Peoria not playing well in city ranking

PEORIA, Ill., May 10 (UPI) -- Peoria, Ill., faired relatively poorly in a survey of most desirable U.S. cities in which to live.

The new edition of "Cities Ranked and Rated" pushed Peoria down to 125th on the list of 400 cities, a big fall from the number 51 ranking it had in 2004, the Peoria Journal-Star said Thursday.

The book by Bert Sperling and Peter Sander rated Gainesville, Fla., as the best place in America to live.

The book described Peoria as a quiet city with a "clean and unremarkable" downtown, the newspaper said. The survey liked Peoria's health-care agencies and cost of living but disliked the city's air service and entertainment options.