Forbes magazine uses what it calls a misery index to annually list the 20 most miserable cities in the U.S. Factors used in that index include taxes, commute time, violent crime, pro-sport team performance, weather, pollution and convictions of public officials. Any metro area of 245,000 or more is eligible to be considered.
Last year Stockton, California placed first. This year, Cleveland, Ohio pushed Stockton aside to capture the number one spot. Stockton is now number two. Ohio is the state that’s most prominent on the list. Besides Cleveland the cities of Canton, Akron, Toledo and Youngstown are listed. That means Ohio captured 25% of the competition!
Besides Stockton, two other California cities are on the list – Modesto, at number 11, and Sacramento at number 17. No city in Southern California made the list, not even Santa Ana. Maybe we are not as miserable as some would have us believe.
Not at all, Cleveland and the whole northeastern Ohio area is extremely depressed ecomonically. It has been on ongoing condition even when the rest of the county was doing better.
Last I knew you caould buy homes from the City in Youngstown for as little as $1.00 if you agreed to fix it up.
I’m actually surprised that Detroit isn’t topping the list. They’re actually considering simply bulldozing vast swaths of the city and returning those areas, in effect, to rural areas.
Anon (2) – Detroit is on the list, but as you note not No. 1. Another surprise to me was that Miami, Fla. is on the list.