MAYOR DANIEL M. KNAPIK
WESTFIELD – Less than a year after being rated as a “city on the rise” by the website NerdWallet, another online site as granted the city of Westfield an even more impressive distinction.
Finance site CreditDonkey named the Whip City the “happiest city” in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in late 2014 by using a straight-forward methodology – in short, cities with high median incomes, lots of restaurants, low crime rates and commute times, lots of happy marriages and affordable housing scored high on the site’s top 10.
Westfield wound up beating out some heavy hitters in the CreditDonkey study, as it topped Leominster, Cambridge, Marlborough, Gloucester, Peabody, Newton, and Woburn to earn the happiest city crown.
Much like the NerdWallet cities on the rise list last June, Westfield again was the lone municipality located in one of the four western Massachusetts counties, a telling sign for city officials about the direction the city is headed in.
JOE MITCHELL
“Like we’ve always said, with all the improvements being made, it has made Westfield an even better place to live, work and play,” said Westfield Mayor Daniel M. Knapik.
According to the CreditDonkey data, Westfield is the proud host of one restaurant per 567 inhabitants, ironically the lowest percentage of the top 10, although the study did reference the outstanding empanadas served at Santiago’s on Franklin Street.
The odds of a Westfield resident being the victim of a violent crime are 1 in almost 546, good for third on the list behind only the north shore harbor town of Gloucester (one in 1,084) and Newton (1 in 1,141), an inner Boston suburb that is routinely listed as one of the safest cities in America.
Westfield’s 23-minute morning commute was the lowest of the top 10 happiest cities, no doubt due to a lack of workers commuting to Boston, and the percentage of residents leaving for work before 5 a.m. – 4.5 percent – was the highest of the top 10.
The city’s median income – $57,018 – was the lowest, edging out Leominster by only $2,000 roughly, and the divorce rates for men and women are both about average in the top 10.
PETER J. MILLER
So if Westfield trails the pack or is just as good as the rest in several crucial categories, how are Westfield’s residents the happiest?
Perhaps it has to do with reasonable housing stock, as the CreditDonkey survey uncovered that the average percentage city residents spend on apartments or homes at only 21 percent of their income is one of the best figures on the list.
City Economic Development Director Joe Mitchell said that the diversity of the city’s housing stock speaks volumes about why Westfield residents are pumped about where they live.
“We have a supply of fairly elaborate homes but also an ample supply of affordable housing,” said Mitchell. “And in the last six months, we’ve had more applications come enforce the city’s planning board to do more developing.”
Mitchell added that the city’s percentage of residents waking up before 5 a.m. is indicative of an active community, whereas residents in eastern Mass. wake up early to brave an arduous commute to Boston.
“A lot of people here wake up early because they’re either working first shift in manufacturing or they lead an active lifestyle,” said Mitchell. “In Westfield, we don’t have the major traffic impairments and even getting to Springfield – MassMutual is the largest employer in the region – is an easy commute.”
Community Development Director Peter Miller said he believes having an outside set of eyes is helpful to analyze metrics related to the happiness of the city against peer communities.
“We are fortunate to have a safe and self-sufficient community with reasonable proximity to economic centers and jobs,” said Miller. “We’ll certainly use these analyses to spread the word about why Westfield is a great place to live, work, and raise a family.”
