The scary thing is, some people take these rankings seriously.

Houston is the 9th happiest city for young professionals.  At least, it is if you take this report from Forbes' Magazine seriously:

Happiest cities for young professionals. Jacquelyn Smith. Forbes.com via Yahoo!

The problem, as I see it, is that none of the "criteria for happiness' have anything to do with the cities themselves:

Young professionals, defined by CareerBliss as employees with less than 10 years' experience in a full-time position, were asked to evaluate ten factors that affect workplace happiness. Those include one's relationship with the boss and co-workers, work environment, job resources, compensation, growth opportunities, company culture, company reputation, daily tasks, and control over the work one does on a daily basis.

In other words: the rankings are for a companies, and have been inappropriately applied to municipalities in order to....?

One guesses in order for certain groups to run ragged with (faulty) results to suggest that if only more green space/public transportation/arts/trendy restaurants were added (preferably in the central core) their fair city would move up the ranks.

In reality, this is a survey of corporate culture.  But that won't stop the unproductive class from using as proof of case that Something! Must be done.  Nor will it stop Texas Lock Step Political Media from reporting it incorrectly as well.

*sigh*