Little over a decade ago, the people of Flint, Mich., in an angry public demonstration, burned all available copies of the issue of Money magazine that had rated their town as the worst place to live in the United States.
Flint had been suffering severely from successive GM plant closings and layoffs. In the eyes of the people of Flint, Money added insult to injury.
Place ratings are something of a national pastime in the United States, and people tend to take them seriously.
Most ratings are based on some measurable qualities, such as cost of living (affordable housing), jobs, recreational facilities, educational opportunities, crime statistics, health care provision, arts and cultural events and transportation (e.g., average commute time and airport connectivity).
There are various publications of city rankings, and Money might not be the best one available. At least, that is what you would hope if you live in Miami. In its most recent ranking of 59 metropolitan areas with more than 1 million people based on the eight criteria above, Miami comes in last.
But don't get the matches out, yet!
The Money Web ite allows you to create your own rankings based on the weighted importance of each criterion. When you leave out crime, affordable housing, jobs and the arts, Miami climbs to the 25th position. And a ranking solely based on good weather and recreation puts Miami in 13th place.
It may be more realistic to turn to other rankings.
One of the best known and longest established rankings is the Places Rated Almanac. This ranking is largely based on the same criteria as the ones used by Money but the methods and measurements are more elaborate and more consistent over time. The Almanac has been published since 1981.
In any case, this one will leave you feeling considerably better. Miami's lowest score in this ranking, at 52nd, was in 1985. In 1993 it had moved up to 33rd position and in the most recent ranking in 2000, Miami came in 17th of a total of 354 metropolitan areas (Salt Lake City was first, Kankakee, Ill., was last).
Miami's strongest points are the weather, recreation and health care facilities. Improvement in health care and the arts are in part responsible for pushing Miami up in the rankings in recent years.
Its Achilles' heel: crime. Miami has the worst crime record of all cities in all three years, mainly due to the extremely high incidence of assaults and robberies (followed by car thefts, rapes and murders). Absolute crime numbers may have gone down in Miami in recent years, but in other cities they have come down faster.
And how does Miami's quality of life rank internationally? A few months ago, William Mercer Consulting produced a ranking of cities worldwide, mainly for the purpose of advising corporations on so-called hardship allowances for ex-patriots.
The ratings are based on political, economic and environmental factors, personal safety and health, education, recreation, transportation and other public services.
Internationally, Miami ranks 63rd out of 214, on a par with Milan, Detroit, and Barcelona. The top 10 cities are Vancouver, Zurich, Vienna, Bern, Sydney, Geneva, Auckland, Copenhagen, Helsinki and Amsterdam.
The least desirable city in the world, at the present, is Brazzaville, Congo.
Interestingly, cities in the United States are not among the top-scorers.
The highest scoring U.S. city, in 16th place, is San Francisco. The relatively low score of US cities as compared to cities in West Europe, Canada, Australia and New Zealand is generally related to crime.
Crime and safety issues also keep Latin American cities at the lower end of the rankings: Buenos Aires is 73rd, Santiago is 86th, and Sao Paulo is 108th.
The main reason for taking these place ratings seriously is that other people take them seriously.
Clearly, Miami competes in two arenas. Miami's rating is better than any other city in the Latin American region and this is vital to its world city status.
But inside the United States, Miami's standing can still be improved considerably - even if we disqualify Money magazine.
Jan Nijman is professor of Geography and Regional Studies at the University of Miami.