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Travel + Leisure to LA: "You're Dumb, Ugly & Rude but You've Got Nice Shops"
Travel + Leisure's November 2007 issue features a fun little ditty called America's Favorite Cities. They've asked people from all over the country to rate 25 well-known cities on everything from culture and nightlife to public transportation and weather.
We're not quite sure who these 60,000 respondents think they are, but they don't have anything nice to say about our fair city. Oh, except for the fact that we have nice shops. Los Angeles was rated the worst (the worst! out of 25 cities!) in Friendliness of People, Intelligence of People, Overall Cityscape, Pedestrian Friendliness and Ease of Getting Around/Public Transportation.
Los Angeles ranked almost-worst in Affordability, Environmental Awareness, Peace and quiet, Safety, Access to Outdoors, Cleanliness, Public parks/spaces, Skyline/views, Architecture/notable buildings, Historical sites/monuments, the quality of our pizza, and how "fun" our residents are. What element of LA received top scores? Luxury Boutiques, of course!
While we could cry foul all day long (and argue that gross generalizations and obvious clichés about a city aren't true, no matter who you poll), we could just as easily dismiss this as other people in other cities assuming they know what Los Angeles is like, even though they've never been here. A fair assumption, right? Fair, that is, until we dug deeper and saw how LA's own residents ranked us in the same categories...cry foul indeed!
It seems that local readers of Travel + Leisure agree with the other 60,000 LA-haters. We don't know whether to dismiss the whole thing as nonsense or go on an extended LAist Rant, listing examples of LA greatness in every category to highlight our city's finer points. Yes, LA is a work in progress, but to be rated the worst or almost-worst in several key categories (by our very own residents!) makes us seethe. Go take a peek and tell us what you think...
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