City rankings: Cedar Rapids scores high for affordability, volunteerism, and — ahem — bedbugs

CEDAR RAPIDS - Cedar Rapids ranks among the nation's best in a few areas: two brag-worthy categories and one cringe-worthy.

SmartAsset ranked Cedar Rapids as the No. 4 best mid-sized city in the country. The Corporation for National and Community Service lists Cedar Rapids at No. 7 for volunteer rate among mid-sized cities. And, pest control specialist, Orkin, ranked Cedar Rapids, in a regional pairing with Waterloo and Dubuque, No. 38 on its Top 50 Bedbug Cities list.

Best cities

Cedar Rapids scored highly among its mid-sized peers largely because of affordability, according to the study released Dec. 28 by SmartAsset, a personal finance website. The best cities ranking is an aggregate category based on a tally of how cities faired across all SmartAsset studies.

'The second-largest city in Iowa is one of the most affordable places for renters and one of the cities where millennials are buying homes,” the website stated, noting Cedar Rapids has a 70 percent homeownership rate.

Madison, Wis. was the top ranked mid-sized city, according to the study.

Volunteering

As evidenced by the outpouring to brace the city from the September flood, Cedar Rapidians give back.

The Corporation for National and Community Service, which includes Senior Corps, AmeriCorps, the Social Innovation Fund, reports 37.6 percent of Cedar Rapids residents volunteer. The finding was part of the Volunteering and Civic Life in America 2016 report released in late 2016.

Iowa City was Iowa's highest ranking city with a 38.4 volunteerism rate, ranking No. 4 nationally among mid-sized cities. Ogden-Clearfield, Utah ranked first in the category with a 50.9 percent volunteerism rate.

Overall, Iowa as a state ranks No. 10 for volunteering, including an average of 34 hours of volunteering per capita in 2015. The volunteerism rate included categories such as tutoring, mentoring, coaching, fundraising, and food collection or service,

Bedbugs

How is Cedar Rapids No. 38 in bedbugs? Atlanta-based Orkin produced rankings, released on Tuesday, based on commercial and residential bedbug treatments in metropolitan areas or regional areas made up of a few smaller cities, such as Cedar Rapids, Waterloo and Dubuque, from Dec. 1, 2015 to Nov. 30, 2016.

It appears as if Cedar Rapids is not alone in suffering from this pesky problem.

'We have more people affected by bedbugs in the United States now than ever before,” Ron Harrison, Orkin entomologist and director of technical services, said in a news release with the ranking. 'They were virtually unheard of in the U.S. 10 years ago.”

Baltimore, Washington, D.C., Chicago, New York, and Columbus, Ohio made up the top five for metro bedbug havens.

Bedbug prevention tips for home include:

Check regularly for bedbugs including on mattress seams and behind baseboards, on headboards, around electrical outlets and picture frames, decrease clutter, inspect secondhand furniture before bringing it inside your home, and dry potentially infested bed linens, curtains and stuffed animals on the hottest permissible temperature.

For hotel stays:

Look for black or brown spots on any furniture, lift and look in bedbug hiding spots such as the mattress, box spring, bedskirt and other furniture, as well as behind baseboards, pictures and even torn wallpaper, elevate luggage away from the bed and wall, examine your luggage while repacking and once you return home from a trip, and place all dryer-safe clothing from your luggage in the dryer for at least 15 minutes.

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