Text from Bloomberg website:

• Best Place to Raise Kids in Arizona: Oro Valley
• Population: 40,422
• GreatSchools city score: 9
• Median family income: $83,409
• Housing costs as a percentage of income: 19.1%
• County unemployment rate: 7.1%
• Nearby city: Tucson

This Arizona burg isn’t just for snowbirds escaping the cold North—it’s become a major base for biotech firms, fueled by research at nearby Tucson’s University of Arizona and the town’s own Innovation Park.

http://images.businessweek.com/slideshows/2012-12-17/the-best-places-to-raise-kids-2013#slide4

Congrats, Oro Valley!

The city of Sedona lives up to its vision to “be a city that is animated by the arts” in a variety of ways, including its Artist in the Classroom program. Funded by the city since 1989, it provides quality arts education to students of all ages. The program pays an hourly stipend to a roster of approximately 25 local artists and funds an arts education coordinator to organize and monitor the program. Projects include dance, sculpting, creative writing, origami, drumming, mural painting, cartooning, and storytelling, just to name a few.

Image: Mural at Sedona Red Rock High School created by students in the Spanish Club.