Better than......
Really? Houston ranked 22nd best city in the U.S. — behind St. Paul & Cincinnati— and No. 2 in Texas
San Francisco took the top spot on America's Best Cities list.Photo by Rich Niewiroski Jr./Wikipedia
Houston ranked No. 22, beneath some deserving metropolises andother WTF-selections.
Seattle fell in at No. 2...BigHugeLabs.com
And Washington D.C. ranked No. 3.RealEstateCommunities.com
San Francisco pretty much has it all — great food, great public transit, verdant public parks, beaches and the bay, plus year-round cool temps and a vibrant community — so it's difficult to contest its title as America's Best City in 2012, bestowed by Bloomberg Rankings and Businessweek.com.
For the ranking, the pair looked at the number of "leisure attributes" by population, like bars, restaurants, libraries, museums, sports teams and park acres, plus educational attributes, crime and air quality.
Where did Houston, also known as America's Coolest City, land on the list? At No. 22, just behind Cincinnati. (The Bayou City ranked No. 35 on last year's inaugural list; its 2012 ranking wasn't due to increased awesomeness, but rather a change in methodology.)
Where did Houston, also known as America's Coolest City, land on the list? At No. 22, just behind Cincinnati.
Houston's population of 2.1 million counts 549 bars, 5,549 restaurants, 58 museums, 63 libraries, six professional sports teams, 22 park acres per 1,000 residents and 17 colleges among its midst, but that's not enough to make up for the low median household income ($48,889) or the high unemployment rate (7.6 percent).
Seattle took No. 2, followed by Washington, D.C., Boston and Portland, Ore. — all of which are well-deserved. But must we enumerate the ways that Houston is better than Cincinnati, Pittsburgh and St. Paul, Minn., all of which snagged higher spots on the list? Surely we need not.
Dallas, which the article claims is "arguably the focal point for oversize American culture," ranked No. 41 — behind San Antonio, which took No. 30 "thanks to a better local economy and significantly lower crime" than its neighbor to the north.
Austin beat out all other Texas cities at No. 8 on the list, with tech talent, start-up energy and music festivals, plus food and drink and ample park space. Still no professional sports team for our state capital, though.
