Topeka makes Kiplinger's Top 10 Best Cities for Next Decade list

The city of Topeka has spent the last year just trying to earn a little bit of respect. On Tuesday, it finally got its wish.

Topeka, Kan., was named to the Kiplinger Personal Finance magazine's Top Ten Best Cities for the Next Decade list as the No. 10 Best City. The other cities on the list are Austin, Texas; Seattle; Washington, D.C.; Boulder, Colo.; Salt Lake City; Rochester, Minn.; Des Moines, Iowa; Burlington, Vt.; West Hartford, Conn.

The magazine boasted about Topeka's job security, quality of people and even about Washburn University.

"In its reserved, Midwestern way, Topeka has engineered a prosperity that most cities of similar size would envy," the article said. "As the capital city of Kansas, nearly 25 percent of Topeka's work force is employed by the government, providing a stable job market where unemployment has stayed around 7 percent. The city boasts quality schools, friendly people, good hospitals, a university and — one of its biggest selling points — low housing costs."

But the major point behind Topeka's meteoric rise to the Top 10 was its growth potential, something that has been made evident by projects such as Think Big Topeka, the North Topeka Arts District and Heartland Visioning. As Topeka made national news for its courtship with Google, which included Google's April Fool's Day name change to "Topeka," it became apparent that times are changing in Top City.

After the list was made official, a Facebook fan page was started by Kiplinger to allow fans to vote for Topeka as their favorite city. The fan page can be accessed at http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/pages/Kiplingers-2010-Best-Cities-for-Your-Future-Topeka-KS/120223668013443.

To read the Kiplinger article, go to http://www.kiplinger.com/magazine/archives/10-best-cities-2010-for-the-next-decade.html.