June 28, 2006

Nominations for the HousingPanic crappy city awards


Nominations are now open:

1) Worst overall US city

2) Worst sprawl

3) Worst urban planning

4) Most overvalued

5) Fakest economy

6) Ugliest houses

7) Worst weather

8) Most closed minded

9) Worst problems

10) Worst lifestyle

My nominations:

1 Houston, 2 Phoenix, 3Tucson, 4 San Diego, 5 Phoenix, 6 Phoenix, 7 St. Louis, 8 Salt Lake, 9 Detroit, 10 Cleveland

66 comments:

Anonymous said...

Phoenix
Phoenix
Phoenix
Phoenix
Phoenix
Phoenix
Phoenix
Phoenix
Phoenix
Phoenix

Anonymous said...

Please just remember that there are many,many beautiful women in San Diego. Beautiful women just seem to gravitate there..or regular women just get waay better looking there.....but there is a price for their beauty and a high price if you wan some that panty!

Anonymous said...

1) Worst overall US city: Norfolk

2) Worst sprawl: DC

3) Worst urban planning: DC

4) Most overvalued: Miami

5) Fakest economy: DC (doesn't produce anything)

6) Ugliest houses: Mississippi

7) Worst weather: North Dakota

8) Most closed minded: DC

9) Worst problems: Tie Detroit, Richmond, N.O.

10) Worst lifestyle: LA

Anonymous said...

Did the city of Phoenix beat you as a child? Did you eat paint chips? Your opinion of Phoenix is so skewed it is almost laughable. Yes, the summer sucks. That is it. Three months of summer that suck. The rest of the year is sublime. Let's take a look at the cities that were omitted from your list.....Detroit, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Chicago, Philly, Charlotte, Dallas, etc. Personally, I find living in Scottsdale to be paradise. Summer is warm, so I travel to San Diego, LA, Mexico, Chicago, Utah, Colorado. But I would much rather peel off a layer of clothes while watching the palm trees sway in my backyard as I sit in my pool with a view of the mountains and think, yeah, it's hot, but it sure beats six months of gray skies, bitter cold, snow, mush, heating bills, freezing rain, no green in sight for months on end. I don't know, but I would think that the reason people originally started to vacation in Scottsdale is because it was an ideal climate and a beautiful place. Many who came for vacation ended up staying. Seriously, you can rip on the housing situation in PHX all you want, but quit with the jab after jab after jab against the Valley. You have made your point, get over it already. Moreover, to have San Diego as the fourth worst city to live in - you have serious issues. Serious. San Diego is probably the most perfect place on earth to live. Lush mountains, beautiful harbor and beaches, PERFECT weather, beautiful women, and a laid back atmosphere second to none. Call me crazy, but there has to be a reason why so many people from NYC, Chicago, Philly, Baltimore, Detroit, Cleveland, St. Louis, DC, etc. have moved to LA, PHX and SD. Me thinks it is weather, good lifestyle, palm trees, mountains and the natural beauty of the West. Just a hunch.

Anonymous said...

1) Worst overall US city: Detroit

2) Worst sprawl: LA

3) Worst urban planning: Miami

4) Most overvalued: Phoenix

5) Fakest economy: How do you truly measure a fake economy? Kind of a dumb question. Every city is full of BS mortgage brokers, realtors, etc - and every major city is full of doctors, lawyers, accountants, city planners, etc.

6) Ugliest houses: Indiana

7) Worst weather: Chicago

8) Most closed minded: Anywhere in the south

9) Worst problems: New Orleans, Detroit

10) Worst lifestyle: I have lived in LA, Iowa City, Chicago, Scottsdale and Miami. They all have good points and bad points with regard to lifestyle. I would imagine worst lifestyle is some place like Fargo, Omaha, etc. SOmewhere cold without much to do.

Anonymous said...

1) Buffalo
2) LA
3) DC
4) Tie: San Francisco & Miami
5) DC
6) Tie: Phoenix & Las Vegas
7) Buffalo (hat nod to the tsate of North Dakota
8) San Francisco
9) Tie: Detroit & New Orleans
Hon. Mention: LA
10) LA (NYC close second)

Metroplexual said...

1) Worst overall US city: Detroit

2) Worst sprawl: Houston

3) Worst urban planning: Houston

4) Most overvalued: San Diego

5) Fakest economy: I'm starting to think any bubble city, we're just selling houses to each other.

6) Ugliest houses: Tied, sheetrock boxes proliferate.

7) Worst weather: Minneapolis

8) Most closed minded: SLC

9) Worst problems: Detroit

10) Worst lifestyle: name any rustbelt city.

Metroplexual said...

LA is infact a compact city where it is hemmed in by mountains.

Anonymous said...

Most closed minded - Salt Lake City (good call), never even thought about it

Anonymous said...

Las Vegas???

Economy is based on "entertainment and gambling." . . .how long do you think THAT will last in a real economic downturn? Bad weather - hot in summer, cold in winter (yes, it goes below freezing there at night -not to mention sandstorms).

Anonymous said...

Before anybody gets their undies in a bunch, remember, I'm entitled to my opinion.

1) Worst overall US city
Houston

2) Worst sprawl
LA

3) Worst urban planning
Las Vegas

4) Most overvalued
San Francisco

5) Fakest economy
Tampa Bay

6) Ugliest houses
Phoenix

7) Worst weather
Houston

8) Most closed minded
Jackson

9) Worst problems
New Orleans

10) Worst lifestyle
NYC

Anonymous said...

1) Worst overall US city: Detroit

2) Worst sprawl: Dallas/Fort Worth

3) Worst urban planning: DC

4) Most overvalued: Phoenix

5) Fakest economy: DC

6) Ugliest houses: All spawling suburbs look equally crappy to me.

7) Worst weather: Bismarck, ND

8) Most closed minded: Portland, OR

9) Worst problems: Detroit

10) Worst lifestyle: Detroit

I'm surpsised that someone said that the South was the most closed minded area. People in the South tend to be much more accepting to new ideas and different people than people in the NE or NW. Example: Go to Oregon and tell people you are visiting from Texas and see what happens.

Anonymous said...

1) Worst overall US city

7) Worst weather

8) Most closed minded

9) Worst problems

10) Worst lifestyle

LOOKS LIKE BUFFALO NY TAKES 5 OF THE 10 SPOTS. I GREW UP THERE. NO JOBS, TERRIBLE WEATHER, ALL THE YOUNG AND SMART HAVE LEFT, AND THEY ARE STILL STUCK IN THE 70s. WELL AT LEAST YOU CAN STILL BUY A HOUSE THERE FOR $50K.

Anonymous said...

Worst urban (suburban) planning:

New Jersey. Besides the fact that must of the roads are crumbling, leaving giant craters that swallow tires. The insane designs for most of the roads. My personal favorite – the old school ‘circle’ intersection with the added bonus of traffics lights AND the roads also go through the circle!

Worst Problems:

Yeah, New Orleans. I have the miss fortune of going once a month for business. I grew up in Philly and wow, NO is much much worse! Regardless of any hurricane

Anonymous said...

I have to say that whoever said worst sprawl Dallas/Ft. Worth has a point. It goes on and on and on and on and on and it all looks the same and even if you drive 70 mph you can never escape it. Seven lanes bumper to bumper. If you don't believe it try driving the stretch that runs through Arlington. Oh, and I didn't include any east or west coastal city as being closed minded because I didn't want anyone to have a tizzy.

Anonymous said...

1)LA
2)LA
3)Houston
4)San Diego
5)Tuscon
6)Phoenix
7)Florida
8)Most of the South
9)San Diego
10)DC

People from Portland understand where the evil really comes from.

Anonymous said...

Seems to me this blog and most of you people aren't just angry with the greed that has gripped the housing market, you hate the whole system we have here in this phony culture of materialism, greed and shallowness.

But I'll bet 90% of you vote republican, the biggest cheerleaders for the empty, ignorant culture we have now. If you want a more genuine, idealistic culture you have to want to create it. Voting republican won't do that.

And Portland Or most closed-minded? No, we just HATE republicans, conservatives and to us, Texas embodies both of those things. However, we are forgiving to those who choose to leave that hellpit and move here to contribute to the most gorgeous, livable and LIBERAL city in the country. If you're a republican though, we'll implant you with a chip and make sure you don't fuck up our region like you have so many others if we don't run you out of town first.

Anonymous said...

I live in DC and could make a serious case for DC for 1, 2, 4, 5, 10. i plan on moving to San Diego in the fall. Yes, its expensive, but so is DC and it blows DC away.

Anonymous said...

Texas was an armpit before anyone ever got there. Oregon was pure rivers and pristine forest. The hyper-advanced people of Portland spoiled both. Now we all know that y'alls $hit don't stink and your piss is like ambrosia so all I have to say is, way to go! The rest of the world could learn a lot from smug self satisfied a-holes who aren't better than anyone but think they are. I change my vote for most conceited city to Portland OR.

Anonymous said...

Hey Portland,

I love people who say they are very 'open-minded'... to everyone... who follow 'our' points of view.

Those of us who lived in or near Berkeley, CA had a name for folks like you - 'Intolerant Liberal'

When you say- ‘we are very open-minded..’ and then in the next sentence say ‘we hate…’ -is interesting to me.

Anonymous said...

1) Worst overall US city: Bakersfield, CA

2) Worst sprawl: L.A.

3) Worst urban planning: Bakersfield, CA

4) Most overvalued: Salinas, CA and Naples, FL - TIE

5) Fakest economy: Phoenix (There is an economy there it's just been terribly inflated)

6) Ugliest houses: Everywhere has ugly parts

7) Worst weather: Any Northern Nevada city

8) Most closed minded: I too find very liberal cities to be more closed minded (intolerant) of alternative viewpoints than very conservative cities

9) Worst problems: Detroit

10) Worst lifestyle: Bakersfield, CA

Anonymous said...

I have to disagree with the post above about Portland, OR. My wife and I lived there for two years. We wanted to live in a place that was much greener and more beautiful than we were used to (SoCal). I'm a middle of the road Democrat and she is a Liberal Democrat. Portland was beautiful, but the people there hated us. They don't like outsiders. They even had funny beer comercials making fun of visitors and telling people to think twice before moving there. The state is also a bastion of nutcase hate groups. Lots of skinhead and seperatist groups hang out in compounds in the Western and Southern parts of the state. We eventually left and moved to Dallas because the people in Oregon were so difficult to live with.
Dallas was much more culturally diverse and much more open minded and accepting. But, it was UGLY with bad sprawl and terrible traffic.
Now we live in Jacksonville, FL and want to move back to Texas.
Between the two of us we have now lived in Las Angeles, New Hampshire, Seattle, Portland, OR, Dallas and Florida. Portland was by far the most closed minded. The city was beautiful, but the people were not accepting.

Anonymous said...

Worst urban (suburban) planning:

New Jersey. Besides the fact that must of the roads are crumbling, leaving giant craters that swallow tires. The insane designs for most of the roads. My personal favorite – the old school ‘circle’ intersection with the added bonus of traffics lights AND the roads also go through the circle!

Worst Problems:

Yeah, New Orleans. I have the miss fortune of going once a month for business. I grew up in Philly and wow, NO is much much worse! Regardless of any hurricane

_________________________________
My opinion of New Orleans was that it was a massive Camden, NJ. The French Quarters and the Garden district were nice, as well as the waterfront and Algiers. The ride from the airport to downtown reminded me of driving on Admiral Wilson boulevard, only 15 miles of it instead of 2.

Anonymous said...

Bakersfield, California

Anonymous said...

not sure about city, but I am taking it in the can on some of Keith's trading ideas. AAPL and gold. Damn this really hurts.

Anonymous said...

A few things:

1. Liberal does not equal tolerant. Why should anyone tolerate assholes like conservatives? So they can run over you with their hegemonic ways, force you to live by their rules? After all, we don't tolerate cockroaches in the kitchen....

2. Not only is Portland better than most cities, we work to preserve our way of life which isn't easy in a culture that values all the wrong things. If we have failed in areas it's because we don't have a purely liberal population and like most places we have our share of republican-cockroaches who are desperately trying to turn our region into a shithole of unrestrained, unplanned growth a la Phoenix. Happily, we outnumber them. But I guess we should "tolerate" them and let them ruin our place without a fight? Passivity isn't tolerance.

3. Conceit is just what the inadequate call pride.

4. Conservative places may seem more tolerant...TO AN IDIOT. At least we allow dissent and listen to opposing viewpoints before rightly slapping you down. In conservative places there IS no dissent, that's what makes them such bland, boring, uninspiring and places people LEAVE for more liberal ones. I should know, I left the hellpit of St. Louis after 38 years of watching oppressive conservative ignorance destroy it. Never looked back. Should have left 20 years earlier.

Oh, and my alternative votes (though I have not been everywhere):

1. Most underrated city: Boise

2. Most livable city: Portland

3. Most intelligent city: Seattle

4. Most brutal city: St. Louis

5. Second most brutal city: Ft Lauderdale

6. Worst places on earth: ALL in the southern USA.

7. Most ignorant places on earth: ALL in the southern USA.

8. Most overrated city: Tie- Atlanta and Denver

9. Dirtiest city: LA and surrounding area

10. Most Stepford-like city: Grand Rapids, MI

Anonymous said...

Portland accepted me just fine. Also most of my friends who are all transplants. They are very accepting if you're not a conservative asshole. Portland has absorbed 500,000 people in a decade and is making room for 500,000 more by 2030. If they weren't accepting that wouldn't bee the case.

Stay in Texas. Obviously you didn't fit in here in Portland.

Anonymous said...

Sounds like Portland, OR better hope they never need anyone's help ever. Good luck Portland, you're going to need it.

Anonymous said...

Need help?

You sound like a typical punishing conservative buttwipe. Besides, California and Washington are always there to lend us a hand. None of the con places would help anyway.

Anonymous said...

bubbleshanker -

I have to respectfully disagree with your assessment of Phoenix. Just like any other major city, it has good and bad. Sure, it has many garbage low paying jobs - so does every other major city. My job in Phoenix is not low paying. I am sure the janitor who cleans my office at the end of the day probably makes garbage wages. But it is like that in any town, certain professionals make money, other people don't. And yes, there are a ton of houses along the 10 located 1 1/2 hours from the city center that will probably be covered in dust soon. Drive through the exurbs of Chicago, Dallas, Denver or any other major city and you will see the same exact thing. There are also thousands of beautiful homes in Scottsdale and Paradise Valley with plush greenery, big lawns, beautiful palm trees, winding streets and plenty of shade trees. Maybe you missed those areas when you were hanging out on the freeway. As far as the freeway system goes, it is becoming fantastic as it deals with gowth unprecedented in any other city. The freeways have six lanes each, the 51 now connects to the 101, the 202 now has the Santan, the 101 gets you anywhere in the Valley, the 303 is being built and now Gilbert will soon have direct freeway access. I go from back and forth on Camelback and Lincoln so I never worry about the freeways, but compared to NYC, Chicago, LA, SD - PHX freeway system is a dream. Finally, yes it is hot. Jeez, get over it people. It is unreal the amount of people who think that the heat is hell. Maybe you don't like it, but I don't mind it at all. June, July, Aug and Sep are warm, but the monsoons bring rain and as others on this blog have said, you don't have to shovel heat.

Anonymous said...

1) Worst overall US city: Houston

2) Worst sprawl: Atlanta GA

3) Worst urban planning: Detroit

4) Most overvalued: San Fran

5) Fakest economy: Phoenix

6) Ugliest houses: Dayton

7) Worst weather: Houston

8) Most closed minded: Boulder (as in be PC or shut up)

9) Worst problems: Detroit

10) Worst lifestyle: Leadville CO

Anonymous said...

Phoenix is a like a third world country. You're either making great money or shit wages. You can see it when you go there. Opulence and distress side by side. When I go to the normal grocery stores it seems a pall of depression over many of the people.

Unfortunately much of the country is going in that direction.

Anonymous said...

Portland ? Portland ? Never heard of it. Must be where all the JERKS live. Is that another crossroads that suck up are tax money and no one has teeth ?

Anonymous said...

That being said, Phoenix (more particularly Scottsdale) is a great place to live if you are making good money. Great golf courses, beautiful scenery, great weather for the most part, tons of great restaurants and shopping, great easy getaways by car (LA, SD, LV, CO, NM, Flag, Sedona) and if you are not directly tied to the real estate driven economy, business in Phoenix blows away anything else right now. Great place to be a plastic surgeon or a divorce lawyer!

Anonymous said...

Yeah, Portland is awful. Horrible place. Don't move there. PLEASE.

Anonymous said...

Anyplace in america is great to live if you have money. america hates people without money.

Anonymous said...

Phoenix was nice before the housing runnup. Why pay 500k for a house in this place now? Scottsdale is nice when you compare to Queen Creek. But that's about it. This place sucks. I want the market to crash so i can move to San Diego!

Anonymous said...

Scottsdale is nice when you compare it to just about anywhere else. I find that most of the people that hate Phoenix are those who cannot afford to live in Scottsdale/Paradise Valley/Biltmore/Arcadia areas. With the exception of those places, yes, I agree Phoenix pretty much blows. But you can say that about EVERY city out there. I lived in Chicago for years - and the North Shore/Lincoln Park/Bucktown/Lake View/Hinsdale are all great and you need a ton of dough to live there. The rest of the city is depressing and gray and poor and rundown. Heck I love Highland Park in Dallas, but the rest of the city I cannot stand. I think one of the overarching points of a thread like this is that just about any city has good places within the city and bad places. I love living in Scottsdale. I have a beautiful home with a huge pool and hot tub and a giant patio with a couch and plasma tv and I am outside almost all the time - even during the summer. I have more than I could possibly ever want within 5 mins of me and luxury abounds in every direction. However, when I have to go to Queen Creek, Mesa, Surprise, Buckeye - I admit that most of the Valley is a barren dustbowl and I would never want to live here if I could not live in Scottsdale. Only drawback, you gotta pay for the lifestyle.

Anonymous said...

Ah, those jealous of Portland always sound so bitter......

Anonymous said...

I could not find one post that has any data to support anything other than the rants of people hating this or hating that. I quit. This guy Keith has a hard-on something fierce. Something pissed him off, and he has yet to let it go. Get some therapy, take a pill, get a life. Just do something other than bitch.

Anonymous said...

Regarding Portland:

If you're from Texas, it hurts to hear that people in Oregon generally don't like you and consider Oregon the embodiment of all that's right with America (progressiveness, planning, conservation, wariness of fascist corporate fat-catism) and your state the embodiment of all that's wrong with the country (sprawl, energy waste, shrill Bible-thumping dyed-blonde overweight suburban women, annoying Foghorn Leghorn accents, home of fascist corporate fat-catism). But, I mean, when you're right you're right, right?

Anonymous said...

Wow, Bugsy hit it right on the head about Portland. Hope the A**hole liberal POS from Portland reads it twice because some of the words are not hiphop and may therefore be unfamiliar to him ; )

Anonymous said...

We Portlanders aren't fazed by insults because we realize how superior our wonderful city is. The only people bothered by insults are those who know the insults have some truth to them.

Too bad Bugsy will never be able to live here.

Signed,

The liberal asshole POS who you want to be living next door to but can't.

Anonymous said...

Most closed minded...Des Moines IA...ignorant and righteous are are a terrible combination...

Anonymous said...

Loved the comment about Most brutal city...St. Louis. We just moved from there. After 5 years we just gave up...you better be from there or marry someone from there or you will forever be an outsider. Awful place.

Anonymous said...

Bugsy rules....The bunny hugging, Bush hating commies in Portland are stunned by his wit....Nice Job

Anonymous said...

Nominations are now open:

1) Worst overall US city
Atlanta

2) Worst sprawl
DFW, TX; Indianapolis, IN

3) Worst urban planning
Saint Charles, MO
Beaverton, OR. Max traffic lights per capita.

4) Most overvalued
Tampa, FL
Las Vegas, NV

5) Fakest economy
Miami, FL

6) Ugliest houses
Tukwila, WA

7) Worst weather
Atlanta, GA

8) Most closed minded
Inland.
Austin, TX; Madison, WI excepted.

9) Worst problems
New Orleans

10) Worst lifestyle
Atlanta

Saint Louis is getting a bad rap
by previous posters. West County Saint Louis is fine except for the 100 days of lightning a year.

Anonymous said...

Best overall: Atlanta

Who's that MORON that says Atlanta is not open minded?

I don't want to hear it. Its not true, I won't even consider it. Keep it to your self. My mind is made up. No sense in trying to persuade me. I'm not interested in hearing your arguments. Atlanta is NOT closed minded - I said it, I believe it and that settles it.

Thanks for listening,

Guy from Atlanta

Anonymous said...

In a beauty contest between residents of Texas and Oregon, Texas would certainly win hands down. In general, the south just has better looking, thiner people. All of that rain keeps Oregonians indoors too much.

Also, how many black people live in Portland? 10? 12? It's easy to sit around in your lily-white city yapping about how tolerant and open minded you are. Southerners practice that tolerance every day.

Anonymous said...

"In a beauty contest between Texas and Oregon..."

See, typical Texan thinking. Big hair, beauty pageants, debutante balls, beating up the powerless (think "Dazed and Confused"), glorifying superficiality over substance.

Even so, Oregonians just don't like the Texan "look" - big highlighted hair, lots of makeup, vapid expression on the face. You won't get too far in Oregon looking like that, and if you can in Texas, have at it. So I think that your beauty contest would have to be held in Texas in order for Texas to win.

Anonymous said...

http://tinyurl.com/pcrfq

Must be 420 & GLBT friendly? What is that? Oh, cats okay.

Anonymous said...

The comments about the South being awful and closed-minded, etc. are pretty interesting.

I'm a transplanted Yankee, moved from the Midwest to San Diego many years ago, and now in the South for 25 years. First in a big "blue" city, now out in the sticks.

Yup, there's all kinds in the rural South - liberals, conservatives, Dems and Reps. But mostly, I've found many people who are religious yet not fascist. People who are pretty self-reliant, who don't want the gov't on their shoulder watching their every move and regulating the heck out of 'em because they don't need that.

A lot of people who will drop everything and help a stranger - see what usually happens if you break down in front of my shack is, I'll give you a ride to town if you need it, help you change your tire, and one of the kids'll bring out the iced tea too.

A good bit of the rural South is being marred by meth and prescription drug abuse, and I don't care for the religious loonies. Plenty of white supremacy nutsos here too. But at least I've got a buffer zone called acreage between me 'n' them, and nobody here is gonna vote in laws to take our guns away.

Housing and land are still very affordable, so if you want to spread rumors about how it's awful to live here, that's okay with me. Stay where you are. We don't need yer stinkin' bubbles ;-).

Anonymous said...

Been in San Diego for 20 years and it's definitely turned into a mini-LA. Yes, the weather is nice, but when you are a college educated professional in a decent business sector, barely scraping by because the wages don't match the cost of living, then it's not much fun living here. It's a have, have-not city and there is no middle. Lots of transplants, in fact every 3rd person you meet is either fresh from another country or another state and haven't been here for long. They set up their own communities and live as they did in their native countries. Definitely a mini-LA.

Anonymous said...

You describe america. Haves and have-nots with the distance between growing ever greater. Brazil here we come.

Blame republicans and the dog-eat-dog, worship-the-wealthy culture created by conservative economic policies. No one matters but the top 5-10%.

Anonymous said...

I left St. Louis for the south. St. Louis is a god-awful city with little economy, little recreation, and nothing worth visiting. The people are shallow and superficial and believe they own the entire state of Missouri. The yuppism is crazy in West county; just look at the constant convoy of vehicles going from west co. to the Lake of the Ozarks each summer weekend. The city yuppies take their cash-out wad to the lake, buy power boats, monster SUVs and trucks, and spend like it's going out of style. They also spend all their time worried about what everyone thinks about them. They have overtaken smaller once quaint towns like Weedon Springs, OFallon, Wentzville, and Defiance and created a sea-to-sea mass of ugly suburban McMansions filled with cheap, chic furniture. Then they have built wineries up and down 94 so the people trying to live in the small towns can't get peace and quiet during any summer weekends due to the traffic and general ostenatious behavior of the yuppies.

The south is wonderful. Florida is NOT the south. Florida is overrun with yankee idiots from New York and New Jersey. North Florida is still the old south where people are friendly and BBQ is common. Central Florida is full of close minded rednecks.

The best part of the country is LA, better known as lower Alabama. That is God's country. Beautiful farms and homes, enough jobs to support a family, and thank goodness it has a bad rap so all those city yuppies won't turn it into another suburban village.

Heck if we outlawed suburbs the national IQ would probably rise by 20 pts and the obesity % would drastically decline. Outlaw SUVs and materialism and we would solve the social security problem since people wouldn't spend 120% of their take-home pay on trinkets and junk.

Anonymous said...

Liberal, conservative, whatever ... personally, I'm as Green as can be, refuse to shop in big box stores, refuse to buy Made in China, don't have cable, have never and will never finance a car, have $110,000 in untapped credit card limits, grow most of my own vegetables, drive a Prius, hate the war in Iraq, wear my clothes until they are shredded, send my kids to an excellent public school in LA (yes, they do exist), and absolutely love the tax cuts that poor people in Kansas and Alabama voted in for me. Because of these beliefs and habits, I hardly spend a dime, invest heavily, and just passed $1 million in cash and investments about a month ago (even with this crazy market).

degoboy said...

In California,riverside/San bernardino metro areas take the cake. Go down the list and River/San Berdoo gets top honors in each category, at least for Southern California, and probably all California.

I will list for each categorie for Scal only:

1 worst overall- compton
2 worst sprawl- riverside
3 worsturbanplanning sbernardino
4 most overvalued Santa Barbara
5fakest economy sbernardino
6 ugliest houses scentral LA
7 worst weather sbernardino
8 mostclosedminded ventura
9 worst problems City of LA
10 worst lifestyle pomona

Anonymous said...

I live in San Diego and it is overrated. It has the high cost of a cutting-edge city without the wages or smart populace. Mainly a bunch of middle-american Babbits --and they do praise it "America's Finest City". The other cities of the southwest are the same but with bad weather.

Anonymous said...

I don't understand all the people putting DC in the "worst urban planning" category. The city has one of the nicest subway systems in the country. DC itself (not the suburbs) is very pedestrian oriented. You can live in the city without owning a car. These are all features that urban planners admire.

It's true that the outer suburbs have their problems but just about every large city has problems with sprawl. Traffic can be a nightmare (especially the last few days due to the floods! grrr!) but that has a lot to do with the Potomac creating bottlenecks.

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Anonymous said...

1) Worst overall US city: Detroit - hopefully it will turn around.

2) Worst sprawl: LA

3) Worst urban planning: Detroit

4) Most overvalued: SF

5) Fakest economy: What does that mean?

6) Ugliest houses: Golden, CO

7) Worst weather: New Orleans

8) Most closed minded: Boulder (have to agree with that other person - and I'm a liberal)

9) Worst problems: Detroit

10) Worst lifestyle: DC

don said...

Best Place to Live: Spring Green, WI It was good enough for Frank Lloyd Wright, good enough for me. 30 minutes outside of Madison, WI, always rated in the top 10. Only negative about it is lack of ethnic diversity- everyone is white.

Worst City- Non Brainer- New Orleans. They should just open the gates and let the ocean in.