Just read an interesting book
Who is your city (Florida). It's kind of counter to
The World is Flat (Friedman). Basically Florida argues that place matters and that wealth is created by ideas , not by converting raw materials into products, ie a "creative" economy (think Microsoft, Google vs GM). He also argues that there are "creative" economies of scale and thus industries cluster (computers in CA, Finance in NYC, entertainment in LA for example). This is what is driving up the cost of living in these mega regions.
Anyway - Florida has done lots of research via surveys etc. on "place" - one thing that was interesting was that safety, education, health care & infrastructure were a given - ie if a place didn't have them, then no-one would be interested in living there, thus property values would decline. What differentiates the "great" places from the acceptable places are beauty and culture - ie parks, art, theater, restaurants etc. Not that you'll necessarily partake on a routine basis, but that feeling of knowing you can if you want to, makes the place more desirable.
As a side note on the economy - Florida shows data that the income gap is widening between his so called "creative class" and those in the "old economy" especially as "mundane" manufacturing is moved offshore to Asia. A Corallary to this is that regions will diverge as well - Detroit will continue to decline unless it can attract more "creative" industry while LA will continue to prosper as the Entertainment capitol of the world. One thing I've noticed is that just about every city/state I can think of is trying to attract "green" industry (alt energy etc.) - which is seen as the next big thing in terms of the creative economy.
