BusinessWeek.com ranked 50 of the largest metros based on a variety of factors including depression rates, suicide rates, divorce rates, crime, unemployment, population loss, job loss, weather, and green space. The most heavily weighted factors were the depression, suicide, jobs (unemployment and job loss), and crime rates. The depression rate is based on survey and aggregated insurance reporting information at time of discharge, doctor's office visits, and insurance process filings. The suicide rate is for 2004 and comes from The 2007 Big Cities Health Inventory‚ compiled by the National Assembly of County & City Health Officials (NACCHO). The crime risk indexes for property and crime used for the scoring were based on FBI crime reporting for the seven most-recent available years. Divorce rates and 2009 population change come from the U.S. Census. The number of cloudy days came from the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration.
So, let's see the top 20!
- Portland, OR
- St. Louis, MO
- New Orleans, LA
- Detroit, MI - I love how the photo used is of the General Motors buildings. I think that's a pretty good representation of its reasoning on the list, tee hee. (It does have the highest unemployment rate out of all of the others on the list.)
- Cleveland, OH
- Jacksonville, FL - Now, honestly, #2 in depression? How can one be depressed in Florida? The land of Mickey Mouse, oranges, and beaches galore!
- Las Vegas, NV - I think this might be skewed. My sister lived in Las Vegas with her hubby and son for a few years. The residents themselves don't live on the strip or anything. I have a hunch that maybe their suicide rank being #1 could be due to the visitors and tourists who toss their kids' college savings onto a craps table.
- Nashville-Davidson, TN
- Cincinnati, OH - During 3 months last summer during part of my nomadic journey through life, I lived about 20 minutes outside of Cincinnati in northern Kentucky. I really liked Cincinnati!
- Atlanta, GA
- Milwaukee, WI
- Sacramento, CA - This is the only CA city on the list. I've never been (though it's not too far from where I currently live) but from what I've heard, it is pretty miserable.
- Kansas City, MO - I've been here for a few days for a conference about 3 years ago. Definitely an unhappy, depressing place; I can definitely say this from experience. I did not get a good first (and most likely last) impression from Missouri from this trip.
- Pittsburgh, PA
- Memphis, TN
- Indianapolis, IN
- Louisville, KY
- Tuscon, AZ
- Minneapolis, MN - My brother lives in the Minneapolis metro area. I didn't find it depressing, per say, but definitely one of the most unsafe cities I've been to. Even in the Mall of America I felt that it was too intense and definitely lacked security. It's totally got NYC beat in that sense.
- Seattle, WA
So, have any of you been to these cities and want to weigh in on them? Do you agree or disagree with the list?
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I loved Portland and Seattle, but I was only visiting each for a few cloudy days. 300 cloudy days in a row could take a toll.. New Orleans was dirty and stinky, even before Katrina. I used to live near Kansas City and the areas around the city are nice. I haven't been to Tucson, but I watched "Hamlet 2" last night, and it's set in Tucson. They ragged on the city so bad, though, that they had to film it in Albuquerque.
ReplyDeleteI personally LOVE Seattle, and I like Portland too, although I've spent a limited amount of time there. The things against them are the grey skies, which being an Oregonian, I am totally used to, and don't really bother me all that much.
ReplyDeleteThe unemployment is very bad here in the PNW, but it's bad everywhere...