This Is the Most Smoothly Operating City in America

Nampa, Idaho, takes the top spot, while the District of Columbia comes in last
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 22, 2021 12:23 PM CDT
Here Are the Best- and Worst-Run Cities in America
They've got their act together in Nampa, Idaho.   (Getty Images/Chan2545)

Keeping a city humming along smoothly is no easy task, especially during a global pandemic. With budgets to manage, services and programs to greenlight or nix, and constituents' needs to meet, local leaders have challenges at hand even during the best of times. WalletHub looked at 150 of the nation's largest cities, as well as the District of Columbia, to see how efficient their operations are, coming up with a "quality of services" score based on more than three dozen metrics in six categories: financial stability, education, health, safety, economy, and infrastructure and pollution. The site then divided that score by each city's total budget per capita to come up with its rankings. Nampa, Idaho, takes the No. 1 spot on the list, while DC falls last. See what other cities made it into the top and bottom 10:

Best-Run Cities

  1. Nampa, Idaho (No. 1 in "Total Budget per Capita" category)
  2. Boise, Idaho
  3. Fort Wayne, Ind.
  4. Nashua, NH
  5. Lexington-Fayette, Ky.
  6. Lincoln, Neb.
  7. Durham, NC
  8. Rapid City, SD
  9. Las Cruces, NM
  10. Virginia Beach, Va.
Worst-Run Cities
  1. Chicago
  2. Cleveland
  3. Flint, Mich.
  4. Oakland, Calif.
  5. Detroit
  6. Gulfport, Miss.
  7. Chattanooga, Tenn.
  8. New York
  9. San Francisco
  10. Washington, DC
See the rest of the list here. (These are the cities to look to if you're starting a new career.)

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