The Big Apple’s ego gets a little bigger. Credit: Metro archive
The Big Apple, known for its high-class food and art, has developed a more rotten reputation.
New York City was voted the country’s second snobbiest city by Travel + Leisure readers in the magazine’s annual America’s Favorite Cities survey.
“The fast-paced manners of New Yorkers may put off some visitors, but there’s no denying that the Big Apple has ample reasons to be proud,” Katrina Brown Hunt wrote in a summary of the findings.
“It ranked at the top of the survey for its theater and art scene and for dressing to the nines,” Hunt added.
Readers ranked 35 metropolitan areas on various features, including public transportation, local attractiveness and even food trucks.
But to determine which cities were, perhaps, too proud, the magazine factored in reader scores on intelligence and high-end shopping, as well as the cities with lower scores for friendliness.
New York was ranked one of the most unfriendly cities, second only to Washington, D.C., which is chock-full of politicians and lobbyists.
Those cities that have their nose highest in the air were also named by higher scores in classical music and theater—such ‘highbrow cultural offerings’ New Yorkers love to brag about.
And with the likes of Broadway, its no surprise “New York, New York” was ranked No. 1 for its theater and performance art.
In addition to using more traditional snob indicators, the magazine also factored in what Hunt called “21st-century definitions of elitism,” including tech-savviness, good coffee and environmental friendliness.
While it’s common to get dirty looks for littering in New York, the city was ranked the fifth least “green,” despite so-called “nanny” Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s attempts to make it more sustainable.
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