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This Welsh town is a contest capital

LLANWRTYD WELLS, UK — There is an annual race between people and horses in this tiny Welsh town, and yes, a horse almost always wins.

But that’s not really the point. Whether it’s the Man vs Horse Marathon, the World Bog Snorkeling Championships, the Stone Skimming Championships or any of the contests hosted here each year, the same winner comes out on top: Llanwrtyd Wells.

Once a popular destination for Victorians seeking pony treks and restorative spas, the hamlet has weathered changing holiday tastes by rebranding itself as Britain’s capital of wacky challenges.

With a little bit of hustle, a lot of showmanship, and a population just greater than a full Airbus A-380, Llanwyrtd Wells has saved itself from the economic torpor that’s consumed many Welsh and English towns whose industries have disappeared.

“Without the events, this place would be one huge white elephant,” said bartender Lindsay Ketteringham from behind the taps at the Neuadd Arms Hotel.

It was here in the scuffed 21-room hotel in the town center that the new Llanwrtyd Wells was born.

It was 1980. The natural spring spas that drew people by the thousands in the 19th century had long closed. The pony treks to the surrounding Brecon Beacons mountain range that attracted later visitors were falling out of fashion as well.

Huw Lobb (L), the first man to have beaten a horse, with event founder Gordon Green. (Corinne Purtill/GlobalPost)

Then owner of the Neuadd Arms, Gordon Green saw a problem. And then one night, after overhearing two customers in the hotel bar argue over whether a particular distance was the same to a man and a horse, he came up with a solution.

A footrace between people and horses. People would come to see that, right?

“We just wanted to fill the bed spaces,” Green says.

The first Man vs. Horse Marathon took place that year. It was a success. A few years later, Green organized the World Bog Snorkeling Championships in the nearby Waen Rhydd bog.

More events followed in the vein of things-that-are-at-once-great-and-terrible ideas, like the Real Ale Wobble, a mountain bike ride during which participants chug beer instead of water at rest stops.

It culminated in Llanwrtyd Wells landing the World Alternative Games, an annual two-week festival in August of nonsense contests such as sack fighting, bog dredging, finger jousting and competitive rock, paper, scissors.

The town’s cheerful self-promotion is relentless. Nearly every resident repeats the claim that theirs is the smallest town in Britain. A check of official figures reveals several other hamlets that could claim the title, but none that market it as insistently as Llanwrtyd Wells.

“It’s eccentric Brits at play. It’s people who come along and have a good laugh,” says Peter Jones, a spokesman for the World Alternative Games. “Gordon’s been the driving force behind it all.”

(Corinne Purtill/GlobalPost)

At 79, Green still has a mischievous twinkle in his eye. On Saturday, he made his way through the crowds at the 34th annual Man vs. Horse Marathon like the local celebrity he is.

The only other person to draw as many cheers was Huw Lobb, 37, a former Cambridge University cross-country runner who in 2004 became the first man to beat the horse, a feat accomplished only once more since.

Llanwrtyd Wells is nestled in the heart of Wales’s sheep-farming country. Tractors number among the few vehicles passing through the town center. Stone bridges and wrought-iron balconies recall the long-gone heyday of its years as a Victorian holiday destination.

Some locals still remember what it was like in the days before bog snorkeling and boozy bike rides put it back on the map.

“It was quiet,” says William Idris Jones, 86, a “semi-retired” sheep farmer and native Welsh speaker who’s lived in Llanwrtyd Wells since he was 12. “It wasn’t dying, but it’s improved a lot. [The events] made a big difference.”

With more than 430 runners and 56 horses, last year’s Man vs. Horse was the biggest yet. Its main sponsor, Whole Earth Peanut Butter, handed out peanut butter balls and cookies to runners stretching in front of the Neuadd Arms.

The horse course is 24.8 miles, the human one 23.6. Horses must stop halfway through for a vet check to make sure they’re not overheated.

Winner Leo and rider Geoffrey Allen crossed the finish line at 2 hours and 23 seconds, besting the closest human competitor, Jonathan Albon, by 20 seconds.

No one seems to mind that the horse usually wins.

“If they’ve got a Shetland pony running, maybe. Otherwise I’ve got no chance,” said John Cooney, 35, before running off into the hills.

By: Corinne Purtill, GlobalPost

This article is syndicated from GlobalPost.

Mini-guide to German slang

Photo: Amit Gupta

1. A German doesn’t “cut school or work…he “makes blue” (Blau machen).

2. A German doesn’t “beat someone up”…he “mixes someone up” (Jemanden aufmischen).

3. A German doesn’t “make fun of you”…he “pulls you through the cacao” (Jemanden durch den Kakao ziehen).

More like this 9 American habits I lost when I moved to Germany

4. It’s not “all Greek to a German”…he “only understands train station” (Nur Bahnhof verstehen).

5. A German doesn’t “turn you down” if you ask for a date…he will “give you a basket” (Einen Korb geben).

6. A German doesn’t have “a skeleton in his closet”…he has “dirt on the stick” (Dreck am Stecken haben).

7. A German woman does not have a “nice rack”…she has “a lot of wood in front of her shack” (Ordentlich Holz vor der Hütte haben).

8. A German is not just “slow on the uptake”…he has “a plank in front of his head” (Ein Brett vorm Kopf haben).

9. A German doesn’t “bite the dust”…he “bites the grass” (Ins Gras beißen).

More like this 26 signs you were born and raised in Germany

10. Alternatively, he “hands in the spoon” (Den Löffel abgeben).

11. A German doesn’t “get on your nerves”…he “gets on your cookie” (Auf den Keks gehen).

12. A German doesn’t “commit a blunder”…he “steps in a bowl of grease” (Ins Fettnäpfchen treten).

13. A German doesn’t have a “sharp tongue”…he “has hair on his teeth” (Haare auf den Zähnen haben).

14. A German husband is not “henpecked”…he is a “slipper hero” (Pantoffelheld).

15. A German doesn’t “overcome his weaker self”…he overcomes his “inner pig-dog” (Den inneren Schweinehund überwinden).

16. A German doesn’t make “a mountain out of a mole hill”…he makes a “mosquito out of an elephant” (Aus einer Mücke einen Elefanten machen).

17. A German doesn’t have to “chose between the devil and the deep blue sea“… he has to “chose between pestilence and cholera” (Die Wahl zwischen Pest und Cholera haben).

18. A German is not told to “go jump in a lake“…he is told to “go where the pepper grows” (Geh doch dahin, wo der Pfeffer wächst).

19. A German is not “friggin’ blind”…he has “tomatoes on his eyes” (Tomaten auf den Augen haben).

Selfie + drone = dronie

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COMBINE TWO of the best aspects of photography and video-making of the past year and you get a “dronie”, a mix of “selfie” and “drone”.

Alex Chacón traveled to Veracruz to experiment on this new concept and created an epic road-trip video entirely shot with a drone. Give it a watch and explore Veracruz like you’ve never before!

Connecting with strangers

FALLING IN LOVE may feel like a magical and unpredictable event, but there’s a way to create the sparkle of love between two individuals and it explains a lot about our relationships.

Dr. Arthur Aron, the founder of that method calls it “a procedure for interpersonal closeness”. No, it does not sound romantic, but yes, it seems to work.

The process used in Dr. Aron’s study to make two people fall in love consists of a series of 36 questions that two strangers must ask each other, followed by four minutes of the same strangers gazing into each other’s eyes. This is what New York Times’ Mandy Len Cartron calls “accelerated intimacy”.

The video above only partially uses Dr. Aron’s study; the people involed are not all strangers, and they haven’t used the list of 36 questions. However, if you watch it until the very end, you notice that the four minutes during which the participants look at each other in the eyes seem to create a strong connection. Mandy Len Cartron explains this connection by the fact that the process “generate[s] trust and intimacy, the feelings love needs to thrive”.

Give it a try today with a stranger, your date, or your life partner and let us know the emotions that came out of this experiment. We sure hope it leads to a connection as strong as the ones featured in this video.

A journey through Sri Lanka [vid]

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Photography & editing | Piotr Wancerz | facebook.com/timelapsemediapl

Music | Tony Anderson “The Prophecy” | tonyandersonmusic.com

Locations: Anuradhapura, Colombo, Dambulla, Ella, Haputale, Kandy, Negombo, Sigiriya, Tangalle, Udawalawe

US habits I lost moving to China

Photo: Mills Baker

1. Unconsciously displaying ‘Resting Bitch Face’

For my first few weeks in China I looked dazed, confused, and offended (probably from the rancid sewage wafting off the streets). I walked around wearing nervousness and discomfort on my face, which seemed to make people even more wary of helping the foreigner. Eventually though, I learned to smile and nod at everyone, partially as a way to make up for my inability to communicate in their language, but also as a way to seem more approachable. My smile put them at ease people tried to speak to me even if they only knew a few words.

3. Thoughtlessly blabbering

It was rare to find a person in China who understood the phrase “What’s up?” but I often found people who could say a couple words or carry on a conversation for a few minutes in English. I learned to speak at an uncomfortably slow pace, but it meant that I could have a real conversation. By pronouncing every “t” and “d” that I usually slurred through in everyday speech and pausing for breaks, we were able to talk about more meaningful subjects like feminism and public education. Even saying a few words like nǐ hǎo (hello) and nǐ jiào shénme míngzi (what is your name) in Mandarin made locals more interested in speaking English with me.

3. Talking politics

The longer I stayed in China, the more I learned about the One Child Policy, communism, corruption, and other controversial topics. The more I listened, the more I realized that my limited knowledge as an outsider meant I couldn’t offer meaningful commentary on China’s political and environmental situation. Sometimes people were interested in my opinion, but I had less to say than I did when I was back in America — full of assumptions and judgments.

Instead I got really good at talking about the weather.

4. Looking down on service workers

The Chinese care little for those who look down on others. Through watching my hosts, I learned to be more attentive and polite to receptionists, waiters, and other service people. Most people in China come from humble origins and respect others who work hard, no matter what position they’re in. I was used to getting by on a quick glance and a smile, forgetting people’s names and faces almost instantly. Although I was still terrible with names, especially ones in Chinese, we had more meaningful and interesting interactions, making my trip more memorable.

5. Eating fried chicken

Adventurous eating isn’t my strong suit as a traveler. But at the insistence of my Chinese friends, I explored foods that would normally make me gag — like escargot from Pizza Hut. Sometimes we ate dishes of noodles and soups filled with plants or animals I couldn’t recognize. Overall I came out liking more authentic dishes like Peking Duck, Chow Fun, and Xiao Long Bao, no longer satisfied with fried rice and orange chicken. But I still draw the line at fish heads, chicken feet, and pig tongue.

6. Hating conformity

In America, we often to try appear different, assert our individuality. We get obnoxiously drunk, make a ruckus on the subway, and cause scenes in public without getting more than dirty looks. However, sticking out in China isn’t a good thing. And, as westerners, we already attract a lot of attention.

So I learned how to be more like everyone else. I put away my lax California uniform of tank tops and flip flops. I ordered fewer taro buns and milk teas from the Taiwanese pastry shops so I wouldn’t seem like a fat American. And I tried to be more humble by deferring compliments about my height, perfect teeth, and killer dance moves in an effort to appear more self-deprecating, which is hard for someone with an ego as big as mine.

7. A lax approach to text messages

Back in the States, it could take me a couple days or even a week to respond to texts or emails, but I quickly learned that kind of timeframe doesn’t work for the Chinese. As soon as I met someone new, they wanted to connect over WeChat — and they seemed more interested in texting over the app than talking face to face.

After missing a few lunch dates and karaoke outings, I learned that you need to stay attached to your phone and respond immediately, if you expect to have any friends at all. If you ignore someone for more than a couple days, they’ll probably forget about you.

Two words: GO CUBA

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We danced and partied at the infamous Las Parradillas Fiesta on Christmas Eve. I caught a type of poison ivy from brushing the venomous Guao plant (while trying to get some footage). We got lost wandering the streets of old Havana meeting fantastic people along the way. If you get the chance to visit Cuba, GO!

What to do in Savannah in your 20s

Photo: Savanna Smiles

1. Survive a St. Patrick’s Day.

Wake up by 4am to cook a messy plate of bacon and scrambled eggs, throw back shots of Jameson, and make your descent downtown for the biggest clusterfuck of the year. Yes, it’s the largest St. Patrick’s Day parade in the United States, but it’s not the parade that you look forward to. It’s the one million people pressed together within a few streets wearing green, ironic tees draped by cheap beads and stained by even cheaper beer that gets you going. This green sea triggers a reaction in your brain that leads you to a pub at 11 that morning, sloshing back two ibuprofen with an Irish car bomb and powering through to the next bar like a goddamn staggering hero.

There’s even the rare phenomenon of drinking yourself sober. This means that the body has had so much to drink that alcohol no longer has any effect. It’s experienced by the true heroes of St. Patrick’s Day — the warriors who make it to nightfall.

2. Completely relate to Widespread Panic’s “Up All Night.”

Which is about Savannah, by the way. If you’re here long enough, sunrises will become sunsets — so you’ll understand that this is not a lifestyle limited to just the drunkards, partiers, and geekers. Savannah could also be known as the city that doesn’t sleep, but that wouldn’t be fair.

She loves her beauty rest — it just happens to be in the mornings.

3. Eat yourself sober at Parker’s Market Urban Gourmet.

It’s not gas station food. It’s gourmet gas station food. Plus, you’ll most likely run into everyone you just bid a drunken farewell to at the bars. At Parker’s you’ll feel like you’re right back in the mess of Congress Street, just with brighter lights, more artisan cheeses, freshly baked croissants, and pomegranate chocolate bars. But who really wants that at 3:30 in the morning after hours of drinking? Get the food bar to slam your Styrofoam to-go box with greasy hash browns, soggy cheese grits, and a chicken biscuit slathered with sausage gravy. Sure, it’s sloppy. But it’s gourmet sloppy.

4. Have a secluded religious experience inside the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist.

Tourists in Savannah are drawn to the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist like there’s some sort of Catholic gravitational pull. In order to be inside alone, you’re going to have to go at the brink of dawn. In other words, sit on the front steps and wait for the doors to unlock. This may only allow 30 minutes of solitude in the cathedral before people file in for morning service and tourists come to test their camera’s flash capabilities. But until then, the only echoes you’ll hear will be from the priest positioning offering trays and placing fresh candles in Baroque style candlestick holders while light breaks through the stained glass.

Maybe it’s religious intent to form a stronger spiritual connection, or inspiration stemmed from a love of French Gothic architecture — or maybe it’s coming down from a night of tripping on acid and you wound up in the cathedral barefoot. Either way, a silent St. John’s will connect you to something, whatever that may be.

5. Find an excuse to drink even more rum at the Tybee Island Pirate Fest.

Juggling pirates, rum, magicians, puppeteers, weaponry demonstrations, rum, parades, toddlers in Captain Jack Sparrow attire, rum, the beach. Rum. Need I say more?

6. Get the shit scared out of you at Grove Point Plantation.

Driving down Grove Point Road is the closest you’ll come to entering a time warp. After all, it is where the original Cape Fear was filmed as well as where Black Beard once had a slave compound.

There are no houses at the end of the road — just marshland absent of any life besides a stray alligator. The giant wrought iron gate with “GROVE POINT PLANTATION” in bold letters is enough to satisfy many searching for a cheap thrill. But if you’re a more-intense thrill seeker, you can hop the gate and walk the swampy, half-mile walk to the old slave houses.

Instagram it, observe the ectoplasm thing that’s smeared across the photo, and get the hell out of there.

7. Be a pedicabber.

Nothing says ‘detox’ better than sweating out the previous night’s debauchery by hauling around a bunch of fat tourists on a bike taxi service for tips.

8. Feel like a little kid again at SCAD’s Chalk in the Park.

Savannah College of Art and Design has their annual Sidewalk Arts Festival in Forsyth Park every spring. Some are depictions of the inner turmoil an art student struggles with to make rent while others are of Grumpy Cat and Elvis Presley’s head on a bee’s body with the caption “BEE-VIS.”

No matter the art, the festival will leave you holding a plastic cup of PBR and reflecting on your own chalk-art abilities, which are probably limited to smiley faces and maybe a penis.

9. Rent a haunted house.

You haven’t truly lived in Savannah if your experience is vacant of ghost stories. Maybe it’s the famous book-turned-movie “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.” Maybe it’s the fact that a huge chunk of the city is built atop mass graves from the Yellow Fever. Or maybe it’s because we have a huge pile of skeletons hidden in our closet — AKA, under Forsyth Park. Whatever it may be, Savannah is a spooky place. How else would we have worked our way up to the second most haunted city in America? (Don’t get too cocky, N’awlins).

Savannah prides itself on historic preservation. This means that if a house is in the Historic district, chances are — surprise! — it’s a historic house, complete with lanterns on the front porch as well as old ironing boards in the kitchen that inevitably have a ghost behind them.

Just don’t be a dick. If the spirits are acknowledged and paid respect, they’ll normally end up being a pretty okay, yet nonetheless creepy, roommate who doesn’t share any rent.

10. Furnish your haunted house with the gems you found alley shopping.

Savannah is comprised of the grid system. This means after every road is an alleyway. And when I say alleyway, I mean a long strip of available free shit that can furnish your said haunted house. It’s like dumpster diving — but better.

Couches, kitchen islands, rugs that only smell kind of like cat piss, brand new entertainment centers, artwork thrown away by perfectionist art students, kitten coffee mugs, steel wall hangings, shower caddies in the shape of whales, a grill that doesn’t work — really, it’s like striking a poor, 20-something’s gold mine.

Soon you’ll figure out a method to your alley shopping, such as which ones have better stuff as well as which nights you should hit up certain alleys. You may even make some friends in the alley shopping community. Just be discreet about it. If pulled over by the police, you’ll be hammered to admit you’re only lurking through alleys because you’re high on pot or bath salts.

11. Bitch about how toxic this town is.

“I dunno, man. I need to get out of here. It’s like a black hole of drugs and working in fine dining.”

12. Bitch about how other places aren’t toxic enough.

Living in Savannah will make you carry a type of arrogance — like you’ve conquered a toxic relationship, leaving your less fortunate comrades in a pit of despair. But it’s not long ’til you realize most other places are either too dirty, too clean, too structured, too basic, too boring, or too fake. Savannah, on the other hand, is a beautiful woman with a dirty face. She makes you love her too much but is stingy with the love she returns.

If you ever break ties with her, you’ll soon find that your heart is still tangled in a bed of Spanish moss on wet cobblestone streets. Sure, she’ll fuck you over, but she’ll do it in the most beautiful way possible.

Learned to drink in Germany?

Photo: CityBurns

1. You once had an awful Jägermeister phase.

For a period, Jägermeister was your one true love and you wouldn’t settle for anything else at a party. Then one day, your true love turned on you. Since then, the mere thought of it evokes nothing but nausea.

Before the Jägermeister phase, you had an equally awful Vodka-Bull phase (sleeping is overrated anyway) and before that a horrible Bacardi Breezer phase. You quit all of them and settled down for wine and beer. They’re more reliable and don’t make you puke so easily.

2. You panic when your friend doesn’t look into your eyes while clinking glasses.

If you don’t look each other straight in the eyes, it’s a fact that both of you will be punished with bad sex for 7 years. Though nobody knows if that means bad sex with each other or bad sex with your actual partner…

This tradition can become quite stressful if you’re drinking with a big group. You’ll probably miss looking in the eyes of at least one person, and it always takes ages till you finally get to take a swig of your beer.

3. You equally panic if someone wants to clink glasses and cross their arms with the people on either side of them.

Not doing this won’t result in bad sex for seven years, but in bad luck. Probably forever. These superstitions might be the reason why we Germans always come to parties so early. Otherwise we’d never be done with clinking before the end of the party.

4. You can open a beer bottle with anything.

Spoon, knife, park bench, teeth, buttocks…Once you’ve mastered the technique with one tool, the whole world is your playground! There’s just this one strangely-shaped, kind of triangular thing that gives you kind of a hard time…What was the name of it again? Oh yes, bottle opener!

5. Beer choices are a kind of religion.

Thank God most of your friends drink the same sort beer. It’s probably a kind of evolutionary prevention mechanism so that you don’t lose too many males in useless fights about whether pale beer, wheat beer, or dark beer is better.

In an emergency however, you’ll drink whatever is offered to you…as long as it contains hops and malt.

6. Only German beer is true beer.

That’s the one thing you typically all agree on. From a young age you’ve learned this from your father, who learned it from his grandfather, who didn’t even know that there was something called “beer” outside of Germany. You might not have much national pride, but you are proud of your beer and you’re proud of being part of the nation that created beer in its present form. And you’ll fight anybody who disagrees.

7. On the other hand, you are not exactly a wine connoisseur.

The cheapest one on the lowest shelf in Aldi will suffice.

8. You were allowed to drink before you were allowed to drive a car.

The legal drinking age for beer and wine in Germany is 16, but you can’t get your car driving licence until you’re 18, which is also the legal drinking age for spirits. Actually that’s pretty great, because it means nothing stands in the way of a real party to celebrate your successfully-passed driving test.

9. You’re overwhelmed with joy when you’re asked for ID while buying wine in the supermarket around the corner (if you’re a woman).

You forgot to put your makeup on and that’s the result. But to be honest, they’ve known you for years and probably just want to make you feel good about yourself by asking for ID. But still, it feels damn good to be considered for so much younger than you really are.

More like this: 26 signs you were born and raised in Germany


10. A Radler (basically) doesn’t contain alcohol and can be drunk at any time of day.

A Radler (half beer / half lemonade) is said to be one of the most refreshing drinks there is. Also, you can easily get back on your bike after one liter (cyclist is Radler in German) without being too drunk to pedal in a straight line. Beer is food anyway, right? And beer with lemonade is just lunch with an alcohol-free drink.

11. You can’t trust your taste in music when you’re drinking.

While you’re usually known for your sophisticated music tastes, as soon as you’re slightly drunk, good old German Schlager music seem to be the best party music ever. That’s right, Schlager music — the cheesy, old-fashioned stuff that usually only your grandparents listen to.

If things get really bad, you even start dancing to Mallorca Schlager, where D–list celebrities try to extend their 15 minutes of fame to 20 minutes with the help of computer technology and high quality lyrics like, “And the red horse just turned around and fended the fly off with his ponytail. But the fly was not stupid and made summ, summ, summ and flew around the horse with a lot of buzzing. Schalala.”

Oh Germany, you country of poets and thinkers!

12. Flaming fire tongs punch is your favorite Christmas ritual.

But not just the drinking part! There’s an old German movie from the early 1940s with the same name, Die Feuerzangenbowle. It starts with a couple of older gentleman drinking the punch and reminiscing about the good old days at school and all the pranks they played on their teachers. One of the men never had this privilege, as he was homeschooled. So in their intoxication, they decide to send him back to school. Shortly after he arrives, he becomes the nightmare of his teachers…

Especially at German universities, it’s customary to watch the movie at Christmas time, while — of course — drinking some Feuerzangenbowle.

13. No going out without staying in first.

Drinking in bars and clubs in Germany is generally pretty expensive, so meeting at a friend’s place and pre-partying is common. Often you also just get stuck there and have a better time than you could ever have in an overcrowded, sticky-floored club.

14. You are a master at pretending to be sober.

In case you made it out of your friend’s house, you face the next challenge: most clubs don’t exactly appreciate it when their guests arrive drunk. Luckily, you’re amazing at pretending to be sober for the one minute you have to look in the doorman’s eyes. This is also a very useful skill to have when sneaking back into your room at home. You parents still think you are young and innocent and don’t drink.

15. Being drunk makes you an international culinary expert.

American fast food, Turkish döner, Arabic falafel, Italian pizza, German currywurst. God bless German culinary multiculturalism — it’s cured SO many hangovers. You also know exactly where you can get each food at which times. You might forget the way home, but you’ll never forget where to get food!

16. Oh those summer-barbecue-beer nights.

Though, thanks to the unpredictable weather, they more often turn into game nights in someone’s living room. Luckily, many German flats have a roofed terrace or balcony. As soon as you move out of your parent’s house, you know you’ll want the same for your own apartment.

17. Drinking is not always just about getting wasted.

More often it’s only a side effect of social gatherings. You just want to enjoy a bottle of beer or a glass of wine with your friends, often together with a good meal. If it turns out to be one of those epic party nights, so be it. If not, you’ll be just as happy.

18. You know only a certain amount of alcohol can make a German man dance.

If, sometimes, it would be better for their dignity to just to stay in the corner and keep watching the party crowd from afar, is a point worthy of discussion some other time.

19. Every December, you gain 5 kilos due to your daily mulled wine consumption at various Christmas markets.

There are just too darn many of them in Germany. And at least one of them lies on the way between your office / university and home.

5 truths about San Francisco

Photo: Matt Bidulph

1. In terms of income equality, the city is as unequal as Rwanda.

Recently, San Francisco’s Human Services Agency used the Gini Coefficient, a popular formula employed by the World Bank, the CIA, and other groups, to measure how San Francisco’s income inequality compared to other cities and countries. The formula gives a region a score of 0 if every person in its population shares wealth exactly equally. The scores increase towards 1 the more the wealth is held by a smaller portion of people. Using this formula, San Francisco scored a .523, ranking it slightly more unequal than Rwanda (.508) and only slightly more equal than Guatemala (.559). To add more perspective, countries like Sweden and Denmark scored around a .25, cities like Amsterdam, London and Paris all scored around a .32., and the United States as a whole scored a .45.

This income inequality also has a racial component: the average white San Franciscan makes three times more money than the average black resident, 66 percent more than the average Latino resident, and 44 percent more than the average Asian resident.

2. The average price for a year of rent is almost equal to a starting public school teacher’s salary.

A new report from the data company Priceonomics found that the median rental price of a one-bedroom apartment in San Francisco, as of June 2014, was $3,120, totaling to a yearly housing price of $37,440. The average starting salary for a San Francisco Unified School District teacher is $47,000. The numbers exemplify how the city has become essentially unlivable for teachers, service workers, and other employees with middle-class salaries. Many of these workers come from nonprofit organizations: almost one quarter of non-profits in San Francisco have had to leave the city as a result of higher rent prices. From 2008 to 2012, the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco found that the city lost approximately 30,000 workers with incomes of less than $35,000 a year.

3. Almost a third of the city’s homeless residents identify as LGBTQ.

Though San Francisco may be one of the most gay-friendly cities in the country, recent numbers indicate that the city hasn’t necessarily taken care of its LGBTQ population as much as you’d expect. In the city’s 2013 count of its homeless population, the city for the first time asked information on sexual orientation. The result? 29% of the city’s 6,436 homeless residents identified as LGBTQ, nearly twice the national average. LGBTQ youth who intentionally seek out San Francisco for its LGBTQ resources may partially contribute to the abnormally high number. However, the survey found that many of the city’s homeless LGBTQ residents were not runaway youth, but adults, seniors, and long-time residents, leading many to believe that it’s actually the city’s housing and eviction issues that may be at fault.

According to the Anti-Eviction mapping project, the Castro neighborhood was hit the hardest by the city’s recent flood of evictions: from 1997-2013, 837 units in the area were evicted. As housing in the city evolves, activists worry that San Francisco may become a city packed with resources, social services, and community centers for an LGBTQ population that can no longer afford to live there.

4. It’s one of the worst cities for African-Americans to economically succeed.

New Geography, a start-up that analyzes cities and quality of life, ranked the country’s major metropolitan areas based on how easily black communities could economically thrive. The ranking looked at four typical measures of middle class economic success for black communities: homeownership, entrepreneurship (measured through self-employment rate), median household income, and the change in the African-American population from 2000 to 2013.

San Francisco placed 48 out of 50. While all other racial groups in the city have median incomes over $50,000, the median income of black households is $30,840. And though the city-wide unemployment rate has decreased to only 4%, the lowest rate in years, the unemployment rate for black youth is five times higher at 20%. The black population in the city, almost half of what it was in 1950, decreased an additional 9% from 2000-2013, and now constitutes only 6.3% of San Francisco’s total population. Meanwhile, San Francisco’s jail population is disproportionately 56% black.

5. It’s the most educated city in the United States…yet its upper-class no longer invests in the city’s public education system.

San Francisco has the densest concentration of educated workers in the United States: over 7,000 college-degree-holders per square mile. Almost 75% of San Francisco residents hold a bachelor’s degree and almost 20% have graduate/professional degrees. And yet, the city’s public education system has been largely abandoned by the city’s white, upper-class population.

San Francisco ranks third among American cities with the highest private school enrollment, with enrollment almost at 20%, even higher than places like Manhattan and Los Angeles. The majority of students attending these private schools are white and upper-class: though white children account for 33 percent of the city’s overall population, they only represent 12 percent of public school students. Half of the city’s elementary schools have white populations below 10%. A quarter have white populations below 2%.

Many argue that this economic and racial segregation drives resources away from the public school system. This can lead to further educational inequalities. For example, according to a 2014 report from the US Department of Education, San Francisco schools with a majority student of color population were far more likely to have inexperienced teachers, and students of color learning in segregated environments were far less likely to graduate.