Study Finds Grand Rapids Among Best Run Cities in U.S.

Grand Rapids is getting top honors for operational efficiency in the State of Michigan.

Personal finance website Wallethub sought to rank the best-run cities in the U.S. They compared 148 of the most populated cities across six key categories:

Financial Stability
Education
Health
Safety
Economy
Infrastructure and Pollution

Wallethub constructed a “Quality of Services” score made up of 36 metrics within those categories, which they then measured against the city’s per-capita budget.

Cassandra Happe, WalletHub analyst says, “One way WalletHub measures the effectiveness of local leadership is by determining a city’s operating efficiency. In other words, we can learn how well city officials manage and spend public funds by comparing the quality of the services residents receive against the city’s total budget."

Grand Rapids earned an overall ranking of 23, the highest for any city in Michigan.

Grand Rapids scored 33 in its “Quality of City Services” and 31 in “Total Budget per Capita” rankings.

Here's a breakdown of how Grand Rapids scored in each category:

Financial Stability - 69
Education - 58
Health - 52
Safety - 57
Economy - 33
Infrastructure and Pollution - 14

City Manager Mark Washington said of Grand Rapids' spot in the ranking,

This news is assuring as we strive every day to live up to our core values of accountability, collaboration, customer service, equity, innovation, and sustainability in serving our community. We are not a perfect City, so it is important that we continuously find ways to improve services and fulfill our mission to elevate quality of life through excellent City services. I am especially grateful to the many City employees who take great pride in serving this community.

Nampa Idaho has been named the best run city, with “Quality of City Services” score of 45 and a “Total Budget per Capita” score of 1.

In terms of other Michigan cities, here's how they scored overall:

Warren - 30
Detroit - 140
Flint - 144

San Francisco has been declared the country's worst run city with a "Quality of City Services Rank" of 24 and a "Total Budget Per Capita" score of 148.