Kansas City is not one of the 100 best cities for millennials in 2015 and other things from the Internet in September

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Rankings and lists on the Internet about cities are almost always stupid. Few rely on primary reporting, most use thin statistics interpreted by unqualified writers (some don’t even use statistics), and all are intent on soaking up your homerism and converting it into advertising revenue. Worst of all, supposedly legitimate media operations, desperate for the very same advertising revenue, post these distinctions as though they were news stories with actual meaning and not cynical grabs at Web traffic. The whole thing is sad and circular and meaningless! Do not participate in it!

Instead, read our monthly compilation of these accolades, found below. And, as always, please share on social media — any social media will do, even the social media we don’t know about yet!

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Our September installment opens on a note of sadness. It seems that niche.com has gone and made a list of the best cities for millennials in 2015, and Kansas City is not in the top 100. Our thoughts are with Mayor Sly James at this difficult time. 

Niche.com — which recently acquired CollegeProwler.com, a company that got into hot water when it was caught creating phony Facebook accounts and groups to promote its site and generate a mailing list — ranked St. Louis No. 47; Columbia, Missouri, No. 72; and Overland Park No. 74. Uh, hey, niche.com, ever heard about that one time that a blogger at the Huffington Post Googled Kansas City and said it was a place to keep on your radar? It’s like you never heard about how that happened. 

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How to recover from such a blow? Well, maybe a little report from Global Trade Magazine will cheer you up. You know Global Trade Magazine, of course. It recently named Kansas City one of “America’s Best Cities for Global Trade.” How you like that, niche.com?

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The American Planning Association says the Crossroads District is one of the “15 Great Places in America.” This is a somewhat more legitimate distinction, if only because the APA is not a desperate site seeking clicks. The Star awarded this honor with the honor of a write-up. 

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How are you feeling? Do you feel happy? I don’t! Almost never! Maybe that’s because I live in Missouri, the 44th-most-happy state in America — or, if you are a glass-half-empty type of person, the seventh-unhappiest state. That’s according to our friends over at Wallethub — dear, dear Wallethub — who did a little study about the least and most happy states in America. Kansas, though, is the 15th-happiest state, which just goes to show that you don’t need fancy stuff like schools and food stamps to be happy. The Star did a story on this, too, in its Business section. It was called “Kansas near the top — and Missouri the bottom — in ‘happy states’ ranking.”

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Thrillist wrote about the best burgers in Missouri. Then the Kansas City Business Journal wrote, LOL: 

Thrillist has already determined that Kansas City has the best burger in Missouri. Now, it’s set its mind on showcasing more of the Show-Me state’s best burgers. Without further ado, the food and drink blog picked 14 burgers from throughout Missouri and three were from Kansas City…

Very proud of KC, the second-largest largest city in Missouri, for having three of the 14 best burgers in Missouri, according to Thrillist, the website. Very proud, too, of Thrillist, for “setting its mind” to showcasing more of the Show-Me State. Congratulations are in order all around! 

Stay proud, everyone, and see you next month.