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National biz magazine says Geneva is a great place to raise kids

Geneva is basking in the glow of being named one of the top 50 places to raise a child in the United States by Bloomberg Businessweek magazine.

Mayor Kevin Burns already knew that. He grew up in the city and raised his three daughters “in the atmosphere we (he and their mother) were raised in here,” he said Wednesday afternoon.

He said the acclaim from Businessweek was “heartening” and credited the people who live, work and invest in Geneva. “It's a validation to what we try to teach here,” he said.

The list picked one town in every state. The writer said Geneva had “many charms,” including diverse architecture, the Fox River Trail along which parents and children can travel, and a minor-league baseball team.

“Geneva is a wonderful place to live, and we are very pleased that Geneva has received this much-deserved recognition,” Geneva schools Superintendent Kent Mutchler said in a prepared statement. “We are fortunate to have such strong intergovernmental partnerships in Geneva, and this collaborative effort reflects very well on all those who live and work here.

“We believe our schools reflect the community well, and the success of our students demonstrates the quality work of our excellent staff and the strong support of our parents and community,” Mutchler said.

According to the article posted Monday on businessweek.com, the magazine and Bloomberg Rankings evaluated more than 3,200 places nationwide with populations between 5,000 and 50,000. It looked at public school performance and safety; the local job market, gauged by looking at the median income and county-level unemployment; housing costs; safety; commute time; poverty; adults' educational attainment; share of households with children; and diversity.

The data used to evaluate came from GreatSchools.org, the FBI, the Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

According to the article, the median household income in Geneva is $104,848; people spend about 22.6 percent of their income on housing; and the Kane County unemployment rate is 7.8 percent.

But there are caveats — the list is for places where the population is between 5,000 and 50,000 people, and where the median household income is less than $115,866 annually.

The caveats on size and income ruled out other suburban towns, such as Arlington Heights and Naperville (too big) and Oak Brook, Lake Forest and Wilmette (too rich).

The magazine wanted to eliminate towns full of households in the top 20 percent of earners.

  Mayor Kevin Burns is pleased with Bloomberg Businessweek's choice of Geneva as a great place to raise a child. Susan Sarkauskas/ssarkauskas@dailyherald.com
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