How it feels to be cool.

[caramida]

Forbes Magazine rates my town, Oakland, in the Top Five Coolest Cities in the US.

#1 was a tie between NY & Vegas
#3 went to Seattle (using a picture from the one sunny day they had last year)
#4 was taken by Chicago
#5 was Oakland.

Six through ten went to Orlando, San Diego, LA, and DC.

San Francisco didn't even rate.

(Technically, if you read the pop-up, they call it the SF-Oakland statistical area. Even so, an editor decided to choose Oakland over her sister on the far side of Goat Island.)

In your face, peninsulares!

Ok. I'll admit, Forbes isn't exactly an arbiter of cool, and their rankings don't really mean much of anything anyway, but a guy's gotta have something. I'm constantly trying to defend my town from folk who claim Oakland isn't safe enough, or cool enough, or cultured enough.

Comments

[palecur.livejournal.com]

Oakland is cool? Are they going by average human body temperature? Because once you factor in the corpses I suppose then it makes sense.

[caramida.livejournal.com]

We get no respect. I tell you.

Anyway, we're way behind Vegas.
http://www.swivel.com/charts/2376-Murders-Per-100-000-Citizens-by-City

[random-girl.livejournal.com]

I'll have you know we have at least three sunny days a year, when it's not raining or snowing. Usually it's hot as hell and the sun refuses to go down until 10 pm.

[enf.livejournal.com]

The caption doesn't say it, but it's actually the "San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont" metropolitan statistical area, even, so maybe all the really good stuff is in Fremont.

[changinganswers.livejournal.com]

Don't make me take a picture of the sun shining outside this very moment! We get almost 3 whole months of sun and still make the top 3 (oddly enough that equals one month of sun per ranking spot.) Perhaps Seattle needs less sun to make the top 2. Back to work and taking my vitamin D supplements.

[avenuepotter.livejournal.com]

I'm just shocked that Seattle was #3 when San Fransisco didn't even rate! The food here is mediocre to awful. It's impossible to find a decent restaurant sometimes. Nothing like San Fransisco and the entire Bay Area, where the food is TOP NOTCH. Seattle can be "fun" though, I guess. The art scene (including the film scene) is hopping.

[avenuepotter.livejournal.com]

Ooops, sorry, I meant to reply to the main thread and replied to your comment instead. My bad.

[name-redacted.livejournal.com]

"they call it the SF-Oakland statistical area"

At least they didn't lump in San Joser; they would've dragged us down to the bottom. San Jose has got no Elvis in it.

I don't understand the obsession with Vegas - it's only cool in movies, the real place is just a shiny machine designed to separate fools from their money.

Seattle is indeed cool, though I'd argue whether it's cooler than SFO. But, Portland is way cooler, especially on a per-capita basis.

[mr-pandakun.livejournal.com]

I fully support the idea that Portland is cooler than Seattle! But I tell you, there's very little that's cool about Fremont. Except there's abundant parking. Wheee.

[zahraa]

Notice that the picture is of the Golden Gate Bridge, and it sure looks like they took it from somewhere in the Marina.

All the same, go Oakland!