(From Chips off the Old Block)
Princeton has garnered attention from a national publication — reinforcing our contention that this is a great place to live.
Brad Harralson shared with us his copy of the April issue of “Outdoor Life,” which listed its evaluation of the top 200 towns in America for sportsmen. Four Kentucky towns were listed — Princeton was 133rd, falling closely behind Corbin (108) and Paducah (110). Maysville came in at No. 153.
Being included in this list is significant. According to the magazine’s website (www.outlifelife.com), the publication has 925,000 subscribers.
It’s a tribute that Princeton needs to capitalize on in marketing this community as one of the best places in the country for people looking for quality of living.
Here’s how the magazine explains how it developed the list of top 200 towns…
“Months of research went into compiling our list. We started by combing through every population center in the United States with more than 4,000 people. We gathered comprehensive data on the overall qualify of life the towns offered.
“Some of the factors we considered were the growth rate of the local economy, the unemployment rate, the degree of taxation, the time it takes to commute to work, the crime rate, housing prices, median household income and even the variety of cultural opportunities within easy driving distance.
“Then we looked at how the towns stacked up purely from a sporting perspective. We rated them on the fishing and hunting opportunities each town offers, the trophy quality of the sporting opportunities, proximity to public land, the restrictiveness of the gun laws and whether the fishing and hunting is good year-round.
“We put all this into a massive database and developed a formula that gives slightly heavier emphasis (60/40) to the sporting opportunities than to the quality-of-life rankings,” writes John B. Snow of the magazine.
It’s really shouldn’t be a surprise to be accorded this national recognition. The hunting opportunities here are well documented. For instance, when deer season starts, motels here are full as hunters flock to this county. With Barkley and Kentucky lakes close by, the fishing opportunities are superb.
Hopefully Princeton can begin to develop strategies to capitalize on what residents here know to be true — this is a wonderful place to live.
