The votes are in, if you're into that sort of thing: Citysearch has published its winners for best yoga studios this year, as voted for by Citysearch readers, plus one editorial pick. Though some of the votes are surely due to heavy lobbying (I once knew a massage therapist who constantly shilled for positive votes on the site), chances are it's falrly legitimate stuff. Here's a terse summary of the list. Go here for the whole thing with details.

Audience Winner: Sonic Yoga (for the third year in a row)
Editorial Winner: Laughing Lotus

Runners-Up:
1) Yoga Effects
2) Levitate
3) Yoga Works Midtown
5) World Yoga Center
6) OM Yoga Center
7) balance yoga
8) Laughing Lotus
9) Jivamukti Yoga
10) Bikram Yoga NYC

I haven't been to all these places, but it starts me wondering, what do New Yorkers want in a yoga class? What makes a studio "best"? I mean aside from competent teachers, cleaniness, and affordable rates? Do we want something specific from our classes? Is there stuff we tolerate here that would not fly in fly-over country? Vice-versa?

Things I love in a yoga studio (and possibly one reason I'm so grumpy about most NYC studios):
- A clear, loving vibe.
- Space! Once I have to squeeze my mat between moviestars (or yogis who act like them), I'm audi.
- Convenience: the best teachers only teach at 2pm on Tuesdays? Yikes. Lunchtime yoga, plenty of classes to make the rush hours less wall-to-wall.
- Classes that don't cost as much as rent.
- Teachers who are alive and present and don't seem like they've taught this class 8,000 times, even if they have.
- A touch of the spirit. I don't need constant chanting or mat-side preaching, but some bookend oms (beginning and end of class), a well-selected quote and a reminder or two that we're not just here for our butts is always welcome and helpful.
- Permission to move at my own pace, even if it means throwing off the look of a synchronized room.
- Permission to rest.
- A "yay, you!" reminder at the end of class--when my brain has already moved on to berating myself for not coming more often, a reminder that coming at all is a triumph is helpful.
- An abundance of sincere--but non-intrusive--smiling.
- A sense of community, that we're all in this together.

Bonuses:
- A mid-savasana neck-tug or shoulder smoosh. Massaging of any sort, really.
- The smell of essential oils
- Bean-bag eye pillows

And you? What do you crave in a class?