Cities on the Rise

I just finished my list of the 9 worst cities in the US.  What about the best?  Here is the list.  This comes from 25 Best Places to Live in the US, except I excluded cities with less than 1 million in their metro area.  So here is the list:

Salt Lake City
Dallas-Ft Worth TX
Charlotte NC
Washington DC
Nashville TN
San Jose-Santa Clara CA
Grand Rapids MI
Raleigh-Durham NC
Seattle
Portland
San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley CA
Minneapolis-St Paul
Denver
Austin TX

Note that New York and LA are not on the list, nor are Miami, Atlanta, Houston, Phoenix, San Diego.  Are there any of these cities that really aren't quite as good as the others, so I can winnow the list slightly?  Are there any that should be here in addition to these?

Update:
Grand Rapids doesn't belong because it is too small.  It only has 200,000 people although there are 1 million in its metro area.
San Francisco should be kicked off because of the cost of living and the homeless problem (and drugs and poop) that it has.
Minneapolis-St Paul have problems.  They have abandoned homes, although not nearly as many as Detroit or Baltimore. There was riots in 1967.  I don't see an explanation for the massive loss in population.  And the recent population is partly based on immigration from Somali.    Rep. Ilhan Omar is from Minnesota.  Although this area isn't among the worst, it doesn't deserve to be among the best either.

So that leaves 11.  I would like to kick 2 more off the list to leave 9.

Update 2:
Charlotte and Raleigh-Durham are pretty close to each other so I am only going to choose one.  Charlotte is bigger and is the nation's fastest-growing area, so I am picking Charlotte. Goodbye Raleigh.

Dallas and Austin are only 200 miles apart, so I am arbitrarily choosing Austin.  It was ranked #1 on the above list.

So here is the revised list of the 9 best cities in the US, in no particular order.
Salt Lake City UT
Charlotte NC
Washington DC
Nasheville TN
San Jose-Santa Clara CA
Seattle WA
Portland
Denver CO
Austin TX