Kiplinger’s Names Burlington, VT one of the 10 Best Cities for the Next Decade

Kiplinger’s focused on “out-of-the-box thinking” in their latest search for the best 10 cities for growth and growth potential in the next decade. The three factors deemed to spark innovation, jobs and a wonderful place to live and work are smart people, great ideas and collaboration. Here’s what they say about Burlington, VT:

Burlington’s local-food movement perhaps best tells the story of how environmentalism drives much of the city’s economic growth. Many shops and restaurants along Burlington’s Church Street Marketplace, the famous pedestrian mall, serve up local goodies. A couple blocks over, the City Market/Onion River Co-Op, a community-owned grocery store, offers more than 1,000 Vermont products. (And atop the supermarket, generating 3% of the Co-Op’s energy needs — enough electricity to power six Burlington homes — are 136 solar panels from groSolar, another Vermont-based company.) And the crown jewel for locavores: The Intervale Center is a nonprofit organization that has managed 350 acres of family-owned farmland in Burlington since 1988 and provides 10% of the town’s food. “We’re 30 years ahead of the country with the local-food movement. . .”