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Rebecca Cook / Reuters file
Forbes ranked Detroit as the "most miserable" city in the U.S., citing its violent crime rate and falling home prices, both of which are the worst in the country.
Michigan has a serious PR problem on its hands, if you believe two studies this week that ranked its cities among the saddest, most depressed in America.
Forbes magazine hit the state with a top two finish Friday in its annual rankings of the "most miserable" cities in the U.S. Detroit ranked No. 1. Flint ranked No. 2.
Forbes' rankings are based mainly on economic factors, including unemployment, foreclosures, income and property taxes and home prices, in addition to violent crime. Detroit ranked high on violent crime and the rate at which home prices are falling.
"Right now, it's all about survival," Mayor Dave Bing told Forbes.
Read the full Forbes list and see the 10 happiest and saddest cities in the U.S.
In a separate study this week, mathematicians at the University of Vermont ranked the 373 "saddest" cities in the U.S., based on a quantitative analysis of keywords in more than 10 million geotagged posts on Twitter.
Detroit finished 29th. Flint was even sadder — its residents were the sixth-saddest in the country, according to the Vermonters.
(Adding insult to injury, Warren, Mich., shows up at seventh on Forbes' list.)
The Midwest, in fact, is heavily represented in both lists. Forbes' 20 most miserable cities also include Rockford, Ill. (third); Chicago (fourth); Lake County, Ill. (ninth); Toledo, Ohio (11th); St. Louis (12th); Milwaukee (14th); Cleveland (17th); Gary, Ind. (19th) and Youngstown, Ohio (20th).
Battle Creek, Mich. (eighth), and Lima, Ohio (ninth), also show up in the 20 saddest cities.
"This is not a league in which we want to play ball," Chuck Sweeny, political editor of The Rockford (Ill.) Star, wrote in a column Friday.
"We know what's wrong: too much poverty, too few college graduates, too few opportunities to get a college degree here, high crime in certain areas, an inability to work together to coordinate economic development and school districts considered poor or just average," Sweeny wrote.
"Add to that a crumbling inner city and thousands of substandard homes, and you've got a problem when the ratings folks come to town, or more likely, Google us."
At least "we are nothing like Flint," he added.
From Flint, the counterargument:
"This is ridiculous. I am proud to be from Flint, MI," Manuel Gatica of New York — a Flint native — commented on Facebook. "I enjoy going back to visit and I live in New York, New York. I am a very happy person. The writer at Forbes must have a miserable life."
Detroiters, however, generally seemed to agree with their ranking, at least as indicated in comments at NBC station WDIV of Detroit:
- The perfect storm of all your eggs in one basket (the auto industry) and corrupt politicians (Kwame, Young) has done this once-great city in. Hopefully some day Detroit can turn itself around.
- Duh...that's not a surprise. In fact every time the news comes accross with "breaking news" and it tells about a murder in Detroit, we always say that's not breaking news. That's old news. Breaking news would be no murders in Detroit.
- Come on... this can't be a surprise to anyone living in the city or in the metro area
- I am always amazed when we travel and we go "downtown" in a major city, and there are actually occupied buildings and people all over the place...crazy, Detroit ain't like that, so depressing to be THE MOST MISERABLE
The happiest city in America is Napa, Calif., the Vermont researchers concluded. The saddest? Beaumont, Texas. It's just one of many Deep South municipalities at the bottom of the list — and many in the region aren't happy about it.
"Albany is home. I wouldn't imagine being anywhere else," said Layne Tumlin of Albany, Ga., which ranked second on the saddest cities list.
"I did leave and come back," Tumlin told NBC station WALB of Albany. "I left for a few years, about eight, and traveled — got it out of my system, but the whole time I was gone, I kept thinking about home."
"I hate that we have such a stigma like that," said Nancy Jane Karam, who told NBC station KSLA of Shreveport, La. — No. 4 on the Vermont list.
Bill McCown, a psychology professor at the University of Louisiana at Monroe, said he was dumbfounded at Monroe's No. 5 ranking on the "saddest" list.
"If you would have said this about New York, I would have believed it," McCown told the News-Star newspaper. "But not Monroe."
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I own a home. Guess where? Detroit. Guess what I paid for it? 500 USD. Yeah, it was a little ratty when I bought it, having been abandoned for several years. But it's rock solid and more than worth the time and effort I've put into it over the last year. All I pay now are the taxes, less than 100 USD a month. Try to find a mortgage or rental for that anywhere in America.
There are no bars on my windows. I walk the streets freely. The neighborhood I'm in is one of those that are coming back. We care about each other here. Yeah, Detroit can be dangerous. Name me a big city that ain't.
500 USD. Free and clear. Try that in the best city in America. Good luck.
Good for you, EJ Knapp!
Chicago should be ranked for the most sorry excuse of a town due to the crooked politicians and their stupidity as they allow the bad guys guns but not the good citizens so they can defend themselves. I will not travel to Chicago or even Illinois state for that matter because of their bad gun laws that do not allow me the right to defend myself.
You're afraid if you're not armed, huh? You should find some woman to protect you.
She knows how to shoot too and won't go to Illinois either. Where I live they give out concealed carry permits easily as long as your not crazy or have a criminal record....you what is interesting tough, very few including myself carry guns because we do not have much of a crime rate. The crooks know that anyone might have a gun and it works.
Formerly lived in Beaumont. The 'Old Money' in town is possessed by a small number of families which have absurd amounts of wealth. The oil money comes from the large refineries and chemical plants. This brings in quite a few engineers, who fill the segregated upper class area of town. But these people only stay for a few years until they transfer to their next job. Most of these people I know (as well as myself) find Beaumont to be the absolute worst town they have ever lived. Blue collar jobs pay well here, but all the money doesn't make up for the extreme pollution, cancer rates, lack of public parks, high crime, terrible schools, and fundamentalist christians. The racial segregation in this city is like going back into the 1800s.
This study seems quite accurate in my eyes.
too bad. i grew up in the burbs North of Detroit in the 50's and 60's. have fond memories of belle isle, the bob-lo boats, cobo hall, the rooster tail, the museums, the Detroit river boat races, greenfield village. yea, good times. sorry it has declined to its current condition. and status.
I'm from the West Coast, never been to Detroit before, but it's really sad, the city is in such bad shape. All the homes up for sale, really cheap, I mean there's some beautiful homes, over 3,200 square feet for under $100,000. There's something oddly intriguing, about it's becoming like a ghost town, (from what I've read) but I think I'll stay put there! I do hope, the city will survive though.
If more people bought US-made cars instead of imports, perhaps Detroit would not be so miserable.
i bought a dodge challenger. the engine was made in Mexico, and the car was assembled in Canada. go figure.
Unions and govt regs make it too expensive to do those things in the U.S.
Don't forget all of the 7 and 8 figur white collar bonus'
You mean the ones who are making the cars sell? Without them what few jobs you have would be gone. It's called rewarding the productive.
Miami has to be the saddest place in the planet, for many people leaving there, with a huge concentration of eternal dependents, unskilled abusive and lazy people, nobody can imagine how sad is to live among starving zombies, to work so hard to end up supporting a bunch of freeloaders. Sunny yes, depressing to be among these zombies, you bet. Nice to visit the beaches but stay away from the city. Myth Romney could have won on the 47% statement if he had used Miami as an example, in Miami, is 87%. Sad, sad, sad
I rented a convertible while in Miami. The rental company provided a warning tag in the car to keep the roof up while in town.
Nice.
Sounds like Detroit, but minus the beaches.
So how come there are no Asian people on COPS? Heh!
Way to smart to get caught, if they were doing anything wrong, which is unlikely because of a sense of honor in the communuty.
The auto industries had gone south of the border. Less than 10-20 years, after the retired auto workers die, there will be no taxable income to support Detroit so it will be a big ghost town.
V. Nugent---Death by Unions. Unions ran all of the jobs away and now they have little to support the cities. Just think if Obama and the Democrats would have concentrated on jobs instead of everything else we might have seen some improvements in the cities by now. Not to worry we have Obama-Care and Obama said that would solve a lot of our problems, without spending a single dime. He said the same abut the stimulus too.
I've was blue coller and am now white cooler, and have seen both sides of the pay scale. The execs make obscene bonuses. Including stock options they can go into 20 million plus. Seeing this first hand made me look at unions in a different way. Their backs make execs and their decendents more money then they'll ever spend, or even count. It's greed that sent the jobs away. Unions could have given in more during the 70's, but the jobs still would have left. Stockbrokers must be paid!
Smokie,corporate greed and investors drove the union jobs away.Plus American cars were inferior when the Japanese auto industry started shipping and then manufacturing their cars in the U.S.My 1991 Toyota Mr2 was made in Japan which means that our government got heavy duty import taxes from that car.American car manufacturers thought that because their products cost less that they'd be able to compete with the Japanese auto industry so they didn't do anything to improve the quality of their products.That's what happened to the U.S. auto industry.They became complacent.
Well i know why detroit is the worst. It has the most n*%#!*s. what a shocker!
No because Americans stopped buying American.
Allen, tell your parents they did an awful job in raising you. There can't be any pride in raising such an ignorant idiot.
TyroneE: His (allen50) parents are probably worse.
At the risk of being called a racist i'll say that where ever the black population is concentrated you will find crime. maybe because of racism or maybe from other reasons. Not casting any stones just saying.
I'm not going to call you a racist, but your comment in definitely that.
It's not race, it's culture. We all have the same DNA.
If it's a race we are losing..
Seems like a rather elementary analysis. The ranking reflect the opinions of twitter users only. Twitter has its own unique demographic that is substantially different in terms of age, race, education and income than the population as a whole. Check it out here: . Perhaps the other 200 million residents of the US that are not twitter users might have a different perspective on happy versus unhappy environs.
Money can't buy happiness, but it sure as hell doesn't make you sad.
When every day is a struggle, it's awfully hard to be happy and optimistic about the future.
Matt-3468366---At least when your in a struggle with life it brings the families closer. I have been struggling for years, waiting on winning the Lotto and I think life is alright. We still have roof over our heads and food to eat.
Matt..Money doesn't make the World go round but it does grease the axle.
They actually pay people to do studies like this? This is sickening.
I doubt than anyone that participated in this study has actually visited any of the cities on this list. It's easy to see a statistic and say you understand the fact.
Detroit is in desperate need of martial law and a crackdown on street gangs. Sometimes drastic measures are required for drastic situations. Instead of placing people with minor drug offences in prison, we should make it illegal to belong to gangs, and place those who violate this rule behind bars for long periods of time. We can't go on with the policies we now have in place.
Detroit: Plow it under and replant.
You can get down on D-troit and blame it on the Blacks but I have to say at least the Afro-Americans speak English.. *sortta No body is rushing out to relabel products in African languages like they do the mexicans. Supermarkets have created special shelves for mexican foods. NOT texmex. They can't even drink Coke unless it's in a mexican bottle. These are the true RACIST and the ones that bow and scrape at their feet for money. Don't even call me a racist.
You left out the "Organic" isle
Detroit shows us the power of the schwarz in all its glory!
After reading just make you want to go out and buy a New KIA then go shopping in WalMart and see if we cant sent a nother city down the tube and set and wonder why we Have Detriots and other city like that Dont buy American Dont buy Union made get it from China where they can take job and vote Republican.
Democratic Bill Clinton introduced Nafta.
Americans talking about the best places to live? in America?! what a laugh. go and live in Europe or Scandinavia and see what you are missing. Americans don't know what a functional, healthy society is.
Tom how can you put down an entire country? Are you kidding me?! Though I have never lived in Europe, I have visited on several occasions. In fact, I was in England and Scotland in November. I confess that I am an Anglophile and I absolutely love traveling abroad. However, I will never, ever give up my American citizenship to live in another country! Lastly, every country has its problems, ain't no utopias in the world. Sorry. God bless America!!!!!
It's all about the culture, but nobody really wants to address this. Well at least not those in power who can make a change. I grew up on the westside of Chicago and it is a cesspool!!! Funny, none of the politicians want to admit this and make concrete changes and hold people responsible for their actions. Instead, they talk the talk and walk the walk. Just ask Jesse about that!!! Indeed this country is terribly divided. However, I hope soon it will be divided one more time. I am hoping it will be divided between those folks who grew up in the ghetto and understand the culture and speak up against it and hold those in the hood totally responsible for their actions, their lives, their communities and there will be those like Jesse and Al and the movie stars and the professional athletes who were able to get the hell out, but refuse to speak out and point their fingers. Shame on all ya'll that know the truth and continue to tell the lie!!!
I got out in the nick of time. I made $400.00 on my house sale...but man I have no regrets leaving that dump. I was in the 'burbs but they're just as bad, with cop under every rock and behind every dumpster waiting to give you a ticket. Drivers are rude, and have no accoutability due to no fault insurance, the gas station and party store owners, for the most part, are dirty and try to rip you off alot. In the city itself, do not go there at night, except for Downtown and by the Fox Theater/Stadium area. That's the only difference between the city and 'burbs, you can go to the 'burbs at night. Some places have nice homes and things but you can get just as dead or ripped off as you can in the city.
Facts are,area's with large black populations have highest crime rate, more ghettos and low paying jobs. Penelope has a real hard time with reality.
...there is a common theme with the worst cities in America........
These are all cities with a significant percentage of blacks. They are unfortunately financial parasites on government in terms of dealing with crime, high welfare costs, incarceration costs, low tax base, etc.
And now we have a black president who is doing his best to make sure his race gets every dime he can extract out of hard working tax payers, so they he can continue the "free ride" for his race. They blindly voted him in for one reason...he'll take care of his own as much as he can.
Obama is president of the dumbocrats....not the people of the US!!