A list of Cities w/ the Best and Worst Air in the US (2003)
 

This year's 20 most polluted metropolitan areas are: (in order with the winner on top)


Los Angeles-Riverside-Orange County, Calif.
Fresno, Calif.
Bakersfield, Calif.
Visalia-Tulare-Porterville, Calif.
Houston-Galveston-Brazoria, Texas
Sacramento-Yolo, Calif.
Merced, Calif.
Atlanta, Ga.
Knoxville, Tenn.
Charlotte-Gastonia-Rock Hill, N.C.-S.C.
Washington-Baltimore, D.C.-Md.-Va.-W.V.
Dallas-Ft. Worth, Texas
Philadelphia-Wilmington-Atlantic City, Pa.-N.J.-Del.-Md.
New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, Conn.-N.J.-N.Y.
Phoenix-Mesa, Ariz.
Baton Rouge, La.
Greensboro-Winston Salem-High Point, N.C.
Memphis, Tenn.-Ark.-Miss.
Birmingham, Ala.
San Diego, Calif.


And the 20 metro areas with the least ozone air pollution, in alphabetical order:


Bellingham, Wash.
Brownsville-Harlingen-San Benito, Texas
Colorado Springs, Colo.
Duluth-Superior, Minn.-Wis.
Elkhart-Goshen, Ind.
Eugene-Springfield, Ore.
Fargo-Moorhead, N.D.-Minn.
Flagstaff, Ariz.-Utah
Greeley, Colo.
Honolulu, Hawaii
Laredo, Texas
Lincoln, Neb.
Medford-Ashland, Ore.
Portland-Salem, Ore.-Wash.
Salinas, Calif.
San Francisco
San Luis Obispo-Atascadero-Paso Robles, Calif.
Santa Cruz-Watsonville, Calif.
Sioux Falls, S.D.
Spokane, Wash.

San Diego is listed only because of the location of one data collection station in Alpine. Because of its location, Alpine is always the smoggy place in San Diego County. The rest of the county is not smoggy and people in San Diego are not breathing unhealthy air every day.

Its interesting that Brownsville is one of the cleanest places in terms of air quality. I believe it. I used to go to college in Houston and visit my parents in Brownsville. Being asthmatic, I couldn't run more than 1/4 mile in central Houston, but when I visited my parents in Brownsville even a couple of days later, I could run 2 to 3 miles at a time without problems.

Barbara: True. In coastal LA and Orange Counties, the smog is really not a problem. Get inland (especially in the valleys, where I'm sure almost all the ozone detectors are), and it gets gnarly. Except in the Coachella Valley-- always clean air.

The East Coast media love to trumpet these studies to prove their thesis that no one should want to ever go to southern California-- especially filthy Los Angeles.

San Francisco is a clean town, absolutely; small in geographic area, heavy industry found in outlying areas. And public transit is a more viable option there.

Sadly, Houston's air is so bad that it's even bringing down Dallas' rating.

http://dallas.bizjournals.com/dallas...20/story5.html

brooklyn bomber,
Any word on how things are going (any follow ups to that article)?

That was very interesting (I'm considering relocating to both Houston and Dallas, so thanks for sharing.