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America's most miserable cities...
Posted: Sat Feb 12, 2011 8:58 pm
by 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.
Re: America's most miserable cities...
Posted: Sat Feb 12, 2011 9:15 pm
by 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.
Re: America's most miserable cities...
Posted: Sun Feb 13, 2011 12:30 am
by 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
Re: America's most miserable cities...
Posted: Sun Feb 13, 2011 4:57 am
by Miles
loCAtek wrote: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.
Re: America's most miserable cities...
Posted: Sun Feb 13, 2011 6:44 am
by rubato
loCAtek wrote: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
Re: America's most miserable cities...
Posted: Sun Feb 13, 2011 11:07 pm
by 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
Re: America's most miserable cities...
Posted: Mon Feb 14, 2011 3:22 am
by 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.
Re: America's most miserable cities...
Posted: Tue Feb 15, 2011 7:35 pm
by 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?
Re: America's most miserable cities...
Posted: Wed Feb 16, 2011 1:00 am
by dales
Green with envy?
Re: America's most miserable cities...
Posted: Wed Feb 16, 2011 1:14 am
by Andrew D
The methodology sucks, so why give any weight to the conclusions?
Re: America's most miserable cities...
Posted: Wed Feb 16, 2011 1:27 am
by 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
Re: America's most miserable cities...
Posted: Wed Feb 16, 2011 5:44 am
by Big RR
rubato--are you talking city or region; the bay area clearly wins the patent derby, but no one city in it does.
Re: America's most miserable cities...
Posted: Thu Feb 17, 2011 10:13 am
by 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.
Re: America's most miserable cities...
Posted: Fri Feb 18, 2011 1:35 pm
by 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.
Re: America's most miserable cities...
Posted: Mon Mar 07, 2011 11:41 pm
by 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.