The Washington Post recently had a
story from Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development that measured each state on 10 quality of life areas. It is difficult to measure a state like Maryland which has such diversity in living environments. Howard County and the Maryland counties around DC have high levels of education, income and quality of life. These results are lowered by a high level of poverty in Baltimore and the Eastern Shore. This report simply shows the impact of poverty on the quality of life. States without large cities with high levels of poverty (i.e New Hampshire) will naturally score higher. Not surprising the worst performing states were congregated in the South. The best states congregate in New England.
Maryland scored low on safety. This had to be impacted by the crime rate in Baltimore. We also scored low in having a clean environment (traffic pollution?). We score higher in jobs and broadband connection. Overall we rank in the middle of the pack.
P.S.
I wonder how Rick Perry spins the fact that Texas is the most polluted state in the United States in his Presidential run? Maybe this is what he means by having a business friendly state.
Okay, help me out here. As I read those charts, the most polluted state (that is, the state that ranks dead last in "states with the cleanest environment") isn't Texas. It's dear old Maryland. So it's not Rick Perry that's going to have to justify it; it's Martin O'Malley once his presidential campaign really gets going. What did I mis-read?
ReplyDeleteAnd that's in addition to the absolute "0" grade that Maryland gets in safety, because of crime in Baltimore City and certain of the DC suburbs.
It looks like he looked at the Education chart when declaring Texas to be last. It's the chart after environmental.
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