Safe cities, scary people

News item: Portland ranks No. 3 among America's safest cities.

News item: Glenn Beck, Michael Moore and Kanye West are among the Scariest People of 2009.

Says who? Forbes magazine, that's who.

This week began with the ho-hum news that the City of Roses is among the nation's safest places, trailing only Minneapolis and Milwaukee and ranking ahead of Seattle and Boston, which tied for fourth, among America's 40 largest metro areas. Portland actually has the lowest crime rate but came out third when all the criteria -- including workplace deaths, fatal crashes and the risk of natural disasters -- were taken into account.

No one I know gets excited about such rankings anymore because we've come to expect them. I know that sounds conceited, maybe even condescending. But when Portland is continually held up as a model when it comes to urban planning, mass transit use, parks and bicycling -- not to mention our microbreweries, coffeehouses, food carts and cutting-edge restaurants -- well, sometimes it's hard to be humble. (I can't believe I just wrote that.)

Anyway, you can go to forbes.com to read the complete rankings of America's safest cities.
While there, you can feel sorry for those metro areas that landed on the magazine's list of America's most dangerous cities, headed by Detroit, Memphis and Miami.

But, wait, there's more...Just in time for Halloween, Forbes rolls out its annual list of the 10 scariest people. Aside from the three mentioned above, the list includes just one woman: the ubiquitous Kate Gosselin. (And, yes, her ex made the list, too.)

Who would you add to the list?

Photo by Randy L. Rasmussen, The Oregonian; illustrations by Val B. Bochkov