Eight towns in DC MD & VA made it to the 'Snobbiest Small Cities' list

[dcareagirl]

Originally Posted by North Beach Person

People in Old Bowie will tell you that South Bowie doesn't count.

I think they mean Woodmore when they describe Bowie as snobby. Old Bowie is pretty laidback. South Bowie is rural to me. It consist of three neighborhoods and a library. I don't see how it is ratchet. Are you confusing South Bowie with parts of Largo.

[WhoDatInMD]

Originally Posted by dcareagirl

I think they mean Woodmore when they describe Bowie as snobby. Old Bowie is pretty laidback. South Bowie is rural to me. It consist of three neighborhoods and a library. I don't see how it is ratchet. Are you confusing South Bowie with parts of Largo.

What part of south Bowie are you talking about? There are definitely more than just three neighborhoods in south Bowie. You must be talking about the area near Central ave since you mentioned the library, but south Bowie consists of more than that. Aside from Bowie Town Center park, the area around BTC isn't rural. There is some ratchetness from time to time in BTC, but nothing to paint that whole area as ratchet. I have seen some ratchetness in Governors Green apt but new management there is trying to clean that up.

[CoolZombie]

About the dumbest list I've ever seen. Wheaton and Bowie but no Greenwich, CT or Beverly Hills? Sounds like someone is promoting his own blog on here

[superseiyan]

Originally Posted by CoolZombie

About the dumbest list I've ever seen. Wheaton and Bowie but no Greenwich, CT or Beverly Hills? Sounds like someone is promoting his own blog on here

Rich doesn't automatically mean snobby, although by their criteria you'd think both would've been there.

[Lubina]

Anyone catch the methodology?

If you did you absolutely cannot take this list seriously at all. They basically googled highest income and education per capita for places with x population cross checked that he number of wine bars and performing arts centers and applied criteria from a pair of the most notoriously pretentious snobby characters in modern tv sitcoms. Love how they backpedalled claiming snobby ain't bad. We'd love to live in some of these places. Clearly they didn't bother to actually visit any of them or talk to anyone who lives there because they have their share of poverty. They also didn't take into account cost of living cuz we snobs aren't exactly chugging $100 bottles of wine, collecting high art and attending operas and museum galas (Frasier and Niles) when $50k and in some cases $100k per year after taxes barely covers rent, car payment and student loans from that snobby degree. If you live on your parents' dime or have a moneyed significant other maybe but not paying your own way.


"How We Created This Ranking

We first made a list of places in the U.S. with populations between 65,000 and 45,000 people. Then, we collected data from the 2010 U.S. Census and business listings in criteria that many consider snobby (think Frasier and Niles Crane):

• Median home price (the higher the better)
• Median household income (the higher the better)
• Percent of population with a college degree (the higher the better)
• Private schools per capita (the more the better)
• Performing arts per capita (the more the better)
• Art galleries per capita (the more the better)
• Fast food restaurants per capita (the fewer the better)

We omitted any places that we could not get the data for, and that left us with 309 places. Then, we ranked each place in each category from one to 309, with scores closer to one being better and more snobby. Once we had that, we averaged each place’s rankings into one Big Deal Score. The place with the number closest to one for that score became our snobbiest place.
Now, as we said earlier, “snobby” doesn’t necessarily mean bad. Most of these are wealthy communities with many opportunities for work, education, and culture. Heck, we’d probably be pleased as punch to live in any one of these. However, with all that culture, wealth, and exclusivity comes people who have simply the most rigid of standards that must always be met. These 10 places cater more to those sorts of people."

[North Beach Person]

Originally Posted by Lubina

If you did you absolutely cannot take this list seriously at all. They basically googled highest income and education per capita for places with x population cross checked that he number of wine bars and performing arts centers and applied criteria from a pair of the most notoriously pretentious snobby characters in modern tv sitcoms. Love how they backpedalled claiming snobby ain't bad. We'd love to live in some of these places. Clearly they didn't bother to actually visit any of them or talk to anyone who lives there because they have their share of poverty. They also didn't take into account cost of living cuz we snobs aren't exactly chugging $100 bottles of wine, collecting high art and attending operas and museum galas (Frasier and Niles) when $50k and in some cases $100k per year after taxes barely covers rent, car payment and student loans from that snobby degree. If you live on your parents' dime or have a moneyed significant other maybe but not paying your own way.


"How We Created This Ranking


We first made a list of places in the U.S. with populations between 65,000 and 45,000 people. Then, we collected data from the 2010 U.S. Census and business listings in criteria that many consider snobby (think Frasier and Niles Crane):

• Median home price (the higher the better)
• Median household income (the higher the better)
• Percent of population with a college degree (the higher the better)
• Private schools per capita (the more the better)
• Performing arts per capita (the more the better)
• Art galleries per capita (the more the better)
• Fast food restaurants per capita (the fewer the better)

We omitted any places that we could not get the data for, and that left us with 309 places. Then, we ranked each place in each category from one to 309, with scores closer to one being better and more snobby. Once we had that, we averaged each place’s rankings into one Big Deal Score. The place with the number closest to one for that score became our snobbiest place.
Now, as we said earlier, “snobby” doesn’t necessarily mean bad. Most of these are wealthy communities with many opportunities for work, education, and culture. Heck, we’d probably be pleased as punch to live in any one of these. However, with all that culture, wealth, and exclusivity comes people who have simply the most rigid of standards that must always be met. These 10 places cater more to those sorts of people."

Jay Mathews must have helped them with designing it. It makes as much sense as the method he uses to rank schools.