New Orleans is the number on dirtiest city in the United States, according to the latest survey by a leading travel portal.
In a list of dirtiest UC cities compiled by the Travel and Leisure magazine, New York ranks fifth. However, it's a big improvement for the city. It had the infamous first rank last year.
Other cities that find a place in the list are Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Memphis, Baltimore, Las Vegas, Miami, Atlanta and Houston.
The magazine’s readers assessed the cities taking into account factors like garbage, air pollution and quality of local tap water. One thing conspicuous about the dirtiest cities' list is that many of the popular tourist destinations in the world figure in it.
"Both tourists and Mother Nature have sometimes been hard on the Crescent City, which readers voted the dirtiest in America," according to the magazine. The ravages of Hurricane Katrina, which devastated the city years ago, are still visible in the city, affecting its quality of life. Not even the fact that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have a home in New Orleans hasn’t helped the city!
REUTERS"The locals may not be helping with those first impressions -- they ranked near the bottom of the style category, as well as in the bottom five for being environmentally aware," according to the Travel and Leisure magazine. The survey finds Philadelphia residents lack style and that the environment is not great.
REUTERSLos Angeles came in third place in the list. What went wrong with Los Angeles are poor air quality, traffic woes and pedestrian-unfriendly streets. Overall quality of life was also not seen favorably.REUTERS"Nothing is tidy about barbecue or the blues, two of Memphis's biggest tourist draws," says the magazine. In the eyes of the readers the city slipped behind in matters like environmental and safety concerns.REUTERSNew Yorkers can take heart from the fact that their city is not the dirtiest of them all. It had topped the dirtiest list a year ago, and has jumped five places now. REUTERSThe survey finds that litter, smokers, and graffiti went against the cityREUTERSLas Vegas is the seventh dirtiest city in the US, but it has jumped two spots from last year's list.REUTERS
