At least we're not regurgitating Gordon Wood

You can't seem to swing a virtual dead cat on the internet without hitting some kind of list that ranks cities by everything from "Best Places to do Business" to "Coolest Cities"which seems to be a measure of how easy it is for you to buy vintage clothing by the pound.

This week, two such lists came out with mixed results for the City of Brotherly Love. First the good news.

According to a report by SustainLane, a Web site that studies urban sustainability efforts, if the price of gasoline ever shoots up over $5 per gallon, we would seem to be sitting pretty here in the 215. We actually rank 5th among the nation's largest cities in "Preparedness for an Oil Crisis." (Ha! Take that Phoenix, #22!) This ranking looked at a number of factors including availability of mass transit, incidence of sprawl and highway congestion.

However, when we walk into a bar don't ask us to give you some insight into the evolution of the market economy in the southern colonies because unlike 17 cities ahead of us in an AP study of the top 21 cities, we're a little lacking in the number of residents with a bachelor's degree. The Daily News suggests that changing the city's motto to "what goes on in Philly, stays in Philly" might not be the best tactic for growing the supply of college grads.

So what does this all mean for the next mayor?

While these various lists and rankings are an easy and very graphic way of seeing how Philly is doing in any one of a number of various areas, they ignore the complexity and interconnectedness of the issues they try to measure.

Soon, candidates will be using rankings like this to help convey the message of their campaigns. It won't be long before you hear one or several of them say, "Philadelphia ranked 18th out of 21 major cities in percentage of residents with college degrees. We need to change that, I'm the one who will do it."

Listen carefully when they say that. If it's followed by a clear, coherent and honest list of reasons why Philadelphia ranks so low and a realistic and smart plan to improve it then keep listening. If not... NEXT!