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Now, we all read the papers and/or the blogs online, or we watch the news (local and national) as they report on city rankings in certain aspects via sources such as WalletHub or Forbes. It could be rankings such as "Most Dangerous Cities", "Most Safest Cities". "Most Poorest Cities", etc. Seems like some people in my hometown Cleveland take it seriously since we're on the wrong side of a lot of those rankings.
Some them constantly harp on how "Cleveland is one of the nation's most dangerous cities" or "The poorest city in the nation." How seriously do you take those rankings regardless if your city is on either side of those rankings? Does it influence your perceptions of your city or those particular cities?Take it with a grain of salt? Or, you just don't pay attention to them at all?
It may come down to looking at the information beyond face value. For instance, many places with high poverty rates are also college towns or have a strong college presence that can skew things down, as off campus students are included in those figures.
Also, many of these lists have a population criteria that may or may not get overlooked. So, some of this may have to be put into proper perspective.
I pay attention when it's negative rankings. I'm not going anywhere near poorest or most dangerous cities.
See your point but also you have to realize how are they coming up with those rankings especially the most dangerous cities. Some cities don't count their stats right like for example Myrtle Beach. They may count crimes against the natives but not crime against tourists. Even the FBI has said don't take the crime stats seriously because no one knows how they are tallying the stats. Also, crime is only limited to those certain areas not the whole city is the Wild, Wild West. Just like not every area in a city poor just because they were ranked one of the poorest cities. If you love Miami then you shouldn't want to go there because they've been ranked one of the poorest cities.
Last edited by QCongress83216; 10-28-2022 at 02:56 PM..
It may come down to looking at the information beyond face value. For instance, many places with high poverty rates are also college towns or have a strong college presence that can skew things down, as off campus students are included in those figures.
Also, many of these lists have a population criteria that may or may not get overlooked. So, some of this may have to be put into proper perspective.
Not very seriously. They're heavily influenced by hype, the need of clickbait writers to churn out articles quickly, and the need to make a lot of annual lists "novel" compared to the previous year's list, even if nothing has really changed in the past year.
The listicles I take the most seriously are the ones based on some kind of data, with relatively few scenic photographs and gratuitous, generic introduction paragraphs about the cities. E.g. a typical list for something like "10 Cities in America with the Highest Incidence of Thyroid Cancer" with some analysis about why certain regions are over- or under-represented on the list.
I trust the general consensus and average people's opinions over any ranking when it comes to cities.
For example there was a ranking I saw recently which put Chicago as the most rat infested city in America, whereas the majority of people I've spoken to have described Chicago as very clean if not the cleanest big city in America.
You also have other rankings such as "best cities for singles", which put Pittsburgh and Cincinnati near the top, which is just laughable. And the "best quality of life" cities which is very subjective and doesn't mean anything since it all comes down to the individual.
You have to ask yourself who creates these city rankings and who is marketing them? it's mostly upper class people in gated communities, out of touch with real America and reality.
Not at all. If you try hard enough you can make the data say what you want. Plus, who cares on a city-wide level as long as there’s an enclave you’re happy with.
Not too much for me. I looked at one list of cities people are leaving most and half were military towns well duh, they are on orders to come and go.
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