U.S. News & World Report released its Best Places to Live in 2023-2024 list, which includes 20 places that are ranked according to the following factors; affordability, job market, morning commute, access to quality health care, and more. While places like Los Angeles, Miami, Charleston and others were expected on a list like this, one town in Maryland unexpectedly came in at 14– Salisbury, ranked a couple spots ahead of San Diego (16).

To add a little context, U.S. News includes popular beach destinations like Ocean City (MD), Rehoboth Beach (DE), and Bethany Beach (DE) in Salisbury’s “metropolitan statistical area”, per the U.S. Census. Salisbury is also home to Maryland’s only Cookout location– a popular fast food area focused in the southeast that has slowly expanded further north.

“Planting 1.7 billion oysters this year shows the success of the broad partnership of watermen, scientists, academics, nonprofits, and state and federal government officials dedicated to this vital natural resource and economic driver for Maryland,” said Gov. Moore. “I’d like to thank the partner organizations and our dedicated Department of Natural Resources staff who enabled the state to achieve this significant accomplishment.”

In 2014, Maryland committed to restoring oyster populations in five Bay tributaries, as part of the interstate Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement. The state embraced oyster plantings as a key component of its Chesapeake Bay restoration and replenishment strategy by deploying hundreds of millions of juvenile oysters on both sanctuary reefs and public oyster reefs annually. Oysters are beneficial because they filter excess nutrient pollutants from the bay, provide valuable habitat for other marine species, and boost the state’s commercial seafood industry through annual harvests and oyster aquaculture.