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Subscribe to RSSStockton native and retired businessman, Gregory Basso says Forbes doesn't know the first thing about measuring a city's quality of life. He makes his argument in this video.
When Forbes magazine this month declared Stockton, Calif., the nation’s most miserable city for the second time in three years, lifelong resident Gregory Basso decided it was time to fight back.
Basso is a 69-year-old retiree who knows Stockton’s garbage – his former company collected it – as well as its gems, which he touts in YouTube video, “What Forbes Forgot.”
Basso won community accolades and was featured in local media and even in Forbes for saying Forbes “got it all wrong.”
The magazine focused on the area’s 14.3 percent unemployment rate, its housing market bust that saw home prices fall 58 percent in three years, its seventh-highest-in-the-U.S. foreclosure rate and its violent crime rate. In 2010, the magazine called Stockton the 10th most dangerous city in America, an improvement from its No. 5 ranking in 2009.
But Forbes forgot Stockton’s “quality of life,” Basso claims.
“I have to get up in the morning debating whether to wear my sunglasses or not in February,” he says in the video’s opening, which juxtaposes scenes of the snow-pummeled Northeast with sunny views of golfing, biking and boating available nearly year-round in Stockton, a city of 280,000 situated along the San Joaquin Delta waterways connecting San Francisco and Sacramento.
Basso spends about 4 minutes talking about area amenities and attractions, such as a marina, the University of the Pacific, the Stockton Symphony, a minor-league hockey team and attributes including the city’s port, rails and roads and 10-minute commute – if you live and work in the city.
Basso told msnbc.com he’s not ignoring suffering in his hometown by pointing out its good parts.
“I understand Stockton has problems; every city has problems,” he said. “At least we can live in an environment and we look at it and say ‘It’s not that bad out there.’ … You don’t need an ivory tower magazine saying you people are miserable.”
His goal for the video was not for the community to feel better about itself – although hundreds of emails to Basso and letters to the local newspaper said it did -- but possibly to lure a business owner somewhere to relocate to Stockton.
Not likely, said Ronald R. Pollina, president and founder of Chicago-based Pollina Corporate Real Estate, which, since 1981, has helped Fortune 500 clients find locations for corporate headquarters, factories and distribution centers.
“The board of directors, they could care less about the quality of life,” Pollina told msnbc.com “‘What’s it going to cost me to operate,’ that’s what they want to know.”
Pollina, like Forbes magazine, said Stockton has three major problems being located in California: taxes are high, it’s not a right-to-work state, and the state is overregulated.
These are cost-control problems that Pollina says he sees all over the country. They push jobs offshore and lower the standard of living for Americans, said the author of the recently published book “Selling Out a Superpower: How the U.S. Economy Went Wrong and How We Can Turn It Around.”
Mike Locke, Stockton’s deputy city manager, said Basso’s video “incrementally could be positive,” although it hadn’t spurred any inquiries when msnbc.com talked to him last week.
Locke, who formerly headed the San Joaquin Partnership, the area’s economic development organization agreed with Pollina that taxes, unions and regulations can put Stockton and California at a disadvantage.
“If you don’t need to be on the West Coast for its consumer base or access to the Pacific Rim, you don’t need to be in California,” Locke said.
But for a business that does need to be close to its consumer base, like the 6.7 million who live in the nearby San Francisco Bay Area, or have access to ports in Stockton or Oakland, Basso is right about the city’s advantages, he said.
The city’s problems also present opportunities, he said: The high unemployment rate means access to a ready workforce. The housing collapse means workers can afford homes more easily now.
The most recent company to take advantage, Locke said, was Springfield, Mo.-based O’Reilly Automotive. The 3500-store auto-parts chain leased a 520,000-square-foot Stockton distribution center where last year it hired 600 workers.
As for Basso, he said he was satisfied with the video and that his 15 minutes of fame that came with its posting were just about over.
“Reuters and others quoted Forbes like it’s gospel truth,” he said.
He wanted some lasting way to answer back.
“If a picture is worth a thousand words, maybe a video is worth 10,000 words. It’s better than writing letters to the magazine that just end up in the shredder.”
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one can certainly understand the frustration of being called "down"; but look who's doing the calling, a magazine whose sole purpose has been to launder the wall street criminal laundary, criminal in the original meaning of the word as an indictment for guilt. wall street and poliiticians can pass all the laws they want to absolve so-called white collar criminals but the stain of crime will remain, and ultimately be punished "late and in unexpected ways", to quote the Latin poet. look at madoff and how he has destroyed his family and made his fellow jewish investors like the wilpons look like common bank robbers, using paper instead of guns.
I live 3,000 miles away from Stockton, and I thought this was among the most inept list of worsts that I had ever read. Forbes was ridiculous enough to use the standings of professional sports teams as a significant gauge of the quality of life. If the Bears actually won the Super Bowl, would that improve the misery of Chicago's South Side? Nonsense. If I lived in Stockton, I wouldn't take this study very seriously, but I do appreciate their outrage.
Sorry guys, I spent 16 years of my life living in the central valley. And while it should be one of the most spectacular places in the world to live, the air quality in the area should be measured on the same scale a sandpaper, By Grit!. The methamphetamine problem in the area means that your work force that you're hoping to hire, is borderline psychotic and wouldn't think twice about robbing you blind. Much of the soil and water in the area is contaminated after decades of agricultural pesticide misuse. I used to live in a city to the south of Stockton, and while that city wasn't much better, there was a reason why we had the expression, "Any one who says they're from the good part of Stockton, is lying!"
I used to live in the Bay Area. Stockton is a hole, so is Salinas and Fresno.
Have a relative that lives in Stockton..its the pits!
Pollina, like Forbes magazine, said Stockton has three major problems being located in California: taxes are high, it’s not a right-to-work state, and the state is overregulated.
any questions?
Hahaha, there is no debating of whether to wear sunglasses in Minnesota in February. You risk going blind if you choose not to. I understand the weather-related point he was trying to make but still find it funny.
the worst country to live in is ENGLAND right now as it is going to cost $190 us dollars to fill your fuel tank in a normal size car a 12 gallon tank.
i do hope that we will all start stealing the fuel and killing anyone whom tries to stop us.
CIVIC PRIDE, I LIKE IT!
But Forbes forgot Stockton’s “quality of life,” Basso claims.
YEP
The Californian Dream as viewed by a Californian. The rest see CA as a nightmare. They can have it while the rest of us who choose not to live there, enjoy a better quality of life.
Actually, Stockton is debating two catchphrases to associate itself with these days--"Stockton, the town where dreams go to die" and "Stockton, the town between nowhere and goodbye."
Here's to a university for kids too stupid to get into Stanford and Berkeley, a Symphony that charges almost as much money as SF Symphony--and isn't anywhere in the same universe in terms of execution and direction, chain restuarants that dull the palate and architecture that hurts the eye just to look at it. Couple this with a business community that avoids technology like the plague, and a school system that thinks its ok to have a dropout rate in the 30's and you have a well-deserved title of most miserable city.
I've been to Stockton numerous times. Forbes got it right!
your city will be what you make it..if you choose to see only the negative aspects, then it sucks for you.
Sorry, I grew up in Stockton. Forbes has it right!
Stockton sucks. When I drive through that town, I make sure I pay respect to that town and hack a nice loogie out the window.
I went to UOP in Stockton in the 80's. Stockton had the second highest crime rate per capita in the nation back then!
As for UOP, if you have the financing, you can get in, no questions asked.
Yes, Stockton is a hole. Nation's most miserable city? Probably.
That entire area is infested with crime, gangs, drugs, murders, etc. Two years ago, I was given the option of going to Richmond, CA to do a job or be laid off. After talking to some of the people there who were familiar with the area, I decided to go unemployed rather than going to that hell hole. They told me it's not worth the risk.
"Pollina, like Forbes magazine, said Stockton has three major problems being located in California: taxes are high, it's not a right-to-work state, and the state is overregulated."
Translation: You have to pay for the infrastructure you use, You have to pay your workers a living wage, and you can't make others pay to clean up the mess you make, but instead you have to take personal responsibility for the consequences of your business decisions.
I would say that most of California is a disaster. San Diego has nice weather, but that's about it other than the drunken punks hanging out all over the place like Mission & Pacific Beach. The OC is nice, but a 1400 sq ft. house costs $700k still in Irvine, Mission Viejo, Aliso Viejo, Coto area. LA is one big ghetto with bad air and you couldn't pay me to move there. Even Beverly Hills is mostly a joke. If you drive around you will see some of the tackiest houses you've ever seen...no class there like Santa Barbara, which is nice if you can afford to live there. Carmel is nice if you have the money. San Francisco is a dump with more homeless people that you can imagine. The whole city stinks. If you like homeless & beggars, San Fran is your place. That city needs a 9.0 earthquake. Silicon Valley areas are ok, but very expensive to live in. 700k for a crappy house that cost $200k anywhere else in the US. Plus, jobs aren't what they used to be either. If you like decent weather, high taxes, expensive crappy houses, and sitting in traffic two hours of your life each day, then California is for you. Otherwise, avoid that place at all costs.
Yes if you like right to work, come on down to SC. Your wages will be low, unemployment high and education in the toilet.
One night last month, I spent a week in Stockton.
To "No Party Affiliation": It was Cleveland where the river burned, not Detroit. Get your facts right and people might start taking you seriously.
I lived in Stockton for four years. Forbes got it right. It's a cesspool of drugs and gangs. Add to that the incompetence and corruption. When they get rid of all of that it's not so bad.
Don't forget it's foggy for 3 months solid in the winter.
A 69-year-old retiree who apparently has sufficient income to live comfortably, and probably in a safe area, doesn't have to cope with many of the problems Forbes describes. Also, since he's a lifelong resident, perhaps he has had little chance to compare Stockton with other places.