La Crosse among Wisconsin communities topping AARP’s livability list

The city of La Crosse may seem like a nice enough place. Also it’s pretty livable, according to new rankings by the AARP.

The group has La Crosse ranked as the third most livable small community in the U.S.

And, for good reasons, says Jim Flaherty, in the AARP Wisconsin office. He says La Crosse has, among other things; lots of parks, affordable housing and great healthcare access.

“All those things roll up to say, ‘Boy this is one of Wisconsin’s, and the country’s, most livable communities,’” Flaherty said.

Flaherty does admit, however, that not everything is perfect in the city.

“With every community you’re going to have some good scores in some areas and some bad scores in (others),” he said.

Wisconsin has six communities overall among the small, medium and large most livable, according to the group.

And, about half of all of the most livable places are in the midwest. There’s reasons for that, Flaherty says.

“Environment is very good up in the midwest, access to parks, lots of open spaces here,” Flaherty said. “You get into some of the larger cities and it’s a little bit more confined.

La Crosse is on the small community livable index right behind two other Wisconsin cities — Fitchburg and Sheboygan. Madison is No. 1 for medium cities, while Milwaukee comes in fifth for big cities.

According to the index, La Crosse does really well on some health care measures. Not so good on some issues related to air pollution and availability of public transportation.