Consumerist
Did you know there was an index to measure misery?
Misery is defined as a state of great unhappiness and emotional distress. The economic indicator most often used to measure misery is the Misery Index. The index, created by economist Arthur Okun, adds the unemployment rate to the inflation rate. It has been in the narrow 7-to-9 range for most of the past decade, but was over 20 during the late 1970s.
Forbes has collected America's 10 Most Miserable Cities. True, it may suck to live in these cities, but at least you can take pride in knowing that you're tough enough. Flex those muscles.
America's Most Miserable Cities:
10. Providence, R.I.
Rhode Island loves your tax money, baby. Only NYC is worse. Maybe that's why everyone is leaving?
9 Charlotte, NC
Bank of America and Wachovia call this city home, which doesn't bode well for its unemployment rates.
8.Modesto, California
If you don't have a job, move to Modesto! You'll fit right in.
7.Los Angeles
Do you like driving, paying taxes and breathing pollution? Los Angeles is for you!
6.Chicago
If you like disappointing sports teams, wasting the best part of every day sitting in mind-bending traffic jams and freezing your ass off—move to my hometown—Chicago! If you're not sure you can take it, google "Gaper's Block" before you make any decisions.
5.Philadelphia
What do you get when you add long commutes, toxic waste, and violent crime? Sports fans who boo Santa Claus.
4. New York City
High income taxes, stupidly expensive housing, "the costs can make all but the super-wealthy miserable."
3. Flint, Michigan
You can buy a house for $104,000... but where will you work?
2.Stockton, California
Stockton is the epicenter of the subprime meltdown. What more do you need to say?
1. Detroit
The Motor City has high unemployment and tops the country when it comes to violent crime. As if that wasn't bad enough—Detroit is toxic. It's near the top of the list of cities that require the most Superfund dollars to clean up toxic waste sites. Congratulations, Detroit! You're the most miserable people in the U.S.!
Guess it really is time to move to Pittsburgh. Do they allow Bears fans there?
America's Most Miserable Cities [Forbes]
(Photo:Jason Lujan)
Comments
That might be the dumbest list ever compiled.
Boston's not on the list. That's because despite the cold weather and high cost of living, it's actually a nice place to live.
@Finder - There are probably dumber lists out there.
How is NEw York City one of the most miserable? They have tons of people trying to moe there. IT cant be that miserable. HEck its cheaper to live in Manhattan then it is to live here on Long Island.
@Finder:
Your city must be on there then.
@Caduceus: Any list that rates a city on how well their sports teams do is fucking dumb.
Ahhh, so many things to say about my #1 hometown but not enough paragraphs or hours in the day to spew them out.
If you love a city without major grocery chains, an incompetent city bureaucracy, a thoroughly corrupt administration, huge taxes for both residents & non-residents (and corresponding lack of services), Detroit is your kind of place!
Things were looking upbeat for the city & the region under the previous mayor (Archer), but he declined to run for reelection because he was fighting a one man battle for the city.
yea, I agree. while they all have their downfalls, there are many upsides of living in those big cities.
Sure, Boston has high taxes, expensive housing, tunnels that collapse and kill people (Search:Big Dig), corrupt politicians, etc. etc., but we also have the Red Sox, Patriots, Bruins, Howie Carr, "Mumbles", MIT, Harvard, more Irish pubs than Ireland and the entertainment value of the city's reaction to LEDs (search: Boston hoax device) is priceless.
@majortom1981:
Because its expensive to live in NYC. When it comes to expensive housing, its a matter of supply and demand. If a particular city is desirable, more people want to live there and housing is naturally going to be more expensive than a less desirable place. Personally, I would expect to see San Francisco on the list instead of NY, since it is not only expensive to live there, but bums roam the streets freely and crime is much higher.
Certainly these people have never seen Newark, NJ.
How is my hometown of Baltimore NOT on the list? We have tons of crime, traffic, random weather, etc.
The list is stupid because seems to mix places that people really want to flee (Detroit & Flint being the prime examples) with places that have problems because they attract so many people who want to be there (NYC, LA, Chicago, Charlotte).
The misery of Detroit is a totally different beast than the misery of Chicago or NYC.
The Kentucky Fried Movie was right!
@missdona:
Some parts of Newark are very nice, like the Ironbound. The areas to the south though, pretty scary.
Surprised to see Charlotte, I live in Raleigh, and all my life all I've heard is how Charlotte and Raleigh are the best places to live in NC (I'm actually partial to Wilmington NC though, if only there were jobs)
I'm just glad the article wasn't trying to be overly negative. I live in MO. I don't get an ocean. I get frigid winters, humid summers, and nothing to look at. byte me.
I've lived in the Metro areas of San Francisco, Miami, Seattle, and Des Moines (the one in Iowa). Miami and Des Moines were by far the most miserable to me because of the oppressive, isolating weather. Des Moines has the added detriment of not having much to do, but I have imagination - I could always find something to do. But get sick of doing everything inside. It's almost always hideously hot or hideously cold. And that is just MISERABLE.
@ClayS: When we go to the airport (McCarter Hwy?), it seems awful.
I moved from NJ into Manhattan and I'm actually paying less rent, and my utilities are about a third. Plus I don't need a car, so I'm feeling pretty flush.
Huzzah for Cleveland :)
No NY NY ?
Why not? I love waiting in line...for everything.
@missdona:
I have to agree, this list can't be correct! There aren't any NJ cities on it!!
The people who created this list are full of crap! Chicago is a great place to live. I know a lot of people who left for a few years, found they missed it a lot, and made their way back. If/when I move back to the States, I'd love to live in Chicago again.
Meg, being from Pittsburgh I can tell you we welcome all fans of the NFL game. We are sure that even if you are a Bears fan you'll quickly fall in love with the Steelers...they're seductive. If you're a Cubs fan you'll fight right in with all the Pirate's fans too. Give us a glimpse as to what the next 85 years should be like.
Surprise all but one city is in Democrat-controlled state, and 8 of those cities were ranked as the top 25 most Liberal, each one has a Democrat mayor, is that really surprising? You support socialism, raise taxes on the businesses that can help you, and you are surprised to hear that you city sucks?
Oh Detroit. At least we're number one at SOMETHING.
I heard the mayor of Detroit was selling the entire city off for scrap and then turning it into an "Escape from New York" style prison.
PS Being a native of Pittsburgh and having lived in Detroit about 3 1/2 years for college I can guarantee you that Pittsburgh is paradise compared to here!
@missdona:
True, but if you go east from the downtown area, the Portuguese Ironbound section has many excellent restaurants and nightlife and is very safe.
I love Providence. it's the slutty little sister of Boston.
@RowdyRoddyPiper:
Pittsburgh is incredibly underrated; very nice city in a lot of ways.
It isn't like we booed someone being paid to be Santa Claus. This guy was being drunk and belligerent.
Don't forget, our transit system sucks too!
I want to get paid for making arbitrary lists like these "journalists." Seems like easy, brainless work.
Am I the only one who thinks you cannot measure happiness through calculation of financial data? Just a crazy idea there.
Why aren't crime rates and demographics factored in?
Why isn't Washington, DC, on the list? Crime and politicians; what could be worse?
@Wimpkins: heh, that was my biggest shock moving to NYC. 1.5 hours at staples and 3 hours at the DMV convinced me to do any thing that requires a line in the bronx.
Los Angeles needs a bump on that list. P.S., where's Baltimore?
@Canerican: Yeah, because we all know that Dallas, San Antonio and Houston are such thriving metropoli! (I assume they were exempt from this study because there is no there there, right?) And Miami, Orlando and Tampa Bay -- if I can't make it there, I won't be able to make it anywhere! (Do any of the red states have actual cities, or just places where people come to work by day and drive like hell to get out of at 5 pm each night as they return to their vinyl-clad suburban shacks?)
@smitty1123: Send him...to Detroit!!
@Bladefist: On top of that, a lack of eye candy because a) no beaches and b) why bother burning hours and hours to look good three months out of the year? (I live in Indep.)
Ugh, every time my girlfriend wants to drive down to Providence (we're Bostonians) all I can think about is the miles and miles of abandoned warehouses surrounding that miserable city and their terrible highway signage.
I'm a Boston driver, and *I* have trouble navigating Providence. Yeah.
New Orleans would be #1 by a mile (our murder rate is the highest, notwithstanding Forbes' claim) if we weren't always eating and getting drunk. Perhaps they measured for misery during Mardi Gras?
@disavow: Im in parkville,n kc area. This place sucks. I guess the benefits are the cost of living and we get some personal space. But weather is terrible and there are only a few and far between fun places to go
Detroit is probably the most miserable place to live in America, so at least the list got that right. The suburbs can be nice, but even there the cost of living is high due to manufacturing / engineering wages.
The lack of Newark on the list is a huge black eye though. That place is a dump.
HEY GUYS - Click the link. The site itself DOES measure stuff like commute times, crime, etc. The little editorialized blurbs up above, including bashing sports teams, are all The Consumerist, and not Forbes.
Being from Philadelphia I just can't stand seeing the words Pittsburgh.
@Tallanvor:
Only someone that doesn't live in Chicago would want to move to Chicago!
The buses & trains barely work.
It's impossible to walk anywhere now because of all the unshoveled snow on the sidewalks 10 days after a big snow & now it's all turned to 3 inches of solid ice.
The streets are potholes filled with more potholes because of all the salt dumped every snow. Even when the snow has melted, the streets are still white from the salt, so everything rusts, everything!
Every single politician in Chicago, Cook County & Illinois is a crook!
Who constantly raise taxes.
On top of that, the governor is a mentally ill whack job!
Local TV news is either going on panic watch & screaming that a huge rain/snow/thunder storm is coming or some useless sweeps crap.
My brother in law is a half-Bears fan (in so much as if the Steelers aren't involved, he wants the Bears to win. If they're playing the Steelers it's another story all together).
You can pretty much like any NFC team you want and no one will bother you. In fact you'll probably get a good deal of respect since the Bears are one of the few teams that Steeler fans find respectable (Bears, Packers... that might be it).
All are welcome... All are welcome (excpet for anyone who likes anything to do with: Cleveland, Cincinatti, Philladelphia, Baltimore and anyone who likes the Seahawks at the moment).
Aaahh..nothing like basking in the glow of providing an extensive answer to a rhetorical question.
Forbes definitely missed the target on this one with some places. Detroit deserves its ranking, and so does Flint (Hell, the entire state is a miserable place to live - I should know, I live there!), I can't believe Chicago is a crummy place to live. I lived near Chicago for 2.5 years, and it seems to be a bit better than where I am now.
Just avoid certain areas after dark and take the back roads instead of the expressways and you're fine.
@redhelix: I had the same problem last time I went to Providence--I had to be there because that's where they put me for the GRE last time, bastards--and I'm glad it wasn't just me. I don't think I'd ever try it again without a GPS. Boston's not as easy as Minneapolis was, but I've lived with it for longer. Pure proof that I'm a New Englander: I find midwestern cities' planned layouts and easy navigation to be threatening signs of the apocalypse. Flying over those rows and rows of subdivisions used to make me feel physically ill.
I have no personal reason to feel bad for Detroit, but I do. Same reason I feel bad for central New York (Syracuse, etc). It's obvious that until fairly recently, fifty years or so, they were doing really well economically and were viable destination cities for people looking to relocate. Troubled cities make me sad. I want to fix all of them.
Detroit and Flint? They should just put the whole damn state on the list. At least the Michigan "government" (and I use that term loosely) acknowledges those