Where People Wave With Just One Finger

Conde Nast has long been equivalent with Fodor's in terms of giving expert travel advice; the where to go, what to do, and what to see there service is invaluable to travelers venturing off into uncharted civilizations or semblances thereof. So, when Conde Nast's readers speak about their travel adventures and misadventures, it behooves the rest of us to pay attention lest we be trapped in some god-forsaken hellhole with no internet and no acceptable currency.
As a public service, 46,000 readers of Conde Nast's Traveler magazine responded to a survey conducted by that organization to determine the most and least friendly cities in the world...necessary information for any would-be adventurer. Sadly, cities in the United States appeared far more often (twice as much, in fact) on the least friendly cities than they did on the friendliest cities list. Perhaps equally surprising, New York City wasn't on either list's top 20 though more than a couple of nearby burgs made the least friendly list.
Criteria for creating a friendly or unfriendly environment included location, political perception, size, and language barriers. On the our winners and not-so-winners:
Newark, New Jersey, but a train ride from The City That Never Sleeps was judged to be the UNfriendliest city on the world...not just in the U.S.; in the whole widely-traveled world! American cities garnered five places in the top ten and eight in the top 20 least friendly cities. Our entrants were
#3: Oakland
#7: New Haven, Connecticut (home to Yale University)
#8: Detroit (described by one reader as "the armpit of the world").
#9: Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Also in the top 10 were some foreign cities like Islamabad, Pakistan at #2, Kuwait City at #5, and Tangier at #10.

On the other hand, we fared poorly in the "Friendliest" category, garnering only one spot in the top ten and four in the top twenty.
Our highest-ranking city was Charleston, South Carolina, a city that was ranked the fifth-friendliest city on earth. Galena, Illinois, Savannah, Georgia, and Asheville, North Carolina ranked 14th, 16th, and 20th on the positive side.
Want great friendliness? Top spot went to Florianopolis, an island city in Brazil, followed in order by Hobart in Tasmania, and Thimpu in Bhutan.

But Newark is worse than Islamabad? Wow! That's saying something.
There's no place like home...clicking my heels together three times...