Santa Rosa ranks among the ‘most fun places to live in US’

Santa Rosa is more fun than both Chicago and New York, according to U.S. News & World Report.

The city was ranked 10th on the publication’s list of “30 Most Fun Places to Live in the U.S,” while Chicago ranked 14th and New York City was 24th.

“It’s no surprise that the heart of California wine country is one of the Most Fun Places to Live – and one of best places to find a great restaurant,” the list reads.

To figure out which cities were the most fun, U.S. News & World Report started with its list of “150 Best Places to Live in the U.S.” Then the publication factored in how the 100 most populous metro areas ranked in nine other categories: visitors, parks and outdoors, restaurants, shopping, attractions, theaters and live music, sports, and bars and nightlife. Each of these categories was weighted based on responses from a 2,000-person survey about the amenities that were most important to them.

Santa Rosa ranked first in shopping, which considered the number of businesses per 1,000 residents and their TripAdvisor user ratings. The city came in second in the restaurant category, which took into account the number of restaurants per 1,000 people, their TripAdvisor ratings and whether they received the AAA Four or Five Diamond Award.

Santa Rosa also ranked 15th in parks and outdoors, which looked at the number of parks, their TripAdvisor ratings and how much is spent on park maintenance and improvement per person.

All of the data used to create the list was calculated before the COVID-19 pandemic, so it’s unclear how recent restaurant and business closures would’ve affected the rankings.

The Golden State also is home to the most fun city in the country, according to U.S. News & World Report. San Diego ranked first thanks to its restaurants, parks and tourist destinations. Other California cities that made the list were Fresno (#26), Sacramento (#24), Los Angeles (#7) and San Francisco (#2).

Visit bit.ly/3CPFmtv to see the full list.