Posted on 02/02/2008 9:26:00 AM PST by Lorianne
We looked at only the 150 largest metropolitan areas, which meant a minimum population of 371,000. We ranked the cities on the six criteria above and added their ranks together to establish what we call the Misery Measure. The data used in the rankings came from Portland, Ore., researcher Bert Sperling, who last year published the second edition of Cities Ranked & Rated along with Peter Sander. Economic research firm Economy.com, which is owned by Moody's, also supplied some data.
Detroit in the top spot, with its sister city Flint ranked third, is probably not a great shock. "If Detroit were a baseball team, we'd say they are mired in a slump," says Sperling. Both Detroit and Flint have suffered tremendously from the auto industry downturn. Flint's plight was immortalized in the Michael Moore movie Roger & Me, which chronicles Moore's attempts to meet with then General Motors (nyse: GM - news - people ) Chief Executive Roger Smith.
Crime and unemployment are closely linked, according to Sperling. Our three most miserable places bear that out (Stockton, Calif., ranks second). All three are among the eight worst cities in terms of both unemployment and violent crime.
The United States' two biggest cities both induce a ton of misery. New York was the fourth most miserable city by our count, while Los Angeles clocked in at sixth. The Big Apple has the longest commute times (36.2 minutes) and the highest tax rates (10.5%) in the country. As the financial capital of the world and home to write-down kings Merrill Lynch (nyse: MER - news - people ) and Citigroup (nyse: C - news - people ), New York appears poised for more misery in 2008.
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
Baltimore’s got to step up. We can’t be dissed like this...
It’s been posted AT LEAST twice already.
I don’t see a list
Why do they keep calling Detroit an American city? Everybody knows it’s a muslim province of Canada.
Charlotte, NC???
Providence, RI???
And New Orleans is not on this list?
I want the last 5 minutes of my life back. I could have read something useful.
New Orleans isn’t so much a city as it’s a state of mind.
No, Washington DC is the most miserable US city. From top to bottom.
It's so ridiculous that it probably shouldn't be posted at all. Most of these "ranking articles" by Forbes are silly. But this one takes the cake. Anybody who would put Charlotte among the top ten most-miserable cities is simply a lunatic.
“Why do they keep calling Detroit an American city? Everybody knows it’s a muslim province of Canada.”
Yuk. Yuk. It’s John Conyers’ zoo.
“Anybody who would put Charlotte among the top ten most-miserable cities is simply a lunatic.”
I agree.
Taxes carry a lot of weight in this list. But a lot of people living in NY or LA don't seem to mind high taxes. They may even like it. So people who are set on living there anyway aren't going to think much of Forbes's list.
All these lists have an implied audience in mind. If you can put up with high taxes (or bad weather or crime or heavy traffic) you aren't it for this one.
“Taxes carry a lot of weight in this list. But a lot of people living in NY or LA don’t seem to mind high taxes.
At least we use high taxes to maintain a large police force, which promptly arrests any and all criminals and takes them to jail.
“I want the last 5 minutes of my life back. I could have read something useful.”
I’m with you.
I would have read this sooner, but I was stuck in New York city traffic in the Lincoln Tunnel.
Of course. We gave out driver's licenses to illegals like flyers at a political event.
I don’t either.. I am not going to sit through some long video sequence.. I just want the GD list. Grrrrr
I’m going to a biker function tonight in Stockton
Baltimore, Detroit, Chicago, New York, Miami, San Francisco, LA all suck: Either they’re infested with liberalism, illegal immigrants, or both.
That is so wrong. Thats really really racist. You really shouldn’t say stuff like that on forums like this. If you can’t say anything constructive, just keep it to yourself.
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