Do you want the good news or the bad news first. OK then, no Orange County city is among a wascally real estate site's list of the Top 10 Most Boring Cities in America. But two of our biggest cities and an LA County neighbor we adopted long ago do crack the top 50.
Movoto started with the 100 biggest cities in America and then used U.S. Census and other data to determine things like the number of parks, outdoor activities, bars, nightclubs, music venues, comedy clubs, movie theaters, festivals, galleries and theaters each one has per capita.
Consideration was also given for the number of fast-food restaurants (the fewer the better) and non-fast-food restaurants (the higher the better). As Chris Hardwick would say, “Points!” for those towns with high population densities and high percentages of residents ages 18 to 34.
And so, after the numbers were crunched, Lubbock, Texas, was deemed the most boring city in the land. (I know someone who lived there who would agree.) The first California city to make the list is No. 7 San Bernardino, which, ironically, is where yours truly and my old pal who spent time in Lubbock are from originally. At least neither of our current cities made the list.
But some pretty dang close to me did. At No. 39 is Santa Ana, while Anaheim is No. 48, followed by Long Beach, which was somehow bettered by No. 50: Fort Worth, Texas.
When it came to rankings, the only category where Santa Ana has single digits is population density (No. 8). The city of 324,528 ranks 90th in 18- to 34-year-olds (which does not sound right) and 90th in music venues, according to Movoto.
Anaheim has its 336,265 Mouseketeers spread out pretty well, according to the city's 88th place finish in population density. Its ranking for entertainment venues seems very middling considering the clubs, arena and stadium (filled with major league sports franchises) and the second most popular theme park in the land being there.
Long Beach tops our three cities in 18 to 34 population, although I'd suspect it to finish higher than 49th in the U.S. in that section. And how could it be 97th in population density considering all the rentals, all the people crammed into those rentals and all the single-family homes that have been converted into multi-unit housing? How does Movoto think 462,257 people fit into snug Long Beach anyway? Hmmm …
And for God's sakes, where the hell is Irvine?
Email: mc****@oc******.com. Twitter: @MatthewTCoker. Follow OC Weekly on Twitter @ocweekly or on Facebook!
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.