Quantifying quality of life
By Joel Anderson
Staff Reporter
Sunday, July 9, 2006
From political veterans like state Rep. Cedric Glover to newcomers like 28-year-old Madjun Ali, the competitors in the Shreveport mayoral race have all talked about improving the quality of life for local residents.
But determining what the phrase "quality of life" actually means is nearly as difficult as improving it.
"I think it means, 'What is there to do, and can I afford to do it?'" said Mayor Keith Hightower, who is nearing the end of his final term.
That's one way of looking at it. One of many ways.
Most economists, sociologists and politicians have generally come to gauge the quality of life by the standard of living, or more precisely, the availability of goods and services and the amount of money people in a certain area have. These numbers, of course, are much easier to measure.
Not-so-easily tallied are personal prosperity, culture and innovation, factors which could be at least as important as the others. As a result, many quality of life rankings are at best incomplete and at worst speculative.
Regardless, the founders of SustainLane.com, based in San Francisco, have given it a try.
SustainLane.com is an online firm that assesses "sustainability," or how possible it is for a person to live a healthy, more sustainable life in certain areas, for a variety of clients.
The Web site recently released its second annual ranking of "sustainability" in the nation's 50 largest cities, incorporating all sorts of data in the methodology, including air and water quality, traffic congestion and building regulations.
"People are more mobile now "» they're moving to more cities or just considering moving," said Warren Karlenzig, chief strategy officer of SustainLane.com. "People are trying to look at the differences between cities and not just for the most vibrant economy. They're looking beyond that now to quality of life."
Portland, Ore., finished first in the rankings, and Columbus, Ohio, wound up 50th. The only Louisiana city ranked was New Orleans, which came in 32nd, according to data used before Hurricane Katrina.
But if the survey were expanded to include smaller cities like Shreveport, it would be a safe bet that most of those in the South would finish somewhere near the bottom.
Of the 10 lowest-ranked cities in SustainLane's poll, five were south of the Mason-Dixon line. If Tulsa, Okla., and Oklahoma City were included in the mix, that would make it seven; none of the cities that made the top 10 were any more southerly than Denver.
"There weren't many Southern cities that ranked high in this list," Karlenzig acknowledged. "One issue is that Southern cities have developed later than the coast cities."
Karlenzig isn't just picking on Dixie: Most studies that rank quality of life issues tend to find that Louisiana is a bottom-feeder.
An annual study by the Morgan Quitno Press ranked Louisiana as the least "liveable" state in 2006, a year after finishing 49th in the survey. In fact, Louisiana has finished 50th in eight of the past 15 years of rankings and never came any higher than 48th.
"I do hear some people say that being in Louisiana is something that we have to overcome," said Kurt Foreman, senior vice president of economic development for the Greater Shreveport Chamber of Commerce. "But I think the region here is a good product. We usually exceed people's expectations."
That was the case for many of those involved in Project SB, a five-day panel study conducted in April by Urban Land Institute Advisory Services with the Northwest Louisiana Association of Realtors.
The panel included experts in real estate, urban planning, economics, residential development, construction, economic development and municipal government from across the country.
"I found it to be a very attractive area in a lot of ways," said Leigh Ferguson, director of the Urban Living Institute and executive vice president of Sloss Real Estate Group in Birmingham, Ala. "It had much more life and vitality than maybe I expected."
