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February 1, 2008

Forbes: Providence is 10th most miserable city

You should be miserable in Providence today. And yesterday and tomorrow. Just should be.

After all, Forbes.com declared Providence the nation's 10th most miserable city. (No, Hartford is not in the top 10).

At WaterFires, you are miserable. At rock shows at AS220 and Lupo's, miserable. At plays at Trinity Rep., you're miserable. Laughing at Spamalot at PPAC, you are in fact miserable. At the Farmer's Market, round up a bag full of ripened miseries.

Well, no.

But your tax bill, well, that may bring misery. And the city has plenty of things that aren't so cheery.

According to Forbes.com, it looked at the 150 largest American metropolitans areas' unemployment, personal tax rates, commute times, weather, crime, and "that toxic waste dump in your backyard." Cities were rated in the six areas, then the ranks were added together "to establish what we call the Misery Measure," Forbes.com says in its report, posted on Wednesday.

Here are the magazine's Providence rankings:

Commute times: 69
Income tax rates: 149
Superfund sites: 111
Unemployment: 121
Violent crimes: 51
Weather: 110

The Forbes list rated Detroit most miserable, followed by Stockton, Calif., and Flint, Mich. New York City was fourth, Philly fifth, Chicago sixth, and Los Angeles seventh. Modesto, Calif., got eighth and Charlotte, N.C., came in ninth most miserable.

Which brings us to Providence.

Rhode Island blog anchorrising.com linked to the Forbes item on Thursday, and others in the Rhody blogosphere later riffed on the list. Here's some reaction:

NotforNothing was not so impressed, calling the list "utterly stupid."

At providencedailydose.com, the item asked whether Forbes editors had seen The Wire, the HBO series that explores Baltimore's plight from several angles. Baltimore wasn't top-10 miserable, according to the Forbes list.

In past months, Providence's placement on lists has usually meant a news release on the way from the mayor's office touting it. The fax was miserably quiet on that front Thursday.

Let's all take a deep breath and try to get through another day's misery.

-- projo.com staff writer Michael P. McKinney

Posted by Mike McKinney at 8:00 AM | Permalink

Comments

Maybe now people will stop moving here, and real estate prices will go back to being affordable.

Yeah, right.

janet | February 1, 2008 8:53 AM link

Huh.
So the ocean, the arts, the history, the quirks and sense of community, the fact that if I ask a fellow Rhode Islander two questions it will turn out that we actually know each other or that our fathers did . . .no good?

Concerned Person | February 1, 2008 9:12 AM link

Well now, it seems that not only have people stopped moving here, they are leaving. According to that Forbes article:
>>Only New York City fares worst than Providence when it comes to income tax rates. The top rate for all of Rhode Island is 9.9%. Residents are fleeing the area, with a net migration of 20,000 out of the area over the past four years.

Misery is what most hard-working middle-class Rhode Islanders feel when we bust their humps all week just to pay for bloated paychecks and pensions of state and municipal workers. Most of us don't give a flying leap about waterfire, as220, or trinity rep, and never even heard of spamlot. We're lucky enough if our disposable income covers a netflix membership. I'm really surprised to see such an elitist blog entry, out of touch with Everyman.

Let them eat cake | February 1, 2008 7:34 PM link

I visited once and was truly not impressed. There was an overcast everyday and then came the snow. It was quite depressing. I dont know what the job situation is like but I can guess that if you went to college there or grew up there and went to college somewhere else you wouldnt go back to secure your career.

Armani | March 7, 2008 10:25 PM link

February 1, 2008

Forbes: Providence is 10th most miserable city

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