Living in an 'uncool' place

Pity the singles who live in Pittsburgh. Not only does their city rank dead last overall as an attractive place to live, it is next to dead last in terms of job growth.

And yet we have no doubt at least a few happy singles spend their days somewhere among the three rivers that bisect that old steel town, which is home to prestigious universities such as Carnegie Mellon.

Just as a whole lot of singles aren't going to pay much attention to Salt Lake City's rank of 34th out of 40 on the same list.

The folks at Forbes.com tried to be as objective as possible in coming up with this year's ranking of the best large cities for singles. But that's a bit like trying to come up with an objective measure of the best apple pie at the county fair. The question itself does not invite an objective answer, and one person's tastes are as valid as any others.

Among other things, the editors looked at culture and nightlife, which typically translates into bars and clubs. The man who compiled the report told this newspaper Salt Lake City's odd street numbering system makes it difficult to locate those places, which has to rank as one of the oddest comments we've heard. The truth is there are many places to obtain alcohol in the city, but the city will never be known for that.

A lot of singles — particularly those who may be attracted to the Wasatch Front in the first place — aren't interested in that sort of thing anyway. That isn't a bad thing. Nor does it mean singles will stay away from the area in droves.

Magazines and Web sites are fond of publishing annual rankings, and in ways that are sure to attract attention. Everyone wants to know which universities are the biggest party schools and which cities are the most liveable. Beyond that, however, such lists don't amount to much.

The biggest indicator of potential future growth is summed up in one category on the Forbes.com list — job growth. Salt Lake City ranked sixth in that one — a high ranking that mirrors other surveys.

As long as the jobs are here, people will follow.

And if, for some reason, they don't, that's good news, too. It means the ready supply of local workers would decrease and wages — the element that often earns Salt Lake a low ranking — would begin to rise. Don't count on it.

Cities acquire reputations among certain groups. There probably isn't much that could raise Salt Lake City's dismal ranking in terms of a "cool" place to live. Even the Olympics didn't do much to budge that. But if history is any guide, the metro area will continue to grow. Unfortunately, the same can't be said for Pittsburgh.