Thursday, March 12, 2009

A city full of sissies?


Just last week, Portlanders were told we live in America's Unhappiest City. Now, we're ranked among the least manly cities in the U.S. -- No. 47 out of 50.

The bottom three? San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York.

No point getting insulted. The "study" of America's Manliest Cities was commissioned by Combos, the maker of a new snack certain to appeal to manly man. It's a pretzel/cracker filled with cheese.

Nashville, the country music capital and hub of a NASCAR-loving region, ranked No. 1. (For the record, I do like Nashville). See the complete list here.

Criteria used to rank the cities included the number of professional major league sports teams, sports bars and barbecue joints; popularity of tools and hardware; and frequency of monster truck rallies. (Yeah, they got that right about us.) Cities also lost points for too many home furnishing stores, high minivan sales and subscription rates to beauty magazines. (Huh?)

Presumably, we lost points for having too many sushi restaurants. Come to think of it, what did I have for dinner last night? Hmmm....I think it was...yes, I'm sure it was...sushi.

How does Portland rank in other surveys? Check out this nifty compilation by The Oregonian:

• 1: Unhappiest city in the U.S., according to BusinessWeek Magazine

• 1: Best city for senior citizens

• 2: Most "fiscally fit" city

• 6: Most stressful of 100 large metropolitan areas (Tacoma was No. 1)

• 8: Most energetic city

• 11: Riskiest city for identity theft

• 14: Most secure large metropolitan area. (Corvallis was rated the most secure town in the U.S.)

• 14: Best city for dating (out of 80)

• 16: Healthiest city (San Jose, Calif., was No. 1)

• 26: Best airport for making a connection (i.e. chatting up a new friend)

• 27: Most romantic city for baby boomers (Pittsburgh was first)

• 27: Best city for sleep -- up from 40th best in 2004

• 39: Most single city (Percentage of single adult residents: San Francisco was No. 1)

• 40: Best green city ... we were beat by Corvallis (No. 3) and Medford (No. 38) but we trounced Port St. Lucie/Fort Pierce, Fla., which came in 100th

• 47: Worst city for respiratory infections

• 60: Most expensive metro area for gasoline (out of 80)

• 70: Most migraine-afflicted area (of 110)

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