I Love L.A.?

I’m not sure if mine is more accurate or not:

The #1 choice is correct; NYC should rank above Chicago, but fair. I would rather be in Boston than Philly, but I like the latter. The strange one is LA. Now, I have argued with several people that although I don’t really care for LA it’s one of the 10 best metro areas in the country to live (you think about this a lot when you’re trying to go into academia.) But it’s way below any of these 4, and also way below Seattle and Portland. Not only that, but it would seem that given the questions that the survey would have picked this up. Odd. I’m also not sure why Seattle doesn’t show up; my indifference to outdoorsy stuff and the lack of questions about movies and baseball, maybe. So what are my actual preference rankings? Leaving Canada out of it (and I think only Montreal would crack the list, and the new lack of baseball would take it out of the top 5. Maybe Vancouver–I guess I’d rather live there than LA or San Diego, but very marginally) my actual top 10 urban areas:

1. SF
2. NYC
3. Seattle
4. Chicago
5. Boston
6. Portland
7. Philadelphia
8. DC
9. Minneapolis/St. Paul
10. LA

I guess San Diego might be #11. After that, there would be a huge dropoff, particularly once you got out of California. The other question is what would be #1 choice below the Mason-Dixon line, which hopefully won’t be relevant. Austin? Memphis? I’ve never been to either, so I can’t say, I guess. I can guarantee I won’t retire in Florida, where I have been. Ugh.