Forbes is back with a new list and this time it has attempted to rank cities on its "cool" quotient.
What makes a city cool? To arrive at the list, Forbes partnered with Sperling's BestPlaces and analyzed 60 metropolitan areas in the United States ranking them on the basis of:
1. Entertainment factors
2. Per Capita restaurants and bars
3. Foodie culture
4. Per capita breweries
5. Ethnic and cultural diversity
6. Youth population
They finally compiled the list ranking them on the basis of population growth and net migration since 2000.
Below are the top 10 coolest cities of America:
1. Washington D.C.
2. Seattle, Wash.
3. Austin, Texas
4. Houston, Texas
5. San Francisco, Calif.
6. San Diego, Calif.
7. Denver, Colo.
8. Riverside, Calif.
9. Boston, Mass.
10. Dallas, Texas
What really made D.C the coolest city?
"D.C. is a high-amenity city. It has its share of cultural arts. It has its share of natural beauty," Stuart Gabriel, director of the Ziman Center for Real Estate at the UCLA Anderson School of Management was cited by Washington Times.
"Flooded with politicos and political junkies, Washington, D.C. often comes off as a city steeped in raw ambition. But the nation's capital deserves to be known for something else: coolness. While "cool" might not be the first word that comes to mind when contemplating the latest standoff in Congress, D.C. nonetheless has a lot to offer those who call it home," the Forbes report reads.
But not everyone agrees. Several tabloids have ridiculed the Forbes list of coolest cities claiming its methodology was "seriously flawed" and asserted that the "essence of cool cannot be quantified".
"To be fair, the list just ranks how great a city is to live in. "And by 'cool,' we mean cool to live in," Forbes' writes. Still, this is a deeply unserious ranking of geographical coolness, and Forbes' flawed methodology is to blame," Arit John, writes for The Wire.
Earlier this year, D.C topped the list of the "healthiest cities of America" as well. Read that report here.
