Businessweek ranks Seattle #2 in best places to live

Seattle is America’s second best place to live, at least according to Businessweek.com, which ranked the city #2 in the nation on its annual list of best cities.

San Francisco tops the list, which is based on a number of factors including leisure (the number of bars, restaurants museums, libraries, professional sports teams and park acres by population), educational attributes such as public school performance, the number of colleges and rate of graduate-degree holders, economic factors including income and unemployment, and crime and air quality.

“Residents of Rain City will take the city’s famously prodigious rainfall in exchange for their high average median income, beautiful water-bound locale, and standout clean air,” says the rankings.

The list emphasizes the tens of thousands of jobs provided by Microsoft and Boeing.

Washington D.C., Boston and Portland, Ore. round out the top 5 on the list.

Businessweek singles out Portland as the beloved home of “America’s hipsters, do-it-your-selfers, and localist foodies.”