Recently, livability.com came up with their hundred top small to midsize cities in the US, and six of those cities are in the Seattle area. This list is different than a lot of these kinds of lists because it includes things like housing affordability. Most of the "best" lists are looking primarily at test scores in the schools, education level of the population,median household income, etc., but not some things that just make a place interesting. http://livability.com/best-places/top-100/2015 Renton, Washington is on the list, to just about everybody's surprise. I live there. I was surprised,too, even though I like living here a lot. I'm a native of New Jersey. New Yorkers regard New Jersey as Seattle regards Renton. Uncultured. Working class. But like New Jersey( which had zero cities on this best list, and that's a shame because NJ has some wonderful places), Renton is vastly underappreciated, and a way nicer place than it's slowly changing image. Anyway, ...