Fresh Loaf

Are you smarter than a New Yorker? According to the Daily Beast, not if you’re an Atlantan.

The study ranked 55 metropolitan areas with over 1 million people by criteria such as how many residents had bachelor’s and graduate degrees and the number of higher education institutions. Other criteria included the sales of nonfiction books and the percentage of eligible people to vote in the last presidential election.

Atlanta ranked as the 23rd smartest American city with an IQ score of 109, while Raleigh-Durham, N.C., was at the top of the list with the highest score of 170.

The dumbest city? Fresno, Calif., with an IQ score of 3.

(Photo by Creative Loafing)

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Does it even exist? Andisheh once again opens our eyes to the ridiculousness that exists right under our very noses. Yesterday, he pointed me to some monkey business.

On another one of Forbes’ entertaining-yet-useless list-icles (this one’s titled “America’s Fastest Dying Places”), a Georgia “city” in DeKalb County by the name of “Candler-McAfee” is listed. It’s ranked no. 2, actually. Go team!

Yet from looking at the map, as Andisheh points out, this isn’t a city — it’s a census designation. Or is it? Some website that appears to show you where you can rent white water rafts nearby calls it a city. And another list-icle, this one by CNNMoney, includes it on a list of the best small cities in the nation.

And as Andisheh points out in his e-mail:

Except, it’s not actually a town. It’s not even a neighborhood.

It’s a 7 sq. mile section of unincorporated Dekalb County south of the City of Decatur, north of I-20.

Here it is on a map. Gotta say it’s kind of unfair for Forbes to knock the place when all it’s doing is looking at census information. What is this place? Do people list their address as “Candler-McAfee?” Or does Forbes need to stop trolling census information for easy-to-write articles and start picking up the phone?

(Screenshot courtesy of Forbes)

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After eight years during which the federal government didn’t even have an urban policy, an aide  President-elect Obama is indicating that he plans to coordinate help for cities.

The Washington Post reports that Obama plans to establish a White House Office of Urban Policy.

“He’s going to have a White House chief of urban policy,” [transition co-chair Valerie] Jarrett told the Trotter Group, an organization of black columnists.

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