I refuse to believe that Houston is the coolest city in America and that New Orleans and Portland can’t crack the top 20.
I also refuse to believe that Forbes is the arbitrator of cool.
Despite my misgivings, Forbes went ahead with it’s list of the 20 coolest cities in America, and Orange County beat New York City and San Francisco to land in the number eight spot.
The magazine ranked the coolest cities based on seven factors including arts and culture, recreation, diversity, local eateries, median age, the unemployment rate and net migration. It was Disneyland, our relative youth, our love of food, and a migration rate that exceeded the number of people moving to LA that put us over the edge.
Forbes gave us a respectable 87 out of 100 when it comes to arts and culture. As for recreation, we killed it with a score of 98. We landed a 75.7 for diversity, and we have 5,735 restaurants to choose from, according to Forbes. Our median age is 36, and 13,910 people migrated to Orange County in 2011 compared to only 10,500 who moved to LA that year, the magazine noted.
Yet LA is cooler than OC, according to Forbes. The City of Angels came in at number three, with an impressive but not surprising 100 points for recreation. For the full list of Forbes’ coolest cities, click here.
