San Ramon Official Disputes City's Last-Place Quality Of Life Ranking

SAN RAMON, CA — San Ramon’s Deputy City Manager Steven Spedowfski is casting doubt on a recent San Francisco Chronicle article that claimed San Ramon has the lowest overall quality of life of the Bay Area’s 25 most populous cities.

“We understand the methodology of the Chronicle article, however generalized national data doesn’t fully reflect the amenities the City of San Ramon has to offer,” Spedowfski told Patch in an email. Patch also reached out to the San Ramon Chamber of Commerce for comment, but has not heard back.

The Chronicle determined its rankings by using various data sources to assign scores to each city in five quality-of-life metrics: Entertainment, Arts and Culture, Walking and Transit, Diversity, and Environment. If all categories are weighted equally in importance, San Ramon receives the lowest overall score.

However, readers also have the option to choose how important each category is to them in evaluating a city, and thus create their own rankings. For example, if a reader deems “Walking and Transit” - a category in which San Ramon was rated 24th out of 25 - “very important”, San Ramon’s weighted ranking will go down. If the reader feels “walking and transit” is “not very important,” San Ramon’s rating improves.

San Ramon placed in the bottom five for every single category except “Environment,” where it ranked 16th out of 25. It ranked 21st in “Entertainment,” 20th in “Arts and Culture,” 24th in “Walking and Transit,” and 22nd in “Diversity.”

Spedowfski disputed both the way that the rankings were determined in each category, and the exclusion of other categories that could be considered quality of life metrics. “Many of the qualities that San Ramon residents value—such as our trails and open space, sports facilities, community events, and education—are not included in the metrics,” Spedowfski wrote.

In 2022, school evaluator Niche ranked the San Ramon Valley Unified School District 164th in the country, and 24th in California. It assigned the district an overall rating of “A+.” In 2022, security consultant Safewise also ranked San Ramon the 11th safest city in California.

In 2018, Wallethub ranked San Ramon the best place in the Bay Area to raise a family, and the second best in California, based on 21 metrics determining family life; education, health and safety; affordability; and socioeconomic environment.

That aside, The Chronicle’s rankings in existing categories are also misleading, Spedowfski argued. For example, one of the ways in which The Chronicle evaluated the city’s “Entertainment” score was by calculating the number of music venues per 100,000 residents. However, the “music venues” metric is based entirely on the number of venues listed on Songkick that have at least one event in the upcoming year, giving San Ramon a score of zero. That discounts the number of concerts held at venues like Dougherty Valley Performing Arts Center, Front Row Theater, the Central Park Amphitheatre, and San Ramon’s community centers.

Additionally, one of the ways in which The Chronicle determined “Arts and Culture” scores was by the number of museums with 10 or more reviews on Google Maps. Spedowfski pointed out that Forest Home Farms Historic Park welcomes thousands of visitors a year, but only the Glass House is listed on Google Maps as a museum, and counts fewer than ten reviews. The city also counts five free art galleries and more than 50 pieces of public art, which are not reflected in The Chronicle’s ranking.

One of the categories to determine a city’s “Environment” score is how many residents live within a ten-minute walk of a park. San Ramon counts 58 parks, according to the Parks & Community Services department, but The Chronicle cited the Trust for Public Land, which lists only 37. The city’s 2020 Parks, Trails and Open Space Master Plan includes a map on page 36 showing that most residents - more than the 64 percent indicated in The Chronicle ranking - live within ten minutes of a park.

The city received its lowest ranking in the “Walking and Transit” category. That was calculated using data from Walk Score, a data tool from real estate broker Redfin, to quantify the walkability and bikeability of a city. Walk Score assigned San Ramon a score of 24 out of 100 in walkability, and deemed the city “car-dependent.” However, it is unclear how it came to that conclusion, aside from a map that highlights areas it deems more walkable in green. The site also called the city a bike score of 37 out of 100, and deemed the city “somewhat bikeable,” but with “minimal bike infrastructure.”

Since completing its Bicycle Master Plan in 2018, the city claims to have installed a total of 22 miles of improved bike lanes, two new Class II bike lanes, and a bike box. The city installed at least 1.2 miles of Shared Lane Markings and 19.8 miles of buffered bike lanes.

The city also ranked low in “Diversity” (as did neighbors Pleasanton, which ranked 23rd, and Livermore, which ranked 25th.) That ranking is a mix of the U.S. Census’ formula that determines the odds that two people chosen randomly from the city’s population will belong to a different race or ethnic group. The overall Diversity score is a mix of the same formula measuring age and country of origin. San Ramon places dead last in terms of age diversity, but jumps up to ninth place in terms of country of origin diversity.

Raw 2020 census data shows a decently mixed city. In 2020, the city was 38.9 percent white, 47.8 percent Asian, 7.9 percent Latino, and 7.5 percent biracial. 36.5 percent was born outside the country.

If rankings are to be truly believed, then San Ramon has noticeably deteriorated in the past year. In 2022, The Chronicle ranked the city 21st out of 25 overall. Last year, cities were ranked on many more categories:

• Bars per 10,000 residents
• Bike score
• Share of commuters with a work commute of less than 30 minutes
• Driving miles from nearest major airport
• Diversity index
• Food retailers per 10,000 residents
• Libraries per 10,000 residents
• Movie theaters per 10,000 residents
• Share of residents within half mile of park, open access or coastline
• Transit stops per 10,000 residents
• Walk score

In 2023, The Chronicle rated its home city of San Francisco as the Bay Area’s number one city, followed by Berkeley and San Mateo. Livermore ranked twelfth, and Pleasanton ranked thirteenth. Livermore ranked second in “Environment,” and sixth in “Entertainment” and “Arts and Culture,” but 24th in “Diversity” and 19th in “Walking and Transit.”

Pleasanton ranked 5th in “Environment,” 10th in “Walking and Transit,” 15th in “Diversity,” 16th in “Entertainment,” and 18th in “Arts and Culture.”

None of these metrics, in 2023 or 2022, included resident input.

See here for the rankings.