I have a bachelor's degree in political science and it's so disappointing seeing other political scientists (and even the general public) think they fully understand how important geography ties into political science. These kinds of articles are clearly biased towards one ideology. Thank you for responding in such an effective way, Kyle! :)
It is very easy to go into a field with an ideology and only look at the things that support that ideology while ignoring or denying everything else. And unfortunately it's not much harder to do all the work and get all the degrees and still never critically examine your fundamental assumptions.
I'd like to point out when I googled the article the second hit was a fox news article that notably pointed out that democratic large costal cities are run very badly according to these PolSci guys
Hey geography can I have a question for you I love your contact and keep the great work but how come some states have the same cities as other states like for example Lancaster California,Lancaster Pennsylvania Pasadena Texas , Pasadena California Las Vegas Nevada, Las Vegas New Mexico
This has been touched on already by you Kyle and also in other comments, so forgive me for parroting, but I think it's quite telling that the vast majority of the "best run cities," are quite small and, in some instances, barely even cities at all. Larger cities, naturally, have a far more vast and complex web of social, economic, racial, environmental etc. etc. factors to consider and deal with, so I'm not sure they should necessarily be penalized for that. Nampa, Idaho (where?!) is obviously going to be a lot easier to manage than New York City or Chicago, in the same way that second grade arithmetic is a lot easier to manage than Trigonometry.
But shouldn't all those people generate more taxes, bigger budgets and more college graduates per Capita vs the smaller cities graduation rates. Seems like that should more than even out and they should have better medical, police, scholastic etc services in the bigger cities?? Seems like it should but yet it doesn't equal out.... Wonder why that is??? Have my opinions but I'm curious of yours
@@WKRP187 If you lived in New York, you would know just based on daily life. Or should I say daily hassle, because there is not much time left for life. You're always stuck somewhere, either in traffic or a delayed train or in a line. Streets are dirty, buildings infested with rats and roaches. Everybody's always angry, frustrated, sleep-deprived. It's nobody's fault. The city is simply overpopulated. Can't wait to move out.
@@magellanicspaceclouds You forgot to mention the crime and high taxes in your come visit/live in NYC sales pitch. LoL... Couldn't do it for more than a week
Fill any one of these cities with 100% asian or white citizens and it will still be one of the best run cities in America. Culture and race have a much more vital role when it comes to "success" than you want to acknowledge 🤷♂️
Any list made by a website or magazine: Bullshit stats made up through opaque equations, with uneven weighting and an unfairly wide net, all correlated in a shady way to make some kind of point that the magazine/website was going to find a way to make no matter what. These things are made to sell traffic on the service in which they exist more than anything else. So always make sure to check the sources.
Well put! Having Nampa and Boise as two distinct entries is quite telling, as Nampa is just a suburban extension of Boise and TONS of Californians are currently moving to Idaho (and Utah).
Financial publications dabbling into political areas automatically reeks of the stench of agenda. I appreciate you putting this suss-as-hell "study" in its place.
Are you even cred maxxing bro? Take all the money those silly banks will give you and put it into crypto. Home ownership is unobtainable anyways these days/s
In general one of the things that I thoroughly enjoy about this channel is your hesitance to speak about places in negative terms. I love that you respect the folks who live in a place, and recognize the reason that you did not like this article was that it did not take the time to look at the facts with that same perspective. Cheers, and keep making great content.
I love your sarcastic "investing/retirement tips" at the end! 😂 I love how you title this 25 best & worst cities which is barely (& randomly) relevant because your cogent criticism is of the ranking list, NOT of actual cities (as much). Thanks for taking something dry & statisticky and making it entertaining. 😎 I hope some city planners/politicians reference this brilliant video to show how inaccurate/irrelevant rankings can be. 👍
I'm glad you mentioned the horror that is Jacksonville, I'm STILL shocked they blew the gift that was Jacksonville Landing. Any other city would have maintained that gem.
Jacksonville's curse is its enormous area. Normal cities focus on their downtowns while the suburbs around them are growing. Meanwhile Jacksonville has no suburbs, everything is jacksonville. So they just keep putting in new subdivisions in the swamp and growing their tax base without needing to focus on the center. It's like the very lazy way of playing SimCity
While I am sad to see my beloved Duval dragged through the ringer, he isn’t wrong. Jacksonville is definitely squandered potential. It had a head start on all other Florida cities and do not take advantage when the time came.
I think crime rate per capita, unemployment rate, public safety, tax burden, and wages vs cost of living are the best ways to judge city leadership. Thanks for the video.
Yes, every morning I check my city’s Moody’s credit rating before I decide if I’m going out of the house. It tells all about the quality of life in a city!
As someone with a degree in city and regional planning, seeing Columbus, OH so low on this list makes me immediately suspicious of this article. Columbus right now is taking immense strides in good city planning policies and has some really amazing leaders who know what they are talking about in planning. I have full confidence in Columbus's ability to run itself in the future because of the things they are doing now to combat the horrible planning of the past. Quite a few of the cities higher on the list don't give a rat's ass about poor people, public transportation, biking, walking, and increased density and provide fewer services than Columbus does. Also, while I love Dayton since its my home metro, and they are taking some really good steps too, it really has no right to be above Columbus. Its night and day between the cities. This list really is inherently flawed...
columbus has fucked up with "defund the police", and safety has been more of an issue, but theres no way they should be that low... akron? dayton? indianapolis? all those cities are run quite a bit worse than columbus yet are somehow ranked higher
Yes. This list is the best example of Right Wing Conservative propaganda meant to show that Democratic run cities are terrible when in fact when you look at some of the poorest and most poorly run and downtrodden cities most of those are in Republican controlled States in the South and Middle America. Look at most of all the rural cities in the south and many of them are barely holding on and few if any provide services for the homeless.
Love it! And that's from a History major and according to many, it's the most useless of knowledge. The real topic of this video should be Critical Thought in Action. Can you read a graph? Do you understand what it means? And the top thing you learn as a history major--consider the source. ALWAYS. Are they honest? Did they leave questions and facts out because they didn't like the outcome? What are their biases? Were they honest enough to tell you? This could be a master class in active reading. I salute you!
Took the words right out of my mouth. Critical Thought in Action: 101 Ways Social Media is Constantly Cherry-Picking and Manipulating Data, Reinforcing One's Confirmation Biases, then Skillfully Crafting Lowest Common Denominator Clickbait Garbage for the Masses to Argue About while Targeted Ads Sell Someone in Tulsa the Perfect Lawnmower and Cat Food. (Edit -- alternate title idea: 🤦♂️ Come On, Mom! You're Smarter Than That! 🤦♂️)
It's interesting because people often think their cities are the worst, but people think their states are utopic. I live in the south and people think it's perfect. People generally don't look anything up though and watch the news all day.
Great video! I agree. A study like this needs to focus on factors in a city’s control. A city has to “play the cards it’s dealt” and should not be penalized for any factors outside of its control. certain cities may get a lot of tax revenue as per the state and other intermediate governments whereas other cities may receive very little money from the states and other entities therefore have less resources with which to work.
While I normally agree with many evaluations, I will need to disagree with some of the concerns. Chicago may produce a higher GDP, but this does not reflect spending. We have a massive unfunded pensions which is solely the responsibility of Chicago. The extra taxes have crippled home values, business growth, etc. this is not a geography issue, it is a management issue.
The pension crisis isn't a matter of sudden extra taxes, but decades and decades of unfunded tax cuts, essentially. That's when the malfeasance was done - when governor after governor in many states (my state of Kentucky as well) just didn't want to bother their electorates with unpleasant news, and chose to give corporations and the voters free rides.
If you are going to mention unfunded (actually underfunded) pensions, you must also mention 2 things. 1) The state of Illinois does not contribute to teacher pensions in Chicago, but Chicago tax payers must not only fund the Chicago pensions but the state teacher pensions as well. 2) The pension liability that is always spoken off is based on the notion that all the pensions (of retirees and people still working) would have to be paid in full right now. This is includes the 25-year-old who is just starting in her career but will not collect pension for another 40 years.
In all reality, I would rather get financial advice from Kyle than some major publication who you don't know who's pulling all the strings. At least Kyle seems like a genuine person! :)
Kyle, I feel like you would really like "Scale" by Geoffrey West; it's not necessarily geography focused, but there's a great section about how various features of cities scale in surprising ways!
Kyle, thank you for giving credit to city / urban planners having a say in the ranking even though the authors don’t seem to have a clue. Sprawl plays a big factor in how thin you stretch your resources and how much inequity there is between newer and older parts of town. You are spot on in your skepticism of the criteria. Weird that Nampa and Boise are the top two when one is arguably a suburb of the other, but nevertheless I believe that both are very well planned from a city planning perspective and enjoy a good quality of life.
Thank you so much for standing up to corporate friendly media disinformation Also thank you for standing up for fact based, rational, actual expert based geography and public administration.
I lived in Tacoma for awhile and honestly thought the city was run just fine. There always projects to improve sidewalks, fix roads, provide a non corporate internet ISP and so on. My garbage was always picked up on time. When I needed services from a particular department, like animal control, they were on top of things. The parks were great. So yeah, i see that list and just chuckle. Not saying Tacoma was perfect, but all systems are created and run by humans who are, by nature, imperfect.
@@Swampkrew Agreed. North Tacoma is nice and Point Defiance is a true gem, but downtown is nothing to write home about. South and east on the other hand is quite a crime ridden, unkempt, boring sprawl. City leaders put tax money kind of haphazardly all over the place. Million dollar octopus tentacles sticking out of the ground with a chain link fence around it in an industrial neighborhood. A bunch of money spent on streetscape and high dollar street art in the boring Lincoln District that most people don't even know exists. Standing in the middle of downtown you would think time has stood still since the 60s only there's no people anywhere. Then there's the empty streetcar to nowhere. Things I do like are Ruston Point, Point Defiance, Proctor District, Grand Cinema, Wright Park (and some other parks), and Stadium District. For a city of its size I would rate it 5/10. All in all, very average...at best.
@@brianmitchell5906 My neighborhood (near 38th & McKinley) was quite peaceful. Mostly just working class folks and a place where kids often did play in the streets. Never had any issues with crime or crappy neighbors.
I know the point of this video is to show the flaws of the article but after seeing my hometown of Las Cruces, NM as a top 10 city I’m gonna go ahead say this article is perfect. I’ve got absolutely no issues with it.
Good video Kyle. As a city nerd myself Wallet Hub "lists" have always made my toes curl. Maybe you can get someone from their "list" department to watch this video, and they will stop being lazy and only using city proper as their baseline for comparison. All Wallet Hub lists are like this and are total clickbait junk. They help keep the "city ignorant" misinformed. You'd think someone there would at least know the difference between a core city and it's suburbs lol.
Love your channel. When I was younger and stupider (I'm still stupid) I fell for these so called studies. Everything is subjective. The more variables there are, the less validity these studies have. Basically, they're worthless.
Gary, Flint, Stockton, Fresno, & Bakersfield showing up anywhere on this list is pure comedy LOL!! NYC & SFO being ranked below all of those cities is beyond absurd! The authors of this so-called "study" are evidently begging not to be taken seriously.
Gary, Flint, Stockton and Bakersfield all have average rents WELL under $3,000. Also, less chance of getting stabbed if you are out past 8 PM. In NYC, if you defend yourself you get thrown in jail. Admittedly, Chicago still reigns supreme in the crime department. In SFO you get to pay $3700 a month for a 1 bedroom apartment while your catalytic converter gets stolen. At least there's an app for SFO where you can track the level of human feces in the streets. Not saying the study is perfect by any means, but NYC and SFO are the US' biggest urban shitholes. Detroit and Chicago aren't far behind but at least Detroit is starting to trend in the right direction.
I don't know if you meant this video to be as funny as it was, but it was pretty hilarious. I think your comedic timing and phrasing is pretty entertaining and clever, good insights, good points.
Absolutely laughable article by Wallet Hub. Great work as per usual, I absolutely love your 'debunking' videos-they are very well articulated and thorough. Keep up the great work Kyle 👍 P.S. Gary, IN made me laugh.
As with all these things what they should do is take whatever measurements and data gathering they can, and then allow you the engine to weigh or give a weight to any of these other things in your order of importance. That way they can gather the data and you can determine your own rankings based on your criteria.
Great break down, I read this article and was annoyed my city was on the bad list but I could not pinpoint why. Also I used to have a shirt like that ❤
Been a fan of your US geography videos for a long time. Not sure my take on this video. Millions of different opions probably. I personally think Columbus, OH should be a lot higher than 92...Same with Colorado Springs, CO should be higher than 45. But I love your videos and love your shirt collection!
Yeah, this study reeks of having a conclusion already in mind before any research is done, and setting up sliders for all the variables & adjusting them to reach the preconceived result.
Great video…I would be interested to see a follow-up in which you either re-weight the existing criteria or come up with your own to make a geographically satisfying ranking of the same group of cities / towns. Clearly there will almost certainly be some value judgments (just as big cities have broad regional responsibilities, suburbs have limited influence. Is that good, bad or irrelevant to the question?), but I would read your study just to see how you make sense of the varied situations.
Hey Kyle, big fan of the channel. I totally agree with the main point, looking at that list really hurts.
I did want to offer a different perspective on Boise/Nampa. I grew up in Boise and I would not describe Napa as a Suburb of Boise the relationship is closer to a Dallas/Fort Worth or Twin Cities situation. While I think the list as a whole is really out of Whack I would agree that both Boise and Nampa are incredibly well run cities. No, they may not be everyones cup of tea, some people like larger or smaller. Yes, they could be alot more urban and yes, public transit is absolutely terrible. However, they are pretty bikable, have a lot to do for their size, are incredibly clean and safe. My sister and sister in law both went to Boise State and didn't have cars for a couple years. I would say Boise is pretty bikable, livable and well run even if they maybe don't deserve the top 2 slots. I also wanted to state the obvious, but a city's success is not entirely based on how well run they are. Some cities have such incredible natural geography or a legacy status that allows them to continue to be economically productive despite how well or how poorly they are run. I'm sure we can all think of a couple of those. I didn't see it on the list but I wanted to give a shoutout to my current Burb of Irving, TX. I've found this place to be incredibly well run. One time I called City Hall to let them know a light was out in a Tennis Court in a small neighborhood park near me. They actually fixed it the next day. My interactions with the local Cops have all been professional (something that you can't always say). We are one of the most diverse municipalities in the US and have a bunch of fortune 500 companies. Not bad for an Aging Suburb. The city made the common-sense decision to not pay Jerry Jones a Billion Dollars for a new football stadium. We just landed Caterpillar's new HQ. I would compare that to when I lived in Dallas Proper and just about every aspect of dealing with the city is more enjoyable in Irving, from the front desk lady at city hall being nicer to the cops. Maybe it is apples to oranges.
@@GeographyKing Totally agree, thanks for the response! Hopefully next time you come though you can have some better experiences in the small towns, SE Idaho (Napoleon Dynamite Country) can be kinda weird and insular, but I promise alot of the small town folks are really friendly lol
Yes I noticed this deeply flawed study as well. When I saw the tiny suburbs on the list being compared to major cities, I tuned out pretty quickly, lol. Glad you called this out in detail
Thanks for putting out this video. You are right that the weighting of these metrics are completely arbitrary and can easily be manipulated. I frequently hear people from wealthy suburbs bragging about how much better their communities are than the core cities: better schools, less crime, and lower taxes. I would give credit to the leadership of these suburbs if their method for achieving it was in any way clever, but it is not. All they do is KEEP POOR PEOPLE OUT. It is easy to keep a low property tax rate while still having generous funding for schools, hospitals, fire, and police if you allow only million dollar homes to be built. Even at the lower tax rate, they will still have more money per resident to spend on services than places with more affordable housing. It isn't really shocking that you get better services when you spend more money.
So many of these measures, like high school graduation rate, are more a reflection of socioeconomic factors rather than of city governance. Kudos for calling out the BS.
Traffic deaths are definitely affected by city policies. Poorly designed roads, poorly maintained roads, confusing signage, and lack of law enforcement are all city responsibilities. I see it in my own city constantly.
If you look at the expert panel - American Institute for Economic Research is a libertarian think tank, George Mason University has a notoriously right-leaning economics department, Gary Rose from Sacred Heart University was quoted downplaying the seriousness of the Jan 6 attack on the capitol, I dont know much about Central Oklahoma University - and then you look at the list with DC, SF, and NYC rounding out the bottom 3 (among all its other flaws), it’s hard not conclude that this article had some silly agenda behind it.
what do we do about the people who uplay the seriousness of the Jan 6 event? If that isn't an answerable question, you lay on one side of things. Notice I did not let your other side off the hook.
@@pax6833 it wasn't one, but sure. In Kazakhstan right around the same time, politicians were hunted by mobs and the presidential palace (aka the equivalent of our white house) was burned down. We had some dumb apes run around in face paint and fling shit at each other. A few hours later, the system resumed it operation and the new president was certified, and ultimately sworn in. Turn off your T.V. And no, it is NOT a pro Trump position that I take.
@@a105-t5m We literally have emails and recorded conversations where people talked about trying to overturn the results of an election, so yeah coup attempt. Added with the attack on the capitol that Trump encouraged and then tried to lead. It's pretty apparent there was a coup attempt.
They have a lot of similarities such as: Being the largest city of the Orange County of their respective states. Having a lot of amusement parks. Being an inland city in a usually thought of as coastal state.
I have a video idea - towns with highest per capita NFL draft picks. I'm always blown away that some of these small Florida towns have 5+ NFL vets from there. I'm sure the same can be said of Texas and Cali.
It's the same old story. People in upstate NY always say their taxes are high because NYC is a drain on resources. But the truth of the matter is that most of the income generated in NY comes from NYC.
I’m in the Jacksonville metro area. I completely agree with your take on it being the worst run city. To get most places, it’s a drive. There really isn’t a solid central area that attracts people. The public transit is horrible. Most of the very recent development is in St Johns County and southern Duval County, and until a few weeks ago their only plan to handle the traffic congestion is to widen the freeway again. Virtually all of the development is that cove style, where streets don’t meet up. So you to get someplace a mile away as the crow flies, you end up driving 5. I could go on and on. But I think 2 of the main problems here is corruption/self-interests and the development in a county that has consolidated.
Credit ratings should be a factor, but as a future economist, I believe the most important factor in the methodology for a study in what makes a city "well-ran" should be government efficiency.
I agree with you. This so-called study is poorly designed. Urban and city planners would probably be better equipped to properly assess the best run or poorly run cities.
Howdy Kyle, An excellent de-bunking of a deeply-flawed report! From my perspective (as very much an amateur geographer), the algorithm that the four authors have used is even more cock-eyed than your presentation suggests. Firstly, why should the six 'top level' factors be accorded the SAME weighting {i.e. 16.66%]. Each of these factors will mean more (or less) depending on what the observer is seeking from the city under examination. For example, as you hinted, an individual with a low income is likely to care more about social service provision and mass transit availability than the credit-worthiness of the city council, whereas a high worth individual might pay more attention to crime and taxation rates. Secondly, why have some of the sub-factors been given double, triple or even quadruple weightings? This immediately skews the outcome (perhaps, one suspects, in order to meet the political agenda of the report's authors). In summary, I wouldn't take financial advice from guys whose basic methodologies are so flawed. I'll go to that Geography King fella instead! Adam
I was going through the city rankings People for Bikes have put together today. They have everything mapped out, but the criteria is pretty ridiculous. Small side roads are far too heavily weighted and the ability to ride separated from traffic was not weighted high enough. Their top city is a random town in Missouri that I’ve never heard of (and I’m from KC.) It seems like these sites build these geographic models out and don’t fine tune the algorithm enough to get good results.
When I saw the title, I thought, "hmm.... I wonder if Jacksonville is anywhere on there?" The video did not disappoint. This place is a mess. In all seriousness, I enjoyed the review of the article and its shortcomings.
Hey I’m curious what is wrong with Jacksonville I’ve seen some people talking about it but I’ve only been there once for a few days so obviously have no perspective on any of the local issues.
Well Kyle, I'm a geography nerd too and love your channel . I could argue with some of your conclusions and agree with others but that's usually the way with these types of rankings . However as an inter city boy, born and bred, and now in my 70's, don't let the cities of the hook so easily . How much food do these cities produce ? Energy production , mining , even much industry is now located outside urban areas. Like you I love Chicago, also New York , Pittsburgh and as a Toronto boy I hold a special place in my heart for both Buffalo and Detroit but you have to admit that some of these urban politicians act like money grows on trees when we all know it's pulled out of the earth. Sorry for the rant but still, love your work !
They already take all that stuff (agriculture, mining, energy production, etc.) into account when ranking economies. NYC, SF, CHI, beat many states put together --not even close.
I saw Cleveland near the bottom of the list but we have one of the best health care systems in the country with the Cleveland Clinic and University Hospital systems downtown and in the greater region
I have a bachelor's degree in political science and it's so disappointing seeing other political scientists (and even the general public) think they fully understand how important geography ties into political science. These kinds of articles are clearly biased towards one ideology. Thank you for responding in such an effective way, Kyle! :)
I'm also a political science major (undergrad) and I'm also disappointed
It is very easy to go into a field with an ideology and only look at the things that support that ideology while ignoring or denying everything else. And unfortunately it's not much harder to do all the work and get all the degrees and still never critically examine your fundamental assumptions.
I'd like to point out when I googled the article the second hit was a fox news article that notably pointed out that democratic large costal cities are run very badly according to these PolSci guys
Hey geography can I have a question for you I love your contact and keep the great work but how come some states have the same cities as other states like for example Lancaster California,Lancaster Pennsylvania Pasadena Texas , Pasadena California Las Vegas Nevada, Las Vegas New Mexico
Hello fellow poli sci grads. Where are we working?
No longer the “Geography King”…he is now the “Finance King.” Keep up the good work, Kyle. Love your videos!
Yes, I'm going to take all my money out of my 401k and buy a brand new BMW thanks to his advice. (That was a fun unexpected bonus at the end there)
Seems really smart and could probably give good advice if he tried.
This has been touched on already by you Kyle and also in other comments, so forgive me for parroting, but I think it's quite telling that the vast majority of the "best run cities," are quite small and, in some instances, barely even cities at all. Larger cities, naturally, have a far more vast and complex web of social, economic, racial, environmental etc. etc. factors to consider and deal with, so I'm not sure they should necessarily be penalized for that. Nampa, Idaho (where?!) is obviously going to be a lot easier to manage than New York City or Chicago, in the same way that second grade arithmetic is a lot easier to manage than Trigonometry.
Nampa has roughly the same number of residents as my outer borough NYC neighborhood, on 20x the land area (for a point of comparison).
But shouldn't all those people generate more taxes, bigger budgets and more college graduates per Capita vs the smaller cities graduation rates. Seems like that should more than even out and they should have better medical, police, scholastic etc services in the bigger cities?? Seems like it should but yet it doesn't equal out.... Wonder why that is??? Have my opinions but I'm curious of yours
@@WKRP187 If you lived in New York, you would know just based on daily life. Or should I say daily hassle, because there is not much time left for life. You're always stuck somewhere, either in traffic or a delayed train or in a line. Streets are dirty, buildings infested with rats and roaches. Everybody's always angry, frustrated, sleep-deprived. It's nobody's fault. The city is simply overpopulated. Can't wait to move out.
@@magellanicspaceclouds You forgot to mention the crime and high taxes in your come visit/live in NYC sales pitch. LoL... Couldn't do it for more than a week
Fill any one of these cities with 100% asian or white citizens and it will still be one of the best run cities in America. Culture and race have a much more vital role when it comes to "success" than you want to acknowledge 🤷♂️
Any list made by a website or magazine: Bullshit stats made up through opaque equations, with uneven weighting and an unfairly wide net, all correlated in a shady way to make some kind of point that the magazine/website was going to find a way to make no matter what.
These things are made to sell traffic on the service in which they exist more than anything else. So always make sure to check the sources.
Well put! Having Nampa and Boise as two distinct entries is quite telling, as Nampa is just a suburban extension of Boise and TONS of Californians are currently moving to Idaho (and Utah).
Wallet Hub is pretty reliable and has some interesting lists.
Financial publications dabbling into political areas automatically reeks of the stench of agenda. I appreciate you putting this suss-as-hell "study" in its place.
As a college student with zero financial stability, I appreciate your financial advice at the end and I will follow it religiously.
NOOO!!!! Crypto is the way to go!!!
He was being sarcastic
Are you even cred maxxing bro? Take all the money those silly banks will give you and put it into crypto. Home ownership is unobtainable anyways these days/s
@@Lili-xq9sn I got that, friend
In general one of the things that I thoroughly enjoy about this channel is your hesitance to speak about places in negative terms. I love that you respect the folks who live in a place, and recognize the reason that you did not like this article was that it did not take the time to look at the facts with that same perspective. Cheers, and keep making great content.
I love your sarcastic "investing/retirement tips" at the end! 😂 I love how you title this 25 best & worst cities which is barely (& randomly) relevant because your cogent criticism is of the ranking list, NOT of actual cities (as much). Thanks for taking something dry & statisticky and making it entertaining. 😎 I hope some city planners/politicians reference this brilliant video to show how inaccurate/irrelevant rankings can be. 👍
Somebodies grandma is missing a quilt. great stuff Kyle!
As a current resident of Jacksonville, FL I would love to see a full video of your take on all their planning failures.
Glad you made this video. I saw this list and was shocked at how out of touch the researchers were with what actually matters to ordinary people.
I wonder if an ordinary person with a median household income of ~65K per year can afford to live in NYC or San Franshithole. Asking for a friend.
I'm glad you mentioned the horror that is Jacksonville, I'm STILL shocked they blew the gift that was Jacksonville Landing. Any other city would have maintained that gem.
right?? jacksonville is definitely not doing well in the planning and development sector
Jacksonville's curse is its enormous area. Normal cities focus on their downtowns while the suburbs around them are growing.
Meanwhile Jacksonville has no suburbs, everything is jacksonville. So they just keep putting in new subdivisions in the swamp and growing their tax base without needing to focus on the center. It's like the very lazy way of playing SimCity
While I am sad to see my beloved Duval dragged through the ringer, he isn’t wrong. Jacksonville is definitely squandered potential. It had a head start on all other Florida cities and do not take advantage when the time came.
Lerp
I think crime rate per capita, unemployment rate, public safety, tax burden, and wages vs cost of living are the best ways to judge city leadership. Thanks for the video.
Yes, every morning I check my city’s Moody’s credit rating before I decide if I’m going out of the house. It tells all about the quality of life in a city!
As someone with a degree in city and regional planning, seeing Columbus, OH so low on this list makes me immediately suspicious of this article. Columbus right now is taking immense strides in good city planning policies and has some really amazing leaders who know what they are talking about in planning. I have full confidence in Columbus's ability to run itself in the future because of the things they are doing now to combat the horrible planning of the past. Quite a few of the cities higher on the list don't give a rat's ass about poor people, public transportation, biking, walking, and increased density and provide fewer services than Columbus does.
Also, while I love Dayton since its my home metro, and they are taking some really good steps too, it really has no right to be above Columbus. Its night and day between the cities. This list really is inherently flawed...
columbus has fucked up with "defund the police", and safety has been more of an issue, but theres no way they should be that low... akron? dayton? indianapolis? all those cities are run quite a bit worse than columbus yet are somehow ranked higher
Yes. This list is the best example of Right Wing Conservative propaganda meant to show that Democratic run cities are terrible when in fact when you look at some of the poorest and most poorly run and downtrodden cities most of those are in Republican controlled States in the South and Middle America. Look at most of all the rural cities in the south and many of them are barely holding on and few if any provide services for the homeless.
Anytime I hear or see the word Dayton I instantly think of the band Brainiac
Considering the list was put together by a think tank guy and 3 poly sci people I suspect this is another ideologically motivated political hit job.
Crime seems really bad in Cbus right now, even "Nice" Neighborhoods.
Love it! And that's from a History major and according to many, it's the most useless of knowledge. The real topic of this video should be Critical Thought in Action. Can you read a graph? Do you understand what it means? And the top thing you learn as a history major--consider the source. ALWAYS. Are they honest? Did they leave questions and facts out because they didn't like the outcome? What are their biases? Were they honest enough to tell you? This could be a master class in active reading. I salute you!
Took the words right out of my mouth.
Critical Thought in Action:
101 Ways Social Media is Constantly Cherry-Picking and Manipulating Data, Reinforcing One's Confirmation Biases, then Skillfully Crafting Lowest Common Denominator Clickbait Garbage for the Masses to Argue About while Targeted Ads Sell Someone in Tulsa the Perfect Lawnmower and Cat Food.
(Edit -- alternate title idea: 🤦♂️ Come On, Mom! You're Smarter Than That! 🤦♂️)
I think your title is too long, youtube has limits
@@toriless 😬 Hoo boy. Looks like I had a few too many G&Ts last night.
Waiting for people in the comments to nominate their own cities as worst
@Safwaan what is the south side
@Safwaan if you go down there you better just beware of a man name of Leroy brown!
It's interesting because people often think their cities are the worst, but people think their states are utopic. I live in the south and people think it's perfect. People generally don't look anything up though and watch the news all day.
Great video! I agree. A study like this needs to focus on factors in a city’s control. A city has to “play the cards it’s dealt” and should not be penalized for any factors outside of its control. certain cities may get a lot of tax revenue as per the state and other intermediate governments whereas other cities may receive very little money from the states and other entities therefore have less resources with which to work.
While I normally agree with many evaluations, I will need to disagree with some of the concerns. Chicago may produce a higher GDP, but this does not reflect spending. We have a massive unfunded pensions which is solely the responsibility of Chicago. The extra taxes have crippled home values, business growth, etc. this is not a geography issue, it is a management issue.
The pension crisis isn't a matter of sudden extra taxes, but decades and decades of unfunded tax cuts, essentially. That's when the malfeasance was done - when governor after governor in many states (my state of Kentucky as well) just didn't want to bother their electorates with unpleasant news, and chose to give corporations and the voters free rides.
kyle didnt even mention chicago, so not sure really have anytiing to disagree with.
If you are going to mention unfunded (actually underfunded) pensions, you must also mention 2 things. 1) The state of Illinois does not contribute to teacher pensions in Chicago, but Chicago tax payers must not only fund the Chicago pensions but the state teacher pensions as well. 2) The pension liability that is always spoken off is based on the notion that all the pensions (of retirees and people still working) would have to be paid in full right now. This is includes the 25-year-old who is just starting in her career but will not collect pension for another 40 years.
And your Mayor get's offended when questioned on literally anything.
great video as usual Kyle!
chicago is a decades long nightmare. corrupt democratic-socialist machine is way beyond broken.
Yes ,the best part about this channel is the financial advice, I'm going all in on Exxon . Thanks Kyle the ending rocked.
I love the lack of sarcasm at the end.
In all reality, I would rather get financial advice from Kyle than some major publication who you don't know who's pulling all the strings. At least Kyle seems like a genuine person! :)
Kyle, I feel like you would really like "Scale" by Geoffrey West; it's not necessarily geography focused, but there's a great section about how various features of cities scale in surprising ways!
Kyle, thank you for giving credit to city / urban planners having a say in the ranking even though the authors don’t seem to have a clue. Sprawl plays a big factor in how thin you stretch your resources and how much inequity there is between newer and older parts of town. You are spot on in your skepticism of the criteria.
Weird that Nampa and Boise are the top two when one is arguably a suburb of the other, but nevertheless I believe that both are very well planned from a city planning perspective and enjoy a good quality of life.
Thank you so much for standing up to corporate friendly media disinformation Also thank you for standing up for fact based, rational, actual expert based geography and public administration.
Great financial advice. I called my broker and totally shifted my portfolio. I put ALL my money into BIG companies. Thank you!!!!
1:00 this is absolutely fantastic placement of your video on the page!
Stockton above Anaheim🤣 give me a break! You rock geography king!
that shirt is disrupting the matrix aaaah. great channel!
The BEST geography channel on TH-cam forsure.
Thank you!
I lived in Tacoma for awhile and honestly thought the city was run just fine. There always projects to improve sidewalks, fix roads, provide a non corporate internet ISP and so on. My garbage was always picked up on time. When I needed services from a particular department, like animal control, they were on top of things. The parks were great. So yeah, i see that list and just chuckle. Not saying Tacoma was perfect, but all systems are created and run by humans who are, by nature, imperfect.
Ruston way is awesome. But there’s also the bad parts of tacoma. Mostly south and east of I-5. What area did you live?
@@Swampkrew Agreed. North Tacoma is nice and Point Defiance is a true gem, but downtown is nothing to write home about. South and east on the other hand is quite a crime ridden, unkempt, boring sprawl. City leaders put tax money kind of haphazardly all over the place. Million dollar octopus tentacles sticking out of the ground with a chain link fence around it in an industrial neighborhood. A bunch of money spent on streetscape and high dollar street art in the boring Lincoln District that most people don't even know exists. Standing in the middle of downtown you would think time has stood still since the 60s only there's no people anywhere. Then there's the empty streetcar to nowhere. Things I do like are Ruston Point, Point Defiance, Proctor District, Grand Cinema, Wright Park (and some other parks), and Stadium District. For a city of its size I would rate it 5/10. All in all, very average...at best.
The bad parts of Tacoma outweigh any good parts it may have. If there are any good parts of Tacoma, I've not seen them.
@@brianmitchell5906 Let's not exaggerate. Of course there are good parts. But yeah, the bad/good ratio is about 3/4 bad, 1/4 good.
@@brianmitchell5906 My neighborhood (near 38th & McKinley) was quite peaceful. Mostly just working class folks and a place where kids often did play in the streets. Never had any issues with crime or crappy neighbors.
Always love the content, thank you for indulging in the utter confusion of lists like this.
I know the point of this video is to show the flaws of the article but after seeing my hometown of Las Cruces, NM as a top 10 city I’m gonna go ahead say this article is perfect. I’ve got absolutely no issues with it.
Excellent deconstruction of the article.
Let us know in another video if and when they respond.
Good video Kyle. As a city nerd myself Wallet Hub "lists" have always made my toes curl. Maybe you can get someone from their "list" department to watch this video, and they will stop being lazy and only using city proper as their baseline for comparison. All Wallet Hub lists are like this and are total clickbait junk. They help keep the "city ignorant" misinformed. You'd think someone there would at least know the difference between a core city and it's suburbs lol.
Love your channel. When I was younger and stupider (I'm still stupid) I fell for these so called studies. Everything is subjective. The more variables there are, the less validity these studies have. Basically, they're worthless.
Gary, Flint, Stockton, Fresno, & Bakersfield showing up anywhere on this list is pure comedy LOL!! NYC & SFO being ranked below all of those cities is beyond absurd! The authors of this so-called "study" are evidently begging not to be taken seriously.
Gary, Flint, Stockton and Bakersfield all have average rents WELL under $3,000. Also, less chance of getting stabbed if you are out past 8 PM. In NYC, if you defend yourself you get thrown in jail. Admittedly, Chicago still reigns supreme in the crime department. In SFO you get to pay $3700 a month for a 1 bedroom apartment while your catalytic converter gets stolen. At least there's an app for SFO where you can track the level of human feces in the streets.
Not saying the study is perfect by any means, but NYC and SFO are the US' biggest urban shitholes. Detroit and Chicago aren't far behind but at least Detroit is starting to trend in the right direction.
I don't know if you meant this video to be as funny as it was, but it was pretty hilarious. I think your comedic timing and phrasing is pretty entertaining and clever, good insights, good points.
Absolutely laughable article by Wallet Hub. Great work as per usual, I absolutely love your 'debunking' videos-they are very well articulated and thorough. Keep up the great work Kyle 👍
P.S. Gary, IN made me laugh.
Everyone who lives in Nampa, ID disagrees with this WalletHub list.
How do you have a problem with your teeth and your hair washing?
Excellent content man. I really enjoy your stuff. Keep it coming
Thank you! I'll try to keep it up
As with all these things what they should do is take whatever measurements and data gathering they can, and then allow you the engine to weigh or give a weight to any of these other things in your order of importance. That way they can gather the data and you can determine your own rankings based on your criteria.
Great job in this. You should do one for suburbs and urban. Also one on suburbs and cities with least stress.
Great break down, I read this article and was annoyed my city was on the bad list but I could not pinpoint why. Also I used to have a shirt like that ❤
thumbs up and already a subscriber....danka from San Diego!
Love the scholarship man! Keep making these, please!
Dude, I'm loving your method. Thank you!
Great ending - good point. This was a well thought out critique.
Professor Robert E. Lee, a Reverend, university of Oklahoma. Lmao
Been a fan of your US geography videos for a long time. Not sure my take on this video. Millions of different opions probably. I personally think Columbus, OH should be a lot higher than 92...Same with Colorado Springs, CO should be higher than 45. But I love your videos and love your shirt collection!
Ditto on the shirts.
Yeah, this study reeks of having a conclusion already in mind before any research is done, and setting up sliders for all the variables & adjusting them to reach the preconceived result.
PhD = Piled high and deep (and I have one).
Great video.
Russ
Great video…I would be interested to see a follow-up in which you either re-weight the existing criteria or come up with your own to make a geographically satisfying ranking of the same group of cities / towns. Clearly there will almost certainly be some value judgments (just as big cities have broad regional responsibilities, suburbs have limited influence. Is that good, bad or irrelevant to the question?), but I would read your study just to see how you make sense of the varied situations.
Hey Kyle, big fan of the channel. I totally agree with the main point, looking at that list really hurts.
I did want to offer a different perspective on Boise/Nampa. I grew up in Boise and I would not describe Napa as a Suburb of Boise the relationship is closer to a Dallas/Fort Worth or Twin Cities situation. While I think the list as a whole is really out of Whack I would agree that both Boise and Nampa are incredibly well run cities. No, they may not be everyones cup of tea, some people like larger or smaller. Yes, they could be alot more urban and yes, public transit is absolutely terrible. However, they are pretty bikable, have a lot to do for their size, are incredibly clean and safe. My sister and sister in law both went to Boise State and didn't have cars for a couple years. I would say Boise is pretty bikable, livable and well run even if they maybe don't deserve the top 2 slots.
I also wanted to state the obvious, but a city's success is not entirely based on how well run they are. Some cities have such incredible natural geography or a legacy status that allows them to continue to be economically productive despite how well or how poorly they are run. I'm sure we can all think of a couple of those.
I didn't see it on the list but I wanted to give a shoutout to my current Burb of Irving, TX. I've found this place to be incredibly well run. One time I called City Hall to let them know a light was out in a Tennis Court in a small neighborhood park near me. They actually fixed it the next day. My interactions with the local Cops have all been professional (something that you can't always say). We are one of the most diverse municipalities in the US and have a bunch of fortune 500 companies. Not bad for an Aging Suburb. The city made the common-sense decision to not pay Jerry Jones a Billion Dollars for a new football stadium. We just landed Caterpillar's new HQ.
I would compare that to when I lived in Dallas Proper and just about every aspect of dealing with the city is more enjoyable in Irving, from the front desk lady at city hall being nicer to the cops. Maybe it is apples to oranges.
I do like Boise. I think it's one of the best capital cities in the US. I can see Boise being high on this list even with better methodology
@@GeographyKing Totally agree, thanks for the response! Hopefully next time you come though you can have some better experiences in the small towns, SE Idaho (Napoleon Dynamite Country) can be kinda weird and insular, but I promise alot of the small town folks are really friendly lol
Yes I noticed this deeply flawed study as well. When I saw the tiny suburbs on the list being compared to major cities, I tuned out pretty quickly, lol. Glad you called this out in detail
Thanks for putting out this video. You are right that the weighting of these metrics are completely arbitrary and can easily be manipulated.
I frequently hear people from wealthy suburbs bragging about how much better their communities are than the core cities: better schools, less crime, and lower taxes. I would give credit to the leadership of these suburbs if their method for achieving it was in any way clever, but it is not. All they do is KEEP POOR PEOPLE OUT. It is easy to keep a low property tax rate while still having generous funding for schools, hospitals, fire, and police if you allow only million dollar homes to be built. Even at the lower tax rate, they will still have more money per resident to spend on services than places with more affordable housing. It isn't really shocking that you get better services when you spend more money.
This guy is a national treasure, have you ever thought of running for office?
please don't ruin him.
@@a105-t5m I know right
I love your intelligent analysis!
This would be so easy in Canada, we got like 9 cities.
An 8-way tie, then Winnipeg.
Awesome thanks ☺️
The only part of the financial advice at the end I'm heeding is not to save for retirement, because I'll probably have to work all my life anyways
Hey Kyle
New to your channel. Just subscribed.
Love the content. You’re a wealth of information! Thanks for sharing. 😅
So many of these measures, like high school graduation rate, are more a reflection of socioeconomic factors rather than of city governance. Kudos for calling out the BS.
Just YOLO'd my life savings into GME and Wells Fargo! Thanks for the advice, King!
Traffic deaths are definitely affected by city policies. Poorly designed roads, poorly maintained roads, confusing signage, and lack of law enforcement are all city responsibilities. I see it in my own city constantly.
Loved the 'sage' advice at the end
Also, Jacksonville, FL is by far the most populated city in FL. Its is also the largest in area in the contiguous US. The beaches are wonderful.
Beaches are along the coast.
Good poker face during your financial advice segment. 🤣
I live in Jacksonville and what you said is completely accurate.
If you look at the expert panel - American Institute for Economic Research is a libertarian think tank, George Mason University has a notoriously right-leaning economics department, Gary Rose from Sacred Heart University was quoted downplaying the seriousness of the Jan 6 attack on the capitol, I dont know much about Central Oklahoma University - and then you look at the list with DC, SF, and NYC rounding out the bottom 3 (among all its other flaws), it’s hard not conclude that this article had some silly agenda behind it.
what do we do about the people who uplay the seriousness of the Jan 6 event? If that isn't an answerable question, you lay on one side of things. Notice I did not let your other side off the hook.
@@a105-t5m It's impossible to "uplay" the seriousness of a failed coup attempt.
@@pax6833 it wasn't one, but sure. In Kazakhstan right around the same time, politicians were hunted by mobs and the presidential palace (aka the equivalent of our white house) was burned down. We had some dumb apes run around in face paint and fling shit at each other. A few hours later, the system resumed it operation and the new president was certified, and ultimately sworn in. Turn off your T.V. And no, it is NOT a pro Trump position that I take.
@@a105-t5m We literally have emails and recorded conversations where people talked about trying to overturn the results of an election, so yeah coup attempt. Added with the attack on the capitol that Trump encouraged and then tried to lead. It's pretty apparent there was a coup attempt.
@@pax6833 attempted coup 😂
Anaheim and Orlando right next to each other, seems legit
They have a lot of similarities such as:
Being the largest city of the Orange County of their respective states.
Having a lot of amusement parks.
Being an inland city in a usually thought of as coastal state.
Great video and spot on as usual. Those poli sci and economist types are the ones running the country so... yeah.
I have a video idea - towns with highest per capita NFL draft picks. I'm always blown away that some of these small Florida towns have 5+ NFL vets from there. I'm sure the same can be said of Texas and Cali.
It's the same old story. People in upstate NY always say their taxes are high because NYC is a drain on resources. But the truth of the matter is that most of the income generated in NY comes from NYC.
This is America… we don’t run. I prefer a city that sits down and takes an afternoon nap
A siesta, if you will.
I’m in the Jacksonville metro area. I completely agree with your take on it being the worst run city. To get most places, it’s a drive. There really isn’t a solid central area that attracts people. The public transit is horrible. Most of the very recent development is in St Johns County and southern Duval County, and until a few weeks ago their only plan to handle the traffic congestion is to widen the freeway again. Virtually all of the development is that cove style, where streets don’t meet up. So you to get someplace a mile away as the crow flies, you end up driving 5. I could go on and on. But I think 2 of the main problems here is corruption/self-interests and the development in a county that has consolidated.
Credit ratings should be a factor, but as a future economist, I believe the most important factor in the methodology for a study in what makes a city "well-ran" should be government efficiency.
Thanks for the financial advice, Kyle! I'm gunna go talk to my guy at H&R Block about putting all of my savings into Microsoft and Tesla :)
As someone who's lived in south Florida all his life. I can't believe they put Hialeah as high as they did. 53? Really?!
That financial advice was actually better than what you'de get from a "financial expert".
good stuff, keep up the great work!
LOL. I won't take Kyle's financial advice but I will keep on listening to his geography lessons.
Cool information God bless you and your family....🙏❤🙏❤🙏😊🙂😀
I agree with you. This so-called study is poorly designed. Urban and city planners would probably be better equipped to properly assess the best run or poorly run cities.
And that wallet hub article, Kyle, is how you get a skewed ranking
Howdy Kyle,
An excellent de-bunking of a deeply-flawed report! From my perspective (as very much an amateur geographer), the algorithm that the four authors have used is even more cock-eyed than your presentation suggests. Firstly, why should the six 'top level' factors be accorded the SAME weighting {i.e. 16.66%]. Each of these factors will mean more (or less) depending on what the observer is seeking from the city under examination. For example, as you hinted, an individual with a low income is likely to care more about social service provision and mass transit availability than the credit-worthiness of the city council, whereas a high worth individual might pay more attention to crime and taxation rates. Secondly, why have some of the sub-factors been given double, triple or even quadruple weightings? This immediately skews the outcome (perhaps, one suspects, in order to meet the political agenda of the report's authors). In summary, I wouldn't take financial advice from guys whose basic methodologies are so flawed. I'll go to that Geography King fella instead!
Adam
Shocked Montgomery Alabama is so high. What a terrible list.
Never thought I'd see Las Cruces - my hometown - to be on a Top 10 list for anything. lol. Even though I haven't lived there since I was 18.
Nice financial advice! My boyfriend thought that you were serious! 🤣
Thanks for the financial advice; I just took out a loan so I could buy $30000 of Tesla stock
I was going through the city rankings People for Bikes have put together today. They have everything mapped out, but the criteria is pretty ridiculous. Small side roads are far too heavily weighted and the ability to ride separated from traffic was not weighted high enough. Their top city is a random town in Missouri that I’ve never heard of (and I’m from KC.) It seems like these sites build these geographic models out and don’t fine tune the algorithm enough to get good results.
When I saw the title, I thought, "hmm.... I wonder if Jacksonville is anywhere on there?"
The video did not disappoint. This place is a mess.
In all seriousness, I enjoyed the review of the article and its shortcomings.
Hey I’m curious what is wrong with Jacksonville I’ve seen some people talking about it but I’ve only been there once for a few days so obviously have no perspective on any of the local issues.
Very good points!
Washington DC is run worse than Baltimore? I live in Baltimore and always defend it against DC comparisons, but wow.
Kyle - I have a shower curtain with the same pattern as your shirt. Ralph Lauren rules!!!
Well Kyle, I'm a geography nerd too and love your channel . I could argue with some of your conclusions and agree with others but that's usually the way with these types of rankings . However as an inter city boy, born and bred, and now in my 70's, don't let the cities of the hook so easily . How much food do these cities produce ? Energy production , mining , even much industry is now located outside urban areas. Like you I love Chicago, also New York , Pittsburgh and as a Toronto boy I hold a special place in my heart for both Buffalo and Detroit but you have to admit that some of these urban politicians act like money grows on trees when we all know it's pulled out of the earth.
Sorry for the rant but still, love your work !
They already take all that stuff (agriculture, mining, energy production, etc.) into account when ranking economies. NYC, SF, CHI, beat many states put together --not even close.
@@kenbob1071 This analysis was about CITIES! My comment to Kyle was about HIS take on the article .
I saw Cleveland near the bottom of the list but we have one of the best health care systems in the country with the Cleveland Clinic and University Hospital systems downtown and in the greater region
Lmao i love the advice at the end perfectly put 🤣
Huh? I didn’t hear a word you said because of just simply how cool your shirt is. 😎
Me: Kyle, which shirt will you wear today?
Kyle: YES!