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Amherst in Top 50 of 'Best Places to Live'

By Sandra Tan

July 12, 201

 As if the Town of Amherst didn't have enough to crow about.

Aside from carrying the bragging rights as the Safest City in America, Amherst now has the distinction of being one of the "Best Places to Live," courtesy of CNN Money magazine.

The magazine ranked the top 100 small cities with populations of 50,000 to 300,000 for its August issue and placed Amherst at No. 42.

Only Clarkstown, located 25 miles north of New York City, placed higher (No. 41) among the five New York cities that made the list. No other upstate community made the list.

"Amherst is a great place to live if you have a job," said Supervisor Barry Weinstein, who was interviewed by the CNN Money folks last month when they called asking for more information. "I would think Amherst should have placed in the top 20. I'm sure if we had more jobs, it would be a lot higher."

Aside from limiting the community rankings by population size, CNN Money also excluded communities that were too rich, too poor and too white.

The rankings screened out retirement communities, towns with major job losses, and those with poor education and crime scores.

The communities that remained were ranked according to factors such as affordable housing, school quality, arts and leisure, safety, health care, diversity, jobs and other economic and quality-of-life criteria.

Aside from objective data, a CNN Money reviewer also talked with Weinstein for half an hour and asked for information regarding commute times, local company information and other demographic data, which he and the town Planning Department provided.

"They asked me questions, and I promoted Amherst," Weinstein said.

He said the Amherst commute to downtown Buffalo was 20 minutes, as was a visit to Niagara Falls and the ski resorts.

"Everything is 20 minutes," he said.

Ski resorts are only 20 minutes from Amherst?

OK, no, Weinstein conceded, but if you live right by the Thruway, you could conceivably get to the ones in Colden in 30 to 35 minutes.

Of course, the Town of Amherst is no Eden Prairie, Minn., the 64,000-population town that ranked first among the Best Place to Live.

Neither could it compete with Rogers, Ariz.; Gaithersburg, Md., or Edmond, Okla., smaller communities that ranked 10th, 25th and 35th respectively.

But no data ranking is foolproof. The CNN Money ranking, for instance, lists the sales tax for all New York State communities at 4 percent, which would be accurate if residents didn't have to pay the additional Erie County sales tax of 4.75 percent on top of what the state requires.

But those are details. In CNN Money's book, Amherst is a winner.

"This town in Western New York State is blessed with a fortunate location for those who love large bodies of fresh water," the brief editorial description states. "It's just a short drive to Niagara Falls, plus Lakes Erie and Ontario … The University of Buffalo plays a large role in community activities, not to mention in stable employment opportunities."

This is the second time over the past year that the town has received high honors for its livability.

"City Crime Rankings 2009-2010," an annual publication from CQ Press, ranked Amherst safest among municipalities with a population from 100,000 to 499,000.

Amherst held the same rank the previous year and has been ranked in the top five safest cities each year for more than a decade.

"I'm going to start a list of honors," Weinstein said. "We're going to start to keep track."

stan@buffnews.com