Chattanooga ranked as the fourth-worst run large city in the country. All Tennessee big cities rank poorly in analysis of best-run cities.

by Jon Styf, The Center Square- A new report from WalletHub ranks Chattanooga, Tennessee, as the fourth-worst run large city in the country, behind Washington, D.C., San Francisco and New York. Not far behind, at No. 133, was Memphis while Knoxville was 113th and Nashville ranked 111th. 

The rankings of the top 150 cities in population in the country were calculated using financial stability, education, health, safety, economy and infrastructure and pollution as the basis. WalletHub used 38 different metrics to score the cities in those areas, including a total budget per capita figure. Some of the statistics included are the rankings of K-12 schools, crime rate and transit scores. 

“We can learn how well city officials manage and spend public funds by comparing the quality of services residents receive against the city’s total budget,” study author and financial writer Adam McCann wrote.

One area that hurt Chattanooga the most in the rankings was its budget per capita, which ranked 146th. Memphis was hurt most in the rankings by its lack of quality city services and both health and safety, where it ranked 149th out of 150. Memphis also had one of the highest infant mortality rates. 

None of the Tennessee cities ranked in the top five in any of the breakout categories in the study, but Nashville was tied for the worst in long-term outstanding debt per capita. Chattanooga has been ranked in the top 10 worst-run cities by WalletHub each of the past five years. Knoxville ranked 18th in infrastructure and pollution while it was just outside the top 20 in education and financial stability.

 Nashville was ranked ninth in economy. 

Two Idaho cities, Nampa and Boise, were atop the rankings while Lexington-Fairfield, Kentucky, ranked fifth.

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