America's Most Miserable Cities

[mia]

Miami is a playground for the rich and famous. Celebrities flock to parties at South Beach clubs and then return to their $10 million mansions in Miami Beach and Key Biscayne. It’s a leading city in culture, finance and international trade. But away from the glitz and glamor, many ordinary Miamians are struggling.

A crippling housing crisis has cost multitudes of residents their homes and jobs. The metro area has one of the highest violent crime rates in the country and workers face lengthy daily commutes. Add it all up and Miami takes the top spot in our ranking of America’s Most Miserable Cities....

We looked at 10 factors for the 200 largest metro areas and divisions in the U.S. Some are serious, like violent crime, unemployment rates, foreclosures, taxes (income and property), home prices and political corruption. Other factors we included are less weighty, like commute times, weather and how the area’s pro sports teams did. While sports, commuting and weather can be considered trivial by many, they can be the determining factor in the level of misery for a significant number of people. One tweak to this year’s list: we swapped out sales tax rates for property tax rates. Miami would have finished No. 1 under the old methodology as well....

Michigan’s troubled duo of Detroit and Flint clock in at No. 2 and No. 3 among the most miserable cities. The cities have been reeling for decades due to the decline of the U.S. auto industry and in recent years have been demolishing houses to change their city landscapes. Detroit has closed schools and cut wages for government employees, while Michigan appointed an emergency manager last year to take over Flint’s budget and operations. Detroit and Flint rank No. 1 and No. 3 when it comes to violent crime, and unemployment over the past three years in both communities has also been among the worst in the U.S.

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I love living in Miami. Clean air, beautiful skies, vibrant multicultural residents mingling with international tourists everywhere you go.

[hobbit709]

1. And the occasional light breeze moving in a circular motion.

[mia]

5. webcam - Light breezes most of the time, but the wind may be picking up soon

thanks to Darian. I sometimes check out the webcams to look at the people and to see the wind blow.

http://www.earthcam.com/usa/florida/miami/

[TlalocW]

2. The constant playing on the radio, humming by passersby...

The car horns that are programmed to play Will Smith's, "Welcome to Miami."

On Edit: Well, what I learned from that slideshow is: Stay out of Florida, Michigan, and California. Can do!

TlalocW

[pipoman]

4. plus IL and OH...each with 2 cities..

[fishwax]

29. only one in Illinois, I think

And Chicago is well worth a visit--not nearly so miserable if you don't have to live there. (Personally I wouldn't mind living there, though.)

[HereSince1628]

3. If someone other than corporate pirates ruined our cities we'd be at war

Is this all worth protecting with the most expensive military on earth?

I clearly need a new sports stadium bond referendum to lift my spirit.

[mia]

20. Corporate pirates are after expansion of empire wherever it may be.

They are protected by "the most expensive military on earth" and enabled by a well-paid governments.

[ananda]

6. Florida and Michigan have several cities each in the ten worst miserable.

But I don't get why Sacramento is on the list. I've been there.
It's a nice city. Or at least it seems that way to me.

[Egalitarian Thug]

7. LOL! Don't look too closely, or go out at night. n/t

[Puzzledtraveller]

8. Lousyville

Louisville. Allergy hell, boring as hell, crap weather.

[1-Old-Man]

9. I lived in Miami for 11 years - it is in fact the most miserable place I've ever lived

I did construction work in Miami for 11 years and there is nothing on earth that would get me to set foot in Dade County ever again. It is truly a miserable place and the things that caused me to dislike it most is that there is really no sense of community among the people. Of course there is also the oppressive heat and humidity but what was much more noticeable than that was the omnipresent racism and blatant disregard for working people in favor of opulent wealth. My parents lived there and as soon as they passed away my wife, myself, and my son got the hell out of there as fast as I-95 would allow. Thank god we did.

[mia]

12. I know a few people who can't wait to get out of Dade for a variety of reasons including

the fact that we have the highest auto and home insurance rates in the country - highest in Medicare fraud too. There is a sense that Miami is a place to make a fast buck - whether it be from fraud, lawsuits, or the innocent selling of mangoes and water on the street corners. Under-the-table commerce seems to flourish here, too.

I suppose I feel a sense of community as I have a large family network here.

[RebelOne]

13. I lived in Miami for about 40 years until I wised up and moved here to North Georgia.

I was sick of the drug traffic, big bugs and heat and humidity. I was so happy to move out of there. My daughter lives in Hialeah just outside of Miami. I hate Hialeah more than I hate Miami. She knows that I will never return, and if she wants to see me, she has to come to Georgia.

[mia]

15. Hialeah is another world.

Nevertheless, it's full of people who came from oppression and are living a simpler version of the American dream.
North Georgia has lots to offer too.

[Mopar151]

10. Another take on Miami

Blues Brothers version

[mia]

14. Going back to Miami...

A place to have fun.

[davidpdx]

11. Florida, Michigan, California, and Ohio

Pretty take up the entire list by themselves (17 out of 20)

[mia]

17. Voter fraud in Florida, Michigan, California, and Ohio

http://www.truethevote.org/news/how-widespread-is-voter-fraud-2012-facts-figures


How Widespread is Voter Fraud? | 2012 Facts & Figures

...This year, True The Vote uncovered more than 348,000 dead people on the rolls in 27 states. ◦
California: 49,000
◦ Florida: 30,000
◦ Texas: 28,500
◦ Michigan: 25,000
◦ Illinois: 24,000

•12 Indiana counties have more registered voters than residents.
• The Ohio Secretary of State admitted that multiple Ohio counties have more registered voters than residents....

[snappyturtle]

16. Most miserable website: Forbes.....here's the list with the reasons:

Last edited Thu Jul 25, 2013, 12:32 PM - Edit history (1)

Took me forever waiting for each city's page to load with ads for Lexus, HP, Masterard, SAP..etc.

1. Miami,FL~47% under water mortgages
2. Detroit,MI~median home price (2012) $38,000
3. Flint,MI~violent crime--third worst in U.S.
4. West Palm Beach,FL~Boynton Beach major suspended from office
5. Sacramento,CA~city may not finance Kings new arena
6. Chicago,IL~brutals winters, gridlock traffic & high property taxes
7. Fort Lauderdale,FL~median house price down 50% to $183,000 since 2006
8. Toledo,OH~Scandal:bid rigging and stolen funds
9. Was a no show for me!
10. Warren,MI~median home price down 50% over last 3 years
11. Stockton,CA~ranks among country's 6 worst for unemployment,foreclosures & crime
12. Cleveland,OH~House prices of 4%,unemployment 7.7% but miserable because of high
income and property taxes and lousy weather and sports teams
13. Lansing,MI~weather and high taxes
14. Akron,OH~vacant homes: 3000 "problem" homes
15. Merced,CA~unemployment 17.6%, 4.4% of houses in foreclosure
16. Memphis,TN~violent crime 2nd to Detroit
17. Bakersfield,CA~most polluted air, only 14% with college degrees
18. Vallejo,CA~emerging from bankruptcy police and fire forces down to 1/3 capacity since '04
19. Modesto,CA~3rd worst unemployment 16.7%,one out of every 19 hses.filing foreclosure
20. Gary,IN~foreclosures and high crime

[mia]

18. Thanks for boiling it down.

Treading water here, but still feel lucky as the price of rentals continues to climb.

[snappyturtle]

27. I'm not being snarky but why would climbing rental prices be good? nt

[mia]

31. It would be much more expensive for me to rent a similar place in the area where I live.

Over a period of about 20 years I rented several different places before foolishly buying in 2005. At first my housing expenses were higher than my previous rent. Now I would have to pay more if I had to rent a similar place. On the plus side, as the property values have gone down, so have the taxes, so more goes toward the mortgage to pay it off faster. I hope that I'll be standing on dry land by the time that happens.

[snappyturtle]

32. What I think is tragic to millions though is that as people

lost their homes, landlords smelled blood. Rents have soared making
home ownership even harder for renters to attain. imho

[mia]

33. So true. Those lost homes get snapped up by cash buyers too. Another bubble is on the horizon.

People are moving in together to save money. My brother moved in with me and I have a small bedroom that I rent to transient foreign students who come here to learn English for a month or two.

Craigslist adds for "Rooms and Shares" give an idea of what's happening.
http://miami.craigslist.org/mdc/roo/

[JPZenger]

19. Sacramento will recover. Gary and Flint will not. Chicago as a whole is a great city.

[Phentex]

23. Thanks for the list!

[Common Sense Party]

28. Re: #18...is that a typo? Vallejo is in CA, not CO, right?

Otherwise, thanks for slogging through the Forbes gauntlet. I hate that site, too.

[snappyturtle]

30. Oops! Thanks....nt

[LWolf]

21. Interesting.

I thought it might be good to look at America's "best" cities to see what they do right. Of course, "best" is a function of the criteria used.

I'm a rural dweller. I like wide open spaces, privacy, quiet, lack of noise and light pollution and traffic. I live at the dead end of a private dirt road next to miles of public land. The only irritants in my life are my one next-door neighbor, a few acres away, who built a house too close to the fence that gives them too good a view of my place.

I don't much like cities. I get claustrophobic. I miss the green. I also, though, miss all the amenities of city living out here in the back of beyond. So I visit the large city in my state whenever I can afford the trip. I was there a couple of weeks ago. I told my family, some of whom met me there for a family get together, that if I were ever to give up rural living for city, this city would be the place. They agreed. A couple, who live out of state and had never been to this city before, said that they were (positively) shocked and awed at the friendly energy and comfortable, safe atmosphere no matter which part of the city we found ourselves in.

So I checked your list; "my" city doesn't appear on your list of "most miserable." It DOES appear, at #5, on the following list of "America's 50 best cities."

So what makes Portland so great? I don't know about the rest of the nation, but these are the qualities that put it up top for me:

1. It's green. There is enough dedicated green space to go around; everyone has access.

2. It's green. One of the most environmentally friendly cities in the world.

3. The public transit system; one ticket for unlimited rides on the MAX, the bus, the trolley....you can get anywhere safely and cheaply.

4. The clean air. This is partly a function of geography, an advantage that many cities don't have.

5. The climate/temperatures.

6. The laid-back, open, friendly energy.

7. The PEOPLE. See # 5.

8. The abundance of independently-owned small businesses. And POWELL'S.

9. The beer, lol.

10. Strong land-use planning controls.

I could also say the museums, theater, music, art, etc., but most cities have those things.

So...what needs to happen to make America's most miserable cities happier?

http://images.businessweek.com/slideshows/2012-09-26/americas-50-best-cities#slide47

[Igel]

22. Portland was okay.

Had friends there. Tigard and Beaverton, actually. Did get my violin in Portland, though. And still order plants from One Green World.

But I think Eugene beats Portland. Used to bike to work along the Willamette. Easy access to the coast, to the mountains. We could still get to Mt. Hood without too much difficulty, but it was very unlikely that Mt. Hood could ever get to us in the event of an eruption.

Only drawback when I first moved there was the field burning after the grass-seed harvest. (Which sounds really bizarre to people not from there.)

[LWolf]

26. Eugene is good, too.

I don't know that it counts as a big enough city for the purposes, though. 143K at last count.

[Retrograde]

24. Sacramento makes the list because of its sports team?

Now it can be brutal in summer ("but it's a dry heat&quot and the road system sometimes seems to have been designed by an inebriated ant, but putting it on this list? But because it has a losing team?

[Tikki]

25. Have you all noticed all the California cities that made the list are from the central valley...

from North to South (South to North). There are reasons for that.



Tikki

[mia]

34. Just learned that "The Central Valley is one of the world's most productive agricultural regions".

I hadn't noticed that the California cities on the list were all from that region. It looks like they have plenty of environmental concerns.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Valley_(California)

What do you think are the other reasons?

[Tikki]

38. Hi Mia...some of the farmers, growers, ranchers in California central valley are a conservative...

bunch and like many conservative will cut off their nose to spite their face.

Yes, they do feed the World, so to speak, but they are behind on many issues that
could help them preserve their growing environment and maintain a work force.

Believe me, that industry is hardworking and their profits often rely on forces they can't control.
I have respect for their work but not always their politics.


Tikki

[mia]

40. "Yes, they do feed the World, so to speak, but they are behind on many issues that

could help them preserve their growing environment and maintain a work force."

The Central Valley seems to personify what is happing within the United States in general.

[Tikki]

41. YES and the C.V. is a somewhat isolate by mountain ranges between the Pacific Coast.

I wonder how the new high-speed rail system that will cut near the Central valley, North and South, will change things there, if at all.

On the Eastern and far Northern areas from the C.V. are mountains, again. Below is an basin type topography called the Inland Empire.

California is diversity in every manner.


Tikki

[William769]

35. I live on Miami Beach then South Dade for many years.

I loved it! still go back to visit.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

36. A lot of Florida cities on the list.

Odd, since I personally love living here. But I figure the foreclosure crisis played a big part in the rankings, since Florida was especially hard hit.

Whatever. I'll still take living here over many of the places you typically find on the "best places to live" list.

[mia]

42. I agree "...the foreclosure crisis played a big part in the rankings,"

and I'd rather live here. Here's some info about Florida's high foreclosure rates.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/business/real-estate/sixth-month-in-foreclosure-first-place/nWrDK/

Florida metro areas accounted for seven of the top 10 regions nationally for high foreclosure rates

1. South Florida (Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties)

2. Orlando

3. Ocala

4. Tampa

5. Palm Bay

6. Las Vegas

7. Rockford, Ill.

8. Jacksonville

9. Naples

10. Chicago

[Quantess]

37. Nothing in Texas, huh...

Not even anything in Missouri?

[snooper2]

39. You can tell Miami is crap as soon as you walk outside the airport to have a smoke