Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Living Las Vegas:

Sin City? Blog says the title rightfully belongs to St. Louis, not Las Vegas

St. Louis

Dan Gill / The New York Times

The Gateway Arch overlooks the Mississippi River and downtown St. Louis, Mo., on Aug. 20, 2010.

Las Vegas newbies often call this neon paradise by its clichéd nickname.

But how does Sin City stack up against debauchery in other major cities?

Bloggers at Movoto, a real estate firm with licensed brokerages in more than 30 states, contend Las Vegas is no longer the baddest place between the coasts. On their list of the most sinful major U.S. cities, Las Vegas ranked only as No. 10. St. Louis tops American cities when it comes to residents indulging in the seven deadly sins described in the Bible, according to Movoto.

Here’s Movoto's list of most sinful cities:

1. St. Louis

2. Orlando, Fla.

3. Minneapolis

4. Pittsburgh

5. Milwaukee

6. Cincinnati

7. Miami

8. Buffalo, N.Y.

9. Detroit

10. Las Vegas

The site built its study on city data concerning pride, lust, greed, wrath, envy, gluttony and sloth. Movoto then ranked the data from the 95 largest cities in the country to come up with its top 10.

Here's a look at how cities ranked in each individual "sin" category:

    • Lust (Based on strip clubs per capita)

      North Las Vegas ranked first in lust. That’s where there is one strip club for every 2,808 residents. Las Vegas ranked second with one strip club for every 3,406 people. Scottsdale, Ariz., took third with one strip club for every 4,511 residents.

    • Dr. Kaveh Alizadeh, the president of Long Island Plastic Surgical Group, performs a buttocks lift on a patient at his clinic in Garden City, New York, Feb. 10, 2011. As the demand for surgical enhancement explodes around the world, New York has developed a host of niche markets that allow the city's many immigrants to get tucks and tweaks that are carefully tailored to their cultural preferences and ideals of beauty.

      Pride (Based on cosmetic surgeons per capita)

      It seems people love to look good in Scottsdale, where there’s one cosmetic surgeon for every 1,812 people, according to data pulled from yelp.com. Irvine, Calif., took second with one surgeon per every 1,827 residents. Anaheim, Calif., rounded out the list.

    • Wrath (Based on violent crime per 1,000 residents)

      Detroit blew away the competition with 24 violent crimes per year for every 1,000 residents. St. Louis took second with 20 while Memphis, Tenn., and Oakland, Calif., logged 16 apiece.

    • Envy (Based on thefts per year, per 1,000 residents)

      Turns out Honolulu is quite green beyond its palm trees. Every year, there are about 76 reported thefts per 1,000 residents. That’s 11 more than St. Louis, where 65 thefts are reported per every 1,000 people.

    • Greed (Based on percentage of disposable income given to charity each year)

      When it comes to charity, don’t count on Laredo, Texas, where residents report only giving 2.8 percent of their disposable income to charity every year. Residents in Reno gave a bit more, with 3.3 percent.

    • An overweight man in London, as rising levels of obesity in middle age could cause a major rise in the number of dementia sufferers, researchers have warned.

      Gluttony (Based on percentage of obese residents)

      Detroit took another title when Movoto found that 34 percent of that city residents were obese. Tulsa, Okla., came close with 33.9 percent, and Memphis took third at 33.8 percent.

    • Sloth (Based on percentage of physically inactive residents)

      Data from the federal Centers for Disease Control showed 32.4 percent of Tulsa’s residents were considered “inactive.” Thirty percent of residents in Minneapolis were logged as inactive while St. Louis and Orlando tied at 28.8 percent.

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