California Today: Want to Be Happy? Move to Santa Cruz
[Mike McPhate]
Mike McPhate
CALIFORNIA TODAY MARCH 8, 2017
Good morning.
Beaches, prosperity and and intellectual zest.
Maybe it’s no surprise that the Santa Cruz region was the highest-ranked metropolitan area in California in the latest Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index.
For the ranking, researchers conducted more than 350,000 phone interviews nationally in 2015 and 2016. People were asked about their cities, jobs, health and social lives.
California was well represented, with seven metropolitan areas among the top 25 of nearly 190 surveyed. The Santa Cruz area was No. 3 overall, followed by San Luis Obispo, No. 7, and Santa Barbara, No. 12.
California Today
Geographical gifts, it would appear, don’t hurt. All three are perched near the Pacific and graced by rolling hills. They are also home to highly regarded university campuses — Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, U.C. Santa Cruz and U.C. Santa Barbara.
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Dan Witters, the survey’s research director, said Santa Cruzans ranked first in the nation on one question that is a powerful predictor of overall well-being: 76 percent said they “learn or do something interesting everyday.”
“That’s a real vanguard of high well-being cities,” he said, “and they knock it out of the park.”
So what California city ranked lowest? Chico, which was No. 183 in the nation, one notch above Flint, Mich.
Mr. Witters said Chicoans reported the highest rate of stress in the nation. “The negative emotions are really crummy in Chico,” he said.
Reached by phone, Chico’s mayor, Sean Morgan, bristled at the result. Chico, in the northern Sacramento Valley, offers a California State campus and the 3,670-acre Bidwell Park, he pointed out.
“And the world’s best beer is brewed here,” he added. “So those three things alone should move us into the top 10.”
Other tidbits from the study:
• Naples, Fla., was the No. 1-ranked city, followed by Barnstable Town, Mass., two places that also hug a coast.
• How California’s biggest cities lined up: San Diego, 22, San Francisco, 31, San Jose, 39, Los Angeles/Long Beach, 53, and Sacramento, 68.
• Inland cities clustered toward the bottom half of the ranking, with a notable exception: Visalia, which ranked 25th overall.
The agricultural town of about 130,000 people has a lot going for it: a year-round farmer’s market, a minor-league baseball team, a symphony.
“Visalia is very much one of those cities that, although we’re growing, it definitely feels like you’re part of the fabric of the community,” said Allison Mackey, a city spokeswoman. ..."
Hey, I feel very intellectually zesty today!
But don't move here. Earthquakes! Earthquakes! Earthquakes! And Sea Lions are not the cute highly trainable pinnipeds you think they are; they are call SEA LIONS because of what they do to swimmers.
yrs,
rubato
