GREEN BAY, Wis. — It’s just a few steps for Susan Garot to leave her office and enter the greens and pastel colors of the Green Bay Botanical Garden.
It’s one of the amenities that makes up the landscape of Green Bay.
“People need a break from their day-to-day routines and places like the botanical garden provide those,” Garot said. “We provide a place — it is a sense of place — for people to come together to meet with their friends and families and neighbors in an environment that’s refreshing and inspiring and beautiful.”
She moved to Green Bay in the late 1970s for college and stayed.
“I’ve had a very fulfilling career here in this community. I’ve met a lot of people. I raised my children here,” said Garot, who is the executive director of the garden. “Even today, running into the parents of my kid’s friends. You just never know who you’re going to run into. It’s a small enough town that you almost know somebody everywhere you go.”
U.S. News & World Report recently ranked Green Bay as the number one metro area in the nation to live. It was chosen based on factors ranging from low crime to the cost of living and things to do and places to shop.
Eric Vanden Heuvel is the vice president of talent and education for the Greater Green Bay Chamber.
He said the ranking gives the area an opportunity to showcase itself to potential workers and businesses.
“We have low cost of living, ease of transportation, access to the outdoors, great schools, a low crime rate,” he said. “The list goes on and on and we can check all of those boxes in a really strong way. When this ranking comes out, it confirms a little bit of what we already know internally.”
That competition for talent can be fierce.
“We’re competing against everyone, not only in the in the state of Wisconsin but around the country,” Vanden Heuvel said. “When publicity like this comes out where we get an independent ranking that says this is a great place to live, it really reinforces the story we’re trying to tell.”
Garot said the ranking can help provide a fuller look at what Green Bay has to offer.
“Everybody knows Green Bay for the Packers, but I don’t think people know anything else about Green Bay,” she said. “This gives us an opportunity to tell a fuller story of what there is here. Not just jobs, but quality of life.”