Philly Metro Is One of “10 Smartest Cities in America”
Papadakis Integrated Sciences Building at Drexel University, which mints smart Philadelphians.
Realtor Mag reports that Philadelphia has made a rather flattering top 10 appearance in CreditDonkey’s lis of the U.S.’ smartest cities. Obviously, CreditDonkey.com is not the Pew Center for Urban Demographic Research Science Intelligence (which surely exists), but dig the four factors the company took into account:
1. Percent of population with bachelor’s degree or higher
2. Mensa chapters in the state
3. Library cardholders per 1,000 people
4. Property crimes per 100,000 people
The first and third are fairly intuitive, no matter what you think of higher ed or reading. But Mensa? There are just too many idiots in Mensa (who broadcast their Mensa membership at every opportunity) for this to be useful. The fourth factor is surprising; here’s the rationale:
We figured that a city isn’t “smart” if there are a bunch of “unsmart” people living there. So we looked at a measure of generally unintelligent behavior: the number of times people have burglarized, vandalized or done some other property crime in 2012, according to FBI data.
Mensa and crime stats were both weighted half as heavily as those of library cardholders.
Philadelphia’s numbers:
Population with bachelor’s degree or higher: 33.3%
Mensa chapters in state: 5
Library cardholders per 1,000 people: 0.6
Property crimes per 100,000 people: 2,666
That makes the city No. 9 out of 10. Our almost-last-place finish is a result of crime and a lack of comparable interest in Mensa.
