San Luis Obispo: “Where joy seems to be in the tap water”

October 3, 2010

Everyone thought that Disneyland was the happiest place on earth. Guess again. According to a new book–and we’re not making this up, we swear–it’s San Luis Obispo, “where joy seems to be in the tap water.” [Parade]

Yep. Parade, that weekly slick Sunday magazine that boasts a gazillion readers all over the country and has been around forever, appears locally in The Tribune. In today’s issue, Parade ran an article called “You’ll Wish You Were Here.”

Turns out that an author named Dan Buettner has a new book coming out in mid-October called “Thrive.” Buettner focuses on happiness and goes in search of the happiest spots around. He ended up sampling the SLO life and apparently loved what he found.

But Buettner seems to think that the only mayor San Luis Obispo ever had was Ken Schwartz, because the retired Cal Poly professor is the one who rates any ink in the article. Schwartz gets credit for everything.

So why does Buettner love us so much? Take your pick. We support the arts. We promote walking and biking. Prohibit drive through restaurants. Stamped out cigarettes. Shrunk the size of signs. Oh, and San Luis Obispo has also empowered the people.

Must be something to it. In a 2008 Gallup-Healthways poll, the city’s 44,000 residents ranked No. 1 in the U.S. in overall emotional health.

Of course, nobody better tell Buettner or Parade about this week’s cover story in New Times about how SLO is quickly going over a cliff financially.

But, hey, if Buettner wants to come back, maybe he can take a ride on our new $850,000 double decker bus.


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hopefully the financial situation will change with the new ppl coming into office on the city level and no more special deals..I for one will be a lot happier;)..


I’d bet this guy didn’t spend a Thursday, Friday or Saturday night downtown, dodging drunks, stepping over puke on the sidewalks, and hoping you don’t get the crap beaten out of you by some drunken frat boy feeling his oats.

SLO town is changing right before your eyes people. Not sure if its the water, or a societal thing wherein young people today are totally desensitized to violence (it’s in the music [rap], the video games, the popular movies, TV, you name it) or this generation just plain has no respect for others, but downtown is becoming a rough place to be both night and day (thanks to a large transient population). And the neighborhoods that used to be relatively quiet are now becoming boisterous and dangerous as well.

Maybe it’s a good thing this guy hung out with Ken S. who I’m sure goes to bed early…


It’s for sure the ducks aren’t very happy, but then they don’t have the best of water and very little food!!! Maybe they could go over to Dan’s, that would solve two apparent City problems. I won’t even charge for this consultation (oh oh, take that back, I don’t have a business license, I’m not consulting).


Not sure what else is in the tap water, but you might want to run it through a reverse-osmosis system


Even the local homeless are the happiest, just ask Dan DeVaul