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Los Angeles - Some suburbs of LA are included, but the presence of suburbs doesn't automatically exclude a core city. For example both Plano and Dallas are in the fifty while Arlington, Virginia and DC are in the top ten.
Philadelphia doesn't look to be in the list and I'm not sure if any of its suburbs are either.
I don't think I see a single city in Alabama, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, or Ohio. I think all those have cities larger than Irvine.
Inner cities can be just as boring right outside their downtowns, as the culture is also revolving around poor service employees, and/or yuppish conforming corporation fishes/rats..whatever. There is much less family / personal connection or time for such connection in big cities. Yet us boring sububanites visit more city attractions than the actual city dwellars who keep the city running for us. Bravo! How many people of wealth and taste actually choose city living? Not nearly as many as those "boring" suburbs.
Chicago is absent from a few of these best cities lists. Is it fair to say that Chicago has become geared more for visitors/tourists from surrounding states, geared toward conventioners, suburban commuters, etc. Most quality of life categories, Chicago ranks pretty low for the bulk of their population. Obviously Chicago kicks ass in variety of commercial businesses, entertainment, housing stock, architecture..etc. There. I said Chicago's positives. Now...its negatives. Too many to list. Are these keeping them off the lists, I mean surely they all didn't just overlook the second city of America?? I know they are subjective, but even on the lists compiled by mayors, Chicago ranks low.
Things can change fairly rapidly...I moved to San Diego in late 70's and Downtown SD was a serious dump. And now it has grown into a major city in only 35 years, which is fast for a city to grow. Metro area has a little over 1M people and SD County 3 million....so it could happen to places like Charlotte and Raleigh as well. Seems like it already is. And seems lots of retiring baby boomers are attracted to the Southeast.
Even given their criteria, it doesn't seem to follow the data.......at least as I know it. I don't feel as though the rankings are accurate, but I'm not surprised. I also don't see Chicago on this list for some reason, and it's one of the best cities in the world, if not America. Want a REAL top 10 list?:
1. New York
2. Chicago
3. D.C.
4. San Francisco
5. L.A.
6. Boston
7. Philadelphia
8. Seattle
9. Atlanta
10. Minneapolis/St. Paul
That seems much closer to right (save 1 or 2 adjustments) than the OP's list.
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