Best places to live in Western New York. (listing of cities and towns; includes information on economy, education, government, housing and others)

outside of Buffalo. Most of the region's major parks and shopping centers are a good distance away.

Surprise: Town police annually investigate 54 crimes per 1,000 residents, compared to just 25 per 1,000 in the Village of Hamburg.

Bottom line: The Town of Hamburg is in the upper half of the quality-of-life rankings, but it can't match the village's overall grade of B.

Basic Facts

Type: part of town Amherst is the best place to live in Western New York.

That bold statement is based on a Business First study of 40 sets of statistics compiled by federal, state and local agencies and private research firms. The study assessed the quality of life in all 35 Western New York communities with populations of more than 10,000.

Amherst emerged as the winner with 894 of a possible 1,000 points. It was the sole community to be awarded on overall grade of A-plus.

The only other places to finish in the A range were Clarence (780 points) and Lewiston (777). Both earned A-minuses.

Eight towns and villages followed with grades between B-plus and B-minus. They were, in order, Grand Island, Orchard Park, the Village of Hamburg, Elma, the Town of Lancaster, West Seneca, the Town of Tonawanda and Aurora.

A community's overall score was determined by its performance in eight categories, ranging from economics to transportation. Each category used five sets of statistics, known as factors, to rate all places on a 100-point scale.

Amherst earned A-pluses for economics and education, A's for health, housing, leisure and public safety, B-plus for transportation and C for government.

Just seven other communities managed to get through the study without picking up any D's or F's: Lewiston, West Seneca, the Town of Tonawanda, the City of Tonawanda, North Tonawanda, Wheatfield and Cheektowaga.

The following were the winners in the eight categories:

Economics: Amherst

Education: Amherst

Government: Elma

Health: Lewiston

Housing: Clarence

Leisure: North Buffalo

Public safety: Aurora

Transportation: Central Buffalo

Twenty-four of the 35 communities in the study are located in Erie County, which consequently dominated the top of the quality-of-life list. Twelve of the 13 best scores belonged to Erie County cities, towns and villages.

Lewiston, No. 3 regionally, won the highest honors in Niagara County. North Tonawanda (No. 14) and Wheatfield (No. 15) were the other Niagara County entries to qualify for the top half of the Western New York rankings.

The best place in the Southern Tier is Fredonia, which finished 20th overall with a grade of C.

The study credited a variety of factors with elevating the top 11 communities to their above-average grades:

Amherst (No. 1, A+): No Western New York community is stronger economically or educationally than Amherst. It has the region's highest per capita income and largest percentage of adults with college degrees.

Clarence (No. 2, A-): Clarence's strength is its housing. Its median home value is Western New York's highest, and its stock of large houses is the best. Lewiston (No. 3, A-): The most notable statistics about Lewiston are health-related. It has Western New York's lowest death rate from heart disease, while its concentration of physicians is impressively high.

Grand Island (No. 4, B+): The island's poverty rate of 1.9 percent is the region's lowest.

Orchard Park (No. 5, B+): Only Amherst has a higher per capita income than Orchard Park.

Village of Hamburg (No. 6, B): The village ranks third regionally in the percentage of college-educated adults.

Elma (No. 7, B): Elma has the lowest property taxes (on a per capita basis) among the 35 communities studied.

Town of Lancaster (No. 8, B): The town has one of the region's fastest rates of income growth.

West Seneca (No. 9, B-): Grand Island and Orchard Park are the only places with lower poverty rates than West Seneca.

Town of Tonawanda (No. 10, B-): The town's rape and burglary/larceny rates are among the five lowest in the region.

Aurora (No. 11, B-): Aurora has Western New York's smallest number of reported crimes per 1,000 residents.

At the bottom of the overall rankings are two sections of Buffalo. The city's East Side took last place with 275 points, just 11 points behind the West Side, which ranked 34th. Also receiving F's for quality of life were the City of Lockport, Niagara Falls, Dunkirk and Jamestown.

The Business First study split the City of Buffalo into five communities for purposes of comparison. North Buffalo did the best, taking 16th place with a grade of C. Also earning a C was No. 18 Central Buffalo, which extends from the marina to Buffalo State College. South Buffalo placed 27th with a D, while the West Side and East Side received F's.

The study found serious problems in the six communities at the bottom of the list:

Jamestown (No. 30, F): Roughly one of every seven Jamestown families lives in poverty.

Dunkirk (No. 31, F): Property taxes, when figured on a per capita basis, are higher in Dunkirk than in any of the other communities studied.

Niagara Falls (No. 32, F): Only two-thirds of Niagara Falls adults have graduated from high school; just 9.7 percent have college degrees.

City of Lockport (No. 33, F): The City of Lockport's rape rate is the region's worst outside of Buffalo.

Buffalo's West Side (No. 34, F): The West Side has Western New York's highest poverty rate, an astronomical 29.1 percent.

Buffalo's East Side (No. 35, F): The East Side has the region's worst unemployment rate, as well as the lowest percentage of adults with college degrees.

 
Rank Town                    Score     Grade 
 
 1. Amherst                    894        A+ 
 2. Clarence                   780        A- 
 3. Lewiston                   777        A- 
 4. Grand Island               762        B+ 
 5. Orchard Park               756        B+ 
 6. Hamburg (village)          712        B 
 7. Elma                       709        B 
 8. Lancaster (town)           679        B 
 9. West Seneca                668        B- 
10. Tonawanda (town)           650        B- 
11. Aurora                     646        B- 
12. Tonawanda (city)           622        C+ 
13. Kenmore                    602        C 
14. North Tonawanda            594        C 
15. Wheatfield                 591        C 
16. North Buffalo              582        C 
17. Hamburg (town)             572        C 
18. Central Buffalo            567        C 
19. Cheektowaga                563        C 
20. Fredonia                   554        C 
21. Lockport (town)            550        C- 
22. Lancaster (village)        519        D+ 
23. Evans                      514        D+ 
24. Depew                      500        D+ 
25. Olean                      495        D+ 
26. Batavia                    459        D 
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