Minneapolis-St. Paul volunteers more than any other city in the country

We win, Portland -- take that!

​Minneapolis-St. Paul officially volunteers more than any other city in the country. We should all rejoice in how charitable we are -- or at least, how charitable some of us are, making up for the rest of us who didn't do a damn thing.

Still, 37 percent of Twin Cities residents donated some of their time in 2010, making the metro area tops among all 51 big cities in the country, according to a new study from the Corporation for National and Community Service.

That first place finish puts Minneapolis-St. Paul just ahead of our hipster/bike-friendly rival, Portland, followed by Salt Lake City and Seattle.

Oh, and if you fall on hard times and need a little help, don't expect the terrible people of New York City and Miami to lift a finger for you.

To get the No. 1 spot, the Twin Cities had 917,000 volunteers log about 100 million hours of community service. All those people doing all that stuff is worth about $2.2 billion, according to the study.

Do not ask this person, or this city, for any help.

​There aren't a whole lot of surprises down at the bottom of the list, but it's still nice to find out that all your negative stereotypes about places are confirmed. Among the least charitable cities out of the 51 big ones are San Antonio (which ranked 43rd), Houston (45), Los Angeles (46), and New York City (50) and Miami, which comes in dead last.

Only 15 percent of Miami residents donated time, and those people were probably just helping the homeless work on getting beach-ready abs.

Among big cities, Minneapolis-St. Paul doesn't actually log the most hours of charity per person. That distinction belongs to Salt Lake City, where the average -- the average! -- volunteer hours per year is about 54, or more than one selfless hour a week.

By that same measure, Oklahoma City, Baltimore and Washington, D.C. rank two through four, but it's unclear how much of that is criminals working down their probation hours.

So, there's your challenge, Twin Cities. Lend a hand to those in need, not because you want to do good in the world, but because we need to keep our heel on the throat of Portland's kind-hearted volunteers. Never surrender!

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