Plano: City of Excellence.<\/p>\n
If read without the colon, the city\u2019s motto sounds like \u201cplain old city of excellence.\u201d But the truth is, this suburb north of Dallas is hardly ordinary.<\/p>\n
Plano is (mostly) in Collin County, along with other fast-growers Frisco<\/a> and McKinney. With a population of just over 1 million, It\u2019s the largest suburban county in Texas and the sixth-largest county overall. In the past 30 years, Collin County\u2019s population increased by 292%.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Plano\u2019s population has grown 124% since 1990, when it was 128,713. That\u2019s the year after a rising cycling star named Lance Armstrong left his hometown for Austin. For the reluctant Planoite, there was no love lost in the move. In fact, Armstrong very deliberately set fire to the bridge back to town (metaphorically, of course) on his way out.<\/p>\n In \u201cIt\u2019s Not About the Bike,\u201d his 2000 autobiography, Armstrong described Plano as \u201csoul-deadening\u201d:<\/p>\n \u201cIt was the quintessential American suburb, with strip malls, perfect grid streets and faux-antebellum country clubs in between empty brown wasted fields,\u201d he wrote. \u201cIt was populated by guys in golf shirts and Sansabelt pants and women in bright fake gold jewelry, and alienated teenagers.\u201d<\/p>\n Ouch. If you can\u2019t go home again<\/a>, Armstrong \u2014 never one to mince words \u2014 was cool with that. To be fair, in the years since his book came out, so has the truth about Armstrong\u2019s use of performance-enhancing drugs.<\/p>\n But let\u2019s get back to Plano, which has encountered little bad press \u2014 \u201cIt\u2019s Not About the Bike\u201d aside. On the contrary, the city seems to pop up near the top of just about every possible ranking of American cities \u2014 of which there are multitudes.<\/p>\n Here are \u201cbest cities\u201d lists from 2020 in which Plano was ranked first through 10th in the nation for various reasons. We also included Houston\u2019s ranking on each list, when available.<\/p>\n Best cities for a staycation<\/p>\n Where did Plano rank? No. 1<\/p>\n Personal finance website Wallethub is a big fan of Plano. The city consistently ranks high on its many lists of \u201cbest cities for \u2026\u201d. In this one, which came out in May 2020, Wallethub considered the impact of the pandemic on vacation and travel plans and ranked cities<\/a> based on \u201coptions for entertainment and relaxation at the right price point,\u201d which made them either better or worse spots for staying local. More than 180 cities were compared across 15 key metrics, including parks per capita, the average home square footage, the idealness of summer weather and the average of pizza and burgers, and Plano came out on top.<\/p>\n Where did Houston rank? No. 25<\/p>\n Cities with the largest apartments<\/p>\n Where did Plano rank? No. 1<\/p>\n According to Wallethub\u2019s staycation data, Plano is the city with the highest average home square footage in the U.S. In November 2020, ApartmentGuide.com<\/a> found it also has the largest apartments*. Plano has the largest one- and two-bedroom apartments, with an average square footage of 825 and 1,200 square feet, respectively. And the third-largest studios \u2014 608 square feet, on average.<\/p>\n (*Obviously, apartments are homes, but it\u2019s not clear if Wallethub\u2019s finding include apartment homes.)<\/p>\n Where did Houston rank? Did not place<\/p>\n Happiest cities in America<\/p>\n Where did Plano rank? No. 2<\/p>\n Plano was the reigning \u201chappiest city\u201d<\/a> before slipping from the top spot to No. 2 in 2020. In 2019, when Wallethub crowned it No. 1, Dallas Morning News metro columnist Sharon Grigsby bristled, declaring: \u201cGimmicky \u2018best and worst\u2019 monikers bestowed on cities are more sizzle than substance.\u201d Grigsby set out to learn \u201cwhy Plano?\u201d<\/a> In the end, she concluded the city\u2019s secret to happiness was it \u201cspirit of volunteerism.\u201d<\/p>\n How\u2019d they determine that?: \u201cWalletHub drew upon the various findings of positive-psychology research in order to determine which among more than 180 of the largest U.S. cities is home to the happiest people in America. We examined each city based on 30 key indicators of happiness, ranging from depression rate to income-growth rate to average leisure time spent per day.\u201d<\/p>\n Where did Houston rank? No. 111<\/p>\n Safest cities in America<\/p>\n Where did Plano rank? No. 3<\/p>\n What\u2019s the point? \u201cNo one can avoid all danger, however, and we take on a certain level of risk based on where we choose to live. Some cities are simply better at protecting their residents from harm.\u201d<\/p>\n From contracting COVID-19 to mass shootings, riots and traffic accidents, Americans encounter hazards on a daily basis. They can also experience dangerous or anxiety-inducing situations such as \u201ctaking out an unaffordable second mortgage, forgoing health insurance or even visiting unsecured websites,\u201d Wallethub contended in this November 2020 report<\/a>. It considered 42 key indicators of safety in its comparison of 180 cities across three dimensions: home and community safety, natural-disaster risk and financial safety.<\/p>\n By the way, the bottom five cities for \u201chighest share of uninsured population\u201d were all in Texas: Houston and Garland tied for No. 178, followed by Dallas (No. 180), Laredo (No. 181) and Brownsville (No. 182).<\/p>\n Where did Houston rank? No. 127<\/p>\n Bonus: Plano was No. 3 on SmartAssets\u2019s list of \u201cBest Cities to Work from Home in 2021.\u201d<\/a> It ranked in the top 10% of the study for three metrics:<\/p>\n \u25baPercentage of the workforce that worked from home in 2019, before the pandemic: 9.6%<\/p>\n \u25baEstimated percentage of the workforce that is able to work from home: 35.44%<\/p>\n \u25baPoverty rate in 2019: 7.5%<\/p>\n Best U.S. cities for feeling young<\/p>\n Where did Plano rank? No. 4<\/p>\n Redbook magazine ranked the 100 most populous cities<\/a> on age and \u201chow active people are in taking care of their physical and mental health\u201d using data on unemployment, income, education and more.<\/p>\n Where did Houston rank? No. 59<\/p>\n Most livable cities in the U.S.<\/p>\n Where did Plano rank? No. 5<\/p>\n Personal finance technology company SmartAsset admits the \u201clivability\u201d of a place is hard to quantify, but they decided to give it their best shot with this list<\/a> from last December. To do that, they used the walk score, violent crime rate, property crime rate, unemployment, housing costs as percentage of income and the rate of housing cost-burden for each of the 100 largest U.S. cities. Plano placed fifth for reasons including housing costs represent 20% of income (eighth-lowest among cities included), low rates of violent crime and property crime (fifth-lowest and 10-lowest, respectively). The city was No. 2 on SmartAsset\u2019s list in 2019.<\/p>\n Where did Houston rank? Did not place<\/p>\n Bonus: Ranking and review site Niche determined Plano to be the fifth-best city to live in America for 2020. That \u201clivability\u201d ranking<\/a> was based on factors such as crime, public schools, housing, cost of living, job opportunities, weather, commute times and other local amenities, as well as resident reviews. The Woodlands took the No. 2 spot; Houston was No. 66.<\/p>\n Best cities to drive in<\/p>\n Where did Plano rank? No. 6<\/p>\n Wallethub ranked the 100 largest cities using 31 key indicators of \u201cdriver-friendliness\u201d<\/a> \u2014 everything from average gas prices and cost of insurance to commutes times and time spent stuck in traffic to traffic fatality rates \u2014 spread over three categories: cost of ownership and maintenance, traffic and infrastructure, and safety.<\/p>\n Where did Houston rank? No. 48<\/p>\n Best cities to buy an affordable family home<\/p>\n Where did Plano rank? No. 7<\/a><\/p>\n Nine of the cities in the top 25 of this SmartAsset list are in Texas, including Plano at No. 7 because of its \u201cimpressive\u201d high school graduation rate (96.8%, the highest of all cities) and low rates of violent crime and property crime.<\/p>\n Where did Houston rank? Did not place<\/p>\n Best U.S. cities to be stuck at home<\/p>\n Where did Plano rank? No. 8<\/p>\n Lawn care company Lawnstarter (yes, they do lists too) used 29 metrics \u2014 including property crime rate, pedestrian fatalities, suicide rate and food insecurity \u2014 to rank the 150 most populated cities in America as far as which are the best for being stuck at home<\/a> during the pandemic. In general, the Dallas-Fort Worth metro\u2019s suburban cities did well, bolstered by high marks for quality of life, financial security and community safety. Frisco (No. 1 overall) and McKinney (No. 3) were the top two cities in terms of quality of life. Plano ranked No. 8 and Grand Prairie was No. 17.<\/p>\n Where did Houston rank? No. 115<\/p>\n Best cities for Christmas<\/p>\n Where did Plano rank? No. 9<\/p>\n What\u2019s the point? \u201cIn order to determine which cities will offer a holly jolly holiday even amid the stresses of the COVID-19 pandemic, WalletHub compared the 100 biggest U.S. cities based on 15 key indicators of a safe and affordable Christmas<\/a>. Our data set ranges from COVID-19 cases to the availability of Christmas traditions to the city\u2019s overall generosity.\u201d<\/p>\n Some of these lists feel like a stretch, but, like this blog post, it\u2019s OK to take an occasional light-hearted approach to things. The 15 metrics Wallethub considered for its Christmas list included \u201cmost Christmas tree farms per capita\u201d (a surprising three-way tie for No. 1 that included Miami), \u201clowest average wine price\u201d (Indianapolis, followed by five cities in Arizona tied for No. 2), \u201cmost food banks per capita\u201d and \u201chighest online giving per capita.\u201d<\/p>\n Where did Houston rank? No. 22<\/p>\n Hardest-working cities in America<\/p>\n Where did Plano rank? No. 10<\/p>\n According to Wallethub: \u201cThe average U.S. worker puts in 1,786 hours per year \u2013 106 hours more than the average in Japan, 248 more than the U.K. and 403 more than Germany.\u201d It compared cities on direct and indirect work factors using 11 metrics, such as employment rate, average weekly work hours and share of workers with multiple jobs, in compiling this list of hardest-working places<\/a>. Austin landed at No. 9 and Plano was No. 10.<\/p>\n Where did Houston rank? No. 24<\/p>\n