B.R. plummets in Best-Performing Cities index

Baton Rouge saw a steep decline in a national list of Best-Performing Cities, falling 63 spots from last year’s ranking. The capital city ranks 89th on the 2011 survey by the Milken Institute. In 2010, it ranked 26th. The slide is the ninth-worst among the 200 measured metropolitan areas. Lafayette ranked No. 1 overall in steepest decline, falling from 11th to 93rd. The Best-Performing Cities Index ranks U.S. metropolitan areas by ability to create and sustain jobs and to foster economic growth. The list considers such factors as a boom in energy production, higher demand for business equipment and resilient housing markets.
The ranking is the latest diminished showing for Baton Rouge, which the Brookings Institution on Thursday downgraded to its list of 40 weakest U.S. metros. The city, which had consistently ranked in the top 20 of Brookings’ quarterly MetroMonitor list, fell into its “middle 20” category for the fourth quarter of 2010 before being placed in the “second-weakest 20,” or the bottom 40, for the third quarter of 2011. See a complete list of the Milken Institute rankings here and a report on the Brookings Institution’s latest findings on U.S. metros here.