The neighborhood I call home and that I've lived in for over a year was recently declared one of the 10 best neighborhoods in America (Sorry Murray Hill). The rankings were determined by the American Planning Association (APA). American Planning What? Exactly.
The quickest way to place your company's name in the papers is to put together some bullshit "best of" or "worst of" ranking and then sent it out "For Immediate Release." Bam! It gets picked up by all the news outlets from the newswires.
It's a classic tactic employed expertly by the people at US News & World Report and their usage of college and grad school rankings to bolster their magazine sales. Beyond these particular annual issues, when do people ever purchase US News? The rankings issues are the only things keeping it alive.
That said, Park Slope is rather lesbionically awesome.