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Philly went from the bottom in 2010 to the top in 2011 back to the bottom in 2012...
I wouldn't say the bottom... it seems to be somewhere in the middle.
With that said, these lists make absolutely no sense. Many cities that Philadelphia beat out last year, beat Philly this year... how does that make any sense?
Come on, everyone knows that Anchorage, Las Vegas and Memphis kill LA in walkability and public transportation!
Even more ridiculous is that Portland was number 1 in this field, and Savannah beat out San Francisco
Travel and Leisure lists might be the most worthless articles in the world.
It's just tourists ranking places they go or based on broad ideas or stereotypes of a place. It's basically just Trip Advisor on a smaller scale. It's no big deal--but in general most lists ranking places on subjective criterea are designed to be taken with a grain of salt....
For a tourist going to Portland, it does seem walkable and with good transit considering you can just hop on a $2.50 Max Train and step off in downtown a couple blocks from your hotel... Most of what the average tourist would want to see is going to be short walk or MAX or street car ride away from them--and tourists in general visit the exact same few places touted for them to visit. It's not as if people have to experience an average commute with the cut in bus service in Portland from the further out neighborhoods to rank the transit here.
As far as the other things they ranked Portland highly in--#1 in environmental friendliness is probably just based on pre-concieved notions--it's not like people are going to swim in that toxic river we have floating through downtown. #1 in microbrews--that's arguable, but we're near the top of US cities for sure. Pet-friendly vacations...yeah whatever.
We got ranked last for weather(yeah, everyone hates our weather)-and Valentine's Day and Christmas. I'm not sure how a city get's ranked last for Christmas, but okay. I mean we have a big tree downtown and lighted boat parades on the Willamette...what more do these people want?
It's all pretty funny though. The true measure of a how bored a society is can be measured by the number of lists it feels compelled to create ranking things...
I find it to be a test of peoples stereotypes. Most the people who have taken these surveys have not been to most of the cities in question, so they fall back on what they think the perception of the city is.
Agreed.
Perhaps people should have to specify how often they visited and for what duration and then weighed their answers. No matter what, though, these polls aren't scientific. The people who are motivated to turn out are motivated by a desire to boost certain cities (like Philadelphia last year, but not this year) or a desire to trash cities they hate (like LA every year).
Perhaps people should have to specify how often they visited and for what duration and then weighed their answers. No matter what, though, these polls aren't scientific. The people who are motivated to turn out are motivated by a desire to boost certain cities (like Philadelphia last year, but not this year) or a desire to trash cities they hate (like LA every year).
Well it's like one go back and look at what cities Travel and Leisure has written that have hyped certain cities in the last year... I mean it's mostly Travel and Leisure readers voting on this poll.
If Travel and Leisure has a nice article with beautiful pictures of Charleston, SC and I've never been to South Carolina--I'll already have a more positive opinion of Charleston as being a nice town, and so on...
We got ranked last for weather(yeah, everyone hates our weather)-and Valentine's Day and Christmas. I'm not sure how a city get's ranked last for Christmas, but okay. I mean we have a big tree downtown and lighted boat parades on the Willamette...what more do these people want?
The holidays were "the best time to visit" each place.
San Diego, SF, Los Angeles, NY, Chi, Boston, Seattle, Baltimore, Washington, New Orleans, Miami and Portland
lol at putting Baltimore ahead of Philly. You spend half a day at the Inner Harbor and then move on to DC. Philly requires a long weekend.
Quote:
Originally Posted by sskink
I don't know how my city did and neither will many others who live in cities that weren't included in the list of 35 that readers could choose from.
Seems a bit limiting, ya think?
Pittsburgh is great on a day-to-day basis, but it's still in the beginning stages of blossoming as a tourist attraction.
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