Report: Major Ohio cities among worst-run in the nation

(The Center Square) – Ohio is home to some of the worst-run cities in the nation based on a new report that ranked 150 of the country’s largest cities based on operating efficiency.

Personal finance website WalletHub developed the rankings by building a “quality of service” score based on 38 metrics grouped into six service categories. Those were measured against each city’s budget.

Only one of the six largest Ohio cities made it into the top half of the rankings, while three others fell below 100th, and Cleveland ranked in the bottom 10 of cities in the U.S.

“We analyzed six Ohio cities: Akron, Dayton, Columbus, Cincinnati, Toledo and Cleveland. Akron ranks in the top half, near the middle of the pack, while the others ranked in the second half,” Jill Gonzalez, WalletHub analyst, said.

Akron’s 71st ranking was helped by the city’s lack of traffic congestion, but it did register a 0.67% drop in the number of businesses.

Several areas hurt Cleveland, one of three major Ohio cities. Gonzalez said that it ranked ninth lowest in the nation overall, in part because of a high violent crime rate, a low median household income, and nearly a third of the city’s residents living in poverty.

The number of businesses in Cleveland dropped 2%, and a third of the population does not have access to the internet.

Dayton ranked 81st with high marks for hospital beds per capita, but more than 30% of its population lives in poverty and has a below-average life expectancy.

Columbus ranked 92nd, with schools pulling the capital city down. It has a graduation rate of 74% and a low-quality K-12 school system, according to the report.

Cincinnati ranked 103, according to the report, with a high poverty rate and a high infant mortality rate, while Toledo ranked 106th with some of the worst city services in the nation.

Nampa, Idaho ranked as the nation’s best-run city, followed by Boise, Idaho; Fort Wayne, Indiana; Nashua, New Hampshire; and Lexington, Kentucky.

The worst-run city, according to WalletHub’s report, is Washington, D.C., followed by San Francisco; New York; Chattanooga, Tennessee; and Gulfport, Mississippi.

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