Augusta was honored last week with a #4 ranking in a “2013 Top Places to Live” list by Digital Journal, beating such also-rans as San Diego, Honolulu and Seattle, and ranking behind only Boulder, Colorado; Austin, Texas; and Minneapolis, Minnesota. Many people question Augusta’s lofty position, but not the Medical Examiner. Consider a few of our assets:
• access to healthcare It’s easy to take for granted how convenient it is to have doctors and hospitals mere minutes away; just ask the rural residents who have no doctor in their town, or whose trips to medical care in Augusta consume hours, if not a full day of travel, waiting, and traveling back home. We have 15 hospitals in the immediate vicinity, and hundreds of practicing physicians. Access to healthcare is a major lifestyle amenity.
• beautiful weather Want to play golf in January? We’ve got you covered. Want all the great golfers in the world (current and past) to beat a path to your door every year? Ditto.
• traffic We measure our traffic jams in blocks, not miles, minutes, not hours.
• big city amenities/small town feel We have a symphony, a ballet company, arts groups of many stripes – visual, aural, and theatrical, traditional and avant-garde. Film festivals, arts festivals… So it’s not a cultural wasteland here, just a smaller market.
• low cost of living Housing costs here are super affordable compared to other cities.
• graffiti Frankly, nobody has graffiti quite like Augusta:
