Dallas Suburb Named One of the Best Places to Live in US
26th March 2025
Plano, the so-called “hot air balloon capital of Texas,” landed at No. 6 in the 10 Best Cities in the U.S. to Live In 2025 from Niche, a data-driven platform used to provide information on schools, cities and real estate across the U.S. Niche defines a city as “a principal city for an urbanized area with a population of 100,000 or more.”
Uh, okay. Kind of like getting a literary prize for Best Typeface, but okay.
The recently published list used data from Niche, an AI platform that Forbes says offers “insights into cities, suburbs and neighborhoods across the U.S.” Niche analyzes categories such as best city, best neighborhood, and best spots for young professionals. Niche likes what it sees in Plano.
I’m curious: Why would anybody care about what a AI picks, given the egregious errors of which AI has been guilty? (Other than a published periodical that needs attention, of course.)
Now, I live in Plano and I think it’s a pretty good place to live, but ‘sixth best in the U.S.’? I’m not sure I buy that.
Niche gives Plano an overall score of A+, with its public schools, jobs, nightlife, diversity and health and fitness all receiving A scores. For Dallas-dwellers who rarely venture north of Interstate 635, hearing that Plano is a diverse city with lots of fun to be had might come as a shock, but both are true. According to the latest census, Plano’s population is 53% white, 22% Asian, 16% Hispanic or Latino and 9% Black. A 2020 Dallas Morning News report noted that Plano was slightly more diverse than Dallas.
Ah, there we go. Apparently some people consider ‘diversity’ a feature rather than a bug. I venture to suggest that it’s not so much the ‘diversity’ as it is the type of ‘diversity’ that’s important.