Best- & Worst-Run Cities in the U.S.

Discussion about and reaction to a study ranking the best- and worst-run cities in the U.S. by Wallet Hub. There are many problems with this study that I wanted to address, and I also want to discuss the issue of financial websites giving out geography information and advice.

[@samwill7259]

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.

[@MikeP2055]

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).

[@i-35vagabond56]

Wallet Hub is pretty reliable and has some interesting lists.

[@BishopBeater69]

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! :)

[@AlexCab_49]

I'm also a political science major (undergrad) and I'm also disappointed

[@WolfSeril107]

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.

[@eldermoose7938]

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

[@bighorn9119]

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

[@puesbien]

Hello fellow poli sci grads. Where are we working?

[@timmytoaster]

No longer the “Geography King”…he is now the “Finance King.” Keep up the good work, Kyle. Love your videos!

[@FrenchArrogance]

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)

[@bonne_vie]

Seems really smart and could probably give good advice if he tried.

[@warderjack]

Waiting for people in the comments to nominate their own cities as worst

[@soupdrinker]

@Safwaan what is the south side

[@jimgoff1170]

@Safwaan if you go down there you better just beware of a man name of Leroy brown!

[@cur244]

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.

[@BnaBreaker]

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.

[@emilypetrie]

Nampa has roughly the same number of residents as my outer borough NYC neighborhood, on 20x the land area (for a point of comparison).

[@WKRP187]

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

[@magellanicspaceclouds]

@@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.

[@WKRP187]

@@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

[@cornpop7176]

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 🤷‍♂️

[@dmike3507]

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.

[@michaelhunsinger8351]

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.

[@isaacmarmolejo694]

Stockton above Anaheim🤣 give me a break! You rock geography king!

[@BurnWithinQT]

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. 👍

[@nisnber5760]

Professor Robert E. Lee, a Reverend, university of Oklahoma. Lmao

[@L1ght_7]

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...

[@UserName-ts3sp]

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

[@RR64434]

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.

[@cactusfondler9989]

Anytime I hear or see the word Dayton I instantly think of the band Brainiac

[@pax6833]

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.

[@rhob2422]

Crime seems really bad in Cbus right now, even "Nice" Neighborhoods.

[@michaelmiddleton3311]

Somebodies grandma is missing a quilt. great stuff Kyle!

[@OuterGalaxyLounge]

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.

[@rmaihoferii]

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.

[@brianarbenz7206]

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.

[@willpeterson3943]

kyle didnt even mention chicago, so not sure really have anytiing to disagree with.

[@michaelswisher8630]

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.

[@TimSlee1]

And your Mayor get's offended when questioned on literally anything.

[@jlg3315]

great video as usual Kyle! chicago is a decades long nightmare. corrupt democratic-socialist machine is way beyond broken.

[@anthrojim]

As a current resident of Jacksonville, FL I would love to see a full video of your take on all their planning failures.

[@Hypatia52]

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!

[@MikeP2055]

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! 🤦‍♂️)

[@toriless]

I think your title is too long, youtube has limits

[@MikeP2055]

@@toriless 😬 Hoo boy. Looks like I had a few too many G&Ts last night.

[@lifeontheland8972]

As a college student with zero financial stability, I appreciate your financial advice at the end and I will follow it religiously.

[@chrisalley6282]

NOOO!!!! Crypto is the way to go!!!

[@Lili-xq9sn]

He was being sarcastic

[@calebwagner9093]

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

[@lifeontheland8972]

@@Lili-xq9sn I got that, friend

[@MostestBoringPerson]

Everyone who lives in Nampa, ID disagrees with this WalletHub list.

[@breadoflifefaiupu8992]

How do you have a problem with your teeth and your hair washing?

[@chicagoakland]

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.

[@bobbyswanson3498]

right?? jacksonville is definitely not doing well in the planning and development sector

[@SlackActionBumble]

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

[@jaguarreign]

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.

[@77D777]

Lerp

[@adamjohnson764]

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

[@breakingbacon658]

This is America… we don’t run. I prefer a city that sits down and takes an afternoon nap

[@amog849]

A siesta, if you will.

[@rossedwardmiller]

Washington DC is run worse than Baltimore? I live in Baltimore and always defend it against DC comparisons, but wow.

[@magellanicspaceclouds]

Let me assure you. New York is poorly run. Money is not everything. The quality of life is terrible.

[@highbrass3749]

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.

[@rhob2422]

Garbage in, Garbage Out. Poorly designed algorithm = poor results.

[@Dante...]

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?!

[@johnchedsey1306]

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]

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?

[@jazzcatjohn]

@@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]

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.

[@jazzcatjohn]

@@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.

[@johnchedsey1306]

@@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.

[@jaybeetee5272]

This would be so easy in Canada, we got like 9 cities.

[@MikeP2055]

An 8-way tie, then Winnipeg.

[@bull_technology]

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.

[@LividImp]

That list is suspiciously political. And yea, Stockton is the butt of every joke in California. There is no way it would be anywhere near that high in the list.

[@pax6833]

Lived in Stockton. Would never consider moving back.

[@LividImp]

@@pax6833 I've never met a person with a good word about Stockton.

[@matthewlozen2267]

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.

[@benjaminfortney9655]

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.

[@mrsanchez7]

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.

[@a105-t5m]

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]

@@a105-t5m It's impossible to "uplay" the seriousness of a failed coup attempt.

[@a105-t5m]

@@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.

[@pax6833]

@@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.

[@kieran5191]

@@pax6833 attempted coup 😂

[@kaaronhudson8112]

This guy is a national treasure, have you ever thought of running for office?

[@a105-t5m]

please don't ruin him.

[@kaaronhudson8112]

@@a105-t5m I know right

[@brianarbenz1329]

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!

[@veraxiana9993]

Ive lived in illinois my whole life so needless to say i've spent more than my fair share of time complaining about chicago but the second i see any list with it as "one of the worst cities in the country" I can already tell you the article writers agenda and leanings it's so repetitive and misinformed it's genuinely saddening. And before i get the comment i know that democratic-favoring companies tend to do the same thing just in reverse conservatives, cool your horses im just talking about chicago specifically.

[@johnnguyen6159]

This list has to be pushing a political narrative since the cities on the bottom of the list are Democratic cities (apart from Chattanooga) with DC and SF being the most liberal cities. Also some of the suburbs they are comparing are arbitrary like Sparks a suburb of Reno has a population of 102k is not on the list but Nampa a suburb of Boise is on the list with a population of 96k.

[@leafygreenspice6684]

Chatanooga is also a very liberal city

[@noisyhill6111]

most cities are liberal

[@joelb8653]

You are exactly right, definitely from a far right point of view. Not wrong but context is good.

[@kevinweber5129]

I don’t trust any surveys done by “libertarians” they are only interested in lowering their taxes and the taxes of the wealthy who fund these studies. A number of years ago San Antonio passed a bond for building more side walks and parks that probably shows up a negative but it’s infrastructure voted on by its citizens and thus good. And there’s going to be a big difference between SF and SA just because their are so many rich tech companies there. Many cities in the rust belt went through tough times when factories moved to China. That’s not really their fault and it probably takes time to turn things around.

[@ethanmullen4287]

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!

[@SandrA-hr5zk]

I can't even believe Stockton could be above Sac, Modesto, Manteca.... and Bakersfield would probably be way down at the bottom. Stockton right next to Dallas??? Like those values are way skewed.

[@williamhild1793]

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! :)

[@skgroovin915]

Lmao they put Chattanooga by San Francisco and Washington, DC. This article can be entirely disregarded.

[@mooseboi7835]

Jacksonville is way too spread out, the metro area shouldn't be 3 times bigger the Rhode Island.

[@history_leisure]

Anaheim and Orlando right next to each other, seems legit

[@a-sane-person]

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.

[@lostbehindanoaktree5134]

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!

[@Stanvansandt]

Ditto on the shirts.

[@life9000]

You know this list is a joke when you see Oakland, ca with a better ranking then San Francisco.

[@soupdrinker]

I think I'd almost prefer Oakland than San Francisco now

[@caseyjones5145]

that shirt is disrupting the matrix aaaah. great channel!

[@noahguild614]

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.

[@michaelhunsinger8351]

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.

[@ronathangator]

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.

[@Knealeriley]

Seeing Chattanooga at the bottom is absurd. The authors of this ranking are purely buffoons

[@bonne_vie]

Shocked Montgomery Alabama is so high. What a terrible list.

[@Alex-kd5xc]

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.

[@davidskipton690]

Omaha being that high is laughable. Huge drug and poverty issues

[@weeweefeet4030]

Baton Rouge belongs way, way lower on this list. I’d be surprised if it ranked in the middle by any measure.

[@AlligatorArms]

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.

[@gilbertmartinez6538]

Yep I TOTALLY agree with your assessment ...especially considering the ENTIRE state of Texas is bottle fed by blue states. ..and the NYC-2 trill vs all of TX at 1.9 trill is an amazing fact

[@DillyDahlia]

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.

[@ilajoie3]

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

[@JhonnyBoi]

DC is probably one of the top major cities to live in. Crime could be better but other than that our economy and education (not public school) is consistently top 5.

[@rickhall8119]

Any list that uses Covid-19 as a rating is garbage.

[@SlackActionBumble]

Large cities with an actual Transit oriented city core, like NYC, Chicago, SF, Boston - they have to take massive loans to invest into that transit, and routinely go into deep debt. Something that freaking Boise never has to do. It is not even remotely fair to compare those. Boise can just slap an extra lane on I-84 with Federal money every 20 years and call it a day

[@Ed_Okin]

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.

[@parsifal40002]

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.

[@No1reallydies]

The BEST geography channel on KZbin forsure.

[@GeographyKing]

Thank you!

[@johngayer7136]

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.

[@pghrpg4065]

I love the lack of sarcasm at the end.

[@markrichards6863]

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.

[@TrU_homie]

They put Stockton over Modesto 💀

[@wjcj1234]

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.

[@myname-pe2pe]

Can you do a video on that pipe dream conservatives have of splitting states up For example republicans in Illinois consistently talk about splitting up Illinois so that Chicago is its own state and then there's the rest of Illinois Same with New York, Northern California etc

[@Dangic23]

I have an MBA, and I laughed at the use of Moody’s for this study, what a joke. Credit ratings are 100% opinionated, and 100% biased.

[@andrewalsoblack]

14:23 this! I'm saying this all the time. Jacksonville isn't the worst city in the country but it's not for lack of trying. It's still a decent place to live in spite of the actions and inaction of its leaders

[@NewCastleIndiana]

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.

[@willpeterson3943]

1:00 this is absolutely fantastic placement of your video on the page!

[@Xander-dx6mw]

Your comment that New York City puts a lot of money in people pocket all across this country is misguided, intentionally or not. You incorrectly attribute GDP of a metro area to that of another as if they are one in the same. The amount of money collected in San Francisco has zero effect on Mendocino County. What you are thinking about is income and sales tax revenues collected by the State, and how that is redistributed for things like education, State Parks, and State Prisons. That redistribution tends to be a minor effect, as it is redistributed bases on population of school aged children, attendance if state parks, and prison density. Another words, a place like Mendocino County would be much better off if they averaged 6 kids per family, and San Francisco averaged 1, or if Mendocino Forest was the #1 State Park, while parks near major cities were not well attended. When it comes to State maintained roads, metro areas tend to make out better because they have more voting rights, and more roads, and State highway dollars are typically dolled out based on a formula that considers Mike's of roads, use, and required improvement. This favors high population areas. Lastly, I am shocked that you were as put out by someone else putting out a list. You may not like it or the results, but you should respect it based simply on their research and education level. You have a problem with their weighting, okay make a case, but deciding that a City's rating should not be as highly used is shortsighted. The rating looks at tax rate among peers, annual budget, capital reinvestment, resilience, crime, education, home ownership, and pension affordability among many other items. I've been to San Francisco. It has some nice areas, but I wouldn't trade it for my city. My city has a funded pension, reasonable tax rates, low crime, a reasonable budget, great parks and is not that congested. It is also not in the list, and I'd like to keep it that way.

[@SincerelyFromStephen]

Respecting it just because the people who put it together have a degree is absolutely silly. It’s simply a bad list

[@Xander-dx6mw]

@@SincerelyFromStephen I think you misunderstood. I said it should be respected because they took a position, used research and have the education to back it up. If you don't like it, list the reasons why and how it would change. Complaining because somebody doesn't agree with it, without providing rationale to why they felt it wrong seems lazy.

[@schmoab]

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.

[@andrewstevens2364]

Austin Tx is horrably run, cost of living, transit, you name it.

[@RScesium]

PhD = Piled high and deep (and I have one). Great video. Russ

[@scottdassler3964]

you can really use metrics to say whatever you want, interpretation is the most important. 👌

[@JosephHickman-m6q]

Stockton,California...fails to fully use its prime location.

[@ecurewitz]

And that wallet hub article, Kyle, is how you get a skewed ranking

[@patrickwhalen5502]

Stick to geography

[@marklittle8805]

I question some of this but pay a lot of heed to the fiscal numbers. Cities that are well run find a way to keep a fiscal ship. Large cities that are run poorly end up kicking debt down the road and you end up with Detroit. How Detroit didn't end up below then all is a mystery to me ...they couldn't even afford to repair lights that burned out on streets. They have vast swaths of burned out houses and a lack of infrastructure.

[@SINTHEREBEL666]

Awesome thanks ☺️

[@thesportswarehouse8853]

Before watching I’ll guess the best run city is Boston and Chicago is the worst run city

[@alexcitron5159]

Nice ending -- Big corporate America has been performing very poorly for decades. I saw it in Rochester in the 90s with Kodak and Xerox. Agree that suburbs can't be graded on their own, since they rely on the city's infrastructure and on the other hand they should share the blame when stuff goes wrong

[@WriteHookTV]

Telling you, man, you need to give lesson to newsrooms so they know how to read rank lists like this.

[@amog849]

Thanks for the financial advice; I just took out a loan so I could buy $30000 of Tesla stock

[@phukyerpheefees]

I have to completely disagree with your assessment that graduation rate is weighted to high. I had the exact opposite conclusion. I think they put far too much stock in the greatschools ratings, and not enough stock in the importance of graduation rates. Another factor not even considered was the percentage of graduates to pursue higher education or formal training in the trades.

[@marenpeterson3022]

I ik this!

[@bgabriel28]

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.

[@btjackson7741]

After you facetiously gave fincncial advice near the end, you should have made it clear that this advice was not serious, but you were just making the point that people be careful about accepting opinions from people who are not experts in the field in question. There is a risk that some might take your mock advice seriously.

[@tuckerlovesbernie]

Umm Nashua at #4? They don’t call it “Trashua” or “North Lowell” for nothing. The place is a dump and I live in Manchester. No one who lives in NH likes going to Nashua

[@d.e.7467]

We're the wealthiest country in the world. Money is a poor measuring stick if whoever has the most wins.

[@captnmike597]

"The Devil is in the Details". Thanks Kyle for looking behind the curtain on this so-called "study".

[@chipicusarvidulfjosephsnge891]

You might have to have a bit skepticism if an Urban planner establish the study, they might also have a professional bias

[@PT-vv3ep]

Don't need to watch the video to know all of the worst will be democratic controlled.

[@joshuaalfaro4781]

Maybe its because, the most large cities are democratic

[@SincerelyFromStephen]

Robert Wright works for a libertarian think tank. To that dude, anything being spent on social welfare would mean the city is badly run

[@chefnyc]

Funny ending. However I recommend putting a giant disclaimer as an on-screen text saying “these advices are given as sarcasm for entertainment purposes”. You never know how SEC regulations may bite you 🤓

[@TimeBrutus]

Great job in this. You should do one for suburbs and urban. Also one on suburbs and cities with least stress.

[@jlpack62]

Sarcasm wasn't used as a data point, but it should have been.

[@brianhillier7052]

washington dc? worse than flint michigan haha yea this list is just a random list of cities... haaan fort wayne indiana over grand rapids michigan hahahaaaaa no way lol...