Twin Cities a real hot spot - except for spring break

Star Tribune

Last update: October 10, 2009 - 12:18 AM

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Twin Citians are a bunch of smart, friendly folks who live in a place that has great parks, theaters and safe streets -- at least according to people who have visited here.

And, above all else, the Twin Cities are really, really clean, visitors and residents alike agree.

That is the result of an annual poll conducted by Travel + Leisure magazine, which ranked 30 big U.S. metro areas on a wide variety of attributes.

But there's some bad news from the poll: The Twin Cities, it seems, is a lousy place to spend spring break.

Local folks ranked it dead last, and visitors said only Cleveland is a worse destination.

The survey compared not just first-ranked cities such as New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, but second-tier places such as Denver, Kansas City, Mo., and Austin, Texas.

Visitors dubbed Minneapolis-St. Paul as the most intelligent of all of the cities; residents ranked its cleanliness as the best of the 30.

The full poll results can be seen at travelandleisure.com.

BOB VON STERNBERG

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