And here's a surpirse...

 Last night our local station ran a bit on the latest WalletHub 'cities' list- this time it's the Most Sinful Cities in the USA. By my title, you can guess that Las Vegas won by a wide margin, but let's go through it for fun, anyway.

I'll spare you all the weighted average crap and just nuts-and-bolts how they came up with the obvious. Their first category is called "anger and hatred", measured by violent crime rates, sex offenders per capita, firearm deaths, terrorist attacks, mass shootings, and other such things. Here, it was the Dynamic Missouri Duo of St Louis and Kansas City 1-2 on the list, with "I coulda toldja that" candidates Detroit and Washington DC right behind them.  My lovely home town of Fort Wayne did... okay, I guess, 126th of 182.

Next category the experts named "jealousy", and it included thefts, ID theft, and fraud.  This ended up being "a salute to our Confederate ancestors, as you have to roll down to #13 Chicago before you don't hit a member of the Confederacy or a border state. Memphis, Atlanta, and Baton Rouge led the way.  Fort Wayne did real good here, making #164.

"Excesses and vices" are next, and they include such items as share of obese adults, fast-food places per capita, DUI and drug related items, and- a category I might have put back in the "jealousy" section- debt-to-income ratio.  Here we have to cut in the Pretenders singing My City Was Gone- "Oh, way to go, Ohio..." The Buckeye State claimed #2 (Toledo), #4 (Cincinnati), and #8 (Cleveland)- although that den of iniquity St Louis made off with the top spot again. Huntington WV slipped in between Toledo and Cincy, and let's give an honorable mention to the Motor City, who copped #7.  Fort Wayne? Here, we hit a snag, clocking in at #56.  It must be the drinking, because Indy has more McDonalds than we have McDonalds, Burger Kings, Wendy's, and Five Guys combined! I bet you're thinking, "This should be the big one for Las Vegas!  Where are they at?" 87th, actually.

Next up is "Greed", which they judge by gambling proclivity vs charitable contributions. And topping this one- why of course Las Vegas Washington, DC! (Though Vegas did get #3 this time.)  In fact, after #1, the next four spots belong to Nevada. The Fort is back on the side of the angels here, coming in at #148.

Then comes "Lust", established by adult entertainment, naughty web searches, and... wait for it... teen pregnancy rate?! Somehow or another, Atlanta beats out LA, Houston, Las Vegas, New York, and Philly here.  Fort Wayne comes in at #103- low enough to be happy, high enough to know better.

"Vanity" is the next deadly sin, determined by a combining of tanning salons and searches for plastic surgery deals (?).  Okay, we all know LA tops this list.  I was surprised that San Diego took 2nd.  I'm thinking, "This has to be one of the rock bottom lowest for Fort Wayne, right?"

66th.  Go figure.

Finally, here's the category I skew Fort Wayne heavily the wrong way- Laziness.  Figured by hours worked, adults not exercising, youths neither working or in school, hours watching TV, and High School dropout rate.  Huntington WV, Toledo, and Hialeah FL (apparently spending all day at the track) top this list.  Much like Lust, Fort Wayne knocked off a 106 here.

So, who were the best of the best- and the worst of the worst?  Those most saintly towns according to the experts were:

1- Port St Lucie, FL

2- Bridgeport CT

3- Fremont CA

4- West Valley City UT

5- Cape Coral FL

6- Pearl City HI

7- Laredo TX

8- Burlington VT

9- Columbia MD

10- South Burlington VT

Fort Wayne pulls in at a decent #143, Drunks and fatties beside the point.

 

Now, the ten most evil cities...

1- Las Vegas, of course

2- St Louis

3- Philadelphia (Bwa-ha-ha!)

4- Houston

5- Atlanta

6- LA

7- Denver

8- Chicago

9- Baton Rouge

and 10- Phoenix

And just for clarification: On their point scale,  there are less than 4 points between #2 and #10.  There is almost 5 points between Las Vegas and #2.