Huntsville No. 1 U.S. 'Small City of Future'

They will have a little more help in getting the word out today, thanks to new rankings released by a Financial Times publication.

Foreign Direct Investment magazine has selected Huntsville as the No. 1 "Small City of the Future'' in the U.S. The rankings are in FDI's April/May edition, released today.

Huntsville ranked first among U.S. cities with population under 500,000, and ranked second in North America behind Windsor, Ontario.

Huntsville also ranked No. 1 for the best development and investment program in North America. The city also received high scores for its infrastructure and quality of life.

"This affirms the success of our economic-development partnerships and our commitment to working with community leadership," said Brad Jones, chairman of the Huntsville/Madison County Chamber of Commerce. "It is a great honor for us, and it's great that we have been able to accomplish this while maintaining such an excellent quality of life.''

To determine the rankings, judges review nominations from 108 cities, evaluating and scoring more than 60 criteria involving the potential to attract business investment projects. Cities were categorized by major (population over 2 million); large (500,000-2 million); small (100,000-500,000) and micro (under 100,000).

Huntsville was No. 2 in the U.S. and No. 3 in North America in quality of life. It was ranked first in the U.S. for best infrastructure and No. 3 in North America.

Other criteria include economic potential, cost effectiveness, human resources and business friendliness.

The rankings by the London-based publication are the latest in a string of national recognition honors for Huntsville and North Alabama, and come at a time when officials are trying to recruit BRAC transferees who may be following their jobs to Redstone Arsenal.

The Base Realignment and Closure Commission moves will bring thousands of federal jobs and related contractor work to the area between now and 2011. BRAC officials told Huntsville leaders last week in Washington the moves are fully funded.

"Learning that Huntsville was selected as the No. 1 small city of the future in the U.S. says a lot," said Don Nalley, vice chairman of image enhancement and the Total Resource Campaign for the chamber. "We have so many assets, all of which together are unique in the entire world. But one of the greatest is the connectivity and participation of our citizens.

"Everyone wants to be involved and will work hard if they know there is a benefit to the community. That willingness and effort is the root to creating a winning city."

Last week, Huntsville was on the list of "America's Top 100 Places to Live for 2007,'' according to Relocate-America.com. Also, the city was ranked ninth on the list of the top 10 affordable places to live and work in a recent article on realestate.msn.com.

In FDI's other rankings, Chicago was named as North America's "Major City of the Future.'' Toronto was second.

Juarez, in the Mexican state of Chihuahua, was identified as the top large city of the future.