Denver is more overpriced than Los Angeles. Louisville is the fifth-best place to live in the United States. And Colorado Springs is the second-best city in the nation for dating.
These are conclusions from recent studies by national publications and websites.
Each study began with a methodology that might have sounded perfectly logical at the outset. Yet each came to a conclusion that is patently absurd.
“They are headlines for the covers of magazines to get people to buy them,” said Tom Clark, who heads the Metro Denver Economic Development Corp.
Clark’s outfit is now collecting assorted rankings, attempting to paint a mosaic of outside perceptions.
“It’s quite interesting,” Clark said, “because when you put enough of them together, they really do tell a story.”
Here’s that story as far as I can tell:
Forbes.com ranked Denver No. 9 on its list of “Most Overpriced Places,” using 2004 data to measure cost of living, job growth, income growth and housing affordability. Los Angeles came in 10th.
I was talking to a photographer from the Los Angeles area Tuesday. I asked him what kind of home I could buy in L.A. for, say, $650,000. He’s not a real estate expert like the folks at Forbes, mind you, but he was sure quick to laugh: “You would get a small lot with a three-bedroom house that would need to be torn down.”
Money magazine, in its most recent edition, ranks Louisville the fifth-best place to live in the entire United States. The ranking was based on several factors, including proximity to cultural and recreational amenities – perhaps like the ones at the FlatIron Crossing mall in nearby Broomfield.
Colorado Springs is the second-best city for dating, according to a recent study by Sperling’s Best Places, www.best places.net. Best city for dating who? I’m not sure. But the survey was sponsored by Axe Deodorant Bodyspray.
Meanwhile, Forbes just ranked Denver-Boulder as the “Best City in the U.S. for Singles.” This reminds me of the time The Ladies Home Journal ranked Lakewood the nation’s fifth-most romantic city in 1998. Love is blind. It’s not stupid.
Denver was ranked the No. 1 city for entrepreneurs, by Inc. and Entrepreneur magazines. What else can anyone do after a spate of massive layoffs? Most new enterprises fail. And those that succeed sometimes get acquired by giant corporations based somewhere else, leaving Colorado entrepreneurs to start all over again.
Colorado ranked third nationally for economic development potential using nanotechnology, according to a 2004 Lux Research study. So the state’s future really does lie in small business.
Denver was named one of the nation’s top five “creatively cool” cities last year by USA Weekend magazine. Denver earned this designation by electing Mayor John Hickenlooper, who champions a public policy movement inspired by a book, “The Rise of the Creative Class.”
Said USA Weekend: “Who would have thought a microbrewery owner with zero political experience could be elected mayor of a major city?”
Maybe that’s why Men’s Health magazine last year ranked Denver as the drunkest big city in America, beating out New Orleans, Las Vegas, New York and every other modern-day Sodom and Gomorrah. The ranking was based on such factors as drunken-driving arrests, alcohol-related driving fatalities and deaths due to alcohol-related liver diseases.
Despite its alcohol problems, Denver ranked as one of the top 10 “Healthiest Cities in America” in a study released this year by Centrum vitamins. Hmmm.
Boulder ranked as the No. 1 spot for brainpower in the nation, according to American City Business Journals. This ranking came despite University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill and the local law enforcement officers who worked on the JonBenét Ramsey case.
Colorado was one of the nation’s most popular destinations for skiers, according to a 2004 ranking by Ski magazine. Perhaps neighboring Kansas and Nebraska will have a better shot at this title in future geologic epochs.
So what do these studies mean? I have no idea. Neither does Clark. “If they have marketing potential we use them,” he said. “If they don’t, we ignore them.”
Al Lewis’ column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Friday. Respond to Al at , 303-820-1967, or alewis@denverpost.com.
