What Are Best Of Lists Worth Anyway?

Back in August Outside Magazine listed Chicago as one of the top "Dream Cities" in America. Translation: We've got a lot of enviromental stuff and easy access to lots of outdoor activities.

That's nice. It's always warming to hear other people say nice things about your city. But besides as a marketing ploy, what is it worth? For instance, Chicagoist once attended a conference of alternative newspaper editors (like Reader, Village Voice, etc.) where a hot topic of conversation was how to make "Best of" lists more interesting to attract more readers. Smells like marketing to us!

To put things in perspective, here's a bunch of "Best Of" lists and how Chicago fared:

Top Dog-Friendly Cities - #1
Best Cities for Seniors - #10
Best Cities for Singles - #11
Hottest Large Cities for Entrepreneurs - #12
Most Unwired Cities - #12
Best Cities for Renters - #25
Best Large Metro Areas to Start and Grow a Company - #31

Looking at this, we have an average ranking of 14.57 among other cities in the US. Are we really the 14.57th best city in the United States?