I woke up to a news flash this morning: Forbes Magazine had announce the country's
most miserable cities and my hometown had grabbed the number 1 spot. The criteria for becoming the most miserable city were high unemployment rates, crime, corruption in local government, sports teams, and weather, among a few others.
Ok, yes, we have high unemployment. My family has experienced this firsthand. In the past two years, my husband has been laid off twice. The first time was only two months after our son was born. The second was just recently. The good news is that he's starting a new job on March 1st!
Anyway, our winters aren't terrible. Yes, they're cold, we get a lot of snow, ice, etc. But we
do live in the northern hemisphere, so why is that a shock? Another thing that's not surprising is the corruption of government officials. I think it's just that these county officials got caught, and officials in other cities haven't... Yet...
Cleveland.com posted a great
rebuttal to the miserable rating bringing up the fact that just last year Cleveland was named a top city for dating. In just one year we suddenly manage to go bipolar and switch from hot and sexy to miserable and depressed.
There are plenty of fun things to do in Cleveland. We have the
Rock Hall, the
Warehouse District has lots of food and bars, nationally recognized
world class health care,
Playhouse Square, and a slew of
great museums just to name just a few.
While we do have high unemployment, foreclosure, and corruption rates, does that
really classify a city as miserable?
