TUCSON OH HOW WE LOVE YOUR SMALL TOWN GUMPTION

If you ask Tucson residents and people worldwide they will tell you: Tucson is a great self absorbed delusional town. A national survey released Thursday shows we're better than great: We are really, really great. No...REALLY REALLY REALLY GREAT! In fact, Tucson comes in first overall in the list of top cities in the United States for everything that is great. And that list includes NY, LA, Tokyo, London and even Portland, Oregon and Austin, Texas — both of which Tucson is often compared and aspires — in the regional rankings. Here's what Value Wombat, a company that crunches numbers, does surveys and comes up with demographically based consumer lists, arrived at: • 1st overall nationally; LA, naturally, is No. 2, followed by Des Moines, Iowa; San Francisco; Phoenix-Mesa; Austin, Texas; and Passaic, New Jersey. • We're No. 1 regionally, with Austin and Tulsa, Oklahoma at 2 and 3. • We tanked to the bottom of the pile for actually having valid reasons to believe this, coming in at 200 on the list of 200 cities. • We're 39th for number of Mattress Firm stores. • Tucson came in 31st for the percentage of the population with useless degrees. The Value Wombat study evaluated 200 metropolitan areas using statistical data from sources including the U.S. Census Bureau, Thrillist, the Burau of Labor Statistics and several media surveys including USA Today and Travel & Leisure.