Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I'm not from the area so can't comment a lot. I do know this though, there is more pizza places in Huntington than gyms in wv. Huntington is the most obese city in wv and Charleston is second.
Total BS on both parts. If you include pizza places for the ENTIRE MSA of 285,000 people then maybe (as there arent a lot of gyms in WV) but not in the city itself. Also, the only reason you have stats on the Charleston and Huntington areas for obesity is that they are the only 2 areas large enough for the CDC to look at. Sadly, there are many areas of the state that are much worse than Huntington.
Total BS on both parts. If you include pizza places for the ENTIRE MSA of 285,000 people then maybe (as there arent a lot of gyms in WV) but not in the city itself.
Tim, I can only state the evidence.
Quote:
Doughnut shops don't help either, of course. But breakfast pastry shops aren't the most common outlets for fatty food. Pizza joints are. They are seemingly on every block in some parts of the city. The online Yellow Pages lists more pizza places (nearly 200) for the Huntington area than the entire state of West Virginia has gyms and health clubs (149).
If you want to go through the yellowpages and make note of where the Pizza restaurants are and get back to us we can get an exact answer. Also this article is from 2008 it is possible more gyms opened up in WV and pizza places in Huntington closed down. The opposite could easily be true.
Quote:
Also, the only reason you have stats on the Charleston and Huntington areas for obesity is that they are the only 2 areas large enough for the CDC to look at. Sadly, there are many areas of the state that are much worse than Huntington.[
Tim, I am the first one to say that statistics can be arbitrary. However, YOU on the other hand have argued against this type of thinking several times on this forum. The number for you is set in stone, and no other logic applies, except when it hurts your argument in that case you make an exception. You ignore actual population in favor of arbitrary census numbers, and argue economic importance based solely off retail sales, and there is no argument with this. You will not consider how people are included and excluded based off certain criteria.
However, now you want to turn back on your statistics logic in favor of my line of reasoning? What is it going to be Tim? You cant have your pizza and eat it. Choose one consistent line of reasoning and stop making standards up as you go along. If you are willing to agree with me about how statistics work now, for the past, and in the future just say so and we can make another thread and get to the bottom of this. If you want to stick to your number with citations only as fact than Huntington has more pizza places than gyms in all of WV, is the fattest city in WV, and the #3rd fattest in the country, per your own reasoning.
Also, you have hijacked the OP's thread in the Huntington forum. They are interested in job prospects for physical trainers and want relevant data. I doubt they really care if the Pizza places are in Huntington or if other areas areas are more obese, although I would love to have such a conversation in an appropriate thread. They want specific information, and im the only one giving it.
I can only provide common knowledge about the health crisis in Huntington, but cant really comment on the number of gyms, trainers, and competition. As a Huntington resident could you perhaps give them some useful information on the market in Huntington? You are always trying to get people to move to Huntington, and in this case I feel Huntington may be a good career move for them, but you are working against me and perhaps driving them away from Huntington by sugar coating the situation in Huntington to make it look better.
The economic census actually gives info for every MSA in WV. The CDC figures for obesity only look at the Huntington and Charleston MSAs in WV. See the difference? The most accurate data to compare places in WV is looking at it on the county level. Those are the figures I have presented. With regard to the pizza places, this was addressed when the article came out 4 years ago. WSAZ actually looked and found 38. The guy claimed there were almost 200. Someone didn't check their facts but was just looking to sensationalize things.
Here are some articles though with some more accurate data. I'll be the first to admit, we have problems in this area and this state. We are looking to change that though.
The economic census actually gives info for every MSA in WV. The CDC figures for obesity only look at the Huntington and Charleston MSAs in WV. See the difference? The most accurate data to compare places in WV is looking at it on the county level. Those are the figures I have presented. With regard to the pizza places, this was addressed when the article came out 4 years ago. WSAZ actually looked and found 38. The guy claimed there were almost 200. Someone didn't check their facts but was just looking to sensationalize things.
Here are some articles though with some more accurate data. I'll be the first to admit, we have problems in this area and this state. We are looking to change that though.
They are merely pointing out the results since Huntington and Charleston stand out so much. Remember they are talking about cities in WV, not counties. There are not many cities in the state, and of them Huntington is the fattest.
The CDC was not the only factor. People used several criteria, including and excluding some. Using the criteria of that study Huntington is the worst in the state and one of the worst in country. The articles you linked clearly state that more variables are needed to make judgement, which is what ive been arguing for months on this forum and what you have been arguing against.
The thing is you are now using my type of argument, the kind you argued against earlier.
Like I said Tim, we need to come to an agreement first before we can continue. Do you agree with me that statistics can be arbitrary and can change with criteria and further understanding, clarification, and reasoning is needed to have results, or do you want to stick to your old opinion that numbers are facts and there is no further reasoning. You cant have it both ways Tim. You want to apply different standards so you can skew the results to match your bias. In this thread you have proved everything I have been saying about judging population size and economic importance without even realizing it until I pointed it out to you.
Lastly, some of your sources are crap. It is a bunch of upset locals from Huntington getting upset at the findings.
Quote:
“I think there are health problems every place, but to depict us as an unhealthy community as he has is rather absurd,” McKown said.
Another problem in the article: the writer says Huntington’s phone book lists 200 pizza joints, more than all the gyms in the state. WSAZ investigated and could only find 38.
That is hardly a refutal. They could get the exact number or close to it. Hell, if I worked there I could find only 1.
Lastly many of the articles are arguing different things. Huntington is the fattest city in WV, and #3 in the US down from #1. Many of the articles argue that Cabell county is not the most obese city in WV, not Cabell county. A county and a city or different. Im not sure where Cabell ranks since I dont have any facts on it, although I could easily research them. I do know for a fact that Huntington is #1 fattest city in the WV and #3 in WV. They are also arguing that some states have a higher STATE rate than WV. Again this is unrelated to the City of Huntington being the fattest.
Quote:
"If we are deserving of the title, then that's our problem and I have no argument whatsoever," Sheils said, also pointing to a March 3, 2010 Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index that lists Montgomery, Ala., and Stockton, Calif., tied for "Most Obese Metro Area" with an obesity rank of 34.6 percent. The Huntington area makes the list at No. 7. "I'm not saying it's not that bad here because we do have a serious health problem, but it's important that we look at that problem with a clear lens and that we have accurate, verifiable data.
Huntington was #1 in 2008, so 2010 is hardly relevant and #3 in 2012. So you proved it was #7 in 2010.
Last edited by cry_havoc; 07-30-2012 at 08:28 PM..
The thing is you are now using my type of argument, the kind you argued against earlier.
Like I said Tim, we need to come to an agreement first before we can continue. Do you agree with me that statistics can be arbitrary and can change with criteria and further understanding, clarification, and reasoning is needed to have results, or do you want to stick to your old opinion that numbers are facts and there is no further reasoning. You cant have it both ways Tim. You want to apply different standards so you can skew the results to match your bias.
You don't seem to understand what I'm debating here. I'm not disputing the statistical evidence that the Huntington MSA has an obesity issue that needs to be addressed. What I'm pointing out here is your gross misrepresentation of that data. In the economic thread, you made up statistics that were not supported by any research. Here, you are attempting to apply statistics from a 5 county area with 285,000 people to one city of 50,000 people and 15.9 square miles. In the economic census, there was a direct comparison where all major WV MSAs were looked at, county and MSA wide. Here, only the MSAs of Charleston and Huntington are looked and thus only they can be compared. For further area comparison, just as we did with the economic census, you have to look at county data. You skew data and make things up. When you are comparing apples to apples, no need to do that because the numbers do in fact speak for themselves.
I will not debate this further in this thread and turn it into yet another one of your multi-page arguments that you often create here. If you wish to further discuss this, feel free to send a private message.
Mrs Watts, I would be more than happy to answer any other questions you would have.
You don't seem to understand what I'm debating here. I'm not disputing the statistical evidence that the Huntington MSA has an obesity issue that needs to be addressed. What I'm pointing out here is your gross misrepresentation of that data. In the economic thread, you made up statistics that were not supported by any research. Here, you are attempting to apply statistics from a 5 county area with 285,000 people to one city of 50,000 people and 15.9 square miles. In the economic census, there was a direct comparison where all major WV MSAs were looked at, county and MSA wide. Here, only the MSAs of Charleston and Huntington are looked and thus only they can be compared. For further area comparison, just as we did with the economic census, you have to look at county data. You skew data and make things up. When you are comparing apples to apples, no need to do that because the numbers do in fact speak for themselves.
I will not debate this further in this thread and turn it into yet another one of your multi-page arguments that you often create here. If you wish to further discuss this, feel free to send a private message.
Mrs Watts, I would be more than happy to answer any other questions you would have.
I am sorry you Sony like the results but the results are clear based off the criteria that Huntington is the fattest and msa in wv. Now you are trying to make up excuses to ignore the results. You have a history of this for instance using retail sales to make sketchy economic climbs or to cite population figures while ignoring actual residents in the area.
For this study many factors were used and every city in the country and wv was used. I'm sorry tom but your city has a BIG fat problem.
What I find despicable is how you ignore statistics when you don't like the results, refuse to admit other variables can be factored in when it hurts your argument, but then want to consider them to make a point.
This whole thread as destroyed what little credibility you had.
To the op I'm sorry I let myself get sidetracked. Ignore the city boosting and focus on the stats. Huntington is having a public health crisis in both obesity and depression being ranked #1 in both in the past. The city needs personal trainers
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
