MIDDLETOWN – A strong sense of community, low crime rate, great schools and an abundance of cultural and leisure activities are among the reasons that MONEY Magazine has ranked Middletown among the Top 100 Places to Live in America for 2010.
“It’s a great honor be recognized for a third time as one of the best places for families to live,” said Mayor Gerry Scharfenberger. He noted that Middletown was included in the annual listing in 2006 and 2008. “The designation speaks volumes about our success in maintaining the highest quality of life possible.”
“I am also very proud that MONEY Magazine pointed to our strong sense of community and high rate of volunteerism as some of our greatest attributes,” said Mayor Scharfenberger. “I’ve always known we are incredibly lucky to have so many dedicated residents who volunteer their time to do everything from fight fires to coach little league to review zoning applications.”
Middletown, which ranked eighty-ninth, received some of its best marks in the Quality of Life Category for safety and air quality. MONEY used the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report to measure safety. Middletown has a personal crime ratio of 1 out of every 1,000 incidents compared the Best Cities average of 2 out of 1,000. When it came to property crime, Middletown scored 15 out of 1,000 incidents, compared to Best Cities average of 24. MONEY also reported that 86% of days reviewed had a “good” air quality index. The Best Cities average was 77.8%.
Above average rankings were also received in the Education category. Students reading test scores are 29.8% above the state average and 29.8% above average when it comes to math test scores. The Best Cities average is 22.9%.
Middletown also scored above average in the Leisure and Culture category because of the township’s proximity many movie theaters, restaurants, libraries and museums. “A measure of credit for our ranking here belongs to the community for supporting the creation of a top-notch Arts Center and Public Library within Middletown’s borders,” said Scharfenberger.
Cities with populations greater than 50,000 but less than 300,000 were ranked by MONEY Magazine on a series of factors including economy, arts and leisure options, cost of living, income, housing, medical care and school quality. This year’s goal was to zero in on the best small cities for families, according to MONEY.com
Only three other Jersey towns made it to Top 100 this year. Franklin Township ranked 5th, Piscataway 23rd, and Wayne 73rd. Middletown was one of nine other jersey towns that made the list in 2008. Visit www.money.com for details.
May the Force be With Us
8 hours ago
Posts
26 comments:
Scharfenberger is desperate!!!
Same old bullshit as spewn by his only supporter,your prolific real estate agent poster.
Time for the truth and lots of reality.
Middletown ain't what it once was because of this man and his comrades.
Art, if you are going to post incoherent comments, at least try and translate for the rest of us!
Not incoherent,madam real estate agent! What is your gig anyway??? Maybe that's a question that lots of people have.
Just what is your claim in this scene???
Middletown is ranked high because of our excellent educational system and low crime rate. How about giving some credit to the BOE and administration which everyone was so quick to vilify.
Art, great blog . . . looks like Monmouth is where it is at! Look forward to reading your blog more - this is my first visit!
Best,
Mary Ann Halford
Denizen of Tarrytown, NY
John and Sarah - the anger was directed at the MTEA - whose greed knows no bounds. With education over two-thirds of our property tax bill, you have to understand the impatience of residents who are backhanded by the union during a recession.
10:01
ranting about the MTEA and the unions again ???
ranting on the APP again too,huh sugar .
No, the anger was at the
BOE, administration, teachers and the MTEA
The hatred spewed at Karen Bilbao was disgusting. How dare she make $175K for running a $180M school system! The BOE was treated like they were imbeciles and all the incumbents lost. How quickly you forget. Nice to know Money Mag recognized something most of Middletown couldn't see right in front of them. We have a great school system. Hopefully that doesn't change with 11Mil in cuts.
Of course the school bill represents 63% of our tax bill as it does in most towns.
Do think we shouldn't invest in our children? If the quality of our education declines, so does the value of our homes.
Too bad we can't vote on our own Municipal budget. How dare the Mayor raise our taxes 13%! Such hypocricy!
Bravo Mayor! The Democrat hacks are desperate to find an issue to attack in Middletown, but it remains one of the best towns around due to REPUBLICAN leadership. They just can't handle the truth.
Money Magazine's rankings are nothing more than a beauty contest that looks at superficial catagories like the commute time to Manhattan and whether or not there is ample access to recreation.
It doesn't look at whether a township is managed properly, if it did they would have notice the tax rate increasing over 25% in 3 years, a school system that is on the verge of collasping due to the mayor's insistance on fighting the MTEA and cutting an addtional $2M from the school budget. An Arts Center that runs at a yearly deficit of over 300K and out of control bonding for worthless projects like dredging Shadow Lake and artifical turf fields.
NJ Monthly had it right back in Feb. when they had Middeltown rank 134 out of 566 municipalities throughout the state as the best place to live in NJ - Money Magazine is way off - the only explaination has to be someone from the magazine lives in Middletown!
Leadership my foot.No one bit of common sense in financial management among the REPUBLICANS !!! ZILCH!!
Anybody can give out awards to the kids,the cops,the fireman and whatever...
How about an award for gross incompetence,got four candidates...all republican committee people!!
Ha ha - Art, this is hilarious. It is more entertaining than the all star game to watch the Democrats twist themselves into a pretzel trying to denigrate Middletown, the mayor, Christie, etc. - because they are all successes - something the Democrats know little about.
Ha ha - Art, this is hilarious. It is more entertaining than the all star game to watch the Democrats twist themselves into a pretzel trying to denigrate Middletown, the mayor, Christie, etc. - because they are all successes - something the Democrats know little about.
Anon 11:37, Do some research. In 2008 Middletown was ranked 86; prior to that ranked at 50; now at 89. That's a 19 point drop in Middletown's ranking. All of it while Dr. 'Spin' Scharfenberger has been sitting on the committee with a Republican majority backing him. The quality of life has gotten worse while Gerry and his majority have tried to govern. They put the "taxpayer first" and then deliver over 25% in tax increases since 2005, and that does't count what they will deliver on the taxpayer's behalf in 2010. The Republican majority is trashing the quality of life in Middletown and raising taxes while they do it. During his campaign Christie said that the cost of local government was the largest that the New Jersey taxpayer faced. Middletown is his proof.
Art, you above all know what an honor it is to be named to the top 100 places to live in the USA three years in a row. Imagine what a desperate pea brain you would have to be to try and make some idiotic case about where you fall on the list? Funny as all get out.
Brownsugar,if you had any brains you would really be dangerous but instead you are just the laughing stock in this town writing under numerous anonymous monikers!
Just what is your gig,sugar baby??
Anon 5:43, Then Gerry must be a pea brain. He recently compared and ranked Middletown against Atlantic City! He consistently compares and ranks Middletown's 300 miles of roads against other towns. Gerry loves to compare Middletown against other towns. The whole purpose of 'The 100 Best Places to Live' is to rank and compare. If you were selling your home would you prefer to be ranked number one of 100 or 99 of 100. Would you prefer to say my town was ranked 50 in the last poll but in this poll it was ranked five -- an improvement in ranking? Or, would you prefer to say my town was ranked 50 but it is now ranked 89 -- a detioration in ranking? Would you prefer a 9% increase in property taxes or a 2% increase in property taxes? I noticed that you didn't comment on the 25% increse in taxes since 2005. Asking Art to jump in and comment on the honor of being named is O.K., but you did not ask him to comment on the ranking, nor the tax increase -- very selective. You sound and think a lot like Gerry. You could be his twin.
Middletown wasn't named to the popularity poll in 2009!!!!
Does Money Magazine have a Middletown resident as an employee because only the education system and the cultural arts are mentioned as strong points?
The political cesspool that this republican majority has created is not a credit to anyone!!
wow, Middletowners: you're beginning to sound like Howell, Marlboro,or,God save us, Manalapan!!,, history shows this usually means an influx of (sorry) more Staten Islanders, and the like, who move here for the trees and land and air, etc., then proceed to "fix" everything, cause the local-yokels know nothing, even when it ain't broken!.. please, all, duke this out all summer, then get your act together, as we're still countin' on a nice GOP turnout there to help us out at the Cong.and county levels in Column 1, again!!!
Middletown wasn't named to the top 100 in 2009 or 2007 for that matter because the poll was limited to towns under 50,000 in population. Keep trying - it's hilarious to watch you grasp at straws to put Middletown down for political reasons. Let's see, the town was named one of the top 100 places to live in the country three years in a row, our mayor was named public official of the year in 2009, our governor has repeatedly acknowledged Middletown as a key player in helping further his agenda - yup big problems in Middletown. Guess not every town could be as lucky as Paterson, Camden, Trenton, etc. to have such fine, effective Democrat leadership.
clamdiggers - you should be enlightened that there is one quite unstable individual who hates the mayor for, get this, not going along with a harebrained scheme to cut down several huge trees and spend tens of thousands of dollars on opening up a culdesac so she can avoid a very temporary detour caused by a utility company. Nuttier than a squirrel turd.
Middletown is back on the list because it rid of Pat Short last year. The magazine was worried that Democrats would ruin the town if they were to have taken control in 2009. Thank god that didn't happen.
Squirrel turds live on Majestic Avenue,sugar baby ,
8:05 p.m..
The county was willing to assist in the little paving necessary to allow local residents living on the Swimming River Road corridor to reach their homes
during the pipe installations on Swimming River Road to avoid a 10 mile detour to reach all services in the Lincroft centers.the banks,the post office,the doctors,the drugstores the food stores,the gas stations,etc
.You and this sorry --- ed mayor are responsible for the sick,infirmed and elderly experiencing great difficulty during this period in the early fall of 2008.Also it was criminal what the parents of school age children went through because of your lies!! The dangers to children living on the west side of Swimming River Road and on SRR were nothing short of criminal,you miserable specimen of humanity.
You are a sorry excuse for humanity with your lies!
Thank you poster 8:59 for proving my point.
Sharfey is going to regret the day he listened to the rantings of the Majestic Avenue resident who seems to enjoy her own lies.We think he already does!!!
I rest my case.. get it together, Middletowners, or be condemned to prattle on, and lose all relevance and focus, and become totally personal,and start losing,as in the never-ending rants in datruthsquad!!!
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