City of Gulfport responds to ‘clickbait’ article naming Gulfport as tenth worst run U.S. city

The City of Gulfport responds to what they call a ‘clickbait’ article listing Gulfport as the number 10 worst run city in America.

In efforts to discredit the article written by WalletHub, the city publishes a response titled ‘Pardon our Progress, WalletHoax.’

Proving the advancements and setbacks Gulfport has overcome, the response reads ‘Gulfport has more than $50 million in downtown development, is home to the Mississippi Aquarium, headquarters for Cruisin’ the Coast, and is one of the top vacation rental markets in the U.S.”

Gulfport Mayor Billy Hewes tells News 25 ‘a lie unchallenged becomes the truth.’ “Just because it’s on the web doesn’t mean it is true. This is a classic example of just how people throw some stuff out there to drive traffic to their website. It’s clickbait and we just said enough is enough and we’re going to respond because we’ve got too much going on that’s good here in Gulfport, across this Coastal community. Just like the way Mississippi is stereotyped, we’re tired of it. We’re going to tell our story because it is a great story to tell.”

You can see all the progress Gulfport has made online at Gulfport-ms.gov/pardon-our-progress.