It's Sunday and a look at e-mails received today, usually a very light day, revealed the animal shelter protesters that have picketed Council meetings and pushed their agenda against carbon monoxide euthanasia have decided Garland does not deserve its recognition in 2008 as one of the Top 100 Best Places to Live.
 

Two of the emails in my Inbox that were addressed to CNN/Money and copied to the Council requested that Garland be removed from the list. However, neither email was from a Garland resident. Irrespective that both made claims not supported by fact, this new pressure tactic by the protesters will fall on deaf ears because the list has moved on.
 
The collaborative effort between cable channel CNN and Fortune and Money magazines prepares a new list each year and the list will change quite a bit from year to year. In 2008 when Garland was selected, so were several other North Texas cities, including Richardson. The latest list, for 2009, only has two North Texas cities: Keller and Mansfield, both quick-growing suburbs. Most of the remaining Texas cities on the list this time are from Central Texas. Friendswood near Houston is the remaining Texas city. The list in 2008 included several cities Garland's size but the current list focuses exclusively on smaller cities, all under 50,000. The largest city in the top 25 is only 44,100 (Mansfield)—about a fifth the size of Garland—and the second-largest city on the list of 100 cities is Georgetown (#45) at 46,900.