What is America's most pretentious city?
Noting a dramatic increase in all-important social markers of macchiato swirls, poetry readings, Moleskines and animal acupuncturists, today San Francisco was cited as "America's Most Pretentious City."
Developed by a team of data scientists at coffee machine maker Café Valet as part of its first annual Pretension Index, the study is said to be a quantitative analysis of pretension levels in America focusing on the top 50 U.S. metro areas, each with populations of 1,000,000 or more.
"As the standard-bearers for the 'Regular Joe,' we fear for San Francisco's future," said Andrew Barnett, who led the analysis for Café Valet. "The notion that people are paying $100 for civet coffee to drink while wearing a woolen cap in the summertime is a problematic trend."
The Pretension Index examines where the deep most concentrated, mining data from a variety of sources including the U.S. Census Bureau, Facebook, local business data and more in the 50 most populous U.S. metro areas.
San Francisco earned a Pretension Index score of 85 out of a potential 100, besting San Jose (64), San Diego (59), Denver (56) and Portland (56).
The Index also examines America's least pretentious ones, noting limited quantities of art galleries, Whole Foods and other trends that left Birmingham and Riverside, (Calif.) atop the least snooty cities.
"It's good to know there are cities remaining in America where people still hate Sting, know their mechanics by their first names and would rather go four-wheeling than play squash," added Barnett.
Indeed. Sting sucks.