2011 The 20 "Most Miserable Cities" in America

[detroitjim]

Looks like we've made it again but have dropped from the top ten


Slideshow
http://www.forbes.com/2011/02/02/sto...ies_slide.html


2011 The 20 "Most Miserable Cities" in America


No. 1 Stockton, Calif.
No. 2 Miami, Fla.
No. 3 Merced, Calif.
No. 4 Modesto, Calif.
No. 5 Sacramento, Calif.
No. 6 Memphis, Tenn.
No. 7 Chicago, Ill.
No. 8 West Palm Beach, Fla.
No. 9 Vallejo, Calif.
No. 10 Cleveland, Ohio
No. 11 Flint, Mich.
No. 12 Toledo, Ohio
No. 13 Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
No. 14 Youngstown, Ohio
No. 15 Detroit, Mich.
No. 16 Washington, D.C.
No. 17 Fresno, Calif.
No. 18 Salinas, Calif.
No. 19 Jacksonville, Fla.
No. 20 Bakersfield, Calif.


The full story
http://www.forbes.com/2011/02/02/sto...le-cities.html



For comparison the 2010 list


1.Cleveland
2.Stockton, Calif.
3.Memphis, Tenn.
4.Detroit
5.Flint, Mich.
6.Miami
7.St. Louis
8.Buffalo, N.Y.
9.Canton, Ohio
10.Chicago
11.Modesto, Calif.
12.Akron, Ohio
13.Kansas City
14.Rockford, Ill.
15.Toledo, Ohio
16.New York City
17.Sacramento, Calif.
18.Youngstown, Ohio
19.Gary, Ind.
20.Philadelphia

[detroitjim]

So part of their critical ranking is sports teams' scoring?

Yes indeed! Typically ,scoring is directly correlated to a winning team.

The overall morale of the area is improved if your home team is competitive.

Not much different than having an extraordinary ratio of people that are looking through

"rose colored glasses"participating in a forum. Even though they are wallowing in the

dark crevasses of the bowels. Hey all yall let's be happy na! WEEEEE!

[313WX]

How in the world did Chicago rank so high?

[Fnemecek]

How in the world did Chicago rank so high?

My guess is that has something to do with rapidly declining property values. There are only so many Detroiters left to move to Chicago. Once that dries up, their property values drop.

[rb336]

How in the world did Chicago rank so high?

They actually looked beyond the Loop & north side

[Fnemecek]

I think it's interesting how people who don't like their hometown being on a given list always criticize those who are making said list while people who are happy with where a list ranks them are likewise happy with lists.

One can always argue with how certain variables are weighted from one list to the next. The important factors, in my opinion, are direction and momentum. Detroit is still on this list, but we rank a lot better than we did a year ago. This is an improvement and should be recognized as such.

[iheartthed]

I think it's interesting how people who don't like their hometown being on a given list always criticize those who are making said list while people who are happy with where a list ranks them are likewise happy with lists.

One can always argue with how certain variables are weighted from one list to the next. The important factors, in my opinion, are direction and momentum. Detroit is still on this list, but we rank a lot better than we did a year ago. This is an improvement and should be recognized as such.

I would agree if we weren't talking about a Forbes list. To compare cities Forbes often uses either 1) extremely subjective criteria [[e.g., the weather), and/or 2) very fluid metrics that wildly fluctuates from year to year for any given location [[e.g. the win rate of the pro sports teams). I also don't think that they standardize their criteria from year to year, which could also factor into why these lists change so dramatically from year to year.

[Fnemecek]

I would agree if we weren't talking about a Forbes list. To compare cities Forbes often uses either 1) extremely subjective criteria [[e.g., the weather), and/or 2) very fluid metrics that wildly fluctuates from year to year for any given location [[e.g. the win rate of the pro sports teams). I also don't think that they standardize their criteria from year to year, which could also factor into why these lists change so dramatically from year to year.

Forbes decides their criteria by polling people about what they look for in a community; what would make them move to a certain area. They then look for ways to objectively rank communities that are consistent with the stated answers from that polling data.

When people say in surveys that they like living in an area with warm, sunny weather, Forbes calculates the average number of sunny days in an year for each given area.

As for the items that can fluctuate wildly, such a sports team's performance, this is dealt with by using a 3 year rolling average.

No system of ranking communities will ever be perfect. Forbes, however, is as good as it gets.

Regardless, the important variable is the direction and momentum that a given community has in these polls.

[BrushStart]

The real value of not being ranked in the top 5 is that 24-year-old Joe reader in Petersburg, Virgina does not automatically cut Detroit from his short list of places he might live because Forbes says it is the most miserable.

Detroit's image and reputation is key to it's revival and if publications like Forbes stop ranking Detroit as the "most miserable," "most depressed," "least enjoyable," etc., we have a better chance to change our image, especially when we beat out cities like Chicago, Sacramento, Miami, and Memphis.

[canuck]

Yes you must be miserable if you live in any one of the above. You are all losers for holding a nine to five job in a city that is not New York or London. You may be a millionaire 900 times but you are still short of being a billionaire. Forbes tells it like it is.

You might as well be put to sleep out of your misery.

[Hermod]

Judging by the way that all of those Florida and California cities just jumped up in there this year, I would have to say that unemployment, decline in housing prices, and home foreclosures have to factor heavily in the ratings calculations.

[canuck]

That kind of article is a good example of the mind numbing we are subjected to by the press. What passes as news based on statistical evidence is not only frivolous and nonsensical it is insulting. Cities are tallied like sports events and apart form giving us insights into local economies, in no way do these pieces give us the big picture. One year Vegas wins when it is on top of its game; three new casinos and hotels; then the housing debacle disappears all the glitter and rhinestone.

The worst thing about it is the idea that people need to move on and find a better place instead of putting community ahead of all that fizz. Folks live in all the cities listed above and arent the cardboard chess pieces that Forbes and others presume them to be. You can live in London's Hyde Park or New York over Central Park and still be a miserable SOB. Some of these folks spend more on visits to their shrinks in a month than I do on car expenses in three years. And they may be the ones who run the economy...

[sturge]

A quick reading of the articles answers a lot of these questions.

California cities take the next three spots: Merced [[No. 3), Modesto [[No. 4) and Sacramento [[No. 5). Each has struggled with declining home prices, high unemployment and high crime rates, in addition to the problems all Californians face, like high sales and income taxes and service cuts to help close massive budget shortfalls.

Two of the 10 largest metro areas make the list. Chicago ranks seventh on the strength of its long commutes [[30.7 minutes on average--eighth-worst in the U.S.) and high sales tax [[9.75%---tied for the highest). The Windy City also ranks in the bottom quartile on weather, crime, foreclosures and home price trends.

[LeannaM]

It is Forbes.Their lists are kind of a joke.

However, at least they're paying less attention to the rust belt and more attention to California and Florida.

[kahnman]

I'm sure all of the residents of Gary, Indiana woke up feeling WAY better knowing that they are no longer living in a miserable city...

[hudkina]

The problem with that methodology is that people don't always say exactly what they want. For example, if you ask people if they would rather buy a more fuel efficient vehicle, the vast majority would say yes. The reality however, is that people tend to put size over fuel efficiency and pick a 20 MPG midsize crossover over a 30 MPG compact sedan. In the same sense, the vast majority of people would prefer living in an area that is more sunny, but when it comes down to it, people often put other factors ahead of "weather", such as family, career, etc. Someone may be more miserable living in sunny Miami than cloudy Detroit simply because they don't get to see their family in Detroit as much.

[Detroitej72]

You can spin it however you want, but the fact is we have made some progress in dropping down a few notches. Image is everything and if Detroit is portrayed in a positive light, the region will benefit.

[Hermod]

You can spin it however you want, but the fact is we have made some progress in dropping down a few notches. Image is everything and if Detroit is portrayed in a positive light, the region will benefit.

Did Detroit make progress or did the other places decline?

[DetroitPlanner]

Did Detroit make progress or did the other places decline?

Yes to both. Michigan's unemployment is dropping at a faster rate than other states thanks to an increase in automobile sales and a realization that we have to start changing our overall business strategies. Some places like CA or FL have never been hit hard by recession before and its taking them a bit longer to figure things out. I have no explaination for Chicago's quick and relatively high entry into the list other than there are some indicators that retail sales in the area are falling and that crime is rising.

[Detroitej72]

Did Detroit make progress or did the other places decline?

Does it matter? One could argue that other cities rose in status simply because Detroit declined so much. Much of what determines a regions image is the reputation.

Here is an example: A woman I know once told me she will never go downtown again because the last time she was there, a guy almost robbed her. When pressed for the details, she said her and a friend were walking around Greektown, and some homeless guy asked them for some spare change. She said they ran for their lives to the parking structure and never looked back.

I can almost guarantee that had that same scenario happened in say, Birmingham, she wouldn't have repeated the story as if she'd almost been robbed. She assumed because she was in Detroit, all the people must be bad, evil criminals. Thus, she witnessed the image that has been portrayed by countless folks that Detroit is unsafe even though she was never in any harm.

[fryar]

They are misrepresenting their analysis. This is a ranking of undesirable metro areas, with a focus on some rather pedestrian factors. It's the Idiot's Guide to Getting Good Value for Money Considering What's Within Reach.

From Forbes:

We looked at the 200 largest metropolitan statistical areas in the U.S. The minimum population to be eligible is 249,000. We ranked each area on 10 factors, including unemployment over three years, tax rates [[both sales and income), commute times, violent crime and how its pro sports teams have fared over the past three years. We added two housing metrics this year: the change in median home prices over three years, and foreclosure rates in 2010, as compiled by RealtyTrac. We also considered corruption based on convictions of public officials in each region, as tracked by the Public Integrity Section of the U.S. Department of Justice. Lastly, we factored in an index put together by Portland, Ore., researcher Bert Sperling that rates weather in each metro on factors relating to temperature, precipitation and humidity.

The methodology has some positive features, I particularly like the inclusion of a metric for the integrity of political leaders. But the weather? Average commute? Ladies and gentlemen, Forbes proudly presents the Indicators of Municipal Greatness? Not precisely...

2011 The 20 Least Adequate Areas Centered on Cities in America

No. 15 Farmington Hills, MI, et al. And oh, don't let's exclude Detroit.
No. 16 Springfield, VA, et al. And oh, don't let's exclude DC.

There, I fixed it for them. Southeast Michigan is slightly inferior to suburban DC - oh, and don't let's exclude DC.

It is not a list without value, but it is misleading and beyond ridiculous to then claim that the referenced cities are similarly miserable in any sense.

One wonders what incredibly blasé "cities" top their list as least miserable.

[hudkina]

In the USA metro areas are defined by county boundaries. In the case of Modesto, the MSA consists of everything within Stanislaus County. When magazines do these little comparisons they often base their "city" data on these census-designated metro areas.

[bahbay]

In the USA metro areas are defined by county boundaries. In the case of Modesto, the MSA consists of everything within Stanislaus County. When magazines do these little comparisons they often base their "city" data on these census-designated metro areas.

hudkina please note this definition of MSAs via Wikipedia:

In the United States a metropolitan statistical area refers to a geographical region with a relatively high population density at its core and close economic ties throughout the area. Such regions are not legally incorporated as a city or town would be, nor are they legal administrative divisions like ** **counties** ** or sovereign entitites like states. As such the precise definition of any given metropolitan area can vary with the source. A typical metropolitan area is centered around a single large city that wields substantial influence over the region [[e.g. Chicagoland). However, some metropolitan areas contain more than one large city with no single municipality holding a dominant position [[e.g. Minneapolis – Saint Paul).

[hudkina]

Yes, it's saying that metropolitan areas are for statistical purposes only and have none of the jurisdictional powers provided to cities or counties. However, Metropolitan Statistical Areas, as defined by the the Census Bureau, use counties as the building blocks. For example, "Metro Detroit" consists of Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, St. Clair, Livingston, and Lapeer counties. "Metro Modesto" consists of Stanislaus County.

Trust me, I know ALL there is to know about metropolitan areas in the U.S.

[professorscott]

Wow, interesting that Cali has kind of taken over so much of the top of that list.