City named one of the best in America; it's among Portland, Bend and Ashland on Men's Journal list

By the Gazette-Times

Only No. 7?

Corvallis has been named the seventh-best city to live in the United States, according to the April issue of Men's Journal.

The monthly magazine used nearly 50 variables in determining rankings, such as stress levels, the amount of wilderness nearby and even number of bars per capita.

The West dominates the publication's ratings, and college towns rate highly as well. Portland ranked 17th, Bend 20th and Ashland 24th. Bend was named best adventure town by the magazine.

Men's Journal describes Corvallis as a mix of Hewlett-Packard high-tech and low-tech bikes and Birkenstocks, surrounded by the Pacific Ocean to the west, Mount Hood to the north and the Cascades to the east.

The listing also notes the Willamette Valley's clear, warm summers, and describes Corvallis as soggy the rest of the year, with only 153 days of sunshine. Apparently, the listing was written before this winter.

Boulder, Colo. was named best overall place to live for the third consecutive year.

In 2003, Corvallis was listed by the magazine as the eighth best place to live among U.S. cities with populations between 50,000 and 500,000. Corvallis was the only Oregon city listed in the magazine's 2003 compilation, its second.

Corvallis has been recognized as a fine place to live several times in the past few years.

In 2004, Corvallis was named the 10th best place to live in America by "Cities Ranked and Rated," a book published that year. Portland ranked 12th.

A report by Bicycle Transportation Alliance in 2002 ranked Corvallis as Oregon's most bicycle-friendly city. That same year, the Orange County Register newspaper named Oregon State University its best Pac-10 Conference campus.

Also in 2002, Corvallis was ranked seventh of about 500 small cities in the country as a good place to do business by BizDemographics, an online publication.

The Corvallis School District made Offspring Magazine's list of the top public school systems in the country in 2000.

In 1996, a Parade magazine article rated Corvallis one of the 10 best cities in which to live.

A 1995 study by Vegan Magazine ranked Corvallis as one of the 13 best towns to be a vegetarian.