Green Bay gets an A-plus An economic survey ranks the area in the national top 25 for consistent growth By Ray Barrington News-Chronicle Green Bay is used to high rankings. It's been named an "All-America City" twice. It's rated well in violent-crime surveys. The University of Wisconsin-Green Bay was even in the top 25 in NCAA women's basketball. The economy here rates high as well, according to a survey by a Florida research firm. Policom Corp. of Jupiter, Fla., gave Green Bay an A-plus, ranking it 25th in the nation out of 318 metropolitan areas. The firm uses 18 indicators to set its rankings. Green Bay's rank is no surprise to Policom president William Fruth. Green Bay has not ranked lower than 27th in the eight years the survey has been done. Its highest rank was 17th in 1997 and 1998. "Green Bay's an example of what is basically a middle-class town. There are fewer and fewer of them around," Fruth said. "What's happened is that so many communities are losing high-wage jobs, and they're being replaced by lower-wage service jobs. You folks are able to maintain a large percentage of the work force in high-wage manufacturing and other things. As a result, you've maintained a high quality of economy compared to other metropolitan areas." Fruth uses U.S. Department of Commerce data and looks at a variety of areas including income, retail earnings and employment, construction earnings and employment and government assistance. The latest full-year data is from 2000; new data might be released next month. Fruth's rankings factor in the past 25 years for the cities, with special emphasis on the last 10. "It's not the fastest-growing, but it's how you've maintained growth and quality over an extended period of time," he said. "Green Bay did not suffer the tremendous demise like many communities in Ohio or Michigan. A lot of Wisconsin economies are like that; they didn't suffer as much from the fall of the 'Rust Belt' as did other states." One reason, he said, was Green Bay worked at keeping industry in town. "The active retention of industry program is very important, maybe the most important program, more than recruiting," Fruth said. "There's no glamour in it, so most communities don't do it." For the past two years, Austin-San Marcos, Texas, has been atop the list, followed by Denver, Colo. Odessa-Midland, Texas, an area hurt by collapse in oil prices, was last.