My To Do List: Stop Reading Lists

Do you ever spend time going through mostly worthless lists of interesting factoids? WaletHub.com released their 2022 list of the best states to live in. How did the Beehive State do? Well, we missed the top 10, but came in at a respectable 13^th. The four metrics that Wallet Hub used to come up with these rankings were

1. Affordability (Utah was 6^th)
2. Economy (Utah was 2^nd)
3. Education and Health (Utah was 8^th)
4. Quality of Life (Utah was 29^th)

Wait! What!?? Utah 29^th in quality of life? I really like to know by what subjective (because it certainly can't be objective) characteristics Wallet Hub uses to consider “quality of life.” Since New York (!) was rated as the state with the highest “quality of life,” I guess the metrics must include likeliness of getting mugged, being squished in to cramped living spaces that cost you an arm and a leg to live in, wondering if you can survive your subway experience, and paying 10 bucks (if you're lucky) for a hot dog. Now, New York does have something going for it, no doubt. Broadway? Sure world class theater - if you can get tickets. Professional sports? Yeah, it's all there. Every store in the world? Sure ok, they have that. I'm sure they even have a Costco or two. But, I'm not sure all of those things are what constitutes a “quality of life.” Look, I have no knock on New York, but I just don't think living there represents “quality of life.” If I were given the opportunity to try to convince people where they would have the best quality of life, and the choices I had to make the pitch for were New York or Utah, I'd pick Utah every time. To me it would be an easy thing to sell.

And, specifically, selling Southern Utah would, to me, be even easier to sell. Which took me to another list that I found equally puzzling. Niche has released their listing of the “best places to live in Utah.” Niche is a ranking and review website. I have no idea what methodology they use in coming up with the rankings, but they are curious to me. Certainly, with all the beauty of our area, the fact that St. George is one of the more populous ares of the state (7^th), world class recreation opportunities, and communities that really come together when there are needs, we had to to do well within the state, right? Nope. Nothing in southern Utah in the top 10. Nor the top 25. Not even the top 50. You have to scroll all the way down to number 59 to find the first southern Utah community on the list. And that community is...sorry St. George not yet. Cedar? No not quite. It's Kanab.

I love Kanab. I like to take the trip over there, and it is absolutely picturesque. I think it's great that they had so many people give them good reviews. The next city from our region to make the list was Santa Clara at number 74. Cedar City was number 80. St. George was 87.

Igor Sikorsky, credited with inventing the helicopter, once said,

“according to recognized aero technical tests, the bumblebee cannot fly because of the shape and weight of his body in relation to the total wing area. The bumblebee doesn't know this, so he goes ahead and flies anyway.”

So, I guess I would say to these makers of lists, I don't know any better, so I'm going to live in Utah, and specifically southern Utah anyway.