City Disputes Battle Creek’s Ranking Among ‘Worst Cities To Raise Children’

The City of Battle Creek has taken exception to a recent ranking by the website 24/7 Wall St. that listed Battle Creek as one of the 25 worst cities to raise children in; in response, they have pulled out data refuting some claims.

The City says that they believe the website’s methodology was “lacking”, particularly in their use of the FBI Uniform Crime Report, particularly when the FBI itself says the crime statistics shouldn’t be used to rank cities. Battle Creek Police Chief Jim Blocker says in a release that “it is frustrating to see a statistic used without context”, and pointed to numbers that show that from 2010 to 2015, violent crime dropped while the city’s population increased.

Another statistic this ranking used, which is access to parks and recreation areas, the city says is also misleading; the source used in the report actually covers all of Calhoun County, not the city specifically, with Assistant City Manager Ted Dearing saying that he takes “real exception to the notion that there is not access” to places for recreation.

According to 24/7 Wall St, Battle Creek is the 22nd worst place to raise children in America, behind places like Texarkana, Texas but better than places like Memphis, Tennessee and Fairbanks, Alaska. Battle Creek was one of two Midwest cities to make the infamous list, the other being Danville, Illinois.