The staff of Deadspin is rather geographically diverse. We are centered in New York City, but we have outposts in D.C., Philly, L.A., Ohio, San Francisco, and Florida. Combine this with our argumentative nature and proclivity to rank things, and you can see where this is going (to the blog you are reading, right now).
This particular discussion started while talking about whether Las Vegas was very good or very bad. Someone suggested that it was the worst American city, and after a overlong period of yelling at each other, we got scientific about it. Our list of 50 cities is (much like a similar list from our friends at Gawker a few years ago) roughly sourced from a list of the top 50 metropolitan areas by population. However, we introduced some light editorializing to ensure that some worthwhile metropolises weren’t boxed out.
The staff (minus a few abstainers) gave each city a rating between 1-10, and everyone played along except for Tim Marchman, known rankings deviant, who insisted on half points. This process echoed the Casual Dining Restaurants, Ranked blog in its methodology, except for a key difference. A city’s reputation matters, so rankers were encouraged to rate cities they had never personally been to. What follows is a list of American cities ranked best to worst, whose rigor is beyond dispute.
1. New York City (8.73)
2. Chicago (8.12)
3. Los Angeles (7.96)
4. Oakland (7.95)
5. San Francisco (7.92)
6. New Orleans (7.5)
T-7. Austin (7.46)
T-7. Philadelphia (7.46)
9. Honolulu (7.36)
10. Portland, OR (7.1)
11. San Diego (6.96)
12. Denver (6.92)
13. Washington D.C. (6.85)
14. Seattle (6.8)
15. Nashville (6.71)
16. Memphis (6.46)
17. Miami (6.27)
18. Pittsburgh (6.09)
19. Baltimore (5.58)
20. Minneapolis (5.45)
21. Boston (4.81)
22. Detroit (4.77)
23. Richmond, VA (4.58)
24. Louisville (4.55)
25. Salt Lake City (4.5)
26. Kansas City (4.41)
27. Milwaukee (4.36)
28. Providence (4.27)
29. Atlanta (4.23)
30. Tampa Bay (4.226)
31. San Antonio (4.09)
32. Albuquerque (3.8)
33. Sacramento (3.45)
34. Birmingham (3.35)
35. Columbus (3.3)
36. Charlotte (3.23)
37. St. Louis (3.09)
T-38. Buffalo (3.0)
T-38. Houston (3.0)
40. Cleveland (2.88)
41. Cincinnati (2.85)
42. Virginia Beach (2.83)
43. Indianapolis (2.77)
44. Phoenix (2.69)
45. Las Vegas (2.62)
46. Oklahoma City (2.4)
47. Dallas (2.29)
48. Orlando (2.25)
49. Jacksonville (2.1)
50. Getting Hit By A Car (2.0)
51. Hartford (1.75)
52. Whatever city Kevin Draper is in (0.0)