Denver is apparently America's fourth most pretentious city

MissUtilis

https://cafevalet.com/blog/san-francisco-cited-as-most-pretentious-american-city/

The rising cost of living is something I fear, but you know what? Otherwise, I wear so-called pretension - especially appreciation of creativity - as a badge of honor.

Salix Babylonika

what is Cafevalet.com

Obā-san

what the fuck kind of metric is that

these kinds of numbers are meaningless and arbitrary and they make me angry

MissUtilis

Jane said:

what is Cafevalet.com

something I hunted down once mother went "oh no, we're the fourth-most pretentious city"

Today is Tomorrow said:

what the fuck kind of metric is that

these kinds of numbers are meaningless and arbitrary and they make me angry

a lot of their criteria are dumb but artsiness is good and I resent that it is supposed to be a bad thing

MissUtilis

One thing that could tip the scales away from pretension: The entire city turning orange and blue every fall. On Broncos game days the King Soopers nearest the house is fucking packed with people wearing Broncos shirseys or 2013 AFC Champions shirts

Sredni Vashtar

This is, of course, a coffee company, so I think this is meant as a self-deprecating joke.

MissUtilis

It might be, but still, mainstream news outlets picked this up and ran with it.

I also notice that some major cities (e.g. New York, Chicago, Philadelphia) are absent from their rankings.

Salix Babylonika

New York is the most pretentious city in existence so it's crazy that that's not on there.

Sredni Vashtar

New York is so big that it screws with the metrics, but I'm guessing Brooklyn would be high and Queens would be low. Philly has a lot of museums but private galleries are rarer, and while we do have a lot of coffee shops most are chains. We also have gastro-pubs, classy Asian nightclubs and the Fringe Festival, which should push us much higher, but I digress. And Chicago is Chicago.

^ It's composed of five cities, two of which are quite pretentious.

Salix Babylonika

Man I really don't think I could ever eat at something called a gastropub.

Sredni Vashtar

The people who run them don't call them that, but you know the super chi-chi bars where the drinks are really expensive and the bar food is French haute cuisine? We have those.

Salix Babylonika

Can't rightly say I do.

MissUtilis

What about Boston? They and New York seem to share a general feeling that living there (and especially being born and raised there) is the height of human experience. Also, Boston's association with intellectualism.

Obā-san

im going to fuckin eat this thread

Obā-san

Café Valet analyzed the top 50 U.S. metro areas, each with populations of 1,000,000 or more. The Pretension Index was calculated based upon a combination of metrics from three categories.

Local business concentration (63% of the overall score) is based on the following five metrics from business data providers Infogroup and Localeze:

The number of independent coffee shops per capita. The higher the concentration, the more pretentious.
The number of yoga studios per capita. The higher the concentration, the more pretentious.
The number of art galleries per capita. The higher the concentration, the more pretentious.
The number of Whole Foods per capita. The higher the concentration, the more pretentious.The number of Walmart stores per capital. The lower the concentration, the more pretentious.

Area interests (25% of the overall score) is based on the following five metrics from Facebook Audience Insights.

Indexed number of people interested in philosophy by metro area. The greater the interest, the more pretentious.
Indexed number of people interested in poetry by metro area. The greater the interest, the more pretentious.
Indexed number of people interested in Moleskine notebooks by metro area. The greater the interest, the more pretentious.
Indexed number of people interested in Sting by metro area. The greater the interest, the more pretentious.
Ownership of electric or hybrid cars by metro area. The higher the ownership, the more pretentious. (This data from Edmunds / R.L. Polk)

Area activities (12% of the overall score) is based on two metrics from business data providers Infogroup and Localeze.

The number of community gardens per capita. The higher the concentration, the more pretentious.
The number of opera-related events per capita. The more events, the more pretentious.

Sredni Vashtar

MissUtilis said:

What about Boston? They and New York seem to share a general feeling that living there (and especially being born and raised there) is the height of human experience. Also, Boston's association with intellectualism.

That's called bravado, AU. People don't actually feel that way. They might love living there and think it a special place to live, but most people don't go around feeling godlike for just living somewhere. They just project that because, well... you interact primarily with Redditor sports fans, who are massive stuffed shirts.

MissUtilis

They are not all massive stuffed shirts. A lot of them seem like alright folks. But there is definitely the stuffed shirt aspect.

Tre

this is trash and I refuse to give it any credence

you should do the same, it's good for your health

Sredni Vashtar

I thought it was funny simply because I could take it either way and laugh at both ends of the spectrum.

Tre

also remember that you're putting stock into research conducted by a manufacturer of coffee makers and coffee maker accessories

Obā-san

AND IT IS SHIT RESEARCH

MissUtilis

Tre said:

also remember that you're putting stock into research conducted by a manufacturer of coffee makers and coffee maker accessories

It touched on how people seem to disdain artsiness, so I deemed it thread-worthy

Sredni Vashtar

I thought the whole thing was supposed to be exceedingly tongue-in-cheek so I wasn't taking it seriously to begin with.

MissUtilis

it still touches on America's anti-intellectualism

intellectualism isn't necessarily pretentious but it can take such forms

Salix Babylonika

intellivisionism

Sredni Vashtar

^^ I feel like it's at once more and less specific than that, in that it's a conflation of the intellectual and the culturally involved with the bourgeois. Which is and isn't fair, and unfortunately lends itself well to the reverse: The impression that the poor and lower middle class do not care about art or health or good food or education. Which is simply not true.

The populist right in this country seems particularly intent upon pushing this mandarin intellectual/salt of the earth working man dichotomy even though they are really even more insufferably bourgeois than the average liberal or leftist.

MissUtilis

There seem to be a lot of people who don't see that...

MissUtilis

Though maybe I'd have even more access to them if I didn't use Ghostery to block out Facebook comments

MissUtilis

and lived in a less blue part of this state

Sredni Vashtar

Ignorance breeds fear breeds resentment and hatred.

^^ Oh hey, someone else who uses Ghostery to block things!

Section42L

I'm reasonably sure that the original "study" was meant to be a joke, so I'm baffled at AU taking it seriously.

MissUtilis

I'm not taking it completely seriously, it just touched a nerve with me and mother seemed unaware via telephone whether or not it was satire

Salix Babylonika

I uninstalled Ghostery cuz someone told me that it opens a bunch of security holes?

I don't know if that's true but like, why risk it.

lee4hmz

Today is Tomorrow said:

Café Valet analyzed the top 50 U.S. metro areas, each with populations of 1,000,000 or more. The Pretension Index was calculated based upon a combination of metrics from three categories.

Local business concentration (63% of the overall score) is based on the following five metrics from business data providers Infogroup and Localeze:

The number of independent coffee shops per capita. The higher the concentration, the more pretentious.
The number of yoga studios per capita. The higher the concentration, the more pretentious.
The number of art galleries per capita. The higher the concentration, the more pretentious.
The number of Whole Foods per capita. The higher the concentration, the more pretentious.The number of Walmart stores per capital. The lower the concentration, the more pretentious.

Area interests (25% of the overall score) is based on the following five metrics from Facebook Audience Insights.

Indexed number of people interested in philosophy by metro area. The greater the interest, the more pretentious.
Indexed number of people interested in poetry by metro area. The greater the interest, the more pretentious.
Indexed number of people interested in Moleskine notebooks by metro area. The greater the interest, the more pretentious.
Indexed number of people interested in Sting by metro area. The greater the interest, the more pretentious.
Ownership of electric or hybrid cars by metro area. The higher the ownership, the more pretentious. (This data from Edmunds / R.L. Polk)

Area activities (12% of the overall score) is based on two metrics from business data providers Infogroup and Localeze.

The number of community gardens per capita. The higher the concentration, the more pretentious.
The number of opera-related events per capita. The more events, the more pretentious.

this survey is so "STOP LIKING WHAT I DON'T LIKE" it hurts

also, fuck them for assuming electric and hybrid cars are pretentious, and other cars (let's say a fuck-off huge dually F-350 that isn't a work truck) are not.

lee4hmz

about the only thing on here I can peg as wholly pretentious/trying too hard is Whole Foods (which is still way too expensive for what you get; Trader Joe's is a better bet). 

You can find cheap opera performances if you know where to look (and there's tons of opera on YouTube). Electric cars and hybrids aren't the "smug-emitting" gutless wonders they were 10-15 years ago, and they're a common sight here in Virginia even outside the suburbs. And Sting? Really? You're just mad The Police broke up. :P

Section42L

Now you're taking the survey too seriously, and making AU seem positively calm in the process.

lee4hmz

I know, but joke or not, these sorts of things always rub me the wrong way. I guess it does make me feel a little better that it's a publicity stunt being done by a coffee machine maker, and not an actual clickbait site.

Sredni Vashtar

Jane said:

I uninstalled Ghostery cuz someone told me that it opens a bunch of security holes?

I don't know if that's true but like, why risk it.

I'm pretty sure it's mostly the opposite in that it allows you to individually block all sorts of trackers and gives you the option of not giving Ghostery itself your data. But I, too, am a layman, and playing this by ear.

I mean, there are some aspects I find a little ehhh here and there, but mostly it seems pretty legit. It also takes care of a lot of stuff a simple ad blocker can't.

Hexartes

This is trash because I assume Boulder isn't higher than Denver in this list (I'm not gonna read it don't care) and, like, come on

MissUtilis

Boulder is the hippie college town, OF COURSE it's pretentious :n

(I've not really spoken to people there but still)

Bee

Not surprised to see Portland as #5.

Sredni Vashtar

Portland is too easy.

San Francisco is more complicated. It has a lot of independent coffee shops because it has a lot of independent businesses and a lot of coffee shops; the yoga craze there dates to pre-hippie days; it's basically the gayest city on earth by dint of tradition; and trying to fit a Walmart on those hills would be asking for trouble,

Hexartes

MissUtilis said:

Boulder is the hippie college town, OF COURSE it's pretentious :n

(I've not really spoken to people there but still)

Have a conversation with my aunt someday

Fossilmaiden

Ghostery is owned by the ad company Ghostery Inc. (formerly known as Evidon), who sell off data collected by its data sharing function.

lee4hmz

Sredni Vashtar said:

Portland is too easy.

San Francisco is more complicated. It has a lot of independent coffee shops because it has a lot of independent businesses and a lot of coffee shops; the yoga craze there dates to pre-hippie days; it's basically the gayest city on earth by dint of tradition; and trying to fit a Walmart on those hills would be asking for trouble,

DC actually forced Walmart to build a store inside a mixed-use city building, sort of like Target's flagship store at Nicollet Mall, instead of building the usual 1960s-style big box. So it can be done; the question is, would anyone want to bother?

Calica

I kinda doubt it'd really be worth it, land-price wise, anyways.  Even in LA, which is more sprawled out and so the prices are less absurd, Wal-Mart has to do a multi-story building instead of its usual.

Sredni Vashtar

Fossilmaiden said:

Ghostery is owned by the ad company Ghostery Inc. (formerly known as Evidon), who sell off data collected by its data sharing function.

See my "ehhhh" earlier. At least they tell you this right off the bat.

lee4hmz said:

Sredni Vashtar said:

Portland is too easy.

San Francisco is more complicated. It has a lot of independent coffee shops because it has a lot of independent businesses and a lot of coffee shops; the yoga craze there dates to pre-hippie days; it's basically the gayest city on earth by dint of tradition; and trying to fit a Walmart on those hills would be asking for trouble,

DC actually forced Walmart to build a store inside a mixed-use city building, sort of like Target's flagship store at Nicollet Mall, instead of building the usual 1960s-style big box. So it can be done; the question is, would anyone want to bother?

Calica said:

I kinda doubt it'd really be worth it, land-price wise, anyways.  Even in LA, which is more sprawled out and so the prices are less absurd, Wal-Mart has to do a multi-story building instead of its usual.

Indeed.

Princess Alice

Sredni Vashtar said:

Fossilmaiden said:

Ghostery is owned by the ad company Ghostery Inc. (formerly known as Evidon), who sell off data collected by its data sharing function.

See my "ehhhh" earlier. At least they tell you this right off the bat.

They also offer a fairly transparent option to turn it off, which is more than can be said for a lot of software these days.

Sredni Vashtar

Central Avenue said:

Sredni Vashtar said:

Fossilmaiden said:

Ghostery is owned by the ad company Ghostery Inc. (formerly known as Evidon), who sell off data collected by its data sharing function.

See my "ehhhh" earlier. At least they tell you this right off the bat.

They also offer a fairly transparent option to turn it off, which is more than can be said for a lot of software these days.

Exactly.

I find it terribly useful, and aside from making a note of what kind of trackers I block it doesn't mine my personal info in the way that, say, Facebook or Google does, which is a nice change of pace.