America's most miserable cities...

[Gob]

Our list of America's Most Miserable Cities goes a step further: We consider a total of 10 factors, things that people gripe about around the water cooler every day. Most are serious issues, including unemployment, crime and taxes. A few we factor in are not as critical, but still elevate people's blood pressure, like the weather, commute times and how the local sports team is doing.

One of the biggest issues causing Americans angst the past four years is the value of their homes. To account for that we tweaked the methodology for this year's list and considered foreclosure rates and the change in home prices over the past three years. Click here for a more detailed rundown of our methodology.

Florida and California have ample sunshine in common, but also massive housing problems that have millions of residents stuck with underwater mortgages. The two states are home to 16 of the top 20 metros in terms of home foreclosure rates in 2010. The metro area with the most foreclosure filings (171,704) and fifth-highest rate (7.1%) last year is Miami, which ranks No. 2 on our list of Most Miserable Cities.


Images.

Story.

[Big RR]

Pretty silly to include how the local sports teams do in the equation, IMHO.

And i love how they assess weather; to say Miami, which is hot and humid a lot of the year, has ideal weather is laughable; I'd much rater live in any of the colder cities they decry the weather in. Sweating and swelterin is not my idea of ideal weather.

[loCAtek]

Yup, there's a beautiful mansion, a castle really, in California that matches any of Hearst's. There's no commute, no nosiy neighbors and it makes it's own electricty and water ...but no one wants it, because:


It's in the middle of Death Valley!



Scotty's Castle

[Miles]

Yup, there's a beautiful mansion, a castle really, in California that matches any of Hearst's. There's no commute, no nosiy neighbors and it makes it's own electricty and water ...but no one wants it, because:


It's in the middle of Death Valley!



Scotty's Castle

Cali, if I could aford it I would take it in a heart beat.

[rubato]

Yup, there's a beautiful mansion, a castle really, in California that matches any of Hearst's. There's no commute, no nosiy neighbors and it makes it's own electricty and water ...but no one wants it, because:


It's in the middle of Death Valley!... "

At the northern end of Death Valley, actually. Beautiful place.



yrs,
rubato

[Timster]

Really? "Beautiful?" How would you know that? Are we talking aesthetics? Or survivability?

Or are you just talking out of your ass as usual?

Tim- (don't make me post a graph) -ster

[loCAtek]

I've been there in early Spring when it was a paltry 90 degrees, part of a camping trip for the High School Science Club. It is indeed a beautiful, magical place ...the most pristine place on the planet, I've ever been to. No noise, pollution nor civilization for hundreds of miles. So quiet, it made your ears ache as they strained to understand the silence. ...yet, so alive!

There were plants and birds and rocks and things
There was sand and hills and rings

It was so pure; you felt the toxins and badness, pulled gently right outta you.

...but, bring water- there is none at all to be found anywhere there, unless you dig deep.

[dgs49]

I chuckled to note that a disproportionate number of the miserable locales mentioned were in the Workers' Paradise of California.

Astronomical taxes, preposterous real estate values (even now, after having been reduced dramatically), and a society - and education system - that is malignant with millions of illegal, unassimilated, uneducated immigrants.

But the weather's good, eh?

[dales]

Green with envy?

[Andrew D]

The methodology sucks, so why give any weight to the conclusions?

[rubato]

One would think that a person who believed in the efficiency of markets would understand that when 37 million people choose to pay more for something, a lot more, year in and year out, for decade after decade, that this is an objective expression of value in human terms.

I get to live and work in the place that produces more patents/person than anywhere else in the world. I like working with smart people.

Dumb is mean, and ugly.


yrs,
rubato

[Big RR]

rubato--are you talking city or region; the bay area clearly wins the patent derby, but no one city in it does.

[Andrew D]

The overwhelming majority of people, even in the Bay Area, do not hold any patents. And even if the number of poeple per patent were an adequate proxy for general the intelligence of a place, why should that matter more than, say, the degree to which neighbors actually know each other?

As Big RR points out, the assessment of weather is balderdash, and the inclusion of sports teams' performance is just plain silly. In my late father's decision to take up residence in San Francisco, weather was an important factor. Was he somehow wrong to seek out shelter from heat and snow, both of which he found oppressive?

And what about the things Forbes ignores? What about the cultural vibrancy which only ethnic diversity can bring? What about the quality and variety of food available in a particular place (which is, of course, connected with its ethnic diversity) -- both restaurants and groceries? What about museums? Live music? Theater companies? And on and on and on ....

Many of the things which make the Bay Area a great place to live play no role in Forbes's simple-mindedly myopic view of what makes places more or less miserable. Forbes's methodology produces very little that is meaningful about the quality of life in various cities, but it does say a great deal about the editorial judgment of that publication.

[dgs49]

Andrew I totally agree with you that SF is a fantastic place, but the housing situation is such an overwhelming negative (unless you have roots there) that it offsets the positives. You either live in a hovel or bankrupt yourself to live in a habitable place. Or bankrupt yourself to live in a hovel.

If you have to spend 50% of your net income on housing (which many working class people in SF must do), that cannot help but diminish your enjoyment of living in a cultural and leisure Disneyland.

[oldr_n_wsr]

The only drawback I have in living on Long Island is trying to get off of it. Unless one leaves after midnight, you will hit traffic across one of at least two bridges (or tunnels) you need to take to get on the mainland. Other than that. I like it here.