it were not for climate, we would have been number one."

Yet when officials talk about what makes their cities great, they do not only cite the measurable qualities tracked by the software that the authors used. Hieftje points with pride to a new $7 million homeless shelter and a recent bond issue to raise $80 million to preserve parkland.

"There's a feeling that we want a great quality of life, and people are willing to step up to the plate and pay for it," he said.

Charlottesville officials routinely visit other cities ranked on best-places lists and come home with ideas. After officials took a trip to Burlington, Vt., the city created a task force to decide how to preserve affordable housing. After a visit to Chattanooga, they tested electric buses.

"We've been comparing ourselves to bigger, more cosmopolitan cities for a long time," Cox said. "We've got high expectations. There's the lesson in these lists. There's a belief here that government is a catalyst for good. People don't say: Get government out of the way. They embrace it as a way to get something happening."

But many Charlottesville residents express concern that all the attention could overwhelm the city if it is flooded with newcomers.

"A lot of people think if they could only live in the number-one city, life would be wonderful," said June Krishna, who works at the Chamber of Commerce. "That isn't what makes it. It's not for everyone."