Rankings and eye-rolls go hand-in-hand

Top lists and rankings are great for bragging rights, but Coffee Talk is sore from all the eye rolling it did on the latest list from RelocateAmerica, an online real estate services firm.

RelocateAmerica's top 100 places to relocate to for 2010 include two Gulf Coast cities: Sarasota and Tampa. Moreover, Tampa made the top 10 list of the most affordable cities in the country and both cities made the firm's top 10 list of the best retirement cities in the country.

Coffee Talk thinks Sarasota and Tampa are great places to live, too. The eye rolling comes from how RelocateAmerica came to that conclusion. It included these four categories in its final evaluation: Strong local leadership; employment opportunities; improving real estate markets; and growing green initiatives.

Of course, green is in these days, and the Gulf Coast has plenty of so-called green to spread around. And the real estate market — residential, not commercial — is in some ways improving from its colossal collapse that began three years ago.

But with double-digit unemployment rates in Hillsborough and Sarasota counties and a dearth of gutsy political leaders willing to make a stand for real free markets and true capitalism, Coffee Talk has to wonder: Was RelocateAmerica looking at the same Tampa and Sarasota?