Money Magazine has published its annual list of "Best places to live" in these here United States, with the highest ranking Bay Area city coming at number 31. While we've never visited the winning city of Fort Collins, Colorado, we have read that Thomas Frank book, and we're highly skeptical that Overland Park, Kansas (#6) is somewhere we'd like to call home. And weather wimps that we are, Boise, Idaho (#8) and Eden Prairie, Minnesota (#10) don't seem very liveable.

But back to the best place to live in the Bay Area. What might that eminently liveable locale be? Is it Berkeley, with its gourmet restaurants, used bookstores, and internet savvy parents? Is it the bastion of urban planning that is Walnut Creek? What about Wal-Mart hating Hercules? No, no, and no. The winner, or at least the 31st best place to live in America is Livermore. We're a bit confounded as to what makes Livermore a better place to live than anywhere else in the Bay Area, as the only impression we have of Livermore is its consistently top marks in the highest Bay Area temperature competition, though according to Money Magazine, Livermore's high temperature in July is only 89.1 F.

As just last week, the Oakland Tribune reported with the obligatory splashing small children photo, Livermore reached 115 degrees, we hestitate to accuse Money Magazine with purposely misleading readers with reports of moderate summer temperatures, luring eager young families who want to live in the best place, because the CNN-affiliated publication is in league with a Livermore child molester. We prefer the equally far-fetched explanation, that Money Magazine received their innacurate weather information from legendary Livermorean, Mike Litoris.

Image of the Livermore Rotary Club

SFist Sarah L, contributing