A pretty environment and good schools are more likely to make people “connect” with their communities than jobs, economic development, and low crime rates, says a report from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
“Education tends to be one of the highest-rated attachment drivers,” according to the report, which was conducted with Gallup. Social and cultural offerings, “openness” to people of all ages and backgrounds, and aesthetics were other major reasons people liked where they lived.
Yet just 22 percent of respondents gave high marks to the quality of local public schools. (The study does not disaggregate findings by whether a respondent had children in school.) The poll surveyed 43,000 Americans in 26 communities.
