Hialeah copes with ranking as boring city

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HIALEAH, Fla., Jan. 18 (UPI) -- Officials in Hialeah, Fla., are trying to decide whether making Forbes magazine's most boring city list is an honor or an insult.

"I wonder how much fun it is in other cities when people are losing their homes, when people are struggling to put food on the table," Councilman Jose Caragol told The Miami Herald. "Maybe if we were having riots in the street we would be more exciting, but if that's the case, I would rather us be boring."

Forbes selects its list every year based on which of the 100 largest cities in the United States receive the least media attention from national publications like The New York Times, Washington Post and Time. This year, three cities in California made the cut -- Chula Vista, Santa Ana, and Bakersfield -- along with Mesa, Chandler, and Gilbert in Arizona, North Las Vegas and Henderson in Nevada, Hialeah and Aurora, Colo.

Javier Ribera, 23, appeared to agree with Forbes's assessment.

"We're not on the beach and we don't have a thriving club scene," he told the Herald.

Joshua Zumbrun, who wrote the Forbes article, suggested Hialeah's problem is that it is overshadowed by Miami, and the national media do not see it as an independent city.