Snobbiest City In America?!

Recently Travel and Leisure put out their “Snobbiest Cities in America” list and I was quite surprised when I found that two of my favorite cities are on said list. Both my hometown of Houston and my birth place of Austin were considered “snobby” enough to make it onto the list of twenty. Now maybe I’m a snob too and I don’t know it – but I can’t quite figure out how we could have been crowned with this title; and maybe just maybe I'm reading too much into this and T&L didn't really mean to make themselves look like total asshats. 

Houston, Texas via

Apparently Travel and Leisure rated a city’s level of snobbery based on if the city in question had things like food trucks and good looking locals. Also, if you are smart, tech savvy, or eco conscious – you might be a snob. Oh, not to mention if you have any interest in art and culture or enjoy a little high end shopping  – there is a good chance that you are a snob as well.

More specifically Houston was listed (#17) as snobby because of our rich arts tradition and luxury shopping. Austin (#19) is snobby because UT students have long been considered “Tea Sippers” and because they just happen to have an amazing local music scene chocked full of music scene snobs.

Austin, Texas via

REALLY Travel and Leisure?! This is asinine! Does Houston have all of those things mentioned above? Yes of course – but don’t most metropolitan cities? Houston is the 4th largest city in the United States so it only makes sense that we would have a wide variety of offerings for our residents and visitors. Are there snobby people in our city? You bet your ass there are – but I guarantee you it has nothing to do with the food truck down the street or the prius in their driveway. If you want to lump us all together you might want to have a real reason to back it up.

I’ve spent plenty of time in Austin being that I went to college right down the road and it’s actually one of my favorite “get away” spots. Are there snobs in Austin? Yup, sure are – but mostly the people are every bit as friendly to you as you are to them. That’s pretty much how the world works most of the time.

I'm anxious to see if Chicago holds up to their #7 spot when I'm there visiting in a few weeks. I'll bet I meet a ton of great people and not so many snobs.

Did your city make the list of “Snobbiest Cities in America?” 

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