bill bored

I live with my partner in Mesa, AZ, one of the most boring places in the US. In fact, this town has been designated the ninth most boring American city by Movoto.com, a topical real estate blog.

Texas, with four towns in the top 10 & undisputed possession of the #1 spot, the city of Lubbock, must be the dullest & least happening place in the universe, excepting the Austin-Bastrop area.

Movoto's criteria for inclusion in this list measure such things as number of music venues, age demographics, and so forth. But I'll bet I could get similar results using one (1) datum: locally-owned independent businesses vs. national chains. I'm not talking fast food exclusively (& prevalence of fast food joints plays large in determining a place's boredom index), but also the sit-down chains: Shari's, Coco's, and even classier places, such as Gordon Beer's are unoriginal and predictable spots. A city can only be interesting if its businesses are interesting, and originality requires independence.

I've been in four of the towns on the list; Mesa, a retirement ghetto, is different from Sam Berdino or Stockton, CA., both of which are barrio-ghettoes, as is North Las Vegas. All four are the diametrical opposite, of places like San Francisco, or Port Townsend, WA, however, with their idiosyncratic, lively, and unpredictable business scenes.

The bottom line is that this is only a problem if the people in Mesa, Fort Wayne, & Lubbock see it as one, which they mostly don't.