Feeling Blue? Magazine Grades Cities On Depression (Texas Cities Found To Be Happiest)

Local 6 (Florida) ^ | March 9, 2005

[Stoat]

Feeling Blue? Magazine Grades Cities On Depression

Texas Cities Found To Be Happiest

 

POSTED: 12:15 pm EST March 9, 2005

 

Even before the Super Bowl, Philadelphia was a depressed town. The city of brotherly love comes in last in Men's Health's rankings of 101 cities on depression.

Philly is joined at the bottom by Detroit, St. Louis and St. Petersburg and Tampa, Fla., according to a news release. People are much more jolly in Texas. Laredo tops the list, one of four cities earning an "A+" from the magazine. The other least depressed cities include El Paso and Corpus Christi, Texas, and Jersey City, N.J.

Criteria for the rankings included information on antidepressant sales from NDC Health, suicide rates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and information from the CDC's Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. The rankings are published in the April issue of Men's Health, which will be on newsstands March 15.

[NYC GOP Chick]

Now *that's* depressing!

[Veto!]

Thanks, Stoat. I can't use the SAD lights because I've had three recent eye surgeries and am much too sensitive to light. Alas. Meds are always risky for me....often having the opposite from intended effect. I went to two highly reputable docs, one who prescribed the lights and much-too-powerful meds, one who works with me to find the right dose of meds. Essentially, I take zero drugs. But have found one anti-depressant that works OK if I take one tab every other day--a "low dose" is two per day. But all of this is beside the point.

Basically, I don't think there are medical answers to existential problems.....I just hate it here and I'm stuck until ...what? Until I have a good reason to go to something specific. I don't want to just wander around.

[Stoat]

....If you ever get a chance, check out Lake Ransom Canyon southeast of Lubbock.....

Thank you very much for your recommendations; I will make a point of it  :-)

[DeFault User]

St. Petersburg, in the heyday of CB radios, was known as Wrinkle City.

[Stoat]

...I don't want to just wander around.

I'm very sorry to hear of your difficulties and I wish that I could do more than empathize.  Since you're already a Freeper, you may wish to consider becoming more involved with local Freeper activities.  I haven't noticed you posting at the FR Washington message board, but you can meet lots of nice local people there if you do.  There are frequent 'Freeps' of different kinds, especially lately with all of the bad stuff going on with the Governor's race.  There are also lots of 'support the troops' activities.....you may wish to FreepMail Libertina, Spanaway Lori or other Washington Freepers to become more involved.  You can have a good time, meet new friends with similar interests and make a difference in the community all at the same time.  :-)

[Fred Nerks]

Yoohoo Gondring, thanks for the pingedy-ping Friend, but I live on a hilltop in the middle of a tropical-fruit plantation overlooking the Pacific Ocean in Queensland, and when I go for a drive I never see a single traffic light. There's only one thing in the whole wide world that depresses me, and I imagine you can guess what that is, right?

[Stoat]

From the manicured, estate-sized lots of Rushland Park and
Tanglewood to the cozy starter homes of Monterey Park and Bent
Tree, Lubbock offers a variety of colorful neighborhoods to fit
any lifestyle. Lubbock-area housing options include everything
from lake-front living (Lake Ransom Canyon) to historical neighborhoods
with classically designed homes.
Lubbock also has a good supply of reasonably priced housing.
The average price for a single family home is approximately
$30,000 below the national average. The city’s newer subdivisions
lie in the rapidly growing Southwest area, with easy access
to South Plains Mall. Lubbock also has an adequate supply of
apartment units, most of which are located in the South and West
areas of the city or near the Texas Tech campus.

From the Community Profile /Quality of life PDF at

http://www.ci.lubbock.tx.us/index.asp

[jan in Colorado]

Thanks for the ping.

I don't know if I was more or less depressed after reading this article.

My little city isn't included but one that I live near got a D+

As with most studies or polls, I question the methods used in getting the results.

But it seems Texas IS the place to live!

[Nam Vet]

I'm surprised Portland scored so high! They got all the way up to a "D" in the grading. Shall wonders never cease.

Nam Vet

[utahguy]

8. San Jose, CA -- A-

San Jose an A-???? Salt Lake City a D-?????? Ajenda Driven Junk science in action. Gimmie a break.

[Gondring]

It's probably the high Mormon suicide rate that drives that. Their methodology combined suicide rate in with the antidepressant sales and BRFSS.

[Muleteam1]

I think homes in Lubbock are still quite affordable. I sold my three bedroom two-car garage, all-brick home in southwest Lubbock in 1986 for around $40,000. I haven't looked at Lubbock prices lately, but that same small home probably sells for around $80,000 now. A larger 2,000 square foot home in southwest Lubbock might now sell for around $120,000.

Lubbock is situated on the south end of the Texas High Plains, a southern extension of the Great Plains. If one likes wide open spaces and 300 days per year of sunshine, the High Plains can be a great place to live. If you want mountains, there are some great places in New Mexico within weekend driving distance. If you've never seen cotton grown, you'll be living in the middle of a cotton field. It was the good conservative folks in Lubbock that prompted President George H. Bush to say after a visit to Lubbock in the 1980s, "I Love Lubbock." I did too.

The historical neighborhood your article speaks of must be Buddy Holly's old childhood home out on 36/37/or 38th street(?) I took my brother over there this past summer. I even had to leave a guitar pick on Holley's grave at the City of Lubbock Cemetery in order to, as the legend says, "keep the music alive." Conservative west Texas has produced a few stars in its own right. The hometown of Waylon Jennings, a close associate of Buddy Holly's "Crickets" is at Littlefield, Texas, about 30 miles northwest of Lubbock. Delbert McClinton and Mac Davis, country songwriters are also from Lubbock. The childhood hometown of Dan Blocker (Hoss Cartwright of the old Bonanza TV series) is at O'Donnell about 40 miles south of Lubbock and Muleshoe, Texas is the hometown of Lee Horsley, best known as Matlock 'Matt' Houston in the 1980s TV series. Other greats produced by west Texas include Jimmy Dean (country singer and sausage maker), Bob Wills (Faded Love on twin fiddles), Floyd Tillman (country singer), Ron Ely (Tarzan), Woody Harrelson (TV series Cheers, we have produced a few fools), and many more. And lastly, Roswell, New Mexico, crash site to aliens (not south of the border type aliens either) is a short drive from Lubbock.

Sorry to bend your ear but you seem to be an addition that conservative west Texans could welcome.

Muleteam1

[Former Dodger]

Muleteam1 wrote:I think there is an unwritten corollary about how obnoxious and ugly an animal is and how well they can survive.

I agree totally, here in the NYC area the SEAGULLS fit that description.

How can JERSEY CITY be an A+ and NYC be a D+? Very strange criteria for this list...
They must have concentrated on the gentrified areas of JC for their info, because "basic" JC is VERY depressing.

However, if JC is being compared to other "Big Cities" in NJ, then, yes, it's much better than Newark, Trenton, Camden, Atlantic City, Elizabeth and Plainfield, that's for sure.

[Former Dodger]

I find New York a cold and strange place with rude people by comparison.

When was the last time you were in NYC? It has changed so much that I barely recognize it.

I grew up in NY (Queens and Brooklyn) and a trip to the "City" (Manhattan) was always like an Indiana Jones adventure, NOW, it's a trip to Disneyland.

I guess it's good, it's all thanks to Rudy Giuliani, but I kind of miss the edginess.

As far as being "cold", most NYer's are very friendly, you probably ran into a bunch of Yuppie transplants, they're giving us a bad name! (LOL) NY is a tough place on Philly folks becaause of all the Sports rivalries, though. If you were wearing any items from the following teams it might be a reason for the "Big Chill": Eagles, Flyers, Phillies or 76er's, just as I'd expect grief for Giants, Jets, Rangers, Devils, Mets, Knicks, or Nets apparel.

That's just the way it is.

[small_l_libertarian]

Well, Florida (Tampa) has pretty girls, cowboys, CCWs, Second Amendment rights, sun and Bush, too, but we're #97!

How did that happen?

[bboop]

Yes, but you also have Cynthia McKinney and that Terrorist Prof at Southern Florida U.

[bboop]

We came as a family. The Sodomites were out in great numbers.

[chris1]

Who said anyone was happy here? Yonkers is a corrupt city that in infested with organized crime, nepotism, etc.

[Liberal Classic]

Distinctive odor? -- Pasadena.

[chris1]

Your right, Yonkers is Soprano land. The one thing Yonkers has going for it is that you are 10-20 minutes to any of the following:

1. NYC
2. Airports
3. NJ
4. White Plains
5. CT
6. Long Island Sound
7. Hudson River