Forbes magazine has put together a list of America’s most stressful cities and as a product of Chicago, the winner of the dubious distinction of being America’s most stressful city, I have this to say: “Yeah, so? Shut up and let me eat my hot dog in peace for once, goddamn it. No, I’m not yelling. Why are you always saying that I’m yelling? It’s not like you never yell! Pass the sport peppers before this gets ugly.”
Without further ado…
America’s Most Stressful Cities:
10. Philadelphia, PA
9. Providence, R.I.
8. Salt Lake City, Utah
7. Cleveland, Ohio
6. San Diego, Calif.
5. San Francisco, Calif.
4. Los Angeles, Calif.
3. Detroit, Mich.
2. New York, N.Y.
1. Chicago, Ill.
The magazine considered unemployment rate, expensive gas, high population density and relatively poor air quality as its criteria for what made one city more stressful than another.
Chicago has a 7.3% unemployment rate, the eighth most polluted air in our ranking and in city where everybody drives to get around, a gallon of gas costs a nickel under $4 dollars.
Omitted from the calculations:
America’s Most Stressful Cities [Forbes]
(Photos: Meghann Marco & Meghann Marco)
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How did Baltimore not make the list?
I need to go drown out my disappointment with some Natty Boh.
Bah! Chicago is the most stressful city?
Come ON. That’s crazy. LA has it beat by the sheer amount of time wasted driving.
Although I must admit that the Cubs playoff games are gonna stress me out even from 650 miles away. You know they’re gonna do something to mess it up…oh please no!
After 13 years in NYC I’m ready to move. Despite the opportunities to see and do things you couldn’t in other cities, the novelty has worn off.
I agree, New Orleans should be at the top of the list. Followed closely by Washington, DC.
Add commute time to the list, and factor in the number of decent sports teams, then talk about stress.
I have lived in both Chicago and Nashville and I would choose Chicago in a
heartbeat. I cannot tell you how many times we had stuff stolen in Nashville.
My husband and I each had checks stolen and cashed. A thief who had done some
work for us tried to make off with my husband’s scooter, and he knew my
husband’s condition and that he needed the scooter to get around. When we were
moving into our house, the door was kicked in about 9 p.m. and it was 2 in the
morning before the police got there. The last time I was there, when I was
getting ready to sell the place, the door was again kicked open and I had to pay
for a motel room rather than stay in the house I owned.
When I was in an accident in 90-degree heat, we could not get the police to
come out. A Tennessee trooper called Metro for us and they wouldn’t even tell
him when someone would be out. When I finally walked into my office, I was so
sick that my boss took one look and told me to go home.
Last January, on the day the temperature dropped 40 degrees in just an hour
or so, I left downtown Chicago at 5:15 and got to I-57 about an hour later.
Despite the rain and heavy traffic, we did not see a single accident. In
Nashville, you cannot drive 15 miles on a sunny day without seeing at least one and
usually more, mostly due to people who cannot look where they are going and
hit the car in front of them.
When I lived in Chicago and had occasion to call the police, they were there
within just a few minutes. I never owned a gun until I lived in Nashville;
now I have two of them.
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This explains a lot! OMFG, I live so very close to Chicago. Lovi’n the burbs.
probbydense disproves that there is an inverse relationship between consuming alcohol and lowering stress levels. i love how recently we’re in the top 10 of all these nationwide city surveys.
You know what’s NOT on the list? Minneapolis-St. Paul! That’s because the Twin Cities rock. Except during Republican National Conventions. Tear gas and riot police tend to elevate one’s stress levels. Who knew?
Oh Detroit. I still love you.
Regarding the stressfulness of CA cities: were the measurements made before or after the spliff was lit? These lil’ locals-only tricks make ALL the difference.
A lot of different factors can cause stress. I disagree with the criteria used for the list. Those items are not that high on the list of things that DO cause stress – relationships, relocations, deaths/illnesses of loved ones, etc.
Jim
There’s a Portillos in L.A. (sorta).
It’s in Buena Park, just down the street a couple blocks from Knott’s Berry Farm (still in L.A. county). Been open over a year or so.
Now, the only thing stressing me out is a coworker gave me a Portillo’s gift card a few months back – for my birthday – and i can’t seem to find the damn thing (arrgggh!)
San fran is stressful????? Dude if you live in or near the city high fuel prices don’t mean anything cause we all walk or take public trans to work. If you do drive, you are gonna pay a ton to park which means you should also make a ton and live outside the city. SF also has pretty clean air, at night you get all the fresh pacific air that cools off the city.
The factors on this list are not all equal in each city. Everyone in LA drives to work, most in SF don’t, thus gas is not a big issue.
Cleveland??? High population? They have some of the highest foreclosure rates in the country, now that should be counted as stressful.
Stupid poll to fill a few pages of the magazine and get a 15 spot on the nightly news.
This doesn’t even come close to passing the sniff test. Chicago more stressful than Detroit? San Diego more stressful than DC or Boston? That’s some bad criteria they’ve got there.
@BadAxe: Are you really from Bad Axe?
Detroit would be higher if the population density hadn’t been cut in half by white flight.
Not that I don’t love it for what it is (60 miles away, source of political amusement, delicious cheap food, great architecture, hockey and colorful characters), but I can’t really imagine a city in worse shape than D-town.
Tht Sndwch lks lk hll! Wh n th wrld wld t sch thng?
I’ve got to ditto the guys saying DC should be on the list or crowding its margins. It’s an awesome place to grow up in. When it came time to marry and raise kids, though, I made sure to be somewhere else.
Try living in the Southeast, guys. Folks say “please” and “thanks,” older women call you honey, the fried chicken brings tears to your eyes and so does the five-alarm chili. Mild winters, slow, relaxed summers and all the country music your head can handle.
Well, that last one might not be much of a draw. Thank God for CDs of something else.
SPORT PEPPER
whats a sport pepper?
@caveman1428: A sport pepper is a tiny hot pepper:
[www.tomatogrowers.com]
They’re pickled and jarred and we LOVE them in our hot dogs in Chicago.
Is D.C. not considered a city anymore, or something?
I agree with Forbes on many of their city-ranking lists, but not this one. The problems with D.C. are more than just statistical. You have to visit to understand how ridiculously stressful everything here can be. I love living in the D.C area, but it’s definitely the most stressful American city I have ever been to.
The cabbies in Chicago are just as reckless and psychotic. The Chicago Transit Authority is in shambles. The mayor is a moronic mob boss wanna be, who can’t be bothered to look at how other large cities in the nation aren’t swimming in a cesspool of millions of dollars in debt. The county (Cook) is run by an arrogant, ignorant, soulless, I-give-jobs-to-family-members-like-they’re-candy bastard (Fuck you, Stroger!). Our governor (Double FUCK YOU, BLAGOBITCH!) prefers to waste thousands in tax payer funds by flying his private jet to and from work on a weekly basis, instead of staying in the government-provided mansion.
Chicago, this title is well deserved.
mmmmm, portillo’s.
mmm… portillos. I feel sorry for you poor bastards that miss out on chicago hot dogs and italian beef.
@reefer: I know, I’m totally hungry for a Chicago dog now. I’m over in NW Indiana but we have a Portillo’s in Merrillville now which is about 20 minutes away.
I never find Chicago that stressful when I’m in it. Yeah, traffic sucks but traffic in Lake County, Indiana is more stressful than Chicago traffic.
I’m stressed that Philly barely made the list.
But Rhode Island’s so tiny…
Wow, having lived in LA, SF, DC and now Chicago, I’m shocked Chicago is no. 1 on this list. Never have I lived in a major city where people are so friendly, lots of green space, good public transportation, low rents and housing in decent neighborhoods, great restaurants, fun festivals, great sports teams (Go Cubs), I could go on and on…
I grew up bicoastal in SF and DC. Present day DC is a nightmare from horrific commutes, taxation without representation, rents rivalling NYC and SF, exorbitant housing prices, idiot cabbies (thank God for the newly instituted meter system), too many transplants who think they own the place, and if your party’s not in office multiply the stress and frustration level times 10.
Not too much bad to say about SF that people don’t already know, except why are there so few cabs? You can rent a limo easier than hailing a cab in SF, makes no sense.
I guess I’m one of the few people that enjoyed living in LA, but I lived in the city proper, and went to school there. God, I miss taking the Santa Monica busline to the beach for $.75, unreal. Watching the sunset in Venice, the dive bars, the crazy Jimi Hendrix wannabe on the boardwalk…Yeah, you need to find your niche, but once you do, LA is a very chill place.
Chicago, I will always love you…it really has some wonderful people, amazing creative energy, a blooming spiritual scene..in face, when you get below the surface, the amount of raw creative energy here is wonderful.
But, shit, there’s a reason I left it to move to an island off of Asia
For the record, not everyone drives in Chicago! It’s a great city to be without a car-the CTA is decrepit but wide-ranging, and I could smoke cars like crazy on my $50 mountain bike. Once travelling from edgewater to pilsen straight down damen at breakneck speed I passed 60 more cars than passed me
Someday, I will return. But you know what makes a city 100 x more stressful? Lack of access to real nature! Lack of access to mountains! Lack of access to clean rivers, to clean air, to the real world!
NOLA? Crime, poverty, corruption, hurricanes, idiot politicians
Stress comes from giving a shit about where you live. Don’t give a shit? No stress.
I imagine the stress in Salt Lake City is religious guilt and San Diego is stressed from trying to look so damn good. I’m from Philly, where the stress is just clogged arteries.
The people who run Forbes just have it for us in Cleveland. Did one of the reporters get dumped there or something?
But with a city run by back door deals and slimy politicians…
Salt Lake City? I’m from Fresno and I’m insulted by this presumption!
UNEMPLOYMENT RATE
Fresno has 11%
Salt Lake City has 3.5%
AIR QUALITY
Fresno – 5th worst air quality(also top 5 for ozone)
Salt Lake City – Not on the list
GAS PRICES
Fresno – $3.60
Salt Lake City – $3.60
POPULATION DENSITY
Frenso 111 people per Sq. Mile
Salt Lake City 984 People per Sq. Mile
Population density shouldn’t count because Fresno is surrounded by commercial agriculture which skews the numbers. We’re actually the 6th largest City in CA based on population. Besides Mormons don’t get stressed by cramming a huge family into a medium house, they enjoy it.
SF?
People would have to be born here to really know how it feels…and 90 percent of the douchebags living here aren’t. I’m not gonna go out on a limb and be a target.
“Disneyland for degenerates” is all I have to say.
Thanks a lot America.
@kolacek: But you live in SF, right? Does that make you Mickey Mouse, or one of the drawings on the teacup ride?
I’m going to be a Bay Area snob and chime in that it’s amusing they think SF is more stressful than, oh, Riverside.
@mythago:
No. I’m the not-smiling employee in “California Adventure” who tells you to get rid of your cigarette. And by “cigarette” I mean “cocaine.”
People from NY when they visit Chicago say it is cleaner and the people are more friendly. Chicago should be #2 on that list. Make a poll and let the people vote.
Chicago has many problems – but the reasoning for being on this list is retarded.
7.3 % unemployment rate ?? Maybe but it is terribly skewed , there are several areas in chicago where the unemployement rate is more like 35% which skews the whole city. This goes for just about every other statistic they can come up with.
Crime is the same way, pockets of south and west side are so bad that , from the news you would think that people are being gunned down everywhere. When in reality most of it is happening in a few gang infested areas.
If you want some good statistics on chicago Read the book Freakonomics
These forbes lists are utter crap
as a new orleanian, i would like to express my sadness that my illustrious city is not represented. i mean, come ON, people! murder rate = incredibly high. poverty rate = incredibly high. knowledge that someday the city is doomed to sink into lake pontchartrain and we will all drown like trapped rats in a sewer = always present.
Anyone pissing and moaning about Detroit not being as stressful as Chicago should consider the following; try driving someone during rush hour in downtown Detroit as opposed to Chicago. The difference?
You’ll travel three times the distance in Detroit as you would in Chitown within the same time frame. That right there is enough to make me swill cheap whiskey if I had to commute to work in Chicago.
The big difference here in chicago – is you dont have to drive.
On my way home from work I take a nap
you can get one of those Chicago Dogs here in Hawaii courtesy of Hank Haute Dogs. XD
less stress, more sexy food xD
I find it strange that Miami, Fl. isnt there considering the 7-10 results.
NO WAY Chicago is more stressful than Detroit! I’ve lived in both cities and Chicago is a dreamy garden of Eden compared to the faltering Michigan state economy, misguided reliance on the auto industry, just-been-booted outta office Mayor “Felon” Kilpatrick, lack of public transportation downtown (unless you count the People Mover, ha!), sorry excuse for a football team Detroit Lions and one of the highest foreclosure rates in the country.
Beat that Chicago! But yeah, I’m sure the Windy City is way more stressful. Ha!
Even Philadelphia? Weird. I am leaving San Francisco to Philadelphia for a vacation. Just my luck, both stressful.
I don’t get this. I live in Detroit, have a lot of friends in Chi-town/travel there a few times a year, and honestly, the overall gloom-and-doom feeling we have here in the D isn’t around in Chi. Things are more expensive, sure, but it’s not like it is here with this permeating sense of “OHGAWD, WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE!”
Well, amazingly enough, my home town of Pittsburgh, and my current residence, Columbia SC, are not listed. And as an extra bonus, neither are of them mentioned in the comments. I must be soooo chillin about now. I think I’ll have another toddy and chill out some more. Portillos? What’s that? Is it a who or a what? I guess since I don’t know I’m soo not missing it. Time for that toddy.
I find it hard to believe that New Yorkers are more stressed out than Los Angelenos.
I mean, we’re completely (or almost so) spared of having to drive. L.A. has the 405. ‘Nuff said there, I think.
Eff that noise! I live in and love Chicago. I have been to every major city in our country and many other cities in other countries and I STILL and will probably ALWAYS think Chicago is the fairest of them all. It’s the best city on Earth.
Forbes can suck it.
GO CUBS!
I can’t believe Chicago is #1…who conducted this study anyway? They need to spend some time out here in Chicago and REALLY see how it is…once they taste the Chicago hot dog, italian beef and stuffed pizza, they’ll feel stressed that they didn’t know how wonderful it was to live here!
But seriously, most cities can have lots of stress, especially if a person doesn’t like their job and has a long commute, but there are many other modes of transportation in Chicago. The transit system (CTA) can get you mostly anywhere in the city.
I agree with the person who said that New York is usually #1…standard of living is pretty high there…
For those who don’t like the busy city life, the suburbs of Chicago are just minutes away and not as “busy” as downtown and the (full-of-fun but parking sux) neighborhoods like Wrigleyville, Lincoln Park, etc.
I love Chicago because there is always something to do out here and to get to one cool place to the next is usually not too far away.
Go Cubs! Go Bears! Go Sox!
Let me get this straight:
L.A. = traffic james, fires, earth quakes, floods and people who have one job while waiting to become an actor / actress, writer, director etc.
New York = noise levels that are causing hearing damage to most residents, triple parked trucks making deliveries so streets are one lane, garbage bags piled up on the sidewalks until the Sanitation Dept decides to pick them up,invariably during rush hour, rents, restaurants, public transportation costs that are through the roof
Chicago = a beautiful, clean city, convenient shopping, good public transportation, alleys so the garbage doesn’t pile up and trucks can make deliveries while off the streets, great museums and theater, and really friendly people.
I’ve lived in all 3 cities…no way is Chicago the most stressful….but who cares what the poll says…if you are lucky enough to live in Chicago you already know it!