Cleveland Magazine Rates the Suburbs: How Does Strongsville Rank?

Cleveland Magazine's annual Rating the Suburbs issue is out, and Strongsville gets a mention this year for its business growth.

Beachwood is listed as the suburb with "Business Savvy," but Strongsville is also noted as a "Like-Minded City."

"Businesses created more than 400 new jobs in 2011, and more are on the way with HDI Landing Gear, Precision Production and Sentro Tech set to move in this year," the magazine says.

The story also notes the new store slated to open next year on Pearl Road.

"The growth is good for residents, too, as the city added three new ball fields and a new playground to its array of services," the magazine says.

Economic Development Director Brent Painter credited the vision of Mayor Tom Perciak.

"Strongsville is blessed to have an innovative, growing business base and a pro-business mayor dedicated to economic development," Painter said.

Overall, Strongsville failed to crack the Top 20 Suburbs again. Bay Village was named best suburb to live in this year, up from ninth in 2011. 

No. 2 this year was Solon, followed by Twinsburg, Independence, Richfield Village and Westlake. Brecksville squeaked onto the list at 20.

In education rankings, Strongsville is 27th this year, down a bit from last year, when it ranked No. 24 of 77 communities.

Also down is this year.

Strongsville did make one of the magazine's Top 15 lists -- for most home sales. The city ranked fifth, with 303 houses sold last year, ranking behind Brunswick (320), Westlake (321), Lakewood (324) and Parma (452).

Median home sale price here was $167,500.

For the safety ratings, the magazine looked at the number of crimes per 1,000 residents. Police Chief Charles Goss last year questioned the methods used to rank communities, saying cities that are aggressive in pursuing crimes like drug offenses would appear to have more crime than those that don't.

He also said a city with a regional mall would have more thefts than other cities.

"I'm not sure the numbers necessarily reflect how safe people feel in their community," Goss told Strongsville Patch. "I think it can be misleading."