Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Memphis Toasts New Ranking

Now, here’s an interesting ranking for Memphis.

It may surprise all those folks over on Beale Street, but Memphis is in the bottom 20 percent of the least dangerously drunk cities, according to Men's Health.

Leading the pack for the most dangerously drunk cities is Denver (all those brew pubs?) and Anchorage (what else is there to do to cope with the 23 hours of darkness?). The rest of the top 10 are Colorado Springs, Omaha, Fargo, San Antonio, Austin, Fresno, Lubbock, Milwaukee and El Paso. (It sure must be tough to live in Texas.)

The least dangerously drunk city was Durham followed by Miami. The rest of the top 10 for least drunk were Buffalo, Jackson MS, Yonkers, Salt Lake City, Little Rock, New York, Richmond and Jersey City.

Memphis staggered in at #20, finally beating Nashville at something important. The state’s capital was #38.

The magazine looked at annual death rates resulting from alcoholic liver disease, percentage of people who down five or more drinks in a sitting, DUI arrests and fatal accidents involving drinking.

Last time we were mentioned prominently in a ranking by Men’s Health, it was when Memphis was named the nation’s unhealthiest city. At least it’s now clear that we take a sober attitude toward our health problems.

We usually try to add some insight into rankings like this, but we’ll just leave this one to you. Drawn your own conclusions.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Memphis is only dangerous if you're not drunk.

Anonymous said...

I can certainly believe that Denver is the most dangerously drunk city. Denver is a serious partying town, there are a huge variety of bars, brewpubs, night clubs, etc., and many, many of its residents go out on the town often. Unfortunately, many people get caught up in the excitement and don't know when to stop or worse -- decide it's a good idea to drive. They really need to run the light rail trains later, although that's no excuse for drinking and driving. I love Denver to death, but it does have a bit of a drinking problem. (I admit to having participated in the Denver party culture on occasion, although I've never driven while drunk.)

I see some of that attitude in Memphis as well, although I think it's probably offset statistically by a much larger number of teetotalers. Astonishingly, my Memphis friends think I'm pretty square for insisting on hiring a taxi to go to Beale Street.

I think that Portland, Oregon, where I'm currently living, has one of the better attitudes towards alcohol I've seen. Portland has a huge number of brewpubs, but people seem to be more interested in enjoying the quality of the beverages instead of drinking excessively. There are plenty of pubs around here that are quite family friendly. The downside is that they really roll up the sidewalks early here. Most places will voluntarily close up shop around 11:00 or 12:00, when they could legally stay open until 2:30am. :/

Anonymous said...

Our mayor is drunk with power. No booze required

Unknown said...

Brilliant to know about the Memphis who is at the bottom and suppose to be 20 percent of the dangerous cities, good facts to read about that.
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