Abstract
The choice of location for a business or an industry is now being made for new reasons. A place that provides enhanced quality of life for the workers is now being chosen over one that has the more traditional business-related advantages. Partners for Livable Places, an international coalition of more than 800 organizations based in Washington, D.C., has since 1977 been helping cities to strengthen their amenities, and—by doing so—to improve their economic growth. Partners' president Robert H. McNulty here discusses the economic and other benefits of such quality-of-life amenities as cultural planning, animation, natural and scenic resources, cultural tourism, public design, and parks and recreation.