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Long Beach ranks as one of the most patriotic cities

As the dust settled from everyone’s Fourth of July festivities, a social media website called MyLife has ranked the city of Long Beach as the seventh most patriotic city in the U.S.

MyLife’s analysis based its rankings on four data categories: percentage of population in the armed forces, total spending on veterans, popularity of fireworks in July and community and social service workers.

Long Beach has earned its way to the top 10 primarily because it ranked third out of 100 cities in total spending on veterans, according to MyLife’s data. In this particular category, Long Beach succeeded Washington, D.C. and Cleveland.

A recent MyLife press release mentioned that cities that ranked very well in total spending on veterans were crucial for deciding which cities would make it to the top 10 rankings.

“We wanted to see which cities exhibited this sort of [patriotic] passion on a more year-round basis,” according to MyLife’s website. “There was no one category that stood out — no city in the top 10 ranked first in any of the categories — but upon taking a deeper look … what really mattered to us is the cities that were [consistently] patriotic 365 days a year.”

As far as the other categories, Long Beach ranked 32nd in percentage of population in the military, 44th in fireworks popularity and 30th in community and social service workers.

Long Beach is one of the only two California cities that made it to the Top 10. San Diego made it to the top of the list, ranked at No. 1.

Some Cal State Long Beach students were surprised to hear about the ranking, such as sophomore mechanical engineering major Jose Nuno.

“I don’t see anything especially patriotic in Long Beach,” Nuno said. “[I haven’t seen any] flags except for at parades, but I’m not from here. Either way, it’s a good title to have.”

Meanwhile, junior mechanical engineering major Luis Estrada said he is familiar with veterans who thrive in Long Beach.

“I know a couple of veterans that are very comfortable studying here,” Estrada said. “But we could still do better and there is always room for improvement.”

Other cities that made it in MyLife’s Top 10 Most Patriotic Cities list include San Antonio; Austin, Texas; Fort Worth, Texas; Oklahoma City; Las Vegas; El Paso, Texas; Colorado Springs, Colo.; and Houston.

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