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CNN Live Saturday

Interview With Davide Dukcevich

Aired June 21, 2003 - 12:53   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Are you single and satisfied? If you are, you might owe it all to the city where you live. Forbes.com has rated 40 of the nation's metro areas. And Davide Dukcevich found out the best and the worst cities to be single for the web site, and he joins us now from New York. Well, good to see you, Davide.
DAVIDE DUKCEVICH, FORBES.COM: Nice to see you.

WHITFIELD: All right, so what's the criteria? What makes a city so great for a single person?

DUKCEVICH: Well, we look at a lot of different components to figure that out. We look at a place's nightlife. We look at a city's culture. It's job growth. We look at the ratio of other singles in that area. We have a cost of living single index which includes a six-pack of Heineken and a medium sized cheese pizza.

We have a cool ranking, which is a measure of a city's artistic community. You know the number of writers, artists, poets.

WHITFIELD: Yes.

DUKCEVICH: And finally we asked our readers in a poll, to tell us what they thought was the best.

WHITFIELD: OK, that's very good. So you're getting a little bit of feedback from folks out there during your poll taking. All right, let's break it down, what's some of the top ten cities for the singles are. Let's start from the bottom and work our way up. Number 10, Dallas, nine Raleigh-Durham, eight, New York. I'm surprised New York isn't higher.

DUKCEVICH: That's right. Actually New York is -- could be the best city for singles if it wasn't so expensive. It just costs so much. Everything from rent to a movie ticket. And the job growth in New York is also pretty paltry. New York does, of course, come out on top in terms of nightlife. And it's third in culture. The reason that it's third is you know, Boston and Washington D.C. beat it out because their university population ratios are higher.

WHITFIELD: Yes.

DUKCEVICH: New York's great if you can afford it.

WHITFIELD: I guess college towns always help you know perk up the city for it being a singles kind of city doesn't it?

DUKCEVICH: It definitely does, that certainly increases you know, a place's culture, increases the number of other young people who are there. It increases the place's cool.

WHITFIELD: All right. Number seven, Los Angeles, number six, San Francisco, Oakland, number five, Atlanta. Now, I have women friends in both Atlanta and Los Angeles, and all of them complain that there are just too many women to men, and so while it may be a great place for the single guys, it's kind of competitive for the women.

DUKCEVICH: One of the interesting things that we discovered, you know, in the course of writing this story is that, you know, the U.S. Census Bureau breaks down the number of singles. And it also breaks down the female/male ratio. And despite what your female friends may tell you...

WHITFIELD: Yes.

DUKCEVICH: ... every city, every -- all the 40 top cities have more than men -- single men than single women. And the biggest imbalance in that is Las Vegas. Las Vegas -- of, you know, of the singles in Las Vegas, something like 58 percent of them are men.

WHITFIELD: OK, and number four, Washington-Baltimore, I've heard the same complaint, in fact I used to live there when I was single. Same complaint, too many women to men. As well as in number three for Boston, number two, Denver, and drum roll please.

Number one, Austin. Why Austin?

DUKCEVICH: Austin's a -- is a single's Valhalla. It has so many young people. It's actually has the highest ratio of singles of any of the cities that we look at. And this of course creates great nightlife. A very -- a very varied nightlife. From music to other you know, different kinds of restaurants, both upscale and a little bit more low scale. It creates -- there's a lot of cool in Austin.

WHITFIELD: Yes.

DUKCEVICH: There's a lot of writers, there's a lot of musicians, singers, everybody knows about Austin's live music scene. Another thing about Austin that's pretty remarkable is that it's second in terms of job growth. Only Las Vegas beats out Austin in terms of that. And the jobs that will be created in Austin in the next five years tend to be high paying, high tech jobs.

WHITFIELD: Wow, many cool points for Austin. Let's talk about the worst city, or one of the worst cities that you all have found for single people. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

DUKCEVICH: That's right, and it hurts me that Pittsburgh came in last for the second year in a row. I visited Pittsburgh, and I had a really good time. You can have a good time in Pittsburgh if you look hard enough. Unfortunately, it does so poorly in all of our components. It's got very few other singles. I guess people there get married early, or they leave town.

WHITFIELD: But I guess that's part of the problem. You're saying it's -- you've got to look really hard. And that does not make it a good easy city for a single person to live.

DUKCEVICH: That's exactly right. The numbers just don't stack up for Pittsburgh.

WHITFIELD: OK, all right, Davide Dukcevich, thanks very much of Forbes.com.

DUKCEVICH: Thanks for having me.

WHITFIELD: Yes. Thanks for giving us the list, and of course folks can learn a little bit more about those cities by visiting your Web site, Forbes.com. All right, thanks a lot, Davide.

DUKCEVICH: Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired June 21, 2003 - 12:53   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Are you single and satisfied? If you are, you might owe it all to the city where you live. Forbes.com has rated 40 of the nation's metro areas. And Davide Dukcevich found out the best and the worst cities to be single for the web site, and he joins us now from New York. Well, good to see you, Davide.
DAVIDE DUKCEVICH, FORBES.COM: Nice to see you.

WHITFIELD: All right, so what's the criteria? What makes a city so great for a single person?

DUKCEVICH: Well, we look at a lot of different components to figure that out. We look at a place's nightlife. We look at a city's culture. It's job growth. We look at the ratio of other singles in that area. We have a cost of living single index which includes a six-pack of Heineken and a medium sized cheese pizza.

We have a cool ranking, which is a measure of a city's artistic community. You know the number of writers, artists, poets.

WHITFIELD: Yes.

DUKCEVICH: And finally we asked our readers in a poll, to tell us what they thought was the best.

WHITFIELD: OK, that's very good. So you're getting a little bit of feedback from folks out there during your poll taking. All right, let's break it down, what's some of the top ten cities for the singles are. Let's start from the bottom and work our way up. Number 10, Dallas, nine Raleigh-Durham, eight, New York. I'm surprised New York isn't higher.

DUKCEVICH: That's right. Actually New York is -- could be the best city for singles if it wasn't so expensive. It just costs so much. Everything from rent to a movie ticket. And the job growth in New York is also pretty paltry. New York does, of course, come out on top in terms of nightlife. And it's third in culture. The reason that it's third is you know, Boston and Washington D.C. beat it out because their university population ratios are higher.

WHITFIELD: Yes.

DUKCEVICH: New York's great if you can afford it.

WHITFIELD: I guess college towns always help you know perk up the city for it being a singles kind of city doesn't it?

DUKCEVICH: It definitely does, that certainly increases you know, a place's culture, increases the number of other young people who are there. It increases the place's cool.

WHITFIELD: All right. Number seven, Los Angeles, number six, San Francisco, Oakland, number five, Atlanta. Now, I have women friends in both Atlanta and Los Angeles, and all of them complain that there are just too many women to men, and so while it may be a great place for the single guys, it's kind of competitive for the women.

DUKCEVICH: One of the interesting things that we discovered, you know, in the course of writing this story is that, you know, the U.S. Census Bureau breaks down the number of singles. And it also breaks down the female/male ratio. And despite what your female friends may tell you...

WHITFIELD: Yes.

DUKCEVICH: ... every city, every -- all the 40 top cities have more than men -- single men than single women. And the biggest imbalance in that is Las Vegas. Las Vegas -- of, you know, of the singles in Las Vegas, something like 58 percent of them are men.

WHITFIELD: OK, and number four, Washington-Baltimore, I've heard the same complaint, in fact I used to live there when I was single. Same complaint, too many women to men. As well as in number three for Boston, number two, Denver, and drum roll please.

Number one, Austin. Why Austin?

DUKCEVICH: Austin's a -- is a single's Valhalla. It has so many young people. It's actually has the highest ratio of singles of any of the cities that we look at. And this of course creates great nightlife. A very -- a very varied nightlife. From music to other you know, different kinds of restaurants, both upscale and a little bit more low scale. It creates -- there's a lot of cool in Austin.

WHITFIELD: Yes.

DUKCEVICH: There's a lot of writers, there's a lot of musicians, singers, everybody knows about Austin's live music scene. Another thing about Austin that's pretty remarkable is that it's second in terms of job growth. Only Las Vegas beats out Austin in terms of that. And the jobs that will be created in Austin in the next five years tend to be high paying, high tech jobs.

WHITFIELD: Wow, many cool points for Austin. Let's talk about the worst city, or one of the worst cities that you all have found for single people. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

DUKCEVICH: That's right, and it hurts me that Pittsburgh came in last for the second year in a row. I visited Pittsburgh, and I had a really good time. You can have a good time in Pittsburgh if you look hard enough. Unfortunately, it does so poorly in all of our components. It's got very few other singles. I guess people there get married early, or they leave town.

WHITFIELD: But I guess that's part of the problem. You're saying it's -- you've got to look really hard. And that does not make it a good easy city for a single person to live.

DUKCEVICH: That's exactly right. The numbers just don't stack up for Pittsburgh.

WHITFIELD: OK, all right, Davide Dukcevich, thanks very much of Forbes.com.

DUKCEVICH: Thanks for having me.

WHITFIELD: Yes. Thanks for giving us the list, and of course folks can learn a little bit more about those cities by visiting your Web site, Forbes.com. All right, thanks a lot, Davide.

DUKCEVICH: Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com