Get Angry: Butte Ranked One of the Worst Cities in MT

BUTTE, MT - How would you go about rating an entire city? If you're a traditional Utilitarian, surely the first things that come to mind are measures that have to do with the overall happiness of the city. Walkability, crime rates, unemployment, drug addiction, historical attachment, and cost of living are a great place to start, just to name a few. From there, moving to community involvement, family support systems and resources, and education would quench your thirst. But what if you aren't Utilitarian? What means would you utilize to make the measure?

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Whatever you would use, I bet you would have a pretty good idea on what difference of variables a first-ranked city would be versus a twelfth-ranked city. To be honest, I'm not really a huge fan of ranking any city in any state, especially Montana—a massive, welcoming bastion of goodwill, good eats, good people, and good God. Even Montana's worst town (which is impossible to determine, and I don't want to hear or see anything about Bozeman; it's time that we accept them and love them like we would anyone else) is a reflection of our state's values of faith, freedom, and respect.

After living here in Butte, I can attest that these values are carried on and personified through virtually every single Butte Rat living here. So how can the 5th best place to buy a home in Montana be the 12th best city?

That's not Niche.com—a valuable online resource—that's making the ranking. The ranking comes from the reviews of actual residents, past and current, who input their opinions to the site. Moving past the addressed and 21st-century-exclusive weirdness of rating a town, 12th seems far too low for a town that is and was a staple of Montana history. A critique I have often heard, that Butte has "nothing to do," rears its ugly head in some disgruntled reviewers, placing blame on Butte's leadership and citizens. I don't think that's right, do you?

Butte is, of course, not without its problems. But that doesn't mean that it—or any other city—is below any other. I've found that Butte wants nothing more than improvement, and with all the awesome and powerful organizations we're lucky enough to find here, I think we'll get it.

Where do you think Butte should be ranked?