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Top 100 rank: 6Population: 141,000 Unemployment: 7.4% Compare Fort Collins to Top 10 Best Places Bikers and beers. In most parts of the country, those two elements may be reasons to move elsewhere. But in the foothills of Colorado's Front Range, bikers mean cyclists: Fort Collins has 29 miles of well-used trails.
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As for beers, this town has become a high-end microbrew mecca. New Belgium Brewery (maker of Fat Tire) is based in this entrepreneurial town, and competitors are moving in. People here aren't slackers either. Bolstered by Colorado State University, which employs 7,000, "the Fort" is a center of economic activity. Hewlett-Packard, the city's second-largest employer, announced worldwide layoffs in June, but they won't affect Fort Collins. In fact, the company is adding jobs here. This idyllic town -- No. 1 in 2006 -- would rank even higher but for one thing. (No, it's not last summer's Balloon Boy hoax, perpetrated by the local Heene family.) Colorado schools are hurting. After the state sliced public schools budget this year, Fort Collins's Poudre School District laid off 139 full-time employees. --Pieter van Noordennen Is Fort Collins a great town, or what?
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