Poor, boring Tallahassee.
You may have heard about a study published in June that ranked the Most Boring Cities in America. Out of 75 cities that were researched by the website FinanceBuzz, Tallahassee was number 9 on the most boring list.
Not everyone thinks this is true.
“There’s plenty to do here,” says Tallahassee native Michael Liepshutz. “The beaches are close. There’s good rivers, trails, parks. There’s a lot to do downtown. I don’t go to bars but there’s plenty of bars. I mean really just mainly outdoor stuff is what I do.”
“People that live in Tallahassee do not find it boring. They probably got a good little chuckle out of” the article, as Mayor John Dailey recently told us.
We sent an email survey to WFSU newsletter subscribers to get their thoughts on this.
Out of 378 responses, a third said they want more from Tallahassee. Just over a quarter said they are excited about what Tallahassee has to offer, and nearly a third said they are bored or disappointed by Tallahassee’s offerings.
The author of the report is Josh Koebert. He’s a researcher and data scientist with FinanceBuzz, an online media outlet focused on all things related to personal finance.
“We looked at dozens of data points for each of these cities, tried to use the same date source for every city so it’s consistent,” Koebert says. “We took the amount of sports teams, nightclubs, annual events that are listed on City Hall and government websites and out them all together on a per capita basis.”
Koebert also focused heavily on the culinary scene and award-winning restaurants.
“Not everybody’s idea of excitement is the same. There might be plenty of people that find tons of stuff to do in Tallahassee,” Koebert says. “I’d love to see what’s there and see why I’m wrong.”
The article says 75 of the country’s biggest cities were evaluated using more than a dozen data points in these categories:
· Population makeup (how many young adults)
· Culinary scene (how many award-winning restaurants)
· Outdoor activities
· Nightlife and celebrations
· Things to do
“Clearly, they didn't know what they were writing about,” says Kerri Post, executive director of Visit Tallahassee. “Really looking at the data, it just became more and more misleading it seemed.”
On the Speaking Of Radio Hour, Post refutes many of the assertions in the article, especially around restaurants and sports.
“This gave us an opportunity to also tell our story,” Post said. “I would invite this gentleman to come visit Tallahassee, really see for himself because he would see how this article that they have published clearly misses the mark.”
Gus Corbella says Tallahassee isn’t boring, but he sees room for improvement.
“I always say that, and this is I think part of our charm and part of our downfall, that Tallahassee likes things just the way they are,” says Corbella, a lobbyist with the Greenberg Traurig law firm. He also serves as vice chair of Tallahassee’s Downtown Improvement Authority.
Corbella equates Tallahassee to a bottle of wine in the cellar that needs to be turned to keep it fresh.
“It's a wonderful community to call home,” Corbella says. “Let's see how we can turn those bottles a little bit and make our great life better.”
Corbella recently wrote an opinion piece for the Tallahassee Democrat titled Give me more to love about my beloved Tallahassee.
“I wrote it more as a love letter to the city and what we could be, rather than a criticism of the city and what it currently might be,” Corbella says.
Hear the full segment by clicking LISTEN above.
