Long Beach and Santa Ana Among Worst-Run Cities in Bang-for-Your-Buck Rankings

Rankings of America's 65 most-populated cities by how well they are run show Long Beach and Santa Ana near the bottom, at 64th and 57th respectively.

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For the glass-half-full view, Anaheim would be the best-run Orange County big city, although–gulp–it's way down there in the Santa Ana neighborhood at No. 51 in consumer site WalletHub's rankings.

No other Orange County city made the list, which I've got my doubts about because seven of the top 10–the best run, that is–are in Texas:

1. Lubbock, TX
2. Philadelphia, PA
3. El Paso, TX
4. Dallas, TX
5. Pittsburgh, PA
6. Corpus Christi, TX
7. San Antonio, TX
8. Garland, TX
9. Houston, TX
10. Fort Wayne, Ind.

Here's why, apparently: WalletHubbers tallied scores for each city based on expenditures for things like education, police and parks and recreation and then determined which ones received the highest returns on their public-spending investments.

Not to get all Howard Jarvis on you, but many Texas cities don't impose all the taxes and fees their California counterparts do yet somehow manage their revenues better, at least according to this list.

Still, when it comes to bang for your buck, I was certain Irvine would snake it's way onto the list, but I don't see it. The highest ranking California city is San Diego at No. 42. Other Cali contenders are: Sacramento (43); Fresno (47); Bakersfield (50); San Francisco (54); Los Angeles (58); San Jose (59); Oakland (60); Riverside (63); and rounding out the bottom, Fremont (65), which is named after Mr. Wilson's dog.

Email: mc****@oc******.com. Twitter: @MatthewTCoker. Follow OC Weekly on Twitter @ocweekly or on Facebook!

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