This weekend I noticed a website that had an article, “These Are The 10 Worst Places To Live in Georgia”, by Nick Johnson of “RoadSnacks”. I was absolutely stunned to see my city, Bainbridge, listed as number two, the second worst city in which to live in Georgia. In my opinion, nothing could be further from the truth. Since Joni and I moved here almost 5 years ago, we have found Bainbridge to be a wonderful place to live. The folks here have been so good to us and I remember that when we first got here, one of the first questions we got from people was, “How do you like our town?” And now that we have been here, I know why they asked that… they were proud of their town, and now, so are we. Bainbridge is a wonderful place to live. We have a quality of life here that many who live in the cities on the so-called “best places” list, neither enjoy nor appreciate.

So, I was extremely curious to see how a wonderful place to live like Bainbridge could be “measured” as the second worst place to live in Georgia. As I began to look and think about the criteria that Mr. Johnson used, I started to understand how he came to his conclusions and also how I disagree with him. Here are the things he measured:

• Population Density (The lower the worse)

• Highest Unemployment Rates

• Lowest Home Values

• Adjusted Median Income (Median income adjusted for the cost of living)

• Education (Low expenditures per student and high Student Teacher Ratio)

• High Crime

When I look at his criteria (and my experience living here), I come to the conclusion that Bainbridge is actually one of the best places to live in Georgia. That has certainly been our experience. I have also noticed that Bainbridge has what I call the strongest “sense of community” of most any place I have ever lived. Our folks support our community and our community provides many wonderful events for us to enjoy. The real truth is Bainbridge is simply a wonderful and easy place to live, and we love it.

 

Sincerely,

Joe Truhett

Bainbridge, GA