Haddonfield Ranked No. 2 Town in SJ, But Is That Good News?

South Jersey Magazine ranked Haddonfield as No. 2 in its annual Top Towns rankings this month.

By all accounts that should be good news for this bucolic borough of quaint neighborhoods nestled amongst 10,000 trees, until you consider Haddonfield had been ranked No. 1 for as long as anyone can remember. This year, Haddonfield finished behind Medford, which was ranked No. 4 last year.

"You can make an argument for Haddonfield being No. 1 every year," said Peter Proko, editor-in-chief of South Jersey Magazine. "This is a celebration of top towns in South Jersey and not a listing of worse towns."

But despite Proko's caveat, there has already been some grumbling. He said he has spoken with several disgruntled South Jersey mayors about their town's rank. Haddonfield's mayor Tish Colombi was not among the callers.

The magazine collects data from the region to compile the rankings, which are calculated by Niranjan Pati, the dean of the Rohrer College of Business at Rowan University.

"That data, gleaned from 2011 figures, included average residential property value, low residential taxes per average residential value, crime incidents reported per 1,000 people, and high school performance (SAT scores, proportion of college-bound graduates, and the rate at which students passed the statewide proficiency test), in addition to new criterion such as the number of physicians in the area as well as recreational offerings," according to the magazine. "The rankings were split between towns with populations of more than 8,000 and those with fewer than 8,000 residents.

"The results not only led us to a new No. 1, but produced shakeups throughout the list. Cherry Hill, not ranked in 2011, catapulted to No. 6. Glassboro, a town undergoing a bit of a resurgence, thanks to Rowan’s expansion, made their debut at No. 21. Meanwhile, West Deptford, also new to the list this year, jumped all the way to No. 3. All told, of the 25 towns, 13 are in Burlington County, seven in Gloucester and five in Camden counties."

See the complete rankings here.