Nothing sleepy about Appleton Wisconsin. The article portrays us as behind the times and only having a couple things to do. Just the opposite. Our downtown boasts a world renowned Pac, bustling business community and vivacious night life. Leads the nation in delivering cutting edge health care at very low cost. Appleton schools are at the top in the country again at a very affordable cost.  Hosts to Octoberfest, the largest christmas parade in the country, the largest mall in the region, soon to be open the historical fox river loc system which will allow you to dock your boat in Appleton and travel all the way to the Atlantic ocean. Large employers include Kimberly Clark, Thrivent financial, Theda Care, Plexus, Boldt, Bergstrom, Coldwell Banker, multiple insurance corporations, etc. Crime rates are very low. Average drive time is less than 18 minutes. No traffic jams here. We love it. We are on the move and not a sleepy hollow. Ten minutes west north east or south and you can be in that very small slower paced community and still be totally involved in Appleton.  Proud to have been recognized just don't want to be misunderstood.

Be honest Yahoo! Best city to raise children (using progressive liberal standards).

I live in East Grand Rapids, MI. I'm married and have 3 kids. This is THE best place to raise a family for sure. Low crime, great schools, clean streets. It's fantastic!

Middletown is so large, and a little misrepresented by "Middletown, NY".  We moved up to the middletown area from long Island years ago.  we wanted a  better life for our kids.  Our employer is in the city so moving or relocating was not an option.  having loved the views of the country side and the whole enviornment we looked north to the hudson valley.  I suspect that they used the zip code of 10940 when they ran their statistics.  10940 is a vast area that not only covers middletown and the  middletown school district but several other communities and their school districts.  Pine Bush, minisink Valley and possibly Goshen school district all lie within the 10940 zip. Middletown school district is not a desirable district in any way, yes they have a a nasty ghetto and there is a lot of poverty.  but the other school districts that have communities in the 10940 zip are far different.  better schools, better communities, less poverty, just traditional rural areas with livestock and grain farms, developments of houses with an acre or two of land.  Orange county, ny is a growing refuge for city workers, many NYPD and FDNY are making the commute to the city so that their families have a better quality of life.  You get more bang for your buck up here, acres of land if you want, bigger houses, more quality of life.  I would trade anyday the gang of kids walking down our block on long island that most likley belonged to one of the street gangs, for the herd of deer grazing in my yard!  There are better schools, better home development planning by the towns, better communities, cleaner air,  a significant amout of less traffic,  shopping is just a hop, skip and jump away at the mall, several shopping plazas and the  woodbury common outlets.  the noise of police cars, ambulances, planes and trains, traffic and the gangs of kids brawling are replaced by, the sounds of cows, horses, chicken, ducks, donkeys, birds, frogs ect... The schools are better in so many ways than many other areas, yes budget cuts are wreaking havoc on all school districts, but our schools still stay strong and the family morals and values that are the reasons why people move up here carry over into the schools as well with  the teachers, the faculty and the parent volunteers.  If you are considering moving to the area check out GHVMLS real estate web site and search for homes by school district.  check out the school district stats on the ny state ed website and find what fits you best.  Warwick is one of the best but comes at a price, we chose Minisink and are happy and at peace with our desicion.  it is home.

Strange that every single one of the "best" cities to raise a FAMILY  have a "Percentage of families with children" of  45% or less. Most scored only in the upper 20 or lower 30 percent.  So, these cities are so great to "raise a family" but the overwhelming majority of their residents do not have and are not raising children! 

Hi, "someone"

Yes civilized places with secured  community is ideal element to grow family

Remains love is the important element

 

Is the average family incomes for all the listed cities really that high? If so, then MSN needs to get a grip on the real world because the average family income nation wide(2011)  is less than 52K a year. 

I love Suwanee! I have worked here for a couple of years and my husband was just transferred here. We are currently commuting about 20 minutes and now we are looking to rent or buy a home in the  area. It's really perfect for a family, great parks and bike/running trails, not much traffic or polution, a great community that really takes pride in the area. I am surprised to see such a small city on this list, but it really is a great area. Just had to throw my 2 cents in since other comments were negative about areas listed. I didn't want people to think Suwanee was the same way, it really does have low crime and low cost of living.