The Results
Here are the results of the Population Connection's evaluation of how kid-friendly our cities are. Where a rating was less than a B, I included a comment indicating which factor caused the low grade.
Greater Phoenix: Overall Kid-Friendly Grade: C, Rank 18 out of 20
Population Grade: C- (Mostly impacted by growth in population)
Health Grade: B- (Mostly impacted by high birth to teens rate, infant mortality rate)
Education Grade: C (Mostly impacted by reading and math levels)
Community Grade: B+
Scottsdale: Overall Kid-Friendly Grade: B+, Rank 34 out of 80
Population Grade: C- (Impacted severely by growth in population)
Health Grade: A-
Education Grade: B- (Mostly impacted by reading and math levels)
Community Grade: A-
Mesa: Overall Kid-Friendly Grade: B, Rank 48 out of 80
Population Grade: C+ (Mostly impacted by growth in population)
Health Grade: B+
Education Grade: C+ (Mostly impacted by reading and math levels)
Community Grade: B+
Glendale: Overall Kid-Friendly Grade: B-, Rank 56 out of 80
Population Grade: C- (Mostly impacted by growth in population)
Health Grade: B+
Education Grade: C+ (Mostly impacted by reading and math levels)
Community Grade: B+
This ranking has been done in previous years, but results are not comparable, since the factors that were ranked have changed significantly. Keep in mind that this organization has a clear mission. Kid-friendly no longer means how many public parks there are, for example. It is not a surprise that San Francisco does well in this ranking, since there are the fewest children there and not much possibility of urban sprawl. Miami achieves "Honor Roll" status for population, since the city is not growing at all. My guess is that some people may not believe that sex education in school is a major factor in being "kid-friendly." And I won't even address the fact that one of the factors is attendance by teachers at one of this organization's training sessions.
Cities with high growth rates got the lowest grades here. It is undisputed that the greater Phoenix area has experienced tremendous growth between 1990 and 2000, the Census numbers used for this report. Few will argue that education continues to be an issue in Arizona, and that we have too many children in poverty. Note: For some reason all of the Phoenix area cities that were ranked in this report had the exact same results for math and reading scores. No explanation is provided.
In any case, some of these factors may be more important to you than others when making a determination about whether or not a city is kid-friendly. Take whatever information is useful to you, and don't worry about the rest!
