'Molesto' Reinforces Negative Image

This is a bit of a surprise: San Francisco is the third-safest place for kids, a survey from Men's Health magazine found.

According to the Chronicle's Mommy Files site, the study based their rankings on "accidental death rates for kids ages 5 to 14 (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), number of car-seat inspection locations per child (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration), sex offenders per capita (state and national registries), percentage of abused children protected from further abuse (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services), and the strength of child-restraint laws and bike-helmet laws (Insurance Institute for Highway Safety)."

What's less of a surprise? Modesto, often referred to as "Molesto," scored near the bottom. Maybe they're just the victim of a name that's easy to turn into a pun. As someone whose name rhymes with "dick," I sympathize.

Here are the best and worst cities.

The safest cities for kids:
Madison, Wis.
Honolulu
San Francisco
Virginia Beach, Va.
Spokane, Wash.
Providence
Jersey City, N.J.
Colorado Springs, Colo.
Pittsburgh
Burlington, Vt.

The least safe cities for kids:
Jacksonville, Fla.
New Orleans
Baltimore
Bakersfield, Calif.
Tulsa, Okla.
Modesto, Calif.
Grand Rapids, Mich.
Fresno, Calif.
Oklahoma City
Corpus Christi, Texas

UPDATE: SFist has now weighed in on the topic. They link each city in the safest-city list to some ghastly crime.