Here are the cities with the best jobs-to-job seekers ratios:

1. Washington, D.C.: 6-1
2. Jacksonville, Fla.: 3-1
3. Baltimore: 1-1
4. Salt Lake City: 1-2
5. New York: 1-2
6. San Jose: 1-2
7. Hartford: 1-2
8. Oklahoma City: 1-3
9. Austin: 1-3
10. Boston: 1-3
11. New Orleans: 1-3
12. San Antonio: 1-3
13. Seattle: 1-3
14. Denver: 1-3
15. San Francisco: 1-3

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However you go about it, you know one when you see one. Stroll around Wrigleyville before a Cubs game, for instance, and it’s pretty clear you’re someplace special. Same with Fenway Park.

It’s not just a number, it’s a feeling.

Which are America’s best sports cities? It’s a list sure to stir up some debate, but here are 10 that have to be in any discussion:

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Here’s our totally arbitrary list of the best American towns to visit:

1. New York: Central Park. The Theater District. Times Square. Food. History by bus, boat or foot. Two new baseball stadiums. What more do you need?

2. Chicago: Architecture. The Arts. A cool downtown river scene. The lake. And, oh yes, the Cubs!

3. San Francisco: Okay, so Mark Twain said the coldest winter he ever spent was a summer in San Francisco. Pack a sweater and get over it. A great town with a rich and diverse population and just about any kind of food you’d ever imagine consuming. Walk across the Golden Gate Bridge. Drive out to the Wine Country. Drink Irish coffee at the Buena Vista. You can hit the treadmill when you get back.

4. Boston: Arguably America’s best walking town. You can take in a huge chunk of American history on foot, stopping only for the occasional microbrew and maybe a lobster. If you like baseball, pay what it takes to mix in a Red Sox game at Fenway. You won’t be disappointed.

5. Seattle: There’s a myth that it’s always raining in Seattle. Not so. When the sun is out, in fact, this is one of the prettiest towns around. It’s not close to much of anything, and the locals seem to like it that way. Check out Pike Market and catch a sunset over the Sound. It’s worth the trip.

6. Denver: You can get a car and head out to the mountains, but there’s plenty to do in town as well. A really cool zoo. A much improved restaurant and bar scene. And few baseball stadiums can rival the backdrop of Coors Field, which offers an impressive view of the real Rockies.

7. Austin: The Texas capital and home of the University of Texas isn’t the sleepy college town it used to be. Check out Sixth Street, or soak up some real Texana at the Texas Chili Parlor. If you want to be outside, Lake Travis is a short drive West, or you can get more ambitious and venture out into the Hill Country. There’s a good reason Austin has the most educated waitperson population in America — no one wants to leave.

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The magazine assessed quality of life in the nation’s largest continental metropolitan statistical areas, as defined by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget. Areas with populations smaller than 500,000 were not considered. The rest were rated across five sets of data: Five-year income growth per household and cost of living from Moody’s Economy.com, crime data and leisure index from Sperling’s Best Places, and annual unemployment statistics from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Who were the big winners?

Here’s the list:

15. Little Rock, Ark

14. Peabody, Mass.

13. Madison, Wisc.

12. Harrisburg, Pa.

11. Denver, Colo.

10. Pittsburgh, Pa.

9. Worcester, Mass.

8. Baltimore, Md.

7. Cambridge, Mass.

6. Oklahoma City, Okla.

5. Tulsa, Okla.

4. Stamford, Conn.

3. Des Moines, Iowa

2. Bethesda, Md.

1. Portland, Me.

To read about what makes these cities so resident-friendly, and to see a slideshow, check out Forbes.

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Nalgene’s least wasteful city study was produced from a survey of 3,750 Americans in the top 25 largest cities that sought to probe their “mindset.” Respondents were asked about their green habits, such as whether they used public transportation and reusable grocery bags or composted and reused containers. Read more in our story: US cities ranked on wasteful ways. San Francisco took top honors as the most mindfully-least-wastefully green city:

1. San Francisco, CA
2. New York City, NY
3. Portland, OR
4. Seattle, WA
5. Los Angeles, CA
6. Denver, CO
7. Minneapolis, MN
8. Washington, D.C.
9. Boston, MA
10. Philadelphia, PA
11. Chicago, IL
12. Baltimore, MD
13. Detroit, MI
14. Pittsburgh, PA
15. Orlando, FL
16. Cleveland, OH
17. Sacramento, CA
18. Miami, FL
19. Tampa, FL
20. Phoenix, AZ
21. St. Louis, MO
22. Houston, TX
23. Indianapolis, IN
24. Dallas, TX
25. Atlanta, GA

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A new national survey conducted by the Pew Research Center reveals that 46 percent of the American public would like to live in a different type of community than the one in which they currently reside. City dwellers, in particular, seem to be suffering from wanderlust.

So, where does everyone want to go? Those mountains and ski resorts may be getting even more crowded, since Denver tops the nation’s “wish” list.

Who else might be about to see a population surge? Here are the top 10, according to Pew:

Denver
San Diego
Seattle
Orlando
Tampa
San Francisco
Phoenix
Portland
Sacramento
San Antonio

To read about the survey, and to see the rest of the list, visit Pew Research Center.

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Ancient computers. Outdated software. Systems your average teenager wouldn’t touch with a 10-foot pole.

Fortunately, that isn’t the norm.

Forbes is out with a list of America’s Most Wired Cities. Since 2007, the publication has computed the percentage of Internet users with high-speed connections and the number of companies providing high-speed Internet to see which towns were on the cutting edge. The number of public wireless Internet hot spots are factored in, too.

Who’s No. 1 at the start of 2009? None other than Seattle, home to Microsoft and Amazon.com.

Here’s the Top 10:

1. Seattle

2. Atlanta

3. Washington, D.C.

4. Orlando

5. Boston

6. Miami

7. Minneapolis

8. Denver

9. New York

10. Baltimore

To see the rest, and to read more about how the rankings were determined, visit Forbes.

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Despite the housing market struggles and a downturn in gaming revenues, Las Vegas still beckons to people looking for a fresh start, according to an analysis of moving requests from 2008 by Relocation.com. The data revealed that on a per-capita basis for cities with more than 1 million people, Las Vegas retained its top spot as the No. 1 destination for people looking to make a long distance state-to-state move.

Although the recession has spared no one area of the country, cities in the West and South continue to appeal to people relocating, whether it is moving to take a new job or finding a new home with more solid economic opportunities.

Here are the top cities that people are expected to move to:

1. Las Vegas
2. Denver
3. Charlotte, N.C.
4. Phoenix/Mesa
5. Portland, Ore.
6. Seattle
7. Orlando, Fla.
8. Washington, D.C.
9. Atlanta
10. Tampa Bay/St. Petersburg, Fla.

Based on requests for moving quotes in 2008 and leading into 2009, the data is a strong indicator of consumer behavior for the coming year. Michigan and Ohio are declining likely due to automotive industry and other manufacturing job losses. However, North and South Carolina have gained and are expected to keep gaining.

For every 100 people looking to move to Michigan, 210 were looking to move out of the state. Ohioans also saw more people relocating: for every 100 people looking to move to Ohio, 150 requested moving quotes to move out of state.

The biggest beneficiary of these population displacements is North Carolina, which saw nearly 80 percent more requests to move to North Carolina than to leave (for every 100 people requesting moving quotes to leave the state, 180 indicated they wanted to move to it). South Carolina also saw a jump with nearly 70 percent more requests to move to the state than to leave, while Texas saw 66 percent more, and Georgia saw 36 percent more.

Relocation.com analyzed nearly 500,000 moving quote requests in 2008 to determine where people are moving. Figures from the U.S. census bureau indicate that 34 million people moved between 2007 and 2008. The company estimates that about three out of four people who make an inquiry on the Relocation.com family of sites, actually move within 12 months, representing nearly 3 percent of all Americans who move. The Census Bureau says the vast majority of movers in the U.S. make local moves; according to 2006 data, 62 percent of people making a move stayed within the same county, while 20 percent moved to a different county but within the same state. Fourteen percent moved state to state, while 3 percent moved from abroad.

Source: Relocation.com

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MarketWatch is just out with its annual list of the Top 10 Business Cities for 2008. These are towns that appear best equipped to ride out the recession with the fewest bankruptcies, foreclosures, layoffs, etc.

For the second straight year, a Midwestern metropolitan area occupies the top spot.

Here’s the list:

1. Minneapolis-St. Paul
2. Boston
3. Denver
4. Washington
5. Richmond, Va.
6. Charlotte, N.C.
7. Columbus, Ohio
8. Nashville, Tenn.
9. Dallas
10. San Francisco

To find out how these cities made the list, and to see a slideshow, visit MarketWatch.

Sponsored list:

• Hotel offers under $99 (feed)

How many hotel rooms? How many countries sent journalists to cover the event? What will Invesco Field at Mile High hold for Obama’s big acceptance speech?

PBS decided to find out the answers to these and other pressing questions. Here’s a a sampling of their breakdown of the convention, strictly by the numbers:

76,000: Seats at Invesco Field

120: Minimum number of bloggers credentialed to cover the convention

130: Countries sending journalists to the cover the convention

400: Maximum number of people who can be detained at “holding pens” designed to corral disruptive protesters

1908: The last time Denver hosted the Democratic National Convention

100: Hotels hosting convention delegates, visitors and media

17,000: Hotel rooms booked for the convention

21,000: Convention volunteers

46,000,000: Dollars the host committee is required to raise for the convention

If you want to read more, visit PBS.org.