From: The Fort Wayne News-Sentinel
A column by Kevin Leininger
Men’s Health magazine ranks Fort Wayne at the bottom of its ‘101 smartest cities’ list
Nobody calls the English names just because they can’t spell “colour.” But ever since poor Dan Quayle stuck that “e” on the end of “potato,” it’s been fashionable to question the intelligence of people from Indiana.
Now Men’s Health magazine has done it, naming Fort Wayne the stupidest city in America.
The magazine actually published its list weeks ago but, being a Fort Wayne native, it has taken me this long to investigate and form an intelligent opinion. And that opinion is this: Men’s Health is clearly part of the evil Liberal Media Conspiracy.
Oh, sure, the magazine claims its list of 101 cities is scientifically accurate and completely objective: “We based our rankings on the number of bachelor’s degrees per capita, the number of universities, inhabitants’ SAT scores” and so-called “creativity” scores. “Dan Quayle grew up just outside Fort Wayne,” the article in the January-February issue noted. “Coincidence?”
To which I say: Eight of the 10 supposedly smartest cities in the country can be found in the “blue” states that voted for John Kerry in November, while eight of the stupidest cities were in “red” states that supported George Bush.
Coincidence?
I think not.
Neither does Dan Klopfenstein, secretary of the local chapter of Mensa, an organization for very intelligent people. Which, if Men’s Health is right, gives Klopfenstein a lot in common with the tallest guy in Munchkinland.
Anyway, he suspects there’s a certain amount of cultural elitism at work here.
“My brother was in New York and told somebody I was in Mensa, and they said, ‘You mean there are people in Mensa who live in Indiana?’ We have 70 members, so we must have a few people with brains. But I suspect Indiana is looked down upon. Men’s Health probably doesn’t sell too many magazines here.”
Probably not, since the federal Centers for Disease Control listed Fort Wayne as the nation’s fourth-fattest city in 2003.
But I digress.
Does voting Republican mean you are stupid?
Being a Democrat, Fort Wayne Mayor Graham Richard might be tempted to agree – if Men’s Health had not just named him mayor of the stupidest city in the country. Being a Princeton graduate, he prefers to believe the people who voted for him are equally discerning. More discerning, in fact, than the nameless magazine staffers who compiled the list.
Richard thinks the list is more a snapshot of what Fort Wayne was than what it is today or will be in the future. “It’s a factor of us having been successful in the industrial economy,” he said. “In the past, you could get out of high school and go to work for good money at International Harvester or General Electric. Our universities are the factories of the future. In 20 years, the ranking will be very different because we will have responded” to changes in the economy.
Paul Helmke, who was mayor for 12 years before Richard took office, is a Republican. But, having earned a law degree from Yale, he shares Richard’s Ivy League pedigree. So his opinion should be worth something, right?
“Garbage in, garbage out,” Helmke said. “We’ve been named an All-America City twice, a Most Livable City. We had Philo Farnsworth (credited with inventing television), we have entrepreneurs and defense industries. This isn’t a proper way to measure smarts. I interview kids who go to Yale, and they’re as sharp as anyone.
“Maybe they don’t come back (after graduation), but that’s another issue.”
Stemming Fort Wayne’s “brain drain” has been a priority of City Councilman John Crawford, who, as an oncologist, also has to be pretty smart. In December, in fact, he donated $30,000 to a program that would pay graduates $2,500 a year if they return to Fort Wayne to work after college. According to the Census Bureau, 17,379 college-educated people between ages 25 and 39 moved into Indiana between 1995 and 2000 – but 31,713 moved out.
“Our income was 103 percent of the national average; now it’s 83 percent. So I do think (the ranking) is true, but not quite as true as the article said,” Crawford concluded.
But, of course, if Fort Wayne does have a brain drain, those brains have to at least start out here. Don’t they?
And what about the “creativity” factors the magazine used? Some of them are based on the work of Richard Florida, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh who actually visited Fort Wayne in 2003. Whether that visit influenced the magazine’s ranking is not known.
But this much is known: Florida’s theory is that cities prosper by attracting the so-called “creative class” – young, well-educated people who work in nonindustrial fields such as the arts, sciences and technology.
The key to attracting such people, he said, is the willingness to change. That’s not always easy in a conservative town like Fort Wayne, especially when Florida talks about the “gay index” – the notion that cities attractive to gays will also lure other members of the creative class.
I’ve lived in Fort Wayne most of my life, and it’s no secret the city has changed in many ways since Look magazine named it “America’s Happiest Town” in 1949. At the time, its per-family annual income of $6,757 was second-highest in the nation. Most of those high-paying, low-skill , blue-collar jobs are gone – and are not coming back. Until that void is filled, Fort Wayne will continue to struggle with all the problems the magazine’s list only hinted at.
And, ironically, the national ridicule will only make that task more difficult for people like Rob Young, president of the Fort Wayne-Allen County Economic Development Alliance. As Young scours the country hoping to attract new jobs, the notion that Fort Wayne is the dunce capital of America won’t help.
“I would have preferred the list not run,” he said. “But if it points out the need to do more to help underscore higher education, there may be a nugget” of good, he said.
One other benefit may come soon, Richard said. USA Today Columnist Craig Wilson was in town this week, trying to see for himself whether reports of Fort Wayne’s stupidity have been exaggerated. The entire nation will soon know whether Wilson could visit the Coney Island hot dog shop on Main Street and still consider Fort Wayne the intellectual backwater Men’s Health thinks it is.
So keep your head up, Fort Wayne. Sure, it’s cold, rainy and still a little icy outside. But the weather has got to be worse in Minneapolis, where America’s smartest people live, if you believe the Men’s Health listing.
10 smartest cities:
1. Minneapolis
2. Boston
3. Denver
4. St. Paul, Minn.
5. Seattle
6. San Francisco
7. Madison, Wis.
8. San Diego
9. Colorado Springs, Colo.
10. Portland, Ore.
[...]
1. Fort Wayne
2. Corpus Christi, Texas
3. Laredo, Texas
4. Las Vegas
5. Newark, N.J.
6. El Paso, Texas
7. Greensboro, N.C.
8. Miami
9. St. Petersburg, Fla.
10. Providence, R.I.
Hoosier connection
The other Indiana city to place on Men’s Health magazine’s list was Indianapolis, which came in at No. 69.
Reporter Kevin Leininger has been with The News-Sentinel for 25 years, 11 of which were as an editorial writer. The column reflects his opinion, not necessarily that of The News-Sentinel. To pass along column ideas or feedback, contact him at kleininger@news-sentinel.com, or call 461-8355.
© 2005 News Sentinel and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.
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