Forbes Magazine---10 Most Miserable Cities

[Polish Leppy 22]

#1 Detroit, Mich. - America's Most Miserable Cities 2013 - Forbes

And guess what the common denominator is for all 10...

Hint: The answer is not "a bunch of Republican business owners and corporations are crushing the middle class."

1. Detroit, MI
2. Flint, MI
3. Rockford, IL
4. Chicago, IL
5. Modesto, CA
6. Vallejo, CA
7. Warren, MI
8. Stockton, CA
9. Lake County, IL
10. New York, NY

 

[Bluto]

To be frank I can think of a couple places I have been to, Trona, CA for instance that are more miserable than either Modesto or Vallejo, which both seem to have made the list because of high forclosure rates. This is border line propaganda. Notice the strategically placed guy wearing a union jacket in one of the photos.

Anyhow, one could easily argue that this is pretty good evidence that NAFTA has had a huge negative impact on this country. It also seems to say that the Mid-West in general sucks.

.

 

[In Lou I Trust]

Haha... awesome. How is Vallejo worse than Stockton, though? That place is a $hit hole.

 

[Buster Bluth]

Hint: The answer is not "a bunch of Republican business owners and corporations are crushing the middle class."

Oh please that is such a tired attack and has absolutely nothing to do with it. Nothing.

Besides, the list is an annual joke. Chicago and New York?! GTFO.

 

[scUM Hater]

How can Ann Arbor not be #1 on that list?

 

[Buster Bluth]

Anyhow, one could easily argue that this is pretty good evidence that NAFTA has had a huge negative impact on this country. It also seems to say that the Mid-West in general sucks.

It doesn't say that either when you look at midwest cities. This shows which cities have had sprawl and the loss of a tax base rot the city center. "Miserable city" is a joke of a term, much like "shrinking cities." The areas aren't actually falling apart at the hinges per se, the wealth just completely moved out of the city.

Detroit Area's population is still growing and the counties outside Detroit are some of the richest in the country.

This is a measurement of sprawl, not failing regions, when you look at the midwest.

 

[Buster Bluth]

How can Ann Arbor not be #1 on that list?

Ann Arbor is an incredible place to live. Very similar to Madison, WI. Both are tremendous small cities.

 

[phillyirish]

Oh please that is such a tired attack and has absolutely nothing to do with it. Nothing.

Besides, the list is an annual joke. Chicago and New York?! GTFO.

I'm not really informed on the situation of Chicago, but it seems to be a common pun these days about crime rates and how corrupt it is. I've even heard it being dubbed the "next Detroit".

 

[Downinthebend]

No Gary Indiana, or did that not qualify as a "city"?

 

[In Lou I Trust]

Oh please that is such a tired attack and has absolutely nothing to do with it. Nothing.

Besides, the list is an annual joke. Chicago and New York?! GTFO.

If this is an annual joke why are Flint, Detroit, Stockton and Vallejo on it?

 

[scUM Hater]

Ann Arbor is an incredible place to live. Very similar to Madison, WI. Both are tremendous small cities.

I know, I failed to put that statement in parenthesis. Ann Arbor is great town that is growing and is very Union friendly. Great place.

 

[Buster Bluth]

I'm not really informed on the situation of Chicago, but it seems to be a common pun these days about crime rates and how corrupt it is. I've even heard it being dubbed the "next Detroit".

Chicago is absolutely massive. It's like 2.8 million people. Some neighborhoods are realllllly bad. We could go on and talk about how Urban Renewal programs from 1949-1973 concentrated the poverty and walled them up with expressways...but that's a different day. Chicago has really bad parts, and really great parts. For a metropolitan city of its size, it's impeccably clean and one of the greatest American cities over the the last century.

It is nothing like Detroit. Detroit is a different beast altogether. It is the perfect story of an economy based on goods people don't actually need to by repeatedly (automobiles), intensely racist history, and White Flight like nothing seen anywhere else in the country.

Since the construction of the Eisenhower city-destroyers (aka "freeways"), every city has battled urban dilapidation and a rise in crime and lowering of public education results (when your tax base moves out of the city, that tends to happen), but Detroit is just the end of the spectrum where it destroys 98% of the city. It's actually quite sad to see.

 

[Bluto]

It doesn't say that either when you look at midwest cities. This shows which cities have had sprawl and the loss of a tax base rot the city center. "Miserable city" is a joke of a term, much like "shrinking cities." The areas aren't actually falling apart at the hinges per se, the wealth just completely moved out of the city.

Detroit Area's population is still growing and the counties outside Detroit are some of the richest in the country.

This is a measurement of sprawl, not failing regions, when you look at the midwest.

Copy that. I was making the point that it would be easy to draw all kinds of conclusions based on the information on this list. Stockton and Modesto do really suck BTW. Vallejo has the potential to be great from a planning perspective.

 

[scUM Hater]

I found Shembo's bike seat in the Flint picture.

 

[anarin]

Ann Arbor is an incredible place to live. Very similar to Madison, WI. Both are tremendous small cities.

Someone missed that joke

 

[Buster Bluth]

If this is an annual joke why are Flint, Detroit, Stockton and Vallejo on it?

Because those places suck. Chicago and New York are put on there to get page views.

Why isn't Youngstown, OH on that list? or Gary, IN?

These types of lists are meant to get people talking. I saw someone post this on Facebook today, "OMG I live near all of the miserable places! I need to move to Arizona or Florida!"

Arizona and Florida suck. If you ever wondered what switching your tax base to a sales tax would look like, go there. Absolutely dreadful urban form. If you want to live in a land of strip malls, be my guest.

 

[scUM Hater]

Buster, what is your profession?

 

[In Lou I Trust]

Because those places suck. Chicago and New York are put on there to get page views.

Why isn't Youngstown, OH on that list? or Gary, IN?

These types of lists are meant to get people talking. I saw someone post this on Facebook today, "OMG I live near all of the miserable places! I need to move to Arizona or Florida!"

Arizona and Florida suck. If you ever wondered what switching your tax base to a sales tax would look like, go there. Absolutely dreadful urban form. If you want to live in a land of strip malls, be my guest.

You clearly didn't read the article. Gary and Youngstown are on the list. It's a top 20 list; he just posted the top 10.

 

[Buster Bluth]

You clearly didn't read the article. Gary and Youngstown are on the list. It's a top 20 list; he just posted the top 10.

I meant the top ten, excuse me. Both of those cities are top ten without question, and they aren't here. I saw this on a Toledo site I frequent when they were all upset about it being #11. The reason? The population is leaving. Just because the Population moves from Toledo to Sylvania doesn't mean the region is going to hell in a handbasket.

Simply saying, this article misrepresents what the problems are and uses a very, very broad brush. Mostly so people can say "look how Democrats run cities!"

 

[Buster Bluth]

Buster, what is your profession?

City & Regional Planning. Current a Planning Commissioner rewriting zoning in a Toledo suburb and mapping food deserts for the Columbus Public Health Department.

 

[alohagoirish]

I think Forbes is on the list of the ten most miserable publications !!

 

[no.1IrishFan]

Oh please that is such a tired attack and has absolutely nothing to do with it. Nothing.

Besides, the list is an annual joke. Chicago and New York?! GTFO.

Living in NYC was miserable for me. Gave it 6 months and got out as quickly as I could. The city is great and there is a lot to do, but for me what made it miserable was the abscence of the things most people take for granted.

I lived in a nice building but there was no central air, had to move my car every other morning for the street sweepers or else get a $40 ticket, no dishwasher, in the winter the heat was set by the landlord, it's hard to find bodegas in the burroughs that accept debit/credit cards so I always had to have cash on me, could never find a cabbie that would take me from the city into Brooklyn, I could go on all day.

The city life is for some people, just not me.

 

[Rhode Irish]

This seems like the least fun thread ever, so I'll just keep it short. Chicago and New York being on the list invalidates it completely. Two of the ten best cities in the world, for my money.

 

[Grahambo]

I see NJ is represented well. A little surprised Newark, NJ didn't make the Top 20.

 

[scUM Hater]

City & Regional Planning. Current a Planning Commissioner rewriting zoning in a Toledo suburb and mapping food deserts for the Columbus Public Health Department.

Ok, kinda had a feeling you were in that line of work. Semed very informative on this subject.

 

[Bishop2b5]

I've been to Camden, NJ a few times. Absolutely the worst place I've ever seen in my life. It makes a war-torn Beirut or the worst area in Detroit look like paradise. I couldn't believe a place like that even existed in the US.

 

[cody1smith]

How did the state of Iowa not make this list? That place has virtually nothing going for it. Great people living in a really boring nothing to do state.

 

[In Lou I Trust]

How did the state of Iowa not make this list? That place has virtually nothing going for it. Great people living in a really boring nothing to do state.

Iowa has a lot going for it, actually. Wonderful state.

 

[cody1smith]

Iowa has a lot going for it, actually. Wonderful state.

I know it was mainly a joke. I do a fair amount of business in Iowa. But when i am there i think of what they have as far as entertainment and they are way below par. No pro sports teams, below average college teams in nearly every sport, no nascar thing(even though i don't watch it). I know lots of states dont have these things either but most of them have something neat to draw people there.

 

[chicago51]

How is New York on this list?

As far as Chicago goes sure we have some issues with gun violence. Our unemployment is about 9 percent. Not great but unemployment is always higher in city. Compared other cities our economy is doing just fine.

Chicago has alright great things to offer. We have get our homicide problem in certain areas under control like New York has done. I think we are making progress on that with some changes in the way our police operate. Bottom line I don't think we should be on that list.