Tacoma Ranks as Most Stressful U.S. City

Reuters to My Yahoo! ^ | 1-9-04 | Reed Stevenson

[Pharmboy]

SEATTLE (Reuters) - Move over New York, take a hike Miami, New Orleans, Las Vegas, Dallas and Detroit. You may have stress but none of you have that rare combination of suicide, unemployment, theft and gloomy weather that Tacoma, Washington, has.

The city of 195,000 just 30 miles east of Seattle was named America's most stressful city in a survey published on Friday.

Tacoma ranked at the top of 100 large metro areas surveyed by the BestPlaces ranking researcher, which also took into account other factors such as commute times, alcohol consumption and self-reported mental health.

"America leads the world in stressful living," said Bert Sperling, who runs Portland, Oregon, based BestPlaces, "The average vacation time in Europe is five weeks a year but our attitude is almost 'Thank God it's Monday"'

The city where convicted Washington, D.C. area sniper John Muhammad lived is home to large blue-collar and military populations. "On a brighter note, Tacomans can feel safe from bodily harm thanks to the low violent crime rate," Sperling wrote in his report.

High violent crime put Miami second on the list of most stressful cities, in addition to high property crime, long commutes, high unemployment and a high divorce rate.

The third most stressful U.S. city was New Orleans, despite being known as the "Big Easy," followed by Las Vegas, which had the highest suicide and divorce rates in the study, and New York, which boasted the longest commute times.

The sixth most stressful city was Portland, followed by Mobile, Alabama, Stockton-Lodi in California, Detroit and Dallas.

Sperling, whose BestPlaces ranking is published yearly by Money magazine, said he used publicly available census, crime, weather and health data to create a "stress index" in order to rank the cities.

"One of the key factors was the unemployment rate, but we also used the suicide rate -- that's the ultimate unhappiness factor," Sperling said.

The study also produced the least stressful cities in the United States, which all share low unemployment rates, as well as short commutes, lower divorce rates, less crime and lower suicide rates.

The multiple-city enclaves of Albany-Schenectady-Troy in New York and Harrisburg-Lebanon-Carlisle in Pennsylvania tied for the least stressful metropolitan areas.

Other metro areas with less stress included Orange County, California, Nassau-Suffolk in New York, and Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota.

[Pharmboy]

I lived in Albany for 3 years...it is an easy city to live in, as long as you don't mind the cold.

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Move your locale up the leaderboard!

[Libertarianize the GOP]

ping

[Porterville]

What is stress? I live In SLO.

[vetvetdoug]

John Wilson Sprague is probably twirling in his grave. He has been gone now 110 years. He founded Tacoma after the Civil War. I owned his saddle, spurs, bridle, crupper, boots, valise, girth, breaststrap, and bit that he used during the Civil War and rode to earn the Medal Of Honor.

[Eala]

The city of 195,000 just 30 miles east of Seattle

Holy cow! And here all along I thought it was south of Seattle, not mere miles from here.

[relee]

You're right, it is south and a bit west, not east.

[Pharmboy]

Thanks for the history. I will check the guy out...sounds interesting.

[EggsAckley]

How in the world did Stockton-Lodi get into that list??

[Steel Wolf]

There's also the infamous Tacoma Aroma, the local phrase for the undescribeably foul, funky smell of downtown. And the bad drivers. And the meth labs. And auto theft.

[VOA]

"You may have stress but none of you have that rare combination of suicide, unemployment, theft and gloomy weather that Tacoma, Washington, has.
.....America leads the world in stressful living," said Bert Sperling, who runs Portland,
Oregon, based BestPlaces... "

Earth to Bert Sperling:
By your criteria, I suspect that Tacoma is a garden spot compared to the Baltic
States and lots of Russia...

http://www.rferl.org/nca/features/2002/04/09042002073543.asp

from the linked article:
"Looking at the figure another way, last year's rate breaks down to 44 suicides
per every 100,000 people in Lithuania. In other countries in the region, suicide rates,
while slightly lower, are still significantly higher than the global average of 16 suicides
per 100,000 people. In Russia last year, 39 of every 100,000 people ended their
own lives. In Latvia and Estonia, the numbers were 34 and 33, respectively.
In Hungary, the number was 32.

By contrast, the United States -- with a population of 281 million -- has about 31,000
sucides a year, a rate of approximately 11 per 100,000 people. Britain also had 11
suicides per 100,000 in 2000.

In Scandinavia, where suicides are more frequent, recent rates are still significantly
lower than those in the Baltic states. Finland, which has the highest suicide rate of
the Scandinavian states, had nearly 30 suicides per 100,000 in 1998."

VOA's comment...interesting that the suicide rate is lower in the two leading countries
of The Coalition of The Willing have lower suicide rates than the advanced, sophisicated
model countries of Scandinavia.
I guess this result in the cradle-to-grave nanny state of Scandinavia fits in with
the old saying from the ancient Greeks:
"If you want to destroy a man, give him everything he wants."

[headsonpikes]

And the bad drivers.

Not to mention the ancient concrete of I-5. ;^)

Driving back and forth to points south from Vancouver,B.C., I found that Tacoma and Portland were always the most stressful cities to drive through, particularly when raining.

[vetvetdoug]

Sprague gave the orders to kill William P. Rogers at Battery Robinett at the Battle of Corinth. Then in December of 1862 he chased NB Forrest with his 63rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry and CAUGHT him at the Battle of Parkers' Crossroads. Sprague was given Command of the 63rd OVI after his escape from Libby Prison in December 1861. He earned the MOH for saving Sherman's supply trains from incessant attacks by Wheelers' Cavalry during the Atlanta Campaign. Had it not been for Sprague, Sherman's March to the Sea would have been non existent. After the Civil War he was given the responsibility for choosing the western terminus of the Northern Pacific Railroad by Dodge and Sprague chose the Tacoma region which resulted in the city of Tacoma.
Tacoma

[stimulate]

Las Vegas has always had the highest divorce rate because people from all over the United States go there to get divorced.Couples get divorced in Vegas because it's very easy.That fact does not necessriy indicate "stress". I'll bet that the high suicide rate has to do with "out of towners" who have lost it all gambling.

[drhogan]

i think you are onto something. these stress ratings are very faulty. i think the article says the US leads in stress. if that were so, people would move out of the US, not in.

[qam1]

Didn't Tacoma recently ban smoking on private property? If it's that stressful if anything they should be encouraging more people to take up the habit.

[Texas Eagle]

When I left Tacoma 15 years ago they were just introducing needle exchanges for heroin addicts. Maybe they oughta try making heroin use mandatory.

And paint the roof of that stupid dome.