Life is Right in Lincoln

Tailgating with amazing people

According to a recent Gallup poll, the city with the best ‘well-being in all of America’ is Lincoln, Nebraska. With a proud composite score of 72.8 on Gallup’s well-being index for quality of life, we in Lincoln are proud of many endearing attributes, including being one of the safest cities in the country.

Located in America’s heartland, Lincoln is large enough to offer the exhilaration of a big city, but not too big to forfeit the peace and security of a smaller town. We think Lincoln’s unique Mid-western blend of thriving college town with friendly neighborhoods, and robust business center with great entertainment for all ages accounts for so many content and friendly residents. Whether it’s the arts, entertainment, recreation or sports, Lincoln has it all. As you browse through this latest edition of Lincoln Today you will be quite impressed with how well the city of Lincoln is prospering these days while other places in the country are not fairing so well.

Identified by American Institute for Economic Research (2012) as the sixth best city in the US for college students (among cities with 250,000–1,000,000 residents), Lincoln also caters to the young at heart and family-oriented folks. In fact, Parents magazine in 2010 named Lincoln the third best city in the US for babies and the Lincoln Public Schools was ranked second in quality of education in an eight-state Midwest area. Lincoln maintains the fourth highest percentage of graduating high school seniors in the nation.

The economy is solid in Lincoln. Forbes Magazine rated Lincoln as the seventh best place in the US for business and careers. It is no surprise that Lincoln’s tax burden is so low. Quality services and a 3.8 percent unemployment rate also contribute to our quality of life. Recently, Expansion Management magazine wrote that Lincoln was one of the ‘Best Places in the U.S. to Locate a Company.’ One of the reasons is our low health care costs, among the lowest in the nation. According to a study by Milliman & Robertson, Inc., Nebraska businesses pay among the lowest in employee-paid insurance. Lincoln also champions herself as a fiscally conservative capital of a state that operates, by law, with no state debt.

Understandably, Lincoln has been growing at an unprecedented rate. The brand new 179 million dollar, 16,000-seat concert venue, Pinnacle Bank Arena has been named one of the top five new performing arts venues in the world, attracting world class acts to the Star City. In the last few months we have built three new hotels, a number of new restaurants, and expanded the downtown area to include the new Railyard Development. The addition of 6,000 seats and 38 sky-boxes to UNL’s Memorial 
Stadium increased the capacity from 86,000 to 92,000 bolstering our love and support for Husker Football.

I hope you enjoy the 22nd annual issue of Lincoln Today 
magazine, championing once again one of the top 20 cities in the US, the place we all love, enjoy, and affectionately call our home.

Have a wonderful year,

Sriyani Tidball
Editor