America's Most Miserable Cities

I'm glad Baltimore isn't on there. :D

that can not be in order - - How is New York worse than Los Angeles? I'll take the 'crime rate, inflation, unemployment, commute times, toxic waste, weather, and taxes' of New York over LA anyday - - Culture makes a BIG difference in quality of life

Agreed! Besides, those things don't neccessarily make people miserable.

Finally a list that is accurate. Im in Detroit right now (and have been for 22 years) and I'm miserable.

I live in Providence and for the past 15 years it has been under going an incredible renaissance. That list is just plain old wrong. The food here is incredible, the city has been rebuilt, the colleges and business communities are thriving. And we have Waterfire. Check out waterfire.org !!!

I dunno, I think some parts of New York are worse than L.A. And how come New York's the only city without the state attached? They aren't special.

Interesting criteria. Having long commute times and high taxes is a much different kind of misery than having high crime rates and unemployment. Not all misery is equal.

New York City is the only place that I feel happy, strangely enough.

Having spent a considerable amount of time in LA, Modesto, and Stockton, I have to agree with them all - even if you just keep the list to CA cities. It's amazing how Modesto and Stockton are able to sustain their economies at all, if not for the fact that they lie along the two major travel arteries across the state.

I must agree with Detroit. Its a miserable used up ghetto ridden city. Its sad too, because people still care for Detroit, and the suburbs are fantastic! Lots of good people in that area of Michigan. Its just that low life's took over most of that city and ran it into the ground.

Jeff, I agree. Providence is SO much different than it was 10-15 years ago! I can't understand why it made this list...

Especially with the new mall, and all the new buildings downtown. It's been completely transformed.

Having lived in Windsor, Ontario (right across the Detroit River in Canada) I can attest that yes Detroit is one of those really sad depressing cities. I think the only times I have actually enjoyed myself there was when the Auto Show came.

Interesting for a Brit - we have similar in England, most miserable places being the cities: Nottingham, Manchester, Newcastle, and London being top for knife crime. London is still a great city though and I would live there if I could afford it.

Forbes' list is skewed politically because it added taxes to the list. No one cares how much they pay in taxes as long as they get it back in services. I go around and around with people on that- you have a well-run local government with high taxes and great services and everyone's happy because it's cheaper than paying for the services yourself. Forbes should rerun the numbers without taxes added- it's a lie.

I know several rust belt cities in PA and OH that have horrible cultures, far worse than NYC, definitely on-par with Cleveland and Detroit.

heey i live a hop skip away from stockton, my boyfriend lives there, ha thats great

i was born and raised in stockton(2)
and my sister lives in modesto(8)
and its all so very true.

No texas cities?! YAY!!! finally a list that doesn't rip on texas. :-)

re: kar - Oh lord, I think maybe culture snobbery adds to the misery quotient.

DCer: come to Detroit, you'll get high taxes + no services. Unless you are in the process of being murdered, the police will probably won't arrive at all. If you're business has just been robbed, wait 4 hours or so for the police to arrive, then you'll be robbed again right after because the thieves know they'll have a leisurely time window. Decayed 1950's metropolis infrastructure + endemic corruption mean that tax dollars first go to lining pockets & maintaining streets where one house out of ten is occupied (other than with crackhead squatters or copper bandits). If you need a building inspector to help get the approval you need to get a business open in a reasonable manner, good luck. Good luck getting anything out of City Hall but bad attitude.

Yet on the plus side, the Downtown has changed dramatically in recent years. If you haven't been to Detroit for a while, you would not recognize the downtown. Its not Portland Oregon, but its definitely not what it used to be. This development may turn out to be the last hurrah of a moribund metropolis, who knows.

Flint is more depressing to me. Makes me think of purgatory.

Ask any psychiatrist, misery is caused by a serotonin imbalance, not the crime rate, inflation, unemployment, commute times, toxic waste, weather, and taxes.
Psychiatry is that advanced they don't even need any form of lab test to check for such an imabalance, they just say they're right and you should believe them. Moving will solve nothing, take SSRI's instead.

Ask any psychiatrist, misery is caused by a serotonin imbalance, not the crime rate, inflation, unemployment, commute times, toxic waste, weather, and taxes.
Psychiatry is that advanced they don't even need any form of lab test to check for such an imbalance, they just say they're right and you should believe them. Moving will solve nothing, take SSRI's instead.

Born and lived in Modesto until college (parents still live there).. and I agree. Sure I have some hometown pride here and there - mostly nostalgic memories (Roller King!) and such.. but.. yeah, not worth moving back to settle down - no where to work unless it's the mall or a field.

Why all the ripping on psychiatrists in completely unrelated topics?

Is Neatorama on some mental institution's Favorites list?

I mean, besides mine.

Washington DC is a nightmare city to drive in. I'd put it on the list just for the commute.

Second the point about taxes. The "Misery Score" is Chicago School dogma at its most boneheaded; just OMG look at those horribly miserable French! Now, if you're getting taxed and not getting anything back, as roger notes, that's different... but that's not inevitable. The mere presence of the "Misery Score" as a factor makes me distrust this list.

Aww, of all the places I've lived in America, Chicago was my very favorite one! True, the traffic is ungodly if you're not used to it and haven't yet figured out ways around it - but ohhh, the wonderful public transit, the scads of cool people, the outdoor summer concerts at Ravinia, the awesome neighborhoods (I LOVED livinng in Ravenswood!!), and the view from the bar on the 96th floor of the Hancock Tower go a long, long way towards offsetting whatever unpleasant aspects there are ...

I've lived in and around Los Angeles for most of my life and I disagree with it even being on that list, which may have caused me to lose a few I.Q. points reading. There is plenty of (true) culture, you just have to know how to find it. As for cultural and ethnic diversity, L.A. (and all of Socal for that matter) is a treasure. The only bad qualities I have noticed are the inferior and difficult public transit system, the illegal immigration problem, and alot of people who think their excrement don't stink. That Forbes article mentioned none of those. Hmmm...

P.S. Yes I have traveled all around the U.S., spent time in other U.S. cities, and have been to some other counties as well.

I grew up in the suburbs of detroit and still live in the subs. I've seen it all. Just ask Kwame the mayor, not only has he been caught cheating on his wife and using 9 million dollars of the tax payers money to cover it up, but also has been caught many of times abusing his political powers. And it seems that the people that live there love him for being able to corrupt them. The city is rebuilding the downtown area a bit, but the rest of the city is a slum. A lot of the areas surrounding downtown the cops are afraid to leave the main roads. So if you visit be careful, very careful.

I think it has a lot to do with what kind of person you are. I'm a modern city-dweller. If I had to live in the sticks for any period of time, I'd be seriously considering throwing myself off of a bridge. 7 out of the 10 are metropolitan cities which makes me think the list-makers have a skewed perspective as to exactly what makes people miserable. Misery for me is living more than ten minutes drive from a 24-hour diner/grocery/drugstore. Being mugged in a dark alley is a chance I'm willing to take for pancakes at 3am.

NeuroGirl, I live in a tiny town in the sticks, and all those things are less than a ten-minute drive. I'd really like to live somewhere where they are all a ten minute WALK!

what about pittsburgh? super high taxes, incredibly miserable weather, the worst (or second worst) city for singles (says another forbes list)...terrible mass transit system, high degree of disparity...ugh. pittsburgh deserves to be on there.

Go California! Three cities on the list. I agree with Los Angeles being bad. Taxes are high, traffic is unbearable, strip malls are everywhere, illegal immigration is a big problem, and culture is waaaay overblown.

Yep, Stockton sucks.
(and that assessment is unrelated to the fact that a bullet flew through my apartment a few weeks ago)

Charlotte?!?!? I do not understand. Is there a place where we can see the results of the surveys? I live in North Carolina, in a very small town, but I have friends who live in Charlotte and I can't understand how it is any worse than other cities in North Carolina (Raleigh/Durham area, Greensboro/High Point), so there must be more cities in the US that are worse than Charlotte.

Yeah, I'd second that list -- so glad I live in Seattle. :-D

At first I thought it said "desirable", then I read #1 detroit and rofl'd.

Another goofy thing about the list. Places like L.A. and NYC don't seem to fit considering the high property values. If such places were truly miserable, nobody would want to live there. But that isn't the case. Quite the opposite.

Also interesting illegal immigration is an asset, not a problem. They make up a large, flexible workforce, statistically low burden on public services, and law enforcement, despite popular opinion, and still contribute to public coffers, half the time via paycheck taxes, all the time through sales and property taxes. All without eligibility of usual welfare programs and without complaining. It's no wonder folks are so scared of them!

High levels of illegal immigrants would seem to indicate economic strength. A good sign. The downside being that regular folks have to endure hearing Spanish spoken in the lines at the supermarket. I guess there's no underestimating the annoyance of hearing foreign languages in public.

Where's New Jersey.

Hard to believe El Paso isn't on the list.

Come on, where's Gary, Indiana on that list? I certainly agree with Stockton and Modesto though; it's funny that many people have an image of California being one long stretch of beautiful golden beaches and palm trees, when in fact our entire central valley is an ugly, polluted wasteland. At least we have San Francisco to make up for it. :-)

@Sylvia-
New Jersey isn't on the list, because most of it is a great place to live. You could make a case for Camden and Newark being on there, but the rest of it has a very high standard of living and the highest property values & millionaire fraction in the country.

Lists like these always have a lot of faults (as many have noted), because it all depends on how you rank everything. NYC gets dinged for the taxes & high cost of living & commute times, but if you are an urban-loving person, there's no place better -- the list doesn't adequately comprehend all the things city-lovers love cities for. That said, Detroit and Flint are complete cesspools...

I live in the Metro Detroit area and the city is just one big hell-hole run by ignorant, corrupt individuals. I never venture into the city for fear it will be my last. They should just napalm the place and start over. Start with Kwame the wanna-be thug mayor.

chicago has wonderful mass transit? you have got to be kidding me. every morning and evening for 5 years i spent hours on the miserable CTA bus routes and train lines. 45 minute waits for busses in sub-freezing temps, over and over and OVER again doesn't cut it. the service is abysmal. period.

@ Sheky

I'm not sure where you live but there is a huge downside to the heavy influx of illegal immigrants. Alot of them get paid under the table, so they do not pay income tax. The only tax they pay is sales tax. Fine. At least that is something. They also are overburdening the health care system here in L.A. county. They bring with them elevated violent crime, drug activity smuggling, etc. There are forms of public assistance they are eligible for and many do take advantage of it. We are also obligated to school the children that come with them (not referring to anchor babies who are automatic citizens) which is also overburdening the county. And we the taxpayers get to pay for it.

Of course there are the decent folks you are referring to, but I'm sorry to say that they are not legion as the criminal element.

Oh, and Sheky, I speak Spanish and English and I am not in fear of hearing people speak foreign languages nor am I a xenophobe. If you want to take cheap shots, go to a redneck firing range.

I just think that if a person wants to be a part of America, they should do it according to America's laws.

I haved lived in metro Charlotte for a year now and have never been happier. The weather here should be considered in the top ten in the country. We do not have hurricanes, snow, also no earthquakes or forest fires. Also I am 2.5 hours to the ocean and 1.5 hours to the beach. Oh yeah I also bought a new house for half of what it would cost me anywhere else in the country and both my wife and I recieved a job on the day we arrived here. It is by far the cleaniest city you will ever see. The only problem we have is traffic but every city has that. Oh by the way it will be 72 degrees on Tues. the 5th of Feb. I'm telling you I am MISERABLE!

Don't forget Akron, Ohio: Meth capital of the country

How come St. Louis and Sacramento not on the list?

My husband and I live in Stockton for twelve years now and proud to say we love Stockton. Stockton is not really that bad. With the new 16 cenema, the Weber Point Event Center, the new arena, the Ball Park, Bob Hope theater, the renovated Stockton Hotel, the newly opened Sheraton Hotel and many more, and all the things going on here like arts and music. How could anyone say this city is miserable. Forbes ranking is based only on news reports, there was no personal survey at all from Forbes. On the other hand, there were only two hundred something Stocktonian household who handed their complains about Stockton out of one thousand five hundred or so, and those two hundred plus were the miserable ones not the city itself.

Have to correct some of my comments above about the survey. As it was stated in the Record, " Surveys were mailed to a random sample of 1,200 homes; 294 completed were returned, a typical response rate, according to the survey's administrators". So the rest of the 1,200 household did not submit their survey because they didn't have any bad things to say about Stockton, and I am one of those and oh yeah my husband too.

I can't believe that Charlotte is there but Baltimore is not.

I agree with Philadelphia! These are some of the most miserable people I've ever encountered!

Why on earth New Orleans and St Louis not on the list!?

I can't believe Baltimore isn't on there! I have been there several times, and the buildings are run-down, the streets are littered with trash and loiterers, and the bus stations are inhabited by the homeless. Not to mention the high crime rate there.

The list can't be complete because it leaves out Buffalo, NY.

Los Angeles makes sense. Death Cab have a song about how much it sucks.

Stockton deserves to be on the list. More pollution than LA. It's faster to walk home from school than to take the city bus because its always 20 minutes late. The Stockton Unififed produces retards. I'm a B avrage student which means i'm in the top 1 percentile of the best high school in town (which ONLY has a 60 perecnt drop out rate). The shopping sucks. Weather's terrible. I always have the fear of getting shot even in the suburbs. and the list continues. Because of Stockton, The American dream seems easier to aquire in a third world country.