Depending on whom you believe, the denizens of Dallas-Fort Worth are not particularly attractive, well-dressed or literate.
We're also couch potatoes, not too smart, and oh so short on hipsters. Which brings up the question: How can DFW be so cool at the same time?You can also forget that "Howdy, stranger" stuff because we're rude. So go ahead, tell the No. 2-ranked dangerous drivers veering past on our fifth-ranked "Highway From Hell" that you're No. 1.But hey, we're a heck of a sports town and, yay team, TCU is a top-flight party school.Welcome to the world of highly subjective best, worst, most and everything-else rankings, surveys and lists for 2012, many of which appear to have been cooked up by Internet click monkeys.Plenty of rankings devised from actual data give DFW major props for things that count, such as being a best bet for landing a job or a place where a paycheck might stretch into next week.But we'll start with the juicy stuff.They hate usAdministering the DFW smackdown of the year were the readers of Travel + Leisure, who dissed us deeply in the mag's annual survey of 35 cities.They named Dallas-Fort Worth the sixth-worst-dressed city and flamed our fashion fillies with this insightful Internet passage: "When it comes to getting dressed, big hair, conspicuous designer labels and slick snakeskin boots are the norm."Anchorage, Alaska, which never took off its parka, came in last.Higher-rated but more hurtful was DFW's 21st-place showing in the attractiveness category. Anchorage, last again.Dallas-Fort Worth is also the sixth-rudest city behind New York City; Miami; Washington, D.C.; Los Angeles; and Boston.We also sucked wind with a 32nd finish in athletic/active, 29th for intelligence and 26th for friendly. Apparently, we're a lot like Las Vegas, which was last in the active and intelligence categories, 32nd for friendly and 23rd in attractiveness.Our best showing was in the sports-crazed people category, where we snagged No. 6. But despite all those sports nuts, we were dead last in the offbeat, hipster-type people category. (Did they all move to Austin?)Overall, DFW was rated 27th in the magazine's survey, despite finishing next to last in the "Quality of Life and Visitor Experience." (They must have visited in August).It might be clean, affordable and safe, but Salt Lake City was the caboose as voted by those snooty travel types, who ranked the city last for cocktail lounges, wild weekends and happy hours.Driving us crazyMen's Health Magazine ranked North Texans at the top of its most dangerous drivers rating, with Dallas at No. 2 behind St. Louis, and Fort Worth at No. 12.Arlington earned a moving violation in the annual "America's Best Drivers Report" issued by Allstate Insurance. The city was ranked No. 25, with drivers 35.4 percent more likely than the average motorist to get into an accident.The Daily Beast got stuck in traffic and surmised that a piece of Loop 820 was No. 5 in its "Highways from Hell" ranking. The 3.1-mile stretch of Texas 26 to U.S. 377 cost commuters an extra six minutes during rush hour.Hopefully, you haven't been taking that route to the airport during the holidays.The Beast also riffed on the 25 worst airports in America and pegged DFW Airport at No. 9 with on-time holiday departures at 86 percent and on-time holiday arrivals at 81 percent. (We're betting our white Christmas won't help in next year's ranking.)Travel woes might be why we need a nap.Dallas-Fort Worth is the 25th-ranked "Sleepless City," according to SleepBetter.org. Our snoozers reported an average of nearly nine days a month of not getting enough sack time.Study all night longWhen it comes to Sleepless in Fort Worth, no less an authority than Playboy magazine ranked TCU No. 9 on its annual party school list.The University of Texas at Austin, a perennial power on this list, was No. 4, behind No. 1 University of Virginia, No. 2 University of Southern California and No. 3 University of Florida.In a more serious educational countdown, Texas cities came up lacking in literacy.In a literacy rate study by John Miller, president of Central Connecticut State University, Austin was the only city to crack the top third of the 75 cities studied.Plano (46) and Dallas (51) edged Fort Worth (54), which has seen its ranking decline from No. 45 since 2005. Arlington dropped from 57 in 2005 to 64.Rankings that countIn the real world where the numbers -- not reader polls -- actually add up and jobs, paychecks and cost-of-living rule, we can count our lucky stars.Perhaps the best list to top this year was a Brookings Institute study finding that Dallas-Fort Worth is just one of three U.S. metros that have fully recovered from the Great Recession. Knoxville, Tenn., and Pittsburgh were the other two.Generally, Dallas-Fort Worth left most of America eating our economic/demographic dust in 2012.Uber-urbanist Joel Kotkin determined that Fort Worth-Arlington was No. 4 in his rankings of the best places for jobs.Dallas-Plano-Irving was No. 5, behind No. 1 Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos and No. 3 Salt Lake City, which also rebounded nicely from its drubbing by the travel snobs.Kotkin also found that paychecks in Texas cities stretch further.The new geography.com study looked at average annual wages in the nation's 51 largest metros and adjusted them for cost of living. Houston led by a long shot, with Dallas-Fort Worth at No. 5 and Austin at No. 8.Baby boomtownWe delivered again just last week when Kotkin hailed us as one of America's Baby Boom Cities.DFW was No. 6 in growth among children under 15, adding 265,678 youngsters between 2000 and 2010, a 21.7 percent expansion. Leading the youth movement was Raleigh, N.C., which added 77,421 kids, an astonishing 45 percent increase.No. 2 Austin added 38 percent to its pack.An analysis by demographer Wendell Cox revealed that Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington led the nation in net migration growth from 2010-2011, with a gain of 39,021. By comparison, New York City lost 98,975.And growth begets growth.In November, Pitney Bowes Software released its Metro Magnets Index, which projected that Fort Worth-Arlington will add 48,363 households between now and 2017, a 6.2 percent increase. Cowtown was No. 10 in absolute growth, just ahead of No. 11 San Diego and No. 12 Los Angeles.No. 1 Houston is projected to add 140,562 households. Also in the top 10 were No. 4 Dallas, No. 8 San Antonio and No. 9 Austin.These days, having a strong economy is the new cool.In July, Forbes released its America's Coolest Cities to Live ranking and anointed Houston No. 1, with its healthy job market pushing it to the top (surely the judges didn't go there in July).Also in the top 20 were No. 4 Dallas and No. 13 Fort Worth.In the midst of a cold and dreary stretch, it is worth noting that AARP named Fort Worth one of its "10 Great Sunny Places to Retire."They must have visited in July.Steve Campbell, 817-390-7981Have more to add? News tip? Tell us
