The Best & Worst Cities for Men

Here's an article I swiped from HealthMSN.com touting the benefits of living in this fair city. Sure, it's only about Men (hmmm...) and, sure, Mick's one of the diabetics that lowers the diabetic ranking, but it's still nice to be here... (It also makes me really want to find "Hopper's Hands" so I can give it my own smack.)

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The place where men thrive, and where health takes a dive

by Matthew Link, Men's Health; Photograph by Grant Delin

Just what, exactly, were the city fathers thinking when they played papa to your town? Nice plot of land. Fertile. Defensible. Wet (for fish and ships). "Here," they said, "we can build a future." Then they rolled up their sleeves for the original American workout: making something.

We've come a long way since. But that doesn't mean we've taken a step forward. Now, men can be as large and lazy as they want and still see many winters—but fewer than they might. Certain cities have more than their share of these men dying of heart disease, diabetes and all manner of cancers. Yet other towns pulse with that wild energy of yore, which keeps their male denizens slim, strong and motivated.

Our fifth annual survey of the 100 healthiest (and unhealthiest) cities for men throws several thousand chunks of data into a statistical melting pot to figure out why some towns thrive and others fail. The best part: No matter where you live, you'll find enough strategies in these pages to view your hometown just as its city fathers did centuries ago: as a precinct brimming with possibilities, where a motivated man can enjoy every last day of a long life.

Healthiest City in America 2005 — San Francisco, CA

Under the rust-colored arc of the Golden Gate Bridge, in the perfect California sunlight, runner after runner comes up to the base of the monument and engages in an odd ritual: Each person high-fives impressions of hands cast in a copper plaque. According to the inscription, these are "Hopper's Hands," and the chain-link fence from which they hang is the turnaround on the long path from downtown.

So why the tribute? As the story goes, a longtime bridge iron worker named Hopper (who is credited with talking down as many as 30 suicidal people from the rails of the Golden Gate over the years) would see all those joggers smacking the fence. So he put up something for them to hit.

Only in San Francisco. And only here would you have a constant stream of joggers running several miles round-trip just to smack a fence. Then again, only in San Francisco would you find the 75,500-acre Golden Gate Recreation Area—one of the world's largest national parks in an urban setting. Or a city council that hated smoking so much, it banned it in all outdoor public spaces.

It's no surprise, then, that San Francisco is our Healthiest City of 2005—scoring big-time grades in prostate cancer (fourth), diabetes (ninth), and heart disease (15th). Only Orlando scored better in average body-mass index (BMI). And only San Jose had more people hitting the gym. If you're not fortunate enough to call San Fran (never "Frisco") home, you can still share in its healthiest secrets, such as imbibing red wine (no city sips more) and swearing off sugar (no one eats less).