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Des Moines was named an All-American City in 2003, so it certainly should win again next month at the National Civic League competition in Tampa, Fla.

This city is way, way ahead of where it was six years ago. If it was an All-American before the new Science Center of Iowa, before the avant-garde downtown library, before the sculpture park became a certainty, before the East Village became a destination, then it’s a shoo-in now.

Of course, that’s similar to what every college football fan will be saying during the next three months. My team has experienced players coming back, plus we recruited hot-shot kids out of high school, so naturally we’ll be better this year than last year.

The win-loss record doesn’t always turn out that way for one big reason: Everybody else also returns veterans and brings in new talent.

This year’s list of All-American City finalists contains 32 cities, including Windsor Heights as well as Des Moines. It’s hard to know what’s up in all of those places.

Look at the judging criteria and decide for yourself where we stand:

• Participation of the public, private and nonprofit sectors and key constituencies to the maximum extent possible.

• Recognition and involvement of diverse segments and perspectives in community decision-making.

• Creative use and leveraging of community resources.

• Significant and specific community achievements.

• Projects that address the community’s most important needs.

• Cooperation across jurisdictional boundaries.

• Clear demonstration of project results and impacts.

• Projects which have affected the community significantly within the last three years and have potential to continue improving the quality of life.

• At least one project should document ways in which the lives of children and youths have been tangibly improved.

Those are good benchmarks to rely on, wherever you live.