Bert Sperling

Last updated
Bert T. Sperling
BornBrooklyn, New York
OccupationAuthor
Demographer
Software Programmer
Public Speaker
Consultant
NationalityAmerican
EducationB.S. Engineering
Alma materOregon State University
Notable works"Cities Ranked & Rated"
"Best Places to Raise Your Family"
Website
www.bertsperling.com

Bertrand T. Sperling was born in 1950 in Brooklyn, New York. He is an author and researcher. His books and studies on quality of life in America have made him "an internationally recognized expert in cities." [1]

Contents

Work

Studies

Sperling is commissioned to carry out demographic studies which highlight a particular aspect of American life. Past studies have included "Funnest Cities to Live", [2] "Best Cities for Singles", [3] "Best Cities to Retire", [4] and "Best Cities for Women’s Health". [5]

Books

In 2004, Sperling released the 832-page Cities Ranked and Rated, co-authored by Peter Sander and published by John Wiley and Sons. [6] Sperling and Sander appeared on The Today Show in support of the book. [7]

The 864-page Second Edition of Cities Ranked and Rated was published in 2007. [8]

The 464-page Best Places to Raise Your Family was released in 2006 and again co-authored by Sander. [9]

Bestplaces.net

Sperling's interactive "Places, U.S.A." computer program evolved into the Sperling's BestPlaces (BestPlaces.net) website. Using quarterly-updated statistics from dozens of sources, the site is a free resource for people across the country seeking to relocate. The site is also used as a recreational learning tool and academic reference.

Sperling has been a guest [7] on the Today Show and featured [10] in The New York Times . The results of his studies have been mentioned in "The Simpsons" animated TV show, "The Tonight Show", as well as in clues in the popular trivia game show "Jeopardy!"

Controversy

The Simpsons episode "They Saved Lisa’s Brain" (Season 10, Episode 22) generated controversy for its mention of East St. Louis, Illinois as America's least livable city.

In the episode, Comic Book Guy announces that Springfield is 299th on a list of the United States' 300 most livable cities. East St. Louis is in last place. A journalist for a "local East St Louis [news]paper" noticed this, and called writer Matt Selman to ask him why they were "taking a shot at East St Louis." Selman jokingly replied: "because it's a crack-ridden slum." [11] The Simpsons staff received several angry letters from East St Louis' residents, demanding an apology. [12]

Career

Sperling founded Dataccount [13] [14] in the early 1980s, a company specializing in model-specific software for the emerging laptop market. For example, he entered the United States Tax Code into programmable calculators, which were then used by tax professionals for estate planning.

Sperling was quoted [15] in the May 7, 1984 issue of InfoWorld magazine for this expertise on portable computer programming. InfoWorld also turned to Sperling for his insight on the downfall of early laptop manufacturer Gavilan Computer in the magazine’s December 3, 1984 issue. [16]

Sperling started Fast Forward, Inc. in 1984 and wrote an interactive software program called "Places USA." It was the first application of its kind, allowing users to weigh their own criteria for what kind of lifestyle, amenities and demographic features were important for them. It then used these criteria and weightings to produce a list of the user’s ideal place to live, from a pool of the 300 largest metropolitan areas (MSA’s) in the U.S.

An article featuring the "Places USA" program appeared in the newspaper USA Today. In 1987 the editors of Money Magazine discovered his work and they commissioned him to compile their "Best Cities" lists. He continued to author these Money lists for nearly 20 years. [17]

Sperling served as a consultant to author William G. Zikmund in the writing of the 1989 book Exploring Marketing Research. [18]

The "Places USA" software application continued to be used by researchers as late as 1996, when William Seavey cited the program in his book Moving to Small Town America. [19]

In Academia

Quotes about Sperling

Richard Florida, professor at University of Toronto and head of the Rotman School of Management Martin Prosperity Institute said, "you need information based on life stage, job and a cluster and bundle of amenities, such as schools, health care, culture," adding that Sperling "tends to be good at assessing most, if not all, of that." [10]

Thomas Wetzel, president of the Retirement Living Information Center in Redding, Connecticut believes the BestPlaces.net website is "the only one that does the comparisons people are looking for." [10]

Data Sources

For the Bestplaces.net website, as well as the rankings in his books and media studies, Sperling uses a wide variety of data sources. Most of this data is public domain and compiled by government organizations, providing objectivity and third-party accountability.

Sources include the U.S. Census Bureau, the FBI, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Personal life

Sperling lived in Brooklyn for about a year following his birth. He grew up in San Diego, Oslo, Norway, Key West, Florida, and Carmel, California. [10]

He graduated from Oregon State University in 1974 with a degree in Engineering. He was recently[ when? ] featured in an article in his alma mater’s alumni magazine. [24]

After college Sperling moved to Portland, Oregon. He currently splits his time between Portland and Depoe Bay, Oregon. He has two adult sons with his wife Gretchen.

Related Research Articles

Tandy Corporation was an American family-owned leather-goods company based in Fort Worth, Texas, United States. Tandy Leather was founded in 1919 as a leather supply store. By the end of the 1950s, under the tutelage of then-CEO Charles Tandy, the company expanded into the hobby market, making leather moccasins and coin purses, making huge sales among Scouts, leading to a fast growth in sales.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hoboken, New Jersey</span> City in Hudson County, New Jersey, U.S.

Hoboken is a city in Hudson County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Hoboken is part of the New York metropolitan area and is the site of Hoboken Terminal, a major transportation hub. As of the 2020 United States census, the city's population was 60,419, an increase of 10,414 (+20.8%) from the 2010 census count of 50,005, which in turn reflected an increase of 11,428 (+29.6%) from the 38,577 counted in the 2000 census. The Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program calculated a population of 57,010 for 2023, making it the 708th-most populous municipality in the nation. With more than 42,400 inhabitants per square mile (16,400/km2) in data from the 2010 census, Hoboken was ranked as the third-most densely populated municipality in the United States among cities with a population above 50,000. In the 2020 census, the city's population density climbed to more than 48,300 inhabitants per square mile (18,600/km2) of land, ranked fourth in the county behind Guttenberg, Union City and West New York.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MacPaint</span> Graphics editing software by Apple Computer

MacPaint is a raster graphics editor developed by Apple Computer and released with the original Macintosh personal computer on January 24, 1984. It was sold separately for US$195 with its word processing counterpart, MacWrite. MacPaint was notable because it could generate graphics that could be used by other applications. It taught consumers what a graphics-based system could do by using the mouse, the clipboard, and QuickDraw picture language. Pictures could be cut from MacPaint and pasted into MacWrite documents.

Computer magazines are about computers and related subjects, such as networking and the Internet. Most computer magazines offer advice, some offer programming tutorials, reviews of the latest technologies, and advertisements.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1984 (advertisement)</span> 1983 television commercial by Ridley Scott

"1984" is an American television commercial that introduced the Apple Macintosh personal computer. It was conceived by Steve Hayden, Brent Thomas, and Lee Clow at Chiat/Day, produced by New York production company Fairbanks Films, and directed by Ridley Scott. The ad was an allusion to George Orwell's noted 1949 novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four, which described a dystopian future ruled by a televised "Big Brother". English athlete Anya Major performed as the unnamed heroine and David Graham as Big Brother. In the US, it first aired in 10 local outlets, including Twin Falls, Idaho, where Chiat/Day ran the ad on December 31, 1983, at the last possible break before midnight on KMVT, so that the advertisement qualified for the 1984 Clio Awards. Its second televised airing, and only US national airing, was on January 22, 1984, during a break in the third quarter of the telecast of Super Bowl XVIII by CBS.

<i>Q*bert</i> 1982 Video game

Q*bert is an arcade video game developed and published for the North American market by Gottlieb in 1982. It is a 2D action game with puzzle elements that uses isometric graphics to create a pseudo-3D effect. The objective of each level in the game is to change every cube in a pyramid to a target color by making Q*bert, the on-screen character, hop on top of the cube while avoiding obstacles and enemies. Players use a joystick to control the character.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glencoe High School (Oregon)</span> High school in the United States

Glencoe High School is a public secondary school in Hillsboro, Oregon that is part of the Hillsboro School District. It was founded in 1980 to relieve overcrowding at Hillsboro High School caused by the city's rapid expansion. Glencoe High is the second oldest of the four high schools in the city. Glencoe is classified as a 6A school for activities and sports. It takes its name from the former community of Glencoe. In 2003, the school, along with all schools in the district, made national news when 17 days of classes were cut from the school year due to budget cuts to education in Oregon. IN 2016, the graduation rate was 86%.

<i>The Daily Pennsylvanian</i> Student newspaper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

The Daily Pennsylvanian, Inc. is the independent student media organization of the University of Pennsylvania. The DP, Inc. publishes The Daily Pennsylvanian newspaper, 34th Street magazine, and Under the Button, as well as five newsletters: The Daily Pennsylvanian, The Weekly Roundup, The Toast, Quaker Nation, and Penn, Unbuttoned.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson</span> 1st episode of the 9th season of The Simpsons

"The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson" is the first episode of the ninth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It was originally broadcast on Fox in the United States on September 21, 1997, as the 179th episode of the series. The episode features the Simpson family traveling to Manhattan to recover the family car, which was taken by Barney Gumble and abandoned outside the World Trade Center, where it had been repeatedly posted with parking tickets, and disabled with a parking boot.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Dad Who Knew Too Little</span> 8th episode of the 14th season of The Simpsons

"The Dad Who Knew Too Little" is the eighth episode of the fourteenth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on January 12, 2003. In the episode, Homer disappoints Lisa on her birthday when he gives her a thoughtless present. He realizes that he knows little about her and decides to hire private detective Dexter Colt to spy on her.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trilogy of Error</span> 18th episode of the 12th season of The Simpsons

"Trilogy of Error" is the eighteenth episode of the twelfth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons, and the 266th episode overall. It originally aired on Fox in the United States on April 29, 2001. In the episode, Homer's rush to the hospital to re-attach his severed thumb, Lisa's rush to school to win the science fair, and Bart's run-in with an illegal fireworks scheme are interconnected as each act tells the events of the same day, but from a different point of view.

"They Saved Lisa's Brain" is the twenty-second and penultimate episode of the tenth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It first aired on Fox in the United States on May 9, 1999. In the episode, after writing a thoughtful letter to the Springfield Shopper, Lisa is invited to join the Springfield chapter of Mensa. When Mayor Quimby later flees Springfield, the group takes control of the town, hoping to improve the lives of Springfieldians through the rule of the smartest. Meanwhile, Homer poses for a series of erotic photos.

<i>The Simpsons</i> season 13 Season of television series

The thirteenth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons originally aired on the Fox network between November 6, 2001, and May 22, 2002, and consists of 22 episodes. The showrunner for the thirteenth production season was Al Jean, who executive-produced 17 episodes. Mike Scully executive-produced the remaining five, which were all hold-overs that were produced for the previous season. The Simpsons is an animated series about an American family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie. The show is set in the fictional city of Springfield, and lampoons American culture, society, television and many aspects of the human condition. This is also the last full season to use cel animation, though four episodes from this season's production cycle would air during the following season as holdover episodes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1964 Baltimore Colts season</span> 12th season in franchise history; first NFL Championship loss

The 1964 Baltimore Colts season was the 12th season of the second Colts franchise in the National Football League. The Colts finished the regular season with a record of 12 wins and 2 losses, good for first place in the Western Conference. It was their first conference title since 1959.

The 1956 Iowa Hawkeyes football team was an American football team that represented the University of Iowa in the 1956 Big Ten Conference football season. The Hawkeyes were champions of the Big Ten Conference and beat the Oregon State Beavers in the 1957 Rose Bowl, a rematch of a regular season game.

Corona Data Systems, later renamed Cordata, was an American personal computer company. It was one of the earliest IBM PC compatible computer system companies. Manufacturing was primarily done by Daewoo of Korea, which became a major investor in the company and ultimately the owner.

"The Day the Earth Stood Cool" is the seventh episode of the twenty-fourth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. The episode was directed by Matthew Faughnan and written by Matt Selman. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on December 9, 2012.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rimsky-Korsakoffee House</span> Coffeehouse in Portland, Oregon, U.S.

Rimsky-Korsakoffee House, located in the Buckman neighborhood of southeast Portland, Oregon, in the United States, is one of the city's oldest coffeehouses. Named after Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, the classical music-themed coffeehouse serves coffee and desserts, operating from the former living room of a reportedly haunted 1902 Craftsman-style house. Goody Cable started the business in 1980, having hosted classical music events in her home for years prior.

The Town (<i>The Simpsons</i>) 3rd episode of the 28th season of The Simpsons

"The Town" is the third episode of the twenty-eighth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons, and the 599th episode of the series overall. The episode was directed by Rob Oliver and written by Dave King. It aired in the United States on Fox on October 9, 2016.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pixelated and Afraid</span> 12th episode of the 33rd season of The Simpsons

"Pixelated and Afraid" is the 12th episode of the 33rd season of the American animated television series The Simpsons, and the 718th episode overall. It aired in the United States on Fox on February 27, 2022. The episode was directed by Chris Clements and written by John Frink. The title is a spoof of Naked and Afraid.

References

  1. Gull, Cathy (August 27, 2008). "Canada's Smartest Cities". Macleans. Archived from the original on 8 March 2012. Retrieved 7 March 2012.
  2. Cranium, Inc. "America's Funnest Cities". Netscape Internet Service. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 27 March 2012.
  3. "Best Cities for Singles". Yahoo! News. Archived from the original on 14 March 2012. Retrieved 27 March 2012.
  4. "Best Cities for Retirement" (PDF). Center for a Secure Retirement. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 October 2011. Retrieved 27 March 2012.
  5. Goad and Mickle, Kimberly and Kelly. "10 Healthiest Cities for Women". Self Magazine. Archived from the original on 22 November 2011. Retrieved 27 March 2012.
  6. Sperling, Bert (2004). Cities Ranked & Rated. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. pp.  832. ISBN   0-7645-2562-X.
  7. 1 2 "Think your city is best?". Today Show. MSNBC. Archived from the original on 17 September 2012. Retrieved 7 March 2012.
  8. Sperling, Bert (2007). Cities Ranked & Rated, 2nd Edition. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. pp.  864. ISBN   978-0-470-06864-9.
  9. Sperling, Bert (2006). Best Places to Raise Your Family. Hoboken, NJ: Frommers. ISBN   0471746991.
  10. 1 2 3 4 Tugend, Alina (May 6, 2007). "The Guy Who Picks The Best Places To Live". The New York Times. Retrieved 7 March 2012.
  11. Selman, Matt. (2007). Commentary for "They Saved Lisa's Brain", in The Simpsons: The Complete Tenth Season [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
  12. Scully, Mike. (2007). Commentary for "They Saved Lisa's Brain", in The Simpsons: The Complete Tenth Season [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
  13. Sperling, Bert (April 5, 1982). "Reader Denigrates Craig M-100's Worth". Infoworld. Retrieved 27 March 2012.
  14. Bartimo, Jim (May 7, 1984). "A 'Real' Computer In Your Lap?". InfoWorld. Retrieved 27 March 2012.
  15. Bartimo, Jim (May 7, 1984). "A 'Real' Computer In Your Lap?". InfoWorld. Retrieved 27 March 2012.
  16. Bartimo, Jim (December 3, 1984). "Gavilan: A $31 Million Venture Capital Nightmare". InfoWorld. Retrieved 27 March 2012.
  17. "Best Places to Retire". Money Magazine. Retrieved 27 March 2012.
  18. Zikmund, William (1989). Exploring Market Research. University of California: Dryden Press. p. 824. ISBN   0030229634.
  19. Seavey, William (1996). Moving to Small Town America. Real Estate Education Co. p. 149. ISBN   0793114276.
  20. Pettijohn, Terry; Greg Williams; Tiffany Carter (November 2010). "Music for the Seasons" (PDF). Current Psychology: 18. doi:10.1007/s12144-010-9092-8. S2CID   56037002.
  21. Edenfield, Karin. "The Impact of Right-to-Work Laws on Interstate Cost of Living". Archived from the original on 13 July 2012. Retrieved 27 March 2012.
  22. Rappaport, Jordan. "Consumption Amenities and City Crowdedness" (PDF). Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. Retrieved 27 March 2012.
  23. Baird, Jim. "Black Employment Opportunities: The Role of Immigrant Job Concentrations". Georgia State University. Retrieved 27 March 2012.
  24. Miller, Kevin (26 September 2011). "College of Business Alum Featured in the Oregon Stater". Oregon State University. Retrieved 27 March 2012.