“Exciting” is an inherently subjective adjective, and one that can’t be quantified objectively. Everyone has a similar baseline for what a word like “beautiful” means, but one person’s “exciting” may well be an agoraphobic neighbor’s definition of a hellish nightmare. That didn’t stop the folks at real estate blog Movoto from attempting to rank the top ten cities in Texas on a scale of “most exciting,” though—or, as they’re apparently calling it, a scale of “Galveston” to “Bryan.”
It’s a weird list, in other words, where Galveston—a place with a beach, yes—ranks above more, ahem, widely acknowledged places like Austin, Dallas, and Houston by claiming the top spot. All three of those cities do place, though, which puts them ahead of Dullsville, Texas (population 1.38 million bored nerds)—also apparently known as San Antonio. El Paso—and the entirety of West Texas—also fails to make the list.
If the methodology for determining the list seems a bit suspect (and, yeah, it sure does), Movoto offers a vague suggestion that it did consider various factors:
We chose these places based on data, size, and a whole lot more than just our own personal opinions. In addition, these places were picked from a list of only the 100 most populated places in the state, so if you’re from a smaller location, you won’t see yourself on the list.
Using “data” to determine that Conroe (pictured above during its annual parade) is more exciting than Dallas—and that San Antonio and El Paso don’t rank at all—is better than not using data, we suppose, but it’s hard to figure out what data that might be. That’s nothing against Conroe, of course—we like an outlet mall as much as anybody—but the argument that it’s a more exciting place than Dallas or San Antonio is hard to make.
Still, it’s nice to see places like Conroe, San Marcos, Tyler, New Braunfels (Schiltterbahn, represent!), and Bryan get some time in the sun, alongside—or even ahead of—their more high-profile neighbors. But the residents—presumably so consumed with their full-time exciting lifestyles that they have no time to dwell on lists—were probably not sweating it to begin with.
1. City of Galveston
2. City of Austin
3. City of Houston
3. City of Conroe
5. City of Dallas
6. City San Marcos
7. City of McAllen
8. City of Tyler
8. City of New Braunfels
10. City of Bryan
