Reporter ignites controversy by asking what is most average place in America

Last week, while working on a story about your typical American community, New York Times writer Annie Lowrey asked, via Twitter, what is the most average place in America?

Almost immediately, the Internet lit up with nominations. Economist Tyler Cowen of George Mason University cast his vote for Knoxville, Tenn.

It’s “big enough to be something, but not a truly large metropolis,” he said.

Kevin Drum of Mother Jones magazine disagreed, pointing out that marketers turn to Albany, more than anywhere else, when they’re testing new products for average American consumption.

Then, there was Matthew Yglesias of Slate Magazine.

“Jacksonville, Florida, though it may have its virtues, is not especially distinctive or noteworthy. It’s a great example of a generic American city. It’s in the South, but not really all that southern. It’s on the coast, but it’s not coastal,” he said. “The typical Jacksonviller, just like the typical American, lives in an auto-oriented, suburban-style community that’s part of an integrated urban area. In educational terms, Jacksonville has fewer high school dropouts than the average American city and also fewer college graduates than the average American city. In other words, its citizens are exceptionally average in their educational attainment.”

Not all Jacksonvillers took Yglesias’s nomination as a compliment.

Lewis Turner, an anchor and reporter for the NBC and ABC affiliate in Jacksonville, found it especially inaccurate. And, as he sees things, Jacksonville is above average.

“We’re the ‘welcome mat’ to the tourism capital of the country,” he said. “Just remember. We’re here, we’re above average, and we’re ready to party. Jacksonville.”

But, it turns out, Turner may have been the only one who got quite so upset.

In dozens of comments on his story on the TV station’s websites, local residents told him to back off, he said. 

“Average is cool,” he said, in summing up the response. “Fair enough, if you’re fine with it, I’m just going to let it right.”