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Nothing smells worse than the tobacco smell that clings to those chain smokers who smoke with their car windows up. Absolutely disgusting.
Personally I find the smell of most cannabis less offensive
Agreed, tobacco smells much worse imo. I remember when I was younger and people still smoked in restaurants. Even in non-smoking sections, the smell was still horrible. Going to other countries, (particularly in Europe) where the smoking rate is higher and you still can smoke in many restaurants reminds me of that.
The smell of weed on the street, especially in the context of other urban smells (sewers, dumpsters, bodily fluids from the homeless, etc.) is pretty low on my list of annoyances by contrast.
82 trips to TJ over 22 years, spending long weekends alone, walking around Centro 'til 4-5am, never a bad incident to report.
And then there's Sinless City/Las Vegas: 6 years ago a 64YO man shot 600 people at an outdoor music festival on the Strip, 58 died. And deluded Tourists still think Las Vegas is the safest city to travel to!
Last Summer a homeless man stabbed 8 tourists in front of the Fashion Mall on the Las Vegas Strip, 3 died.
What make TJ fun, and not Sinless City: An out of control Red Light District.
Vegas is too sanitized and casino-centric for my taste. I finally made it there in June 2022, played in a World Series of Poker event, had a fun weekend...but, walking around, I was pretty underwhelmed. No matter how impressive a given casino is, it's still a casino. 'Fun' requires a sense of adventure/uncertainty, and casinos are all too predictable, even if outcomes of any given gambling session are anything but.
The local populace is the X-factor that is impossible to properly rate in an exercise like this. A friend of mine worked on the TV show Bar Rescue as a producer for a season or two. She said that her favorite cities that she visited in conjunction with the show were Milwaukee and Omaha. Both reminded her of partying in her hometown (Buffalo). She was always a strange mix of pretentiousness and down-to-earth relatability...the former probably accounts for her living in LA for the last 10+ years; the latter for her enjoyment of Milwaukee and Omaha, heh (to speak somewhat facetiously). But yeah, the appeal of the zeitgeist of any given city at any given time will vary for each individual and is impossible to assess or even verbalize adequately.
Since a few of you saw St. Louis ahead of LA, with little mention of the other 18 cities also ahead of LA on the list, and then proceeded to lose your minds, here's the methodology WalletHub actually used:
Entertainment & Recreation - Total Points: 40
-Number of Attractions: Double Weight (~2.00 Points)
-“TripAdvisor Travelers’ Choice Awards Top 25 Destinations” Ranking: Full Weight (~1.00 Points)
-Coffee & Tea Shops per Capita*: Full Weight (~1.00 Points)
-Restaurants per Capita*: Full Weight (~1.00 Points)
-Diversity of Restaurants: Full Weight (~1.00 Points)
-Ice-Cream & Frozen-Yogurt Shops per Capita*: Full Weight (~1.00 Points)
-Bowling Alleys per Capita*: Full Weight (~1.00 Points)
-Baseball & Softball Diamonds per Capita*: Full Weight (~1.00 Points)
-Basketball Hoops per Capita*: Full Weight (~1.00 Points)
-Tennis Courts per Capita*: Full Weight (~1.00 Points)
-Public & Municipal Golf Courses per Capita*: Full Weight (~1.00 Points)
-Public Swimming Pools per Capita*: Full Weight (~1.00 Points)
-Public Beaches per Capita: Half Weight (~0.50 Points)
-Presence on TripAdvisor’s “Top 25 Beaches” List: Full Weight (~1.00 Points)
-Fishing Facilities per Capita*: Full Weight (~1.00 Points)
-Marinas per Capita*: Full Weight (~1.00 Points)
-Boat Tours & Water Sports per Capita*: Full Weight (~1.00 Points)
-Water & Amusement Parks per Capita*: Full Weight (~1.00 Points)
-Hiking Trails per Capita*: Full Weight (~1.00 Points)
-Scenic and Sightseeing Establishments per Capita*: Full Weight (~1.00 Points)
-Spas & Wellness Centers per Capita*: Full Weight (~1.00 Points)
-Shopping Centers per Capita*: Full Weight (~1.00 Points)
-Share of Population with Walkable Park Access: Full Weight (~1.00 Points)
-Share of Designed Parkland Areas: Full Weight (~1.00 Points)
-Presence on TripAdvisor’s “Top 25 Parks” List: Half Weight (~0.50 Points)
-Playgrounds per Capita*: Full Weight (~1.00 Points)
-Parkland as Share of City Area: Full Weight (~1.00 Points)
-Acres of Parkland per Capita*: Full Weight (~1.00 Points)
-Bike-Rental Facilities per Capita*: Full Weight (~1.00 Points)
-Sports Venues per Capita*: Full Weight (~1.00 Points)
-Fitness Centers per Capita*: Full Weight (~1.00 Points)
-Recreational Sports Centers per Capita*: Full Weight (~1.00 Points)
-Sports Fan-Friendliness: Full Weight (~1.00 Points)
*Note: This metric is based on WalletHub’s “Best Sports Cities” ranking, which includes football, basketball, baseball, hockey and soccer.
-Movie Theaters per Capita*: Full Weight (~1.00 Points)
-Performing-Arts Theaters per Capita*: Full Weight (~1.00 Points)
-Festivals per Capita*: Full Weight (~1.00 Points)
-Arcades per Capita*: Full Weight (~1.00 Points)
-Amusement Parks per Capita*: Full Weight (~1.00 Points)
-Presence on TripAdvisor’s “Top 25 Amusement & Water Parks” List: Full Weight (~1.00 Points)
-Ideal Weather: Full Weight (~1.00 Points)
*Note: This metric is based on WalletHub’s “Cities with the Best & Worst Weather” ranking.
Nightlife & Parties - Total Points: 40
-Bar Accessibility: Full Weight (~2.86 Points)
*Note: This grade is a combination of bars per capita* (measures availability) and bars per square mile (measures proximity).
-Pool Halls per Capita*: Full Weight (~2.86 Points)
-Lounges per Capita*: Full Weight (~2.86 Points)
-Beer Gardens per Capita*: Full Weight (~2.86 Points)
-Legality of Public Drinking: Full Weight (~2.86 Points)
-Time of Last Call: Full Weight (~2.86 Points)
-Average Open Hours of Breweries: Full Weight (~2.86 Points)
-Presence of Music Festivals: Full Weight (~2.86 Points)
*Note: The cities that have music festivals will receive 1, the others 0. In case a city has more than one music festival, it will receive the exact number of music festivals.
-Music Venues per Capita*: Full Weight (~2.86 Points)
-Dance Clubs per Capita*: Full Weight (~2.86 Points)
-Dance Party Index: Full Weight (~2.86 Points)
-Arts & Crafts-Supplies Establishments per Capita*: Full Weight (~2.86 Points)
-Casinos per Capita*: Full Weight (~2.86 Points)
-Comedy Clubs per Capita*: Full Weight (~2.86 Points)
Costs - Total Points: 20
-Average Price of Party Ticket: Full Weight (~1.67 Points)
-Average Beer Price: Full Weight (~1.67 Points)
*Note: This metric measures the price of a six-pack of 12-ounce Heineken containers, excluding any deposit.
-Average Wine Price: Full Weight (~1.67 Points)
-Average Food Price (Pizza & Burger): Full Weight (~1.67 Points)
-Prevalence of Affordable Restaurants Rated 4.5+ Stars: Full Weight (~1.67 Points)
-Restaurant-Meal Costs: Full Weight (~1.67 Points)
-Movie Costs: Full Weight (~1.67 Points)
-Bowling Costs: Full Weight (~1.67 Points)
-Average Fitness-Club Fee: Full Weight (~1.67 Points)
-Price for Three-Star Hotel Room: Full Weight (~1.67 Points)
-Cost of Living: Double Weight (~3.33 Points)
The per capita weighting allowed the much smaller cities to compete, and they clearly weren't ranking which cities have the best restaurants or nightlife overall. A lot of the attractions and amenities are also on the family friendly side of things.
That's how St. Louis is able to compete on a per capita basis. It's a heavy drinking city that has a ton of restaurants, parks, museums, and family friendly amenities and cultural attractions. A lot of those family amenities and attractions are also free or at a relatively low cost.
Props to WalletHub for giving full weight to 'legality of public drinking', lol. I actually like the methodology better than I thought I would. That said, I'm not yielding from my previously expressed view that an exercise such as this is impossibly subjective. But if it weren't, we'd have nothing to talk about on here
The list is not on a on a metro area basis. It looked at the top 180 largest cities in the country, which at times included multiple cities within one metro area. Here's the actual WalletHub article. https://wallethub.com/edu/most-fun-c...n-the-us/23455
I wouldn't go as far to call municipal boundaries cheating. That being said, so many of LA's major attractions just aren't in its city limits. That hurts it when they're getting factored into a list like this. Hence why multiple other cities in metro LA made the list when you actually go on WalletHub's website.
This is also why Chicago, even as a large city, scores so high. It is highly centralized when it comes to these amenities. It's far more centralized than St. Louis, and miles more centralized than LA. Living in St. Louis, I pop into various suburbs all the time. When I lived in Chicago, I very rarely had a need or desire to go to the suburbs at all.
They must've insisted on including at least one city in every state, or something. Otherwise I'm at a loss to explain the inclusion of Dover DE, Cheyenne WY, and South Burlington VT, all of which can be found near the bottom of the list. Even then, though, IDK why they'd choose South Burlington over regular old Burlington (which is one of my favorite places in the country). The very last-ranked city is some place in Hawaii I've never heard of
Just found Burlington at 151 of 182. The people of Vermont should be outraged
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