By now we’re all familiar with those clickbaity WalletHub rankings that come out every 17 minutes or so–best city for singles, best state for retirement, best town to get run out of on a rail and so on. Usually when I get a press release announcing one of these I just quickly glance over it before moving on. But yesterday was different.
“The holidays are here,” stated the Nov. 18 WalletHub press release. “And one thing they’re known for is encouraging indulgence, such as overeating and overspending, which can lead to unfortunate economic consequences. Americans are the fattest people in the world and every year sustain $150 – $210 billion in losses as a result. Plus, Americans began 2019 with over $1 trillion in credit card debt. In light of this dark pattern perpetuated every holiday season, the personal-finance website WalletHub today released its report on the 2019’s Most Sinful Cities in America as well as accompanying videos. To determine the most wicked places in America, WalletHub compared more than 180 U.S. cities based on seven sinful behaviors: anger and hatred, jealousy, excesses and vices, greed, lust, vanity and laziness.”
Overeating Americans? Wicked cities? Now we’re talking!
Of course–OF COURSE–Las Vegas came out as the most sinful city in the U.S. (shockingly, New Orleans ranked 16th, below Miami, Detroit AND Denver). Anyway, only five Orange County cities made the list, and of those, the most wicked and sinful of them was…
Huntington Beach!
Let’s see… Named after a railroad robber baron? Check. Lots of skinheads, fascists and Trump supporters running around? Check. City administration has long history of corruption and scary cops? Check and check!
To be fair, Surf Shitty’s overall ranking is 114 out of 182, which is rather mediocre as far as sinful cities go. But other OC cities fared even worse, with Anaheim ranked at 124, Santa Ana at 136, Garden Grove at 143 and Irvine coming in at 161, which is about as wicked as Grover from Sesame Street.
WalletHub also broke down its rankings by each of the Seven Deadly Sins. Of course all the OC cities did poorly, because this is stupid and meaningless but we have to argue about something so why not this, right? Anyway, here are the most wicked OC cities for each sin, with the highest ranked city included in parentheses for reference:
ANGER: Garden Grove (St. Louis, MO)
JEALOUSY: Anaheim (Atlanta, GA)
GLUTTONY: Santa Ana (St. Louis, MO)
GREED: All OC cities tied at 53 because this OC, man (Jackson, MS)
LUST: Anaheim (Los Angeles, CA)
VANITY: Huntington Beach (Los Angeles, CA)
SLOTH: Santa Ana (Hialeah, FL)
Click here to see the full results.
Anthony Pignataro has been a journalist since 1996. He spent a dozen years as Editor of MauiTime, the last alt weekly in Hawaii. He also wrote three trashy novels about Maui, which were published by Event Horizon Press. But he got his start at OC Weekly, and returned to the paper in 2019 as a Staff Writer.
Evil, along with the Other top five Crime partner cities
in the Orange (Iron Curtain ) County
would be a better fit Anthony Pignataro.
Good Reporting!
God damn ur a dyck. It’s Sucks yes but being that ur probably a liberal makes it even worse.
Huntington is the whiniest city in Orange County by far
How did Newport miss the Vanity score???
Typical liberal puke likening Trump supporters to Nazi’s, Facsists and Skinheads. Go shit on the street to soothe yourself you whiny snowflake.
The OC WILL Never be red again Hater
#TRIGGERED #whoistherealsnowflake
My thoughts exactly. Hi left wing bias is obvious and disgusting.
Thank you. And Merry Christmas godlike judge of humanity. May your name-calling bring you joy.
Bill Fisher your the typical left winged pussy
Bill Fisher you make me puke. Typical hater guaranteed pussy. How about your age Billy Boy
Trump supporters be like “ya, Trump says what he means, we don’t care how fucked out it is”.
I have been in Huntington Beach all my life 59 years. A true local, not one of these want to beeeee’s. It’s all these people that move here, can’t afford to live here and call themselves locals that have these attitudes! H.B. was a great City to live in, then the attitudes came?
I would rather have had the 909ers then this new bunch of characters that live here now or claim to. I miss the old HB where it was a family now it’s a sh$t show.
I grew up in HB. Makes me sad to see what’s it’s become. I spend my time and money in Seal Beach.
Yes very different from the 1970s however the cops and city council are spot on in his article
30 years in HB and it remains a wonderful city, getting crowded, yes, but hey, people know where the fun, the sun, the beach, and the most dog friendly town I know. Sin, well, if you look, that is pervasive in every city. Depends what you are looking for.
Still a GREAT City to live in! This is just a crap load of nothing writing about nothing. All those complaining and whining back and forth is amazing. Curious to know where they live? Buena Park, Yorba Linda? Do everyone a favor and move out of California. That’s where the real issue is The State!
Isn’t it funny how you automatically assume we are a radical racist town. Nope! The only rascist here is the person writing this article spreading invisible hatred. To be real honest only hate that come to this town is when Anitfa comes here and spreads hate against other Americans.
Huntington Beach is a beautiful place to live and not a skinhead in site, what the heck are you talking about. The person writing this post obviously dislikes the town and sounds like liberal rascist to spread hate. OC weekly used to be rad! And no I’m not a Trump Supporter just and average American tired of politics and rascist idiots spreading hate by calling a whole town skinheads. What an idiot seriously.
How are those ESL classes coming?
Not surprised. I think It should have scored higher in hate and corruption however.
Wow! Are you blind to what a corrupted country you live in- you seem to have forgotten everything outside of your insular perspective- try pulling your head out of your asshole.
Voting for Trump makes people sinful? Why do so many people have such strong opinions on politics when only 0.000001% of the population actually have a political science degree??
Huntington Beach is a nice calm city. Low crime and nice people… Look to Santa Ana if you need to find wana be fucking idiots. People who think it’s badass to be a “gangster.” Ditch the sports jersey and do some thinking for yourself. Sheeple… But that goes for any society.
In conclusion.. This was a stupid blog news post. Can’t believe this guy Anthony is entertained.
Huntington is actually the most chill coolest city in California, the people, my nieghbors here are the sweetest, nicest, people there ever were, total hometown feel, and safe because we fought the state of California and won against sanctuary laws that tie the hands of law enforcement, I’m sure this draws the angst of liberal journalists like this guy, but if he needs a wake up call he should visit LA, or main st in Santa Ana on a Friday night to see just how ugly things can get and how mean, disrespectful, and hateful people can be. Here in HB we practice tolerance and respect for all no one honks and screams at people we just smile and wave them on, if this guys article succeeds in chasing people like him away from our paradise here then so be it, we’re better people here and do not need his liberal live with shit in the sidewalk lifestyle anyway, Maholo.
First,. Huntington Beach Is NOT part of Los Angeles. Orange County is NOT LA county. You are in Error here. Huntington Beach is Surf City and is known for a large Christian/Jewish community. There are more churches per capital of people than any other Ca. Coastal city. The bad part is people from LA and San Berdo come here and destroy the good of Huntington Beach, ruin it’s reputation. Look at the crime, almost 98 percent of the crimes are committed from people who live in LA and Berdo counties. They come here and cause Havoc. Just as Gov. Newsomes hates Huntington Beach.
I live in and I love Huntington Beach. Nicest people you will ever meet in California. Respectful, community minded, and neighborly. HB is not racist. I have never seen a skinhead, and being a Trump supporter is not a sin. Also sin is in every city. Huntintton Beach actually happens to be a very Godly city. Because of the annual surf competition, our famous pier, and other unique history Huntington Beach has become one of the most popular vacation destinations in the world and I personally do not have a problem with tourism and growth. It keeps our economy strong.
What is wrong with a Trump supporter you dick?
I keep hearing the media and the so-called media (OC weekly) tell people that Trump is divisive. I don’t dispute that, but articles such as these are equally divisive. Thus I disregard any information from a publication that doesn’t even pretend to have any journalistic values. Just put them on my ignore list on google news. I encourage everyone else to do the same . Otherwise they will be rewarded with advertising money for spewing out this garbage.
Your positivity is like a happy song, playing in the background of life. Thank you for the delightful tune!
Your blog is a garden of laughter, and I’m grateful for the seeds you plant with every post!