Cheers to Fremont, the 32nd most dangerously drunk city in America.
Not exactly the kind of toast residents were raising glasses to when the town celebrated its 50th anniversary last year, but according to the December issue of Men's Health Magazine, Fremont doesn't handle its liquor too well.
Denver was rated the drunkest city, followed by Anchorage, Alaska. Durham, N.C., was the soberest.
In the Bay Area, Oakland ranked 29th, three spots worse than Fremont, and San Francisco ranked 34th. All three cities scored a D-plus.
San Jose finished 61st with a C-plus.
"I don't believe it," Fremont police Detective Bill Veteran said of Fremont's ranking.
"We don't have that many bars and our only large nightclub isn't a problem."
Mayor Bob Wasserman, a former police chief, was blunter. The study's authors "were probably smoking something when they wrote that," he said.
"From my experience in Fremont and working in four other California cities, I think that's ridiculous."
The rankings are based on alcohol-related liver deaths and binge drinking data compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, DUI arrest rates compiled by the FBI, fatal car accidents involving alcohol compiled by the U.S. Department of Transportation, and grades given to cities by Mothers Against Drunk Driving for their efforts to curb excessive drinking.
Men's Health didn't include the statistics in its one-page article that hit newsstands last week.
The only alcohol-related statistics Fremont police had on hand Tuesday were drunken driving arrests, of which there were 314 last year - 29 more than in 2004, when the city didn't make Men's Health's 100 Drunkest City rankings.
Comparing DUI statistics is arbitrary, Veteran cautioned, because the city's figures don't include arrests made by the California Highway Patrol, and arrest numbers vary with enforcement procedures.
Not exactly the kind of toast residents were raising glasses to when the town celebrated its 50th anniversary last year, but according to the December issue of Men's Health Magazine, Fremont doesn't handle its liquor too well.
Denver was rated the drunkest city, followed by Anchorage, Alaska. Durham, N.C., was the soberest.
In the Bay Area, Oakland ranked 29th, three spots worse than Fremont, and San Francisco ranked 34th. All three cities scored a D-plus.
San Jose finished 61st with a C-plus.
"I don't believe it," Fremont police Detective Bill Veteran said of Fremont's ranking.
"We don't have that many bars and our only large nightclub isn't a problem."
Mayor Bob Wasserman, a former police chief, was blunter. The study's authors "were probably smoking something when they wrote that," he said.
"From my experience in Fremont and working in four other California cities, I think that's ridiculous."
The rankings are based on alcohol-related liver deaths and binge drinking data compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, DUI arrest rates compiled by the FBI, fatal car accidents involving alcohol compiled by the U.S. Department of Transportation, and grades given to cities by Mothers Against Drunk Driving for their efforts to curb excessive drinking.
Men's Health didn't include the statistics in its one-page article that hit newsstands last week.
The only alcohol-related statistics Fremont police had on hand Tuesday were drunken driving arrests, of which there were 314 last year - 29 more than in 2004, when the city didn't make Men's Health's 100 Drunkest City rankings.
Comparing DUI statistics is arbitrary, Veteran cautioned, because the city's figures don't include arrests made by the California Highway Patrol, and arrest numbers vary with enforcement procedures.