Philly earns D grade for best cities for families

Well, we can’t be No. 1 in everything. A new report gave Philly an overall D grade for its family friendliness, with its education earning a big fat F.

The grading comes from Apartment List, which just released its ranking of the best cities for families. A place idyllically Flower Mound, Texas, earned the number one spot, while Philadelphia was 463 out of the 509 cities included in the list.

So how did Philly earn such a dismal grade?

Apartment List considered four factors to come up with its “family-friendly index”: Safety, housing affordability, education quality, and child friendliness, which was based on the percentage of population under 18. The 2015 and 2016 data came from the FBI and U.S. Census Bureau.

Here’s how Philly fared in each category:

• Safety: C
• Affordability: D
• Education: F
• Child friendliness: C

Those are pretty bleak letter grades, but we’d argue that there are some silver linings that don’t show up while combing through that data. For example, severe crime in Philly recently hit its lowest level since in the 1970s, and is down 5 percent since last year.

And while the city’s education continues to be a thorn in its side, the implementation of Mayor Jim Kenney’s soda tax to benefit early school education programs aims to help turn things around. Even current Philadelphians rated the school system slightly better in 2016 than in 2015.

Other Pennsylvania cities fared a bit better, but not by much. Bethlehem and Scranton earned B minuses, while Reading and Allentown earned C’s.

• 2017 best cities for families [Apartment List]
• Philly crime at lowest level in decades [Inquirer]
• Report: Philadelphians are happy with Philly more than ever before [Curbed Philly]
• 4 important ways the Philly soda tax will affect this city [Curbed Philly]