Charlestown moves up in the rankings.

From the top of the bottom half to the bottom of the top half

By Will Collette

This may come as a shock to those who believe Charlestown is the direct center of the universe, but even among our 39 municipal peers in Rhode Island, we’re ranked only in the middle of the pack. GoLocal has just released its 2013 rankings of RI Best Cities and Towns. Last year, Charlestown came in at #19, after finishing in 14^th place in 2011.

Well, good news for us, Charlestown has moved up two slots in the new 2013 rankings to #17 best among RI’s 39 cities and towns.

Year after year, we get good marks for our beaches and scenic beauty. We also score well on economics because GoLocal uses only two metrics: tax rate and household income. Our tax rate is low because we provide almost no public services and we rank #17 in household income.

But as most residents know, there’s a lot more to gauging our economic strength than that. We earned our highest marks (5^th best in RI) for education, thanks to the much abused Chariho School system.

From GoLocalProv

Year after year, we lose points due to affordability (#30 among 39) and arts and culture (also 30^th place).

When GoLocal readers were polled on what they liked best about Charlestown, the overwhelming majority said The Nordic Lodge (just under 53%), followed by Rhythm and Roots (30.14%).

As for the other cities and towns, Newport came in at #1. Warwick, Cranston and Providence came in at 5^th, 6^th, and 7^th respectively.

South Kingstown and North Kingstown scored second place and fourth place, respectively. In fact, most South County towns came in ahead of Charlestown – Richmond (#8), Exeter (#11), Hopkinton (#13) and Narragansett (#14.)

Jamestown came in just behind Charlestown at #18. Westerly was 23^rd. Block Island only scored a 28^th place finish.

Central Falls was slotted in last place, though they have high hopes for better under a bright young mayor. The other bottom five were Woonsocket, Pawtucket, Johnston and North Providence.

Such ratings are to be taken for what they are worth. They always reflect their own internal bias reflected in the formula the authors create to generate the numbers.

I find such rankings useful mainly for what they say about the way others see us. In this ranking, as in the two prior years, the study does indeed pick out two areas where I think most Charlietowners would agree we need to improve – affordability and things to do other than lie on the beach or hike in the woods.

One thing that would help is for Charlestown to try to lure a New York System wiener restaurant to town. That seems to be worth quite a bit in this annual poll.