(Forbes) Worst Places: America's Most Miserable Cities

Forbes ^ | 1/30/08 | Kurt Badenhausen

[MotleyGirl70]

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.

[durasell]

So, they’re now mixed in with the Greeks and Chinese?

[padre35]

I think the methodology for the most miserable city should include Parking Ticket revenues raised.

My goodness, I watched that A&E show “Parking Wars” and there is no chance I would ever put a wheel in that town.

Add in tossing out the Boy Scouts and Philly needs the toilet handle jiggled to flush that town away....

[soupcon]

Agreed. New Yorkers don’t seem miserable at all to me...maybe it’s their superior coping skills when dealing with long commutes and high taxes.
I’ve been taking my nine year old girl to NYC every month for the last three years, and she LOVES Manhattan, especially the people.

[Alberta's Child]

It probably helps that the cost of living in many of those Rust Belt cities is pretty reasonable, and that commute times are very low compared to major metro areas.

I'd be curious to see all of these rankings for all 150 cities; I'd venture to guess that Columbus, Ohio would be one of the top cities in the Northeast -- while the Twin Cities area is the best "big city" (a metropolitan area with a population in excess of 2 million people) in the U.S., in my opinion.

[Clemenza]

Yep, along with the folks just out of college who love Astoria due to the quick commute. I prefer such folks to the hipsters who have ruined Billyburg, btw.

[durasell]

BTW — Sunset Park now has a large Mexican/South American population. NYC -— at long last — finally gets decent Mexican food.

[Alberta's Child]

LOL.

[crymeariver]

Charlotte’s mayor is a Republican running for Governor. Traffic is bad. The outer belt where all the subdivisions are have terrible roads. Small two lane, no shoulders, pot holes, and bumper to bumper traffic. Housing prices are pretty decent though. Despite all this, it doesn’t deserve being identified as miserable.

[durasell]

I never liked Billyburg — it had loft space that mimicked soho, but that was it. There’s really nothing there, even after gentrification. Just some hipster clubs. Astoria has actual neighborhoods and good food — some of the best diners.

[o_zarkman44]

Politicians thrive on misery. With a helpful smile.
Most big cities are run by liberals trying to tell the rest of us how great they are.

[o_zarkman44]

Their population hasn’t recovered yet in NO LA.
Study had to have 330k population.

[mrsmel]

That’s what I figured.

[Clemenza]

8th Avenue for Chinese Food, then three blocks west to 5th Avenue (especially from 30th to 59th) for Mexican food. Cacique lives in between, so he can give recommendations.

Of course, once you get past 59th on 5th and cross into Bay Ridge, its Halal Middle Eastern from 65th down to 86th.

You see folks, even the not so glamorous outer boroughs aren't too miserable!

I do agree about most of the other cities on this list. In terms of cities with population over 250,000, I would put Detroit, Philly, Houston, Atlanta, Buffalo, Cleveland, and Cincinatti on my urban misery index.

[NativeNewYorker]

The blue collar apartment hives of the outer boroughs have always been an unpleasant first step on the American dream ladder. I know, because I grew up in one.

The non-slum outerbourough neighborhoods like Forest Hills compete with Manhattan for the upper middle class, and former slums like Williamsburg are now very chic.

I've actually spent a lot of time in Flint, and visit Philly often. Both are stagnant pits. Cheaper than NY? Yes. Shorter commutes and lower taxes? Yes. But pits with scant upside for folks looking to improve themselves.

[VanShuyten]

What about DC and Baltimore?

[kellynla]

After the 1968 race riots, cities across America went to hell in a hand basket. “White flight” that cities have yet and may never economically recover from.

If you’re gonna live in Southern Cali;
beat the commute and save on gas by working out of your house as I have done since 1979.

[Clemenza]

It may be politically incorrect to say this among certain people, but a major advantage that New York had over Philly and Cleveland (to say nothing of Newark) was that the very rich stayed in the city in the former. In Philly, as early as the 1910s, the wealthy were leaving the city in droves for the Main Line, while those in Cleveland went to places like Shaker Heights.

The old journalistic cliche is that the cities needed to maintain the "blue collar middle class" to survive. Well, Philadelphia did remain a blue collar city well through the 1980s (unlike Detroit and Newark, which saw a massive flight of such folks after the riots), but it could never stem decline as New York did due to the lack of a large number of wealthy folks remaining in the city.

[PennsylvaniaMom]

I would love to see he total ranking too...you are so correct about housing costs being reasonable in the ‘rust belt.’. A couple weeks ago I was watching A&E ‘Flip this House.’ A run down house that vagrants had been ‘living’ in, located in S. Central LA (they showed the workers carrying out drawers full of debris w/live rodents in them) sold (in that condition) for $310,000! That was pre-flip. Here in the Burgh 310k would get you a brand new ‘McMansion.’ I am guessing (like you)) that that has to figure in bigtime...the weather is awful and we share (sadly) the same state gov as Philly. On the upside Ed Rendell only recognizes the eastern part of the state.

[Obadiah]

Actually, it is alledged that the “Santa” in this case appeared drunk and that’s when Iggles fans started booing and pelting him with snowballs. I’m sure if they were really mad at Santa he would have been shot before he ever got on the field.

[Sterm26]

Philly native and current resident here. It’s not that bad here. Really. Stay away from the bad neighborhoods and you are fine. Enjoy the hoagies. Lots of transplanted NYers are.

I was much more miserable in the few years I spent in Jersey. I avoid going there if at all possible.