The Tampa Bay area has had its share of wonderful accolades in recent years, but the latest national ranking is perhaps the most meaningful of all: Tampa. Made. Travel and Leisure's. Most. Attractive. List.
It's been a long road, but each and every one of you ought to be proud for doing your part. Not sure if they're lumping St. Pete into their calculation, but many CL staffers live there, so I'm guessing so.
We came in tenth, so obviously we have to do some more lunges.
Tampa's listing mentions popular dining and nightlife spots, including EDGE, the swank rooftop bar perched atop the Epicurean, wonderful drag queen bingo hub Hamburger Mary's in Ybor and Hogan's Beach, where thong Speedos go to die.
Apparently the magazine's rankings are based on a reader survey. Which is good, because I wouldn't trust a survey of people who don't read.
These readers must also be fans of plastic, though, since Miami ranks #1 and L.A. came in 4th.
The list also ranked the country's least attractive cities, which seems kind of mean. Detroit won that the top spot in this category because, hey, why not kick a city when it's down?
Surprisingly, Orlando also made the not-so-hot list (do they not include Celebration in their assessment?).
Runners up for least attractive include Memphis, Oklahoma City, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. The blurbs included in the T&L site's slideshow include each of the city's best-known attributes, but they don't say outright what makes a city attractive or unattractive (outside of mentioning Philly's taste for cheesecake as well as a beloved Detroit pizza place. Subtle.).
