Is Buffalo A Well-Run City? Here’s What the Rankings Say

How does Buffalo fare among the country's best-run cities?  In an analysis of the country's 150 biggest cities Buffalo came in at 124, placing it in the bottom third.  But that shouldn't be surprising.  Most of the larger cities in the country rank toward the bottom of the list because of high unemployment rates and low average personal income meaning higher expenses for cities.

The personal finance website WalletHub used six categories to come up with their findings:

• Financial Stability
• Education
• Health
• Safety
• Economy
• Infrastructure & Pollution

In terms of Quality of Service Buffalo ranked 113th of 150 cities surveyed.  In Total Budget per Capita - what cities spend per person, Buffalo came in 130th.

By the way, Buffalo was the highest ranked city in New York State.  Syracuse was  126.  Yonkers was 129.  Rochester was 132.  New York City was 148.

If you think roads are bad in Western New York, surprisingly, California cities came in dead last in rankings of road conditions and in pollution.  Anaheim, Fremont, Huntington Beach, Los Angeles, Oakland and San Francisco were all at the bottom of the list.

Here's the complete WalletHub report: