Well, at least now we can trash-talk "cultural" New York, which came in at a lame 42 - and while being the answer to life, the universe and everything, represents a tumble from 2005's rank at 32.5).
However, Kansas City itself fell two spots, from 14 to 17 in the Central Connecticut State University's Most Literate Cities list, putting even more distance be us and St. Louis, which ranked at 12 and was only 15 last year.
It's a data analysis of six "indicators" of literacy in U.S. cities of 250,000 people or more: newspaper circulation, the number of bookstores, library resources, periodical publishing resources, educational attainment, and (introduced last year) Internet resources.
Here are the top 10:
1. Seattle, Washington
2. Minneapolis, Minnesota
3.5. Atlanta, Georgia (tied)
3.5. Washington, D.C. (tied)
5. St. Paul, Minnesota
6. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
7. Cincinnati, Ohio
8. Denver, Colorado
9. San Francisco, California
10. Portland, Oregon
The study's author, CCSU's president Dr. John W. Miller, says that it's not important to focus on how your city's rank may be changing, but "what communities do to promote the kinds of literacy practices that the data track."
One southern city, four western ones, three midwestern and two New England.
And no New York.
Boston is #11.
And Minnesota, well, who knew?
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2 comments:
it's cold in Minnesota and replete with rampaging Vikings... not the football kind... so it's best to stay inside and read. Shouldn't St Paul and Minneapolis be on the same line? They're attached at the hip.
i wonder if there's a correlation between the fact that cincinnati is one of the FATTEST cities in the country (data in 2004, I think).
wow, the queen city earns a rep for something other than racism and racial divides and rioting. whoo-hoo!
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