(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.

[Tribune7]

Ed Rendell once paid a kid to throw snowballs at the visiting team.

[bill1952]

Most Miserable Cities.

??? A joke, right? Every one run by the democrat machine.
Nothing further needs be said.

[Southack]

"And we did not even factor in air quality, where Los Angeles is the worst in the nation by far..."

Yes, but let's not give the news media a pass for lying. Back in 2000, the news media gleefully repeated a new lie that "Houston had the nation's worst air quality" in their attempts to paint Governor George W. Bush of Texas in a bad light.

[Southside_Chicago_Republican]

And as for misery, nothing tops being a Cubs fan. The team has not won a World Series since 1908, the longest winless streak in baseball.

That makes some of us miserable. For others of us, it is a source of great joy.

[adorno]

Hmm...

Out of the top 10 cities for misery, only one, Charlotte, is not in a “blue” state. Count it be that it also is trending “blue”?

Coincidence?

[RC2]

One thing that is never talked about, but better be talked about if they really want to clean things up, is the ethnic makeup of the cities. Seems everyone is afraid to even mention it.......but it’s reality. Address this problem or give up the big cities.

[Leisler]

I was watching my new favorite show, “The First 48 Hrs.” Even the police station in Detroit was a total dump. We should put our intercontinental nuclear missiles in Detroit. That way if we get nuked, no more Detroit. Kind of a two-fer.

[Leisler]

Gary?
Newark?

[adorno]

Count it Should be "Can it be"

I have no idea how I got from one to the other. lol

[Clemenza]

As a native of Philly, I can tell you that wasn’t caused by misery rather by idiocy. ;)

No offense, but Filthadelphia is home to the surliest people on the eastern seaboard. People from "Bawlimer" are practically aristocratic compared to "Iggles" fans.

BTW: WTF is up with "hoagies?" I live and work at the midpoint between NY and Philly, so I do get Philly people always telling me how they are going to pick up "hoagies" and put "jimmies" on their ice cream.

[Alter Kaker]

We should put our intercontinental nuclear missiles in Detroit. That way if we get nuked, no more Detroit.

Have you been to Detroit? Detroit already looks like it's been nuked. Detroit could be nuked and nobody would be able to tell the difference.

[Clemenza]

Newark has its faults, but is nowhere near as bad as Camden (NJ), Chester (PA), or East St. Louis.

[Slapshot68]

Hoagie=sub...except superior. ;)

[Williams]

It is my understanding the Philadelphia Santa booing episode is a bit of a myth, in that Santa appeared at halftime and his sleigh had an ad on it. The crowd was booing placing a commercial on Santa. At least that’s how I hear it. This also happened a long time ago.

[Southack]

"This is a joke. Flint and Philly are crime-ridden cesspools losing population, while New York has a record-low crime rate and is gaining people. How does NYC end up between the other two?"

It's an amatuerish index. A better indication of misery would be rate and number of new business closing versus opening, population growth or shrinkage (the water was cold), lawsuits filed, unemployment rate increasing or decreasing, average wages increasing or decreasing, weather, crime rate increasing or decreasing, commute time increasing or decreasing, air/water quality increasing or decreasing, local political/sports power/prestige increasing (e.g. winning a Super Bowl in Green Bay would make that area estatic regardless of everything else), local taxes increasing/decreasing, etc.

[Clemenza]

I lived in Miami for three years. Its actually a great place (women, nightlife, restaurants) depending on what neighborhood you live in.

Liberty City and Allahpattah are sh-tholes, but that's like judging NYC on Brownsville or LA based on South Central.

[DeFault User]

Charlotte could have moved up several notches if they rated the public schools.

[jdm]

I think they forgot Gary, Indiana. :O)

[ishabibble]

>>Only New York City fares worst than Providence when it comes to income tax rates. The top rate for all of Rhode Island is 9.9%. Residents are fleeing the area, with a net migration of 20,000 out of the area over the past four years.<<

It’s not just Providence, the entire state of Rhode Island is in misery. Since it’s so small, it is easily overlooked but it’s just about to topple of the tracks entirely. People talk about Michigan. Rhode Island is so bankrupt and corrupt that it is unsolvable.

[Clemenza]

NY's issues are the high cost of housing and the high taxes. If you go out to the outer boroughs, and speak with the lower middle class and recent immigrants, they will tell you what hell it is to live in New York in their condition.

Believe it or not, your average Chinese/Albanian/Dominican/Ecuadorian/Nigerian would much prefer a large house on a large lot in suburbia than a row house/flat in Queens or Brooklyn. The "glamour" of NYC means nothing to them.