Piece of Mind: Prepare yourself for some nap-time reading

Do you live near the corner of Mundane and Monotonous? The answer is yes, if you’re a La Cañadan, according to a couple of niche reporting websites who have jointly published a story that pegs our city No. 8 in the piece they titled “These Are The 10 Most Boring Small Towns In America.”

The article by HomeSnacks, published Tuesday on Area Vibes, claims, “We used science and data to determine which small towns in America are real snooze fests.”

I realize it’s all in good fun (and to drive traffic to their websites) so I wonder if it’s churlish of me to point out the places included on their list are bedroom communities. Aren’t we supposed to be doing a little snoozing while we’re here? Some rest is clearly in order before we head out to the nearest high-energy metropolis to soak in its potholes and hipster bars on our way to or from our workplace cubicles.

I know you’re dying to know which city beat us out for the Most Boring title, so I’ll spill: It was Hillsborough, up in the Bay Area. Who placed second? The city we have long had a friendly competition with for the highest-testing kids, San Marino. Their teens may be about as smart as ours, but they’re apparently bored witless down there in the flatlands while our precious offspring must be only somewhat stifled, comparatively speaking.

The next five places on the list are held by Ladue, Mo.; Cherry Hills Village, Colo.; East Hills, N.Y.; Mount Carmel, Tenn. and Pelham Manor, N.Y. There we stand in the pitiful No. 8 spot, followed by Rolling Hills Estates on the Palos Verdes Peninsula and Kings Point, N.Y.

“You know the places: The ones where seemingly everyone has an AARP card, and the most exciting thing they do all day is post a picture of their grandchild on Facebook,” the article states.

Supposedly they crunched the numbers on 6,000 small towns in America before deciding on the stodgiest places it harbors. I took the bait. I scrolled down their list, where a photo of a street scene accompanied a small blurb about each “winner.” I easily recognized Huntington Drive when I reached the post about San Marino. I kept scrolling down to see what they had to say about us. I arrived at the photo of a road they used to illustrate LCF. Those houses in that Google Maps shot looked a little too familiar to my eye — they were on our street, about four doors away from our homestead! We never realized it, but Gil and I live at our city’s epicenter for boring, or as one of my newspaper colleagues quipped, the “No-Fun Zone.”

Not wanting to be alone in feeling the need to defend our hometown’s honor, I reached out to Mark Alexander, our city manager. I shared the link to the offending story and asked his reaction. He was swift with his emailed reply.

“I, for one, didn’t see the factors they used as ‘problematic,’ he wrote. “Populations with married folks, children, and a median age of 46 — what’s wrong with that? We can’t all be young whipper-snappers,” he said, before adding we’re in pretty good company. “San Marino, Rolling Hills Estates — also great communities.”

Elsewhere on its site, Area Vibes gives La Cañada Flintridge an 86% rating for livability, stating it’s “exceptionally livable” — without qualifying it as perhaps being best suited for people who don’t mind a humdrum existence.

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In light of our city’s latest “title,” maybe it’s fitting the Valley Sun is being feted on its 70th birthday at what is arguably the most subdued facility in town, Lanterman House museum, 4420 Encinas Drive. In deference to its residential neighbors, the city-owned historic property is only open for tours in the afternoons on Tuesdays, Thursdays and a couple of Sundays each month. We feel honored the museum’s foundation offered to host a party for us on Sunday and we very much hope you’ll join us. It will take place from 2 to 4 p.m.

Our newspaper staff, small as it is these days, takes pride in continuing the long tradition of bringing you the latest, most informative and unbiased news of our town. What started in April 1946 as a publication to illuminate La Cañada’s then small but growing population as to educational and civic efforts taking place on its behalf, blossomed over the years. I believe the Valley Sun helped shape this community into what we find here today.

The museum has created a display that highlights some of the most important stories and editorial stances taken over the years, including school district unification in 1960, the opening about a dozen years later of the Foothill (210) Freeway and cityhood (LCF turns 40 later this year!), among many others. It also showcases articles in more recent years, from the long struggle to build the Town Center to the 2009 Station fire and debris flow devastation that followed. I believe you’ll find it interesting if you can carve out a couple of hours to attend Sunday’s party. Hope to see you then!

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CAROL CORMACI is the managing editor. Email her at carol.cormaci@latimes.com.