You may have missed this recent news, but “06880” did not:
Westport ranks #9 on a list of “America’s Top 15 Economic Power Towns.”
That’s right. Our humble burg trails only #1 McLean, Virginia, Weston (Massachusetts, not Connecticut — whew!) and 6 other places as — well, something.
To compile the list, SpareFoot — – an Austin, Texas-based company that boasts “the largest inventory of storage units in the U.S.” — examined every place in America with 50,000 residents or fewer, that also happens to be home to at least one Fortune 500 company. More than 120 towns fit into that category, meaning nearly 10% of all candidates had a chance of making the list.
(Can you guess Westport’s Fortune 500 company? I couldn’t.)
SpareFoot then applied 6 criteria to rank the “economic power” of Fortune 500 towns:
- Home ownership rate (Westport’s: 86.2%)
- Median household income ($152,586)
- Local unemployment rate (7.4%)
- Percentage of residents living in poverty (3.7%)
- Ratio of median home value to median income (7.2)
- Median value of owner-occupied homes ($1.1 million)
So, to summarize: A random self-storage business decided to create an “economic power” index; chose arbitrarily to limit it to places with Fortune 500 headquarters, but also arbitrarily with a certain limited population; came up with 6 totally random categories, having absolutely nothing to do with the original arbitrary premise of Fortune 500 companies, and then tried to convince “06880” to run the story.
Hey. It worked.
So what Fortune 500 company is headquartered in Westport? Terex.
This was the photo SpareFoot used to illustrate Westport’s #9 appearance on its “Economic Power Towns” list.
Isn’t that the equipment the town is using for pot hole repair?
Magic eight ball
Sent from my iPad
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Westport might be doing OK but the state is not. This is just of many polls and statistics showing how bad our state is doing:
FAIRFIELD COUNTY, Conn. — Connecticut ranked 31st out of the 50 states in Gallup’s recent annual well-being poll. The ranking is a steep drop from 2012, when the Nutmeg State ranked 16th.
Bart: a somewhat similar survey that Gallup does in ranking countries typically has Sweden and Denmark right at or near the top, with a clearly higher ranking than the U.S. with respect to the percentage of the population that’s “thriving.” Are you suggesting that we, as a society, need to do more to emulate the economic and social models of those two countries?
Fred. No not al all. I could provide many stats on why CT is doing bad. Just found it funny that while one survey (and yes arbitrary) said one thing, another at the same time said something else about the state.
But by most measures CT as a state is not in good shape. Should I mention an unfounded liability that is not on the balance sheet that is over $60 BILLION. And while out governor raised taxes on almost every working person in the state he guaranteed the use of overtime for pensions that is killing this state of years to come. Should I
Mention a bad job environment. I think we are I the bottom 10 states. And three cities that rank in the worst in the country.
But yes. I agree with what you said. And thanks for pointing it out.
First, I’m surprised that people pay much attention to such surveys (while I admit that I quite approve of the Mercer Quality of Living Survey!), and second, what’s wrong with trying to emulate the social and economic positives of other countries? How else do you progress?
Now I understand the point: The Oscars.
I actually did know Westport was home to Terex. But I agree the whole thing seems Completely Arbitrary.