Resonance Consultancy, a leading advisor in real estate, tourism, and economic development for countries, cities and communities, recently announced their 2020 ranking of America’s Best Small Cities, and South Bend made the list! Coming in at number 39, South Bend is among 100 top-performing small cities in America with metro populations ranging between 100,000 and 500,000.
The 2020 America’s Best Small Cities Report ranks the nation’s best small cities using Resonance Consultancy’s unique combination of statistical performance and qualitative evaluations by locals and visitors in 28 areas grouped into six core categories: Place, Product, Programming, People, Prosperity, and Promotion.
The Resonance Best Cities rankings quantify and benchmark the relative quality of place, reputation, and competitive identity for the principal cities with metropolitan populations of 100,000 or more. They are lauded as the world’s most thorough city rankings, based on original methodology that analyzes key statistics as well as user-generated reviews and online activity in channels such as Google, Facebook and Instagram.
About South Bend’s Rankings
39. SOUTH BEND
Mayor Pete and Notre Dame shine a light on one of the country’s most dynamic hometowns.
POPULATION
METRO: 322,424
HIGHLIGHTED RANKINGS
2 PRODUCT | 41 PROMOTION (See Methodology)
The South Bend Mishawaka region landed definitively on the map of the American imagination in 2019 when native son and former local mayor Pete Buttigieg made a run for the Democratic presidential nomination. But the area, about a hundred miles east of Chicago, has been growing in stature under the radar for, well, centuries: 178-year-old Notre Dame University, an institution that balances its Catholic origins with cutting-edge scientific research, has given the region its first-place ranking for Universities among small cities. But Notre Dame is not alone—there is a range of innovative learning institutions around South Bend, and the insular grande dame is beginning to engage with the community with innovative results—the respected IDEA Centre and IDEA Week, which help bring entrepreneurial efforts to market, are cases in point. Mayor Pete saw the future of South Bend when he took office in 2012, working to rejuvenate South Bend’s derelict Studebaker factory and downtown, installing dark fiber and repositioning the region as a hub for future innovation. Today, it’s ready to welcome new residents and retain current ones with an attractive mix of prosperity and quality of life.
