3 CT Metros On List Of Best/Worst-Run Cities: New Report

CONNECTICUT — Although our cities aren't on fire as many were three summer ago, high inflation, slow pandemic recovery and elevated crime rates remain a challenge for all but the best-run U.S. metro areas.

But where are these shining utopias? Which cities have turned the corner, riding on the backs of strong local management and planning, and which are still stumbling in the dark, struggling with ineffectual leadership?

Personal finance website WalletHub compared the quality of services provided by the nation's largest cities with their per capita budget to determine which burgs were doing the most with the least. That calculation determined their "Best-Run Cities in America," shown in the table below.

The only three Connecticut municipalities on WalletHub's tabulation were Bridgeport ranked No. 41, Hartford ranked No. 142, and New Haven, at No. 126.

Nampa, ID, with the nation's top per capita city budget and 34th ranked "Quality of City Services," was the top ranked best-run city overall. Lexington-Fayette, KY, and nearby Nashua, NH, came in second and third.

San Francisco ranked No. 149 out of 149 entries on the list. The quality of services offered in the Golden Gate City to its residents was strong — a respectable ranking of No. 12 — but it could not offset the last-place ranking of its per capita spending. Chattanooga, TN (No. 148) and NYC (No. 147) finished just ahead of the City by the Bay.

Key to its ranking is a city's "Quality of Services" score, made up of 36 metrics grouped into six service categories. That score was then divided by the "Total Budget per Capita" (dollar amount) to calculate a "Score per Dollar Spent" index — listed as "Overall Rank" in the table above.

Strip the municipal per capita budget out of the equation, and the three Connecticut cities on the list really don't fare much better. WalletHub analysts calculated the "Quality of Services" for Bridgeport (No. 92), New Haven (No. 131) and Hartford (No. 145) still in the bottom half of the 149-city list.

Bridgeport came in at an impressive No. 3 in the Health category, ahead of fourth-place Burlington, VT. But a ranking in the cellar for Economy (No. 146) brought the city's overall score down to earth.

Although Hartford scored exceptionally high at No. 5 in the category Infrastructure & Pollution, its dead last rating in Economy and near-dead last ranking in Financial Stability (No. 147) dragged it into the cellar, above only Shreveport, LA; Gary, IN; Jackson, MS; and Detroit. Hartford's ratings in Education (No. 132) and Safety (No. 106) didn't do it any favors, either. Only its No. 49 ranking for Health broke the top 100 in its category.

New Haven, sandwiched between Milwaukee and Birmingham, AL, in the pure "Quality of Services" rankings at No. 132, fared marginally better. Like Hartford, the city acquitted itself admirably with a strong ranking in Infrastructure & Pollution (No. 13), but was hit hard by a Financial Stability rank of just No. 144 and an Education rank of No. 126.