Welcome!

Welcome to austinagrodolce … My family and I garden with more intention and enthusiasm than allocated budget or overall design plan. It shows. Wildlife populations don't seem to notice our lack of cohesive design, they just like the native plants here. It seems by growing local we've thrown out a welcome mat. Occasionally, we're surprised at who (and what) shows up.



Friday, January 16, 2009

My City

According to a recent study issued by Men's Health, my city (Austin) could potentially kick your city's ass.Not that my city is looking for a fight. Austin is a fairly chill place to live for the most part.

But if we were to take you on, we are fit enough to give you grief, according to the study which takes a look at the general fitness (or fatness) levels in cities. Austin has a good report card based upon variables such as how many fast food places there are or how many trails and parks we have.

Here's our "report card"
Austin Overall Rank: 24th Fittest City
Fitness Centers & Sporting Goods B
Geography B-
Nutrition C
Commute C
Sports Participation F+
Parks & Open Space C
Alcohol Consumption C+
City Rec Facilities C
TV Viewing C+
Access to Healthcare D-
Overweight/Sedentary B
Motivation F
Junk Food D-
Mayor & City Initiatives A
Air Quality B-
State Obesity Initiatives A-
Climate C+

Check the list and see how your city did in terms of Fat or Fit. And yeah, do note while you are there that Austin is the ONLY TEXAS CITY in the Fit Category. Take THAT Arlington, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio!

Actually when it comes to ranking Texas cities over all, we see here living proof that bigger is, well fatter. We have the most fat cities of any other state in the US. Maybe we should amend our state littering campaign from this.... to....
Don't Mess with Texas or We Will Sit on You!

Rest of the country? Here are your top 25 fittest/fattest cities:

Top Fittest Cities
1. Salt Lake City, UT
2. Colorado Springs, CO
3. Minneapolis, MN
4. Denver, CO
5. Albuquerque, NM
6. Portland, OR
7. Honolulu, HI
8. Seattle, WA
9. Omaha, NE
10. Virginia Beach, VA
11. Milwaukee, WI
12. San Francisco, CA
13. Tucson, AZ
14. Boston, MA
15. Cleveland, OH
16. St. Louis, MO
17. Austin, TX!!!
18. Washington, DC
19. Sacramento, CA
20. Oakland, CA
21. Atlanta, GA
22. Fresno, CA
23. Tampa, FL
24. Nashville-Davidson, TN
25. Pittsburgh, PA

Top Fattest Cities
1. Miami, FL
2. Oklahoma City, OK
3. San Antonio, TX
4. Las Vegas, NV
5. New York, NY
6. Houston, TX
7. El Paso, TX
8. Jacksonville, FL
9. Charlotte, NC
10. Louisville-Jefferson, KY
11. Memphis, TN
12. Detroit, MI
13. Chicago, IL
14. Dallas-Fort Worth, TX
15. San Jose, CA
16. Tulsa, OK
17. Baltimore, MD
18. Columbus, OH
19. Raleigh, NC
20. Philadelphia, PA
21. L.A.-Long Beach, CA
22. Phoenix-Mesa, AZ
23. Indianapolis, IN
24. San Diego, CA
25. Kansas City, MO

Obviously we here in Texas, especially everywhere else but Austin, have a lot of work(ing out) to do. Maybe I misunderstood that last line in the Texas state anthem we all learned in elementary school. I obviously misheard. Apparently it goes something more like "God bless you Texas, and keep you brave and strong. That you may grow in power and girth, throughout the ages long!".

1 comment:

Flapjacks said...

i knew we'd score low on alcohol consumption.

http://www.menshealth.com/drunk/

look under most drunk.

we are also really high on the 'bars per capita' list. the highest is La Crosse, Wisconsin. 360 bars for 51,818 folks, or 1:143. i've been there, and yes, i drank some beers.

wv = vrvache: a pain, or irritation resulting from over-enthusiasm, or too much spirited vigor, as in: when flapjacks was in La Crosse, Wisconsin, for that co-op conference he left with a serious vrvache from the week's activites.