Forbes just published their “Top 10 Most Miserable Cities” list. I was glad that Columbus didn’t make the list, but I feel a little sorry for those cities that did. As cities are struggling with their budgets in this economy, making the list certainly must be a thorn in their side.
The Top 10 were: #1 Stockton, CA; Memphis; Chicago; Cleveland; Modesto, CA; Flint, MI; Buffalo; Miami; and St Louis.
In my pre-Realtor® life, I traveled quite a bit in my corporate job. I’ve been to almost all the mainland states. Some of those I haven’t been to are states I’m OK with not visiting, such as ND, SD, and Idaho. Three other states that I would like to see, but haven’t are Maine, NH and Vermont. I’ve also been to most of the provinces in Canada. I liked Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal much better than Calgary and Winnipeg. I made the trip to Winnipeg in the winter. Br-r-r-r! Any city where the cars have electric cords hanging out of their grills isn’t for me.
I enjoyed seeing Seattle, especially seeing the missing top of Mt St Helens as we flew into the airport. I was probably most fascinated with Oregon because it was the biggest surprise. Its terrain is like several states all crammed into one … even a desert that looks just like AZ. I’ve never been a big fan of Florida – just don’t care for the humidity. I liked AZ so much that I moved to Tucson for 18 months. I spent several days in Houston in JULY! Now THAT was miserable humidity!
I was surprised to see the Alamo in San Antonio. It’s very tiny and nothing like the one you see in John Wayne movies. The same goes for the “grassy knoll” in Dallas. It’s a very small, nondescript area in the downtown, but definitely was a moving experience.
Naturally, Colorado is beautiful. Spent a week in Colorado Springs. Took the train up to Pike’s Peak. They didn’t let us into Cheyenne Mt to see the NORAD facility … surprise, surprise. On the trip to Denver, we took a side trip up into the mountains because it was September and a perfect time to see the golden aspens mixed in with the evergreens.
I was sorry to see Chi-town make the ‘miserable list’. I’ve always enjoyed all my trips there, and much prefer it to New York. Aside from the politicians, I also enjoyed DC with all its history. Another city I didn’t care for was LA. Just took too long to go anywhere with all the freeway traffic. However, driving from there through Palm Springs to Yuma was an interesting trip with the Salton Sea and a nearby silo with a line 100 ft up that said “sea level”. The miles and miles of windmill farms outside LA are fascinating.
You know, we live in quite an outstanding country. Come to think of it … we’re pretty lucky to be able to live here.
Copyright © 2009. Elaine Reese, Real Living HER. Reproduction of any portion of this blog post or the images is prohibited by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. If this post is being viewed on any site other than www.ReesesPiecesOfRealEstate.com then the material has been stolen without permission. Violators will be reported.
Yes this burned the heck out of me and the amazing part is, people here seem to be in relatively good spirits, are always friendly and except for the cold weather and maybe the need for a job, rarely complain about Cleveland. In fact, they defend it vigorously. They do studies of our neighborhoods and find that over half the people who live in them would not want to leave. Forbes certainly went off my list with their list.
I think we share feelings about cities and you have been to quite a few!
Carole, naturally I thought of you when I saw this list. You work so hard on your blog to promote Cleveland. I read where some other bloggers thought it was irresponsible of Forbes to publish such a list, given the difficulties many cities are currently having.