Kansas City is the fourth-hottest city for start-ups besides New York and San Francisco, and more local clickbait garbage from August

We have discussed before the profound irrelevance of Internet lists about cities. 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! 

We begin our August installment with a look at this baffling post from Entrepreneur, a magazine that in 2006 was caught falsely inflating its traffic stats. According to Entrepreneur, this post also appeared in the August print issue of Entrepreneur, a claim that can be verified only by visiting your uncle’s insurance brokerage firm.

Entrepreneur says “Kansas City,Mo./Kan.” is one of “nine hot startup U.S. cities that aren’t New York or San Francisco.” It opens by citing Krizman’s House of Sausages — an 80-year-old business in KCK — as evidence of a “growing number of specialty-foods businesses” in the area. That’s how strong this growth is: It started all the way back before the German troops invaded Poland! The story goes on to mention three food-business incubators in the area but does not name any besides the Farm to Table Kitchen in the City Market. It ends by reminding readers that Kansas City “claims to be the birthplace of the bacon craze” because there was a Kansas City-based blog back in 2008 called BBQ Addicts. Need any more evidence that KC is a burgeoning start-up town? I didn’t think so. 

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On the topic of barbecue: Thrillist has made a list of the 50 most essential sandwiches in America. It includes the burnt ends at LC’s and the Z-Man. Actually, we have no problem with this list; it seems well-researched, and we agree regarding the deliciousness of those two sandwiches.

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The prestigious website College Ranker — it has 115 likes on Facebook and 34 followers on Twitter — did some internal quantwork and found that Lawrence, Kansas, is number two on its list of the “50 Best College Towns to Live in Forever.” Let’s just excerpt the entire write-up on Lawrence, unedited:

As the sixth largest city in the state of Kansas, Lawrence is also the location for the University of Kansas and Haskell Indian Nations University. Lawrence is only 25 miles away of Topeka, Kansas as well as approximately 40 miles away from KAnsas City, Missouri. The bulk of the economic value to Lawrence comes from the University of Kansas. As well, as other major businesses such as, Hallmark cards and General Dynamics to name a couple. In a 2005 issue of The New York Time, Lawrence was dubbed the “most vital music scene between Chicago and Denver” In 2007, the Esquire Magazine listed a local bar, The Replay Lounge, as one of the top 25 bars and venues in the whole country.

The Kansas City Business Journal even wrote a story about this great honor!

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Travel and Leisure’s “America’s 20 Best Cities for Beer Lovers” is a reasonably well-Googled list that puts KC at number two.

“As the survey’s No. 1 city for both barbecue and good value, Kansas City has a lock on affordable luxuries—a perfect setting for excellent beer. Boulevard Brewing Co. continues to be the reigning local brew, though beer tourists will also want to try new contenders like Torn Label, Cinder Block, or Big Rip. (At Big Rip, if you ride your bike to the brewery on a Sunday, you get a discounted drink.) To taste a variety of local beers alongside Kansas City’s sports fans (who also won the survey’s silver medal), go to Craft & Draft, a beer bar inside Kauffman Stadium that takes the ‘beer-here’ experience up a notch.”

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In July’s edition of whatever we’re calling this thing I’m doing, I wrote that Wallethub “does not have a Wikipedia page and appears to be the content-marketing arm of a credit-card/personal finance company.” A few days later, I received an e-mail from a Wallethub representative clarifying what they do. They are, the rep says, “a personal finance website geared toward helping consumers make the most educated decisions that they possibly can. Our research team spends weeks sorting through data – usually from government sources – for a single report, and then weighting it accordingly. We put thoughtful, data-driven studies together, which are far different than advertisement-laden listicles. We’re not selling anything here.”

Fair enough — although Wallethub is definitely selling something; otherwise, it wouldn’t be employing people to pitch stories to media people. KSHB recently bit on a Wallethub joint, which declares Overland Park the ninth-best city to retire in 2015.

Feeling very proud right now. Until next month!