Forbes.com, always on the front lines of lists, has published a listing of the ten most miserable cities in the United States. Who made the cut? Here are the winners (losers?)...
1. Stockton, California
2. Memphis, Tennessee
3. Chicago, Illinois
4. Cleveland, Ohio
5. Modesto, California
6. Flint, Michigan
7. Detroit, Michigan
8. Buffalo, New York
9. Miami, Florida
10. St. Louis, Missouri
Comments
Huh, I’m surprised Detroit is not number one.
This is a Sunday supplement type magazine piece. As you say Matt, Forbes likes to publish lists with the hope of stirring things up to get reactions, and get themselves mentioned. See, it worked.
For me the problem is in the use of the word miserable. Miserable is a feeling. People have feelings. Cities don’t.
To those who would tell me what their dictionaries say, please don’t bother. I have dictionaries. Their use can be hazardous.
The Oxford English Dictionary, without any doubt the greatest dictionary: largest and heaviest, most expensive and authoritative ever compounded. Look up “bad.” You will find that one of the definitions given is “good.”
I live in St. Louis and love it. “Miserable” is a relative term.
Stockton, Ca is at the top to the list because nobody lives there anymore. Most of the houses built recently and bought by people commuting from the SF bay area are in forclosure, with the owners in bankruptcy.
Kenneth, I’ll admit I don’t comprehend Califorianese.
“Stockton, Ca is at the top to the list because nobody lives there anymore. Most of the houses built recently and bought by people commuting from the SF bay area are in forclosure, with the owners in bankruptcy.”
Nobody lives there anymore. Most … are in foreclosure. “…(most) people comuting from SF are in bankruptcy.
I doubt it,even for California.
Chicago???
Chicago is a great city!
The only thing that is truly miserable about Chicago is the winter.
Detroit is number one; the biggest looser, that is.
I agree with you, Craig. I love Chicago, except for the winters and the politics. “Miserable” is subjective– people who hate cities would call them “miserable”, and people who hate suburbs would call them “miserable”. It’s all in how you view it. Some people would be far more miserable in Fort Collins, CO or Naperville, IL (routinely rated high in “best places to live” lists) than in Chicago or Memphis.
Craig deBaker says:
Detroit is number one; the biggest looser, that is.
A real “loser” is someone who cannot distinguish “loser” from “looser”. But I shouldn’t be too tough on Craig. I’m bringing this up because in the previous article Matt says “The United Arab Emirates cancels the visas of those who loose their jobs and give the unemployed a month to leave the country.”
Don,
Maybe the statement :
“Stockton, Ca is at the top to the list because nobody lives there anymore. Most of the houses built recently and bought by people commuting from the SF bay area are in forclosure, with the owners in bankruptcy.”
is an over statement. But not by much. Last year CBS’s 60 Minutes did a segment on the housing crisis in Stockton, Ca. If you can see that segment you will understand that I am not overstating the condition of the Stockton housing market by much.
As to “Califorianese”, outside California people would not believe what we here in California pay for homes. And the two hour commutes in horrible traffic jams to get to our jobs to pay for the overpriced homes. Stockton was a farming community, along with Tracy, 50 miles east of the SF/ silicon valley, that turned into bedroom communities for the Silicon Valley computer/dot com yuppies.
Anyone studying the California housing market should have seen this crash coming years ago.
Modesto, CA is a ‘miserable city’? How so? I can understand the others being rather drabbed, but Modesto?
Sonja
Forbes’ method for the ranking seems highly suspect. To evaluate “miserableness,” shouldn’t the environment, particularly air quality, and public amenities, such as park space per capita, rank high? Forbes, not surprisingly, is more interested in taxes. But, high taxes just might translate into better streets, garbage collection, fire protection, and so on, which could result in greater, not less, satisfaction.
The factors that were used include only one environmental factor: superfund sites (must have been easy info to obtain), but most people live their daily lives unaware of those. Commute time seems valid.
Also, wouldn’t the perceptions of people who actually live in America’s cities need to be included? Whether a city’s pro sports teams win or lose is close to irrelevant. As Don H. says, people have the feelings, so why not make that a prime factor of analysis? Answer: Too much cost when Forbes wants a high-profile story with little reporter-time expended.
Honestly, you’d have to live in Stockton to know truly how miserable it is.
Coming from a Stocktonian born and raised, you don’t know what the meaning of miserable is until you see a family living in a little league dugout because their house was foreclosed.
Modesto, however, is the complete opposite.
I mean, there’s a lot of meth, but that’s just the Central Valley for you.
wow i lived in stockton all my life…how can it be the number worst city…i so love it here…those people need to redo there invest..
Miserable is a relative term. One man’s mecca is another man’s ****hole. They claim Fort Collins, CO is a great city to live in, IMHO they are dead wrong. It is great if you ride a bicycle because you seem to be able to violate traffic laws without worrying about consequences, however from a drivers stand point you have to watch out for these self-righteous a**holes running a red light/stop sign in front of you, riding in the very last inch of the left side of the bike lane, squeezing the cars into to close quarters with oncoming traffic (with the new 3′ law our bonehead Gov. signed into law), or a pack of bikes holding up 6-8 cars because they can’t get around them (we also have an impedance law in CO that you should get a ticket if you have cars stacking up in back of you, also not enforced for bikes) or cutting across traffic to avoid an intersection. That and the fact that the city and county here is so horrible at managing money, they are broke and starting to charge outlandish fees for everything. You can certainly tell that the Californians have come to town as they are taking over and turning this State into the same s**thole they ran away from. I am about to the point of exercising my right of choice and choosing to vacate. This ONCE WAS a great place to live.
I was raised in Stockton. Violent crime is correct. I knew there was a reason I called Modesto “The Hellmouth,” but my sister loves it.
Im from modesto and its not too far off from stockton. The people here are shady as hell and im always hearing messed up stories about women getting raped or a guy getting beat up for no reason. Too many people here are gangsters, someone affiliated with gangsters or just some shady punk. My garage has been shot at, had friends get robbed at gunpoint and one even had his hands twist tied because of it. Not to mention all the junkies that do meth and families that aren’t homeless live in messed up households with dysfunctional families. The women here are nasty btches who think they can act in any messed up way they want because their gangster boyfriend will deal with it if you say otherwise.
Miami miserable? Let’s see, tropical weather year round, great beaches, sexy people, fusion of cuisine, music, culture. Great basketball team, now in the finals, lots of rich and famous make it their home?????
Well if that is miserable, count me in. I wouldn’t change my Miami for anything.