Cape Coral high on many ‘top,’ ‘favorites’ lists
Look at any business publication that contains lists of the top places to live, work and do business and you’re likely to find Cape Coral in a lot of them.
Major publications such as Forbes, 24/7 Wall Street and others have had a love affair with the city over the past couple years, and that has continued as this week Cape Coral was named one of the top 50 places to live (No. 46) by 24/7 Wall Street as well as one of the fastest growing areas (No. 14), best places to retire and one of the places where the jobs will be by Forbes (No. 3), and best cities for future job growth (No. 6).
The amount of positive press certainly makes the powers that be in town very happy and is proof positive that Cape Coral is back.
“We have everything a community needs and we do it better than a lot of other communities,” City Councilmember Richard Leon said. “It’s great we’re finally being recognized for that. We’re doing it right, we’re doing it smart, and we see great things ahead of us.”
That is a far cry from five years ago when the area was ground zero for one of the biggest economic meltdowns in history.
“We’re recovering well from the recession and Cape Coral is usually first in, first out. We’ve probably swung the most beside Las Vegas in overall community impacts and our stats look better because of that,” said Mike Quaintance, president of the Cape Coral Chamber of Commerce.
According to Forbes, publications use a variety of data to make their claims, for better or for worse. Some publications use only cities with certain populations. While they use standard criteria such as the economy, crime, health care, education, weather, amenities, etc., they can be weighed differently and decided upon subjectively.
In other words, take these rankings with as many or as few grains of salt as you wish. Still, Quaintance said, it’s the best free advertising a city could get.
“A lot of times they go by statistical research and we fit in well within the measures. The process is only as good as the data they collect,” Quaintance said. “It’s good advertising for us as we try to grow.”
Go back five years and things were exactly the opposite. Go back 10 years and it’s a full 360.
“Go back five years before that and we were talking about us and Las Vegas being neck and neck as the best communities,” Quaintance said. “When the pendulum swings, it’s equal in both directions.”
But now that the pendulum has swung for the good, it is the hope that Cape Coral can keep it from swinging back because that’s what will bring residents and business to town.
“The secret about Cape Coral is out again. We’ve been getting good press on what we have to offer for those who want to live, work and play here,” Council-member Rana Erbrick said. “The more people who want to name us the best, we’ll take it.”