Morgantown has received kudos from national publications before, but usually in the “Small Cities” category. What makes their recent notation even more impressive is that there were no size categories this time – Morgantown was up against cities of all shapes and sizes, and still made the Top 100.

Relocate America, a source of community information and real-estate resources for people who are relocating, included Morgantown in its “Top 100 Places to Live 2008” list. The top 10 included Charlotte, San Antonio, Asheville, Seattle and other regions who typically make these lists. So Morgantown is in great company.

Why do these lists matter? Because they put West Virginia in a positive light among professionals and business location consultants. They are also wonderful recruiting tools for companies in West Virginia to use to convince talented young graduates to take a position here vs. one of the larger cities.

Create WV’s strategy is to advocate the empowerment of local communities around the state to re-create themselves to become “creative communities” that get national attention like Lewisburg, Berkeley Springs, and Morgantown. The more communities we have gaining national attention like this, the more perception-shift we can achieve for the entire state.

Congratulations Morgantown! We can’t wait for the day when we see Huntington, Beckley, Parkersburg, Wheeling, Point Pleasant, Ripley, Hinton and many others making these lists.