Last week Travel and Leisure magazine released the results of a nationwide survey ranking America's major cities in categories from diversity to style and worldliness. Miami was in the middle of the pack for most categories, but was number one for attractive people and clubbing. While our residents were seen as beautiful, we only ranked as 22nd in friendliness and 23rd in intelligence.
Another recent survey, this one by Axe Vice Men's Grooming Products, ranked Miami the number two naughtiest city in America just behind Los Angeles.
These results led us to ponder Miami's other rankings in important categories:
• Out of 371 U.S. cities Miami was listed as the 327th safest city based on crime statistics.
• For cities with more than 250,000 people, Miami is in the bottom five with a poverty rate of 26.9 percent.
• Miami-Dade school district ranks 67 out of 71 Florida school districts.
• Environmentally Miami doesn't fare much better. As the New Times's Tamara Lush reported last week, earlier this year, Washington, D.C.-based Earth Day Network ranked Miami 71st out of 72 large cities, based on "overall goodness of environmental indicators."
• In 2006 bizjournals.com ranked Miami the worst city in its “brainpower” survey, with two-thirds of our residents never having gone to college and almost half, or 47 percent, never graduating high school.
• Miami is number one in something else, though: Exposure to natural disasters, according to environmental web site SustainLane.com. Which raises the question: Can you still look beautiful and naughty while installing storm shutters? -- Tovin Lapan
