Posted on 01/30/2008 6:20:16 AM PST by cowtowney
Imagine living in a city with the country's highest rate for violent crime and the second-highest unemployment rate. As an added kicker you need more Superfund dollars allocated to your city to clean up contaminated toxic waste sites than just about any other metro.
Unfortunately, this nightmare is a reality for the residents of Detroit. The Motor City grabs the top spot on Forbes' inaugural list of America's Most Miserable Cities.
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
How the hell are you gonna take a misery list seriously when New Orleans isn’t on it?
Moldy, destroyed, vast tracts of empty abandoned homes, no hospitals, ruined infrastructure and blase politicians. The ‘land’ is sinking daily, and the body count is rising. Professionals leaving in droves, no businesses investing(rightly so).
There is a pall over the city-a ‘make $ while you can, any way you can’ temporary feel. It’s the ‘rip off’ capital of the country now- complete will third-world mentality. Party amid the ruins-shrug and accept decay as long as the ‘important’ stuff is still here- football, the Vieux Carre, some tourists.
All the bravado in the world can’t change June on the calendar and hurricane season staring us in the face.
So how does the crime capital of the nation not make a misery list????
Maybe there should be a ‘hopeless’ list. I promise you, N.O. would top that- hope is not here.
And if Detroit were Republican (which it was fairly so until the 1950s), it wouldn’t be a miserable place to live.
I just moved to Fresno from Phoenix. It’s not perfect, and it has been the butt of jokes for a long time. There was a series called “Fresno” starring the Carol Burnett bunch, which was drop-dead funny, but it did burden the city with a new level of baggage. Fresno has gotten the “worst city” award before too, in the 1970s when Dan Whitehurst went on Johnny Carson’s show to mitigate the damage from a previous such award.
One reason the downtown is such a mess is that Floyd Hyde was the mayor in the 1960s (he went on to become the head of HUD under LBJ). He started a program of “renewal,” which included tearing down our picturesque courthouse and the historic Carnegie Library, under the failed Model Cities program. It literally ripped the heart out of the city. The new courthouse still stands, an ugly testament to 1960s cast concrete modernity.
A “mall” was built that closed the busiest street, Fulton Avenue, and for the last 40 years, the mantra has been “How to we make the mall work?” What should happen is all the artwork and junk in the “mall” should be torn out or moved, and Fulton Street restored to regular automobile traffic. The mall cuts the city in two and makes it difficult to get anywhere, and gives gang members and homeless people a place to hide/sleep/deal drugs etc.
The crime rate here is less than Phoenix, and there are more millionaires per square mile than most other cities in the country. There is a good deal of activity to rebuild downtown and recover from the past’s failed policies. The Security Bank building now boasts loft apartments at $600,000 each. Not bad for an “unlivable” place.
If I could do anything to change Fresno (and I intend to try my best to do so), I would bring high tech here from LA and the Bay Area. The cost of living is about 1/2 of the coast, and it’s a great place to raise kids. It’s a very conservative town.
Amy, your thoughts on Fresno?
Check the name of the town at the bottom of this page. Fresno, California.
She’s too moley.
I was born in Fresno many years ago; I have seen a very small, rural, friendly community grow into a large city. I think people are still friendly but the small town atmosphere is gone.
I have not been to downtown for awhile. Many of the local businesses left the downtown area. A few have been successful relocating to the malls. I enjoyed being able to walk Fulton Street on a lunch hour. I could always find the perfect pair of shoes or that dress for a special occasion. I guess my age is showing. : )
I would like to leave California but we have not been able to find anyplace that we are ready to move to.
Tubebender ..... when you return for a visit, what are your thoughts about the changes that have taken place since your left?
Jim ..... I know you want to buy a motorhome so you can live in several different places ( *grin), but what do you think of Fresno and Fresno County?
bump
My parents live in Boca (and have for 17 years now). You need all the tolerance and thick skin in the world to live down there. The best thing about visiting down there is I am actually polite compared to the locals (and that is saying ALOT!).
“
Considering that I’ve heard some stories about how bad Fresno is leads me to ask “Is the Central Valley really that much of a hell hole?”
Anyone?
“
You might check with the creator and operator of www.freerepublic.com.
As Jim Robinson lives in the Fresno area.
Note that at the front door to Free Republic (URL below; scroll about
2/3 down the page) that the site’s mailing address is in Fresno.
http://www.freerepublic.com/home.htm
Additionally, (and IIRC), scholar and writer Victor Davis Hanson
lived in the Central Valley.
And wrote a book titled “Mexifornia” (URL below) about how the living
conditions in his home base of the Central Valley of CA have gone
down, down, down with the influx of the lower levels of Mexican society...
and his decision to abandon the “old home place” farm and move elsewhere
due to the increased crime and significantly reduced quality of life.
Mexifornia : A State of a Becoming
by Victor Davis Hanson
http://www.amazon.com/Mexifornia-Becoming-Victor-Davis-Hanson/dp/1594030561/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1201717584&sr=1-1
You have to choose your area carefully. There are plenty of nice small towns around Atlanta that don't have that cookie cutter suburban look.
Besides, Appleby's has a Weight Watchers menu, that's not a bad thing.
The joke back then was that Fresno was the "Gateway to Bakersfield."
And this is why the survey is skewed. Quite honestly, how could you have a misery index that excludes the local “leadership” and the public schools?
Just imagine the list with those included.
One addition to my previous post...
When I said that Jim Robinson lived in the Fresno area, I should have
said:
AFAIK, Jim Robinson lives in the Fresno area.
I’ve not met or talked to Mr. Robinson...but I was just trying to
pass along the best information at my disposal.
ONE more comment:
My understanding is that some of the Central Valley communities
really suffer from air pollution that blows eastward from all the Bay Area.
Imagine that...a bunch of Socialists-Liberals-Democrats that promote
AMNESTY for all those ILLEGALS have no problem with dumping their
air pollution on the illegals in The Central Valley that make sure
those San Francisco weinies don’t run out of arugala!
(/SARC)
One addition to my previous post...
When I said that Jim Robinson lived in the Fresno area, I should have
said:
AFAIK, Jim Robinson lives in the Fresno area.
I’ve not met or talked to Mr. Robinson...but I was just trying to
pass along the best information at my disposal.
ONE more comment:
My understanding is that some of the Central Valley communities
really suffer from air pollution that blows eastward from all the Bay Area.
Imagine that...a bunch of Socialists-Liberals-Democrats that promote
AMNESTY for all those ILLEGALS have no problem with dumping their
air pollution on the illegals in The Central Valley that make sure
those San Francisco weinies don’t run out of arugala!
(/SARC)
LOL. Same here in New Jersey. You have hellholes of strip mall and tract house sprawl (Manalapan, Edison, Cherry Hill, etc.), but you also have many charming small towns that are now suburbs (Princeton, Westfield, Madison, etc.).
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