Some of this is just social class. Irvine is a corporate run suburb that has huge parks, bike paths, and they kidnap and move unhoused folk to nearby Santa Ana.
this post was submitted on 24 Jul 2025
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Source: American Fitness Index
https://acsm.org/about/community-impact-programs/american-fitness-index/rankings/
Yep, fuck Irvine. You know you're in their corporate reach if where you park has dark green striping in the parking lot vs the usual white lines.
Supposedly the current CEO of the Irvine corp doesn't like seeing white lines when in his helicopter.
Ridiculous.
Wow, TIL. I'll hold onto that fun fact. I was there against my preferences to go to grad school, which ironically has a fairly good critical class consciousness.
It's orange county, previously the core of particularly cruel conservativism. Nixon's from a town over, after all.
Yup. In recent years the wealthy immigrant families turned it blue, though. My comment is more that UCI houses a surprising number of marxists (which I guess anything more than one is surprising, lol).
I was really glad to hear about them getting rent control in Santa Ana, wish I'd gotten in on that lol.
My landlord at the time was talking about it in a panic when it passed, as if barbarians were at the gates 😂
Santa Ana is kind of interesting, they're one of the few places trying to let undocumented people vote in local elections, too. Unfortunatly I don't know if they were able to, especially now.
Yeah, I would ignore Arlington and DC. They'll be the healthiest because that's where the owner class lives.
So...Seattle number one, baby! We're the best.
I was gonna say, I imagine the air quality is phenomenal and likely contributes. The amount of green I saw when I visited was more than my So. Cal brain could process.
Vegas is so bad they listed it twice
Take a look at Henderson, it's right next door to Vegas too.
Arlington representation
The only context in which I've ever heard of that place is that big military cemetery.
I'm afraid Arlington cemetery is in Virginia. This is the Arlington in Texas (near Dallas/Fort Worth).
Edit: Lol, I didn't even look at the healthy cities. I went straight to the naughty list.
I assumed we were talking about #1 Arlington, VA; not #83 Arlington, TX
Still relevant
Good to know. Wasn’t sure, but was too nostalgic not to post.
It was the style at the time
Gotta say, thats pretty weird. Especially considering Arlington, Va, according to the wikipedia article I read.... isnt even a city. I think most people would just lump it in with DC.
Which is the real bias in this list - what the left hand list is saying in many cases is "here are the cities where we have most effectively excluded poor people from census data". SF is full of rich tech bros. But the greater Bay Area has a lot more poorer people who will be in poor health.
I mean I know chicago is not that case. My first thought is I can't believe it knowing the food love in these places.
I think a big factor for both columns is public transit.
Effective public transit will have people doing more walking and will result in cleaner air.
Not a single Mississippi town on the unhealthy list? I don't believe. No Arkansas or Louisiana or West Virginia? Those states are the Four Horsemen of Obesity.
Hmm, good point. Looks like the list is: Of the 100 most populated cities, which are least/most healthy. The states you mention only have one city (New Orleans) on the list.
Yeah, I can't believe that either but we also are not seeing whats in the middle.
I once ate deep fried butter in OKC so I’m not surprised.
I went to Bakersfield, CA for work several times. I was told by locals it has the worst air quality in the US and I'd believe it; it gets all rhe smog from the big cities nearby. You can't see to the horizon its just haze in every direction.
The cities produce some smog but in the valley most of it comes from burn piles on farms.
North las Vegas
Las Vegas
Henderson NV (south las Vegas)
It's because what happens in Las Vegas stays there. That's why they're all so fat! 🤯
America has exactly 100 cities, got a get creative.
TX is always #1 for being shitty in everything.
Never been to Mississippi, huh?
Surprised to not see St. Louis on the right side of this list
Or any other major Midwest city tbh
OKlahoma more like BADlahoma
Anyone know what metrics they used,?
They use imperial units
It's discussed here:
https://acsm.org/about/community-impact-programs/american-fitness-index/rankings/
My city isn't in the left-hand list: Not surprised
My city isn't in the right-hand list: Huh.... good on us I guess.
Tulsa?! I'm from there and it's a surprisingly nice town, nothing like the rest of the state. Weird. As to OKC, we call that the toilet at the end of the turnpike.
Oakland is healthy to live in??
Chicago and Madison in the top 20? I call bullshit.
Puts it into perspective how nasty these other cities are
Can't speak on Chicago but Madison has a lot of very active residents. There are a lot of popular bike paths, parks, and walking trails throughout it. They also have UW and Epic and are small enough for that they have a meaningful influence in making the population skew younger. So it makes sense that its population would generally be healthier than other cities'. There is a lot more alcoholism though.
Is Lincoln, NE on the healthiest list because their football team accounts for 47% of the total population?
I live in Arlington VA and I am sure I am bringing down that average. Sorry everyone in NOVA.
Yeah big fucking surprise here.