11/1/2010 - Apparently, one person's Big Apple, is another's Asphalt Jungle.
New York City, above all others, is the city most people would prefer to call home, according to a new Harris poll.
New York City, above all others, is also the city most people would prefer not to call home, according to the poll undertaken to determine which cities most preferred as home towns.
Along with New York, the cities of Las Vegas, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston and Chicago all fall in the top tiers of both the "most favorite" and "least favorite" list of cities where those polled would and would not like to live.
So-whating the irony, the study reports, "As Americans show a wide range of opinions in the cities they prefer-many like warm weather, while others may prefer snow. What appeals to some Americans may seem miserable for others. Luckily, the United States has plenty of cities in varying sizes, climates, and styles to choose from."
Indeed.
This Harris Poll was conducted online between September 14 to 20, 2010 among 2,620 adults (aged 18 and over).
Those polled were asked, "If you could live in or near any city in the country except the one you live in or nearest to now, which city would you choose?" and "Which city would you least like to live in?"
Among the top ten favored cities, San Diego was the second most popular, followed by Las Vegas, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Nashville, Atlanta, Denver and Boston.
Further down the most favored list were Orlando, Chicago, Miami, Honolulu, Portland and Raleigh-Durham, NC.
Among the top ten least favored cities, after New York came Detroit, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Miami, Washington, DC, San Francisco, Dallas Phoenix and New Orleans.
The Harris Poll has asked this question almost every year since 1997.
New York has been the most popular city in every year except in 1998 when there was not as much "I love New York" going on. That year, it placed second behind the Golden Gate City. Apparently, more people were singing "I Left My Heart in San Francisco."
While New York has consistently topped this list for the last 12 years, other cities positions have been quite volatile. This year several cities have improved their rankings including:
San Diego, moving up to #2 from #4 last year; Las Vegas, up to #3 from #8; Los Angeles, up from #15 to #6; and, Nashville and Atlanta, up from a tied for #7 from #12 and #13 last year.
Other cities have lost ground in the mix, slipping down the rankings.
San Francisco, down to #5 from a tie for #2 last year; Denver, down to #9 from a tie for #2; Boston down to #10 from #7; and, Chicago down to #12 from #6 last year.
Miami, Honolulu, Raleigh-Durham and Portland which rank numbers 13, 14 and tied for number 15 have all moved up from last year into the top 15. Washington DC, Dallas and Austin have all dropped out of the top 15 this year.
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