{"id":6382,"date":"2012-04-06T15:47:28","date_gmt":"2012-04-06T21:47:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/?p=6382"},"modified":"2012-04-18T12:20:39","modified_gmt":"2012-04-18T18:20:39","slug":"forbes-says-boise-is-second-best-place-to-raise-a-family","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/2012\/04\/06\/forbes-says-boise-is-second-best-place-to-raise-a-family\/","title":{"rendered":"Forbes Says Boise Is Second Best Place To Raise A Family"},"content":{"rendered":"
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J. Stephen Conn \/ Flickr<\/p>

Downtown Boise, Idaho.<\/p><\/div>\n

Forbes<\/em> says Boise is the second best place<\/a> in the country to raise a family. Second to Grand Rapids, Michigan.<\/p>\n

The business magazine looked at income, cost of living, school quality, crime rates, and housing affordability to make its top picks.<\/p>\n

“The relative strength of Grand Rapids\u2019 housing market is enough to push it past the next two cities on our list, Boise<\/a>, Idaho and Provo<\/a>, Utah, both of which are particularly noted for low crime and high school quality. Not to mention the chance to mix urban and outdoor lifestyles. <\/p>\n

\u201cFor us, it\u2019s all about access,\u201d says David McCauley, a 48-year-old IT professional who grew up on the east coast and moved to Boise with his family 13 years ago. \u201cSkiing in 45 minutes, fly fishing in the Boise River, which also has some cool kayaking spots.\u00a0 Mountain biking is literally out my door, and we live downtown.\u201d As for the kids? \u201cThey ride their bikes all over,\u201d says McCauley. \u201cThey\u2019re allowed to do things alone, but they\u2019re never really \u2018alone\u2019.\u201d” – Forbes.com<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Boise lifestyle may appeal to many, but one <\/del>thing Forbes<\/em> didn’t consider in its rankings<\/del> is the availability of jobs.<\/p>\n

February’s jobless estimates<\/a> show almost 24,000 people in the Boise-Nampa metro area are out of work.\u00a0 That puts the region’s unemployment rate at 7.9 percent.\u00a0 Unemployment across much of the state is trending downward, but those improvements are happening slowly.<\/p>\n

Kathryn Tacke is a regional economist with the Idaho Department of Labor.\u00a0 \u201cThere are a lot of reasons to be hopeful about what is going on in the economy, but there are a lot of risks out there still,\u201d Tacke said in an interview last month.<\/p>\n

\u201cCertainly, everyone is concerned with the persistence of long-term, high unemployment,” says Tacke.\u00a0 “It has dire consequences for communities the individuals involved and their families.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, reaction to the Forbes ranking has been mostly positive.\u00a0 Here’s what people are saying on Twitter and Facebook:<\/p>\n