On Being #1

Overlook, Glen Iris Inn, Letchworth SP

USA Today recently published one of their “Readers Choice Awards” in which they listed the top 10 state parks in the entire United States.  I always find these listings interesting, but this one caught my eye because the top choice – determined by readers votes – was Letchworth State Park, a park about 40 miles south of Rochester.  The local media was quick to pick up on this “award”, of course.  When USA Today says you’re the best at something, that’s reason for celebration.  I, on the other hand, was just a little bit skeptical.  I like Letchworth and I go there a lot.  It has a very deep gorge and some of the nicest waterfalls in the northeast (if you like that sort of thing).  It’s also a great place to hike.  But is it the “best” state park in the country?  Personally, I’m not so sure.  I’ve been to a lot of state parks in our travels across the country and I can think of a number of them that, to me, are more spectacular, more interesting than Letchworth.

The parks that readers could “vote” for were picked by a panel of experts, presumably people who had some knowledge of state parks in their particular region.  This list was then made public and the voting began.  When all was said and done, Letchworth had received the most votes with Watkins Glen State Park (not much more than a stone’s throw from Letchworth) finishing third.  Personally, I thought that was a little strange.  If I had to pick between the two I’d go with Watkins Glen, hands down.  It’s smaller than Letchworth, but far more fascinating and a little mysterious.  But then, that’s just my point of view.

The difficulty in picking the #1 park, I presume, is the way in which the votes were collected.  I don’t know for sure, but I’m assuming that it wasn’t a “one person, one vote” kind of thing.  You could probably vote as many times as you liked, in much the same way that fans vote for baseball players for the All-Star game in July.  Some players get lots of votes not because they are the best at their position (for that season) but because they have lots of fans, good name recognition, and probably some kind of loosely organized lobbying group.  In a sense, the “fix” is in.

If I had to pick a single U. S. state park as the “best”, it would most likely be Valley of Fire State Park (a park about 40 miles north of Las Vegas, NV).  It was one of the choices in this survey, by the way.  But it didn’t even make it into the top ten.  I couldn’t even find out where it did finish.  So why the apparent snub?  Well, name recognition for one.  A whole lot more people know about the Finger Lakes and Letchworth than know about Valley of Fire.  Most of them live near the east coast, and most of those live in NY.  In general, people who live in the east tend to travel in the east.  They don’t go west.  Even if they make it to Las Vegas they probably won’t even hear about Valley of Fire.  Bottom line, a lot more people know about parks in NY than about parks in Nevada.  And that creates a measurable bias.  

In short, the survey wasn’t really a fair comparison.  It was a popularity contest – determined by regional voters.  The only way to actually get an idea of which park is really most preferred is to find about 600 people who have been to every park on the list.  Then give each individual a series of questions – ranking various factors common to all of the parks – and analyze the results.  That would work.  It wouldn’t eliminate all the bias, but it would cancel out a lot of it.  It would also cost a good deal more than the “survey” run by USA Today.  This is one of those instances where you get what you pay for.

It’s not a critical issue, I know.  But it does, I think, highlight the way in which “information” is created and disseminated in today’s world.  There are probably a lot of people (mostly here in NY) who honestly believe that Letchworth State Park is the #1 park in the United States.  Because USA Today did a survey that “proves” it.  Again, that’s not a big deal.  Nobody’s going to lose any sleep over it (although I suppose that a few people might make the journey to western NY just to see what the “best” state park in the country looks like).  But you have to wonder how many decisions are made each day based on reports like this.  How many published articles have you seen that tell you the best places to retire, or where the best schools are, or where to find the least crime or the most cultural attractions?  How do you think the people who created those lists came up with them?  By using sound statistical surveys?  Or pulling them out of that place where the sun don’t shine?

In case you hadn’t guessed, that’s a rhetorical question……….