Mayor rebuts online ranking for Marksville

   In a “places rated” online comparison, Marksville finishes near the bottom. But the Marksville mayor defended the city, calling the internet rating “hogwash.”

   Just because it is on the internet doesn’t make it true, but such reports are used by others to compare their communities to others.

Such studies and reports as this attempt to establish “level playing fields” by which to compare communities. By including small cities such as Marksville in with large cities like New Orleans, the comparisons can be skewed. While the comparer seeks to compare oranges to oranges, it is more like oranges to tangerines -- or maybe even kumquats.

   Things that make a community a good place to live are not easily relegated to statistical data. A “good place to live” may be like a very smart child who “just doesn’t do well on tests.” 

    For that reason, these kinds of reports are best read for information and entertainment purposes only, and not to pass judgment on the places being rated. So, in that spirit, we present Homesnacks’ report, which can be found at homesnacks.net .

 

    Homesnacks founder Nick Johnson said his staff attempted to use objective criteria and scientific analysis in making its lists of best and worst places to live. His survey for Louisiana looked only at the 108 cities in the state -- those municipalities with at least 5,000 residents.  There is only one city in Avoyelles, so Marksville is our lone representative.

    Homesnacks puts Marksville at No. 5 in the top 10 “worst places” in the state -- or 104 going first to last.

    Others on the list were: (1) Ponchatoula, (2) Ville Platte, (3) Rayne, (4) Bogalusa, (6) Hammond, (7) Bastrop, (8) Tallulah, (9) Mansfield and (10) Franklin.

   On the other end of the spectrum are (1) Youngsville, (2) Shenandoah, (3) Prairieville, (4) Metairie, (5) Estelle, (6) Prien, (7) Oak Hills Place (8) Central, (9) Destrehan and (10) Bayou Blue.

    Johnson’s description of Marksville:

“Marksville is located about a half mile down a country road, south of Alexandria. There’s not a lot to do here, and when you factor in some of the lowest student support in the state and some of the worst weather, it’s not a place you might want to move to.”

    In explaining how Homesnacks conducted the study, Johnson said the staff first “had to determine what criteria people like or dislike about a place. It isn’t a stretch to assume that people like low crime, solid education, great weather, things to do and a stable economy.”

He said Homesnacks “scraped the internet for those criteria, found the opposite of those, and it spit out the answer. Like magic.”

Johnson said they tried “to get the best, most complete results possible. Using the FBI crime data, government Census, Bureau of Labor Statistics and Sperling’s Best Places.”

    Criteria used included population density (low is bad); unemployment rate; adjusted median income (adjusted for the cost of living); housing vacancy rate; Education (expenditures per student and student/teacher ratio); commute times; crime; and weather.

 

    It can be argued that factors such as education, crime and unemployment are issues that local communities might be able to influence.  

The weather, however, is outside of that control. Weather factors include days of sunshine, rainy days and humidity. 

   The city ranks 62nd in number of sunny days -- not bad. It just means that, on average, we have more rainy days than most of our sister cities.

   Heat and humidity combine to provide a “comfort index.” Homesnacks puts Marksville as third worst in both education and weather out of the 108 cities.

   A review of the figures on per-student expenditure actually has Marksville the lowest in the state at $8,951.

Its rankings on major factors in the survey were: expenditure per student 108 ($8,951); student-teacher ratio, 106 (18.4 to 1); overall education, 107; sunny days, 62 (216); comfort index, 106 (19); unemployment rate, 89 (5.1 percent); crime, 77 (131.2/100,000); population density, 74, (1,179 per mile) and commute time, 10 (17.38 minutes).

   So, based on Homesnacks, the best thing about Marksville is that those who have a job don’t have to drive very far to go to work.

 

   Marksville Mayor  John Lemoine said he was unfamiliar with Homesnacks, but said these type of comparisons “are a bunch of hogwash. The people who live here don’t believe it. I don’t know where these people get their information, but it’s not true that Marksville is one of the worst places to live in the state.”

   Avoyelles School District Finance Director Mary Bonnette said her figure on the parish’s cost-per-pupil is about $9,400, but added that Homesnacks’ figures may reflect figures from two years ago.

   School Superintendent Blaine Dauzat did not comment.