. 1. Portland, Ore. 2. St. Louis 3. New Orleans 4. Detroit 5. Cleveland 6. Jacksonville, Fla. 7. Las Vegas 8. Nashville-Davidson, Tenn. 9. Cincinnati 10. Atlanta According to businessweek,,,,,,,,,, Lucky me I'm not living in those cities. Recession takes its emotional toll on cities The economic downturn could lead to higher rates of crime, divorce, alcohol and drug abuse, depression and suicide.By BusinessWeek Portland, Ore. ranks No. 1 on list of America's unhappiest Towns that will be hit hardest by financial crisis Leslie Storm, director of an Oregon suicide help line, is scrambling to find shelter for a cash-strapped 52-year-old man who says he will hang himself by the end of the week. The man, who could not work for a couple of months because of a medical condition, told Storm that he is behind on his rent and his roommate planned to kick him out this week. It is the kind of situation she is dealing with more in these days of rising unemployment and evictions. "He's telling me that he is slipping through the cracks, and it breaks my heart," says Storm, director of the crisis line program of the Oregon Partnership. "He has medical problems and says he can't go live under a bridge." The Oregon suicide and drug and alcohol help lines received 71% more calls in January 2009 than it did the previous January, including more calls from people having suicidal thoughts because of severe financial stress, Storm said. Promoting awareness The federal government and nonprofit advocacy groups are getting the word out about the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (800-273-TALK) and focusing more on other prevention efforts because they are worried that the rising tide of unemployment and foreclosures could lead to more depression, drug and alcohol abuse, divorce and ultimately for the most vulnerable, suicide. America's top 10 unhappiest cities At the same time, the recession has forced state governments to cut back on social services designed to help people in physical, mental and financial stress at exactly the time when demand for those services is greatest, says Susan Byrne Lee, president and chief executive officer of Mental Health America of Northeast Florida. MSN Health & Fitness: Depression symptoms, treatments and causes The nationwide data on suicide lags by three or four years, so it likely won't be known whether suicides are spiking for a few years, by which point everyone hopes the recession will be over. But even before the crisis, suicide rates were higher in certain parts of the country — especially in the Intermountain West, including Montana, Nevada, Colorado, Wyoming and Oregon — and lowest in densely populated states such as New York, Massachusetts and New Jersey. It is unclear why this is the case, but researchers believe that people in more rural states might have less access to care, tend to be more isolated and have ready access to guns. Is your city filled with miserable people? To get a sense of where the pain points are greatest, BusinessWeek came up with a list of the 20 unhappiest cities. These are major cities that were ranked based on their rates of suicide, depression, divorce, unemployment, job loss, population loss, crime, amount of green space and cloudy days. BusinessWeek gave most emphasis to suicide and depression rates, crime and economic factors. The city with the highest overall score in our index was Portland, the beautiful Oregon city that also has very high depression and suicide rates. St. Louis, New Orleans and Detroit were high on the list, largely because of their rates of crime, unemployment and population loss. Other cities such as Las Vegas and Jacksonville, Fla., ranked high because of their suicide rates and difficult economic conditions. In Las Vegas, a suicide increase Mike Murphy, coroner for Clark County, Nev., which includes Las Vegas, said he has noticed an increase in economy-related suicides, but he doesn't have any hard data yet. What's your home worth? He is seeing more suicides involving elderly people, including two recent husband-and-wife suicide pacts. The increase in suicide among seniors could be because of economic conditions. But it could also be because Las Vegas has become a destination for retirees, he said. He said it is a misconception that Vegas suicides are tied to gambling (though it's impossible to know the precise causes). Murphy said people who take their own lives might have had problems long before they moved to Las Vegas. "A lot of people will come to communities such as ours to make a new start in life," Murphy said. "But if they bring habits from where they came from, nothing will change except geography."
True. The sad part is, a lot of jobs in my field are in St. Louis, and with the current state of the economy.......i guess i just have bad luck.:-|
B you should be looking to move to the MD, DC, VA metro area to start your career, this area is somewhat insulated from recessions...
Thanks for the heads up Malik. I'll definitely look into those areas. By the way, i posted my resume on Monster, and am hoping for some good results. What is the best method for a college graduate to get their career started?
I definitely believe Detroit and Cleveland in being unhappy. Those two cities are dying, decrepit shells of themselves. I grew up in Cleveland so I've seen how it has deteriorated. We had almost 900k people 50 years ago. Now, we half less than half that, with only about 430k. I guess that's the way it goes. People don't wanna live in the Midwest anymore. The jobs aren't there. The houses are old, and the weather's cold. It's cities like Phoenix, Tucson, Austin, Vegas, Charlotte, Atlanta, San Diego, and Seattle that attract people
I'm from the Cleveland area, and I am not surprised it's on the list. I'm just one of those who joined in the mass exodus of people Dex referred to. When I graduated from college in 2004, I considered joining Americorps. I wanted to go to the west coast and I looked at several programs in Oregon. I noticed there was a freak amount of programs centered around helping women who were abused by their husbands. Teen pregnancy was another big program in that area. I guess these issues and depression go hand in hand.
Haha. According to the list, I'd be slightly happier in Atlanta. :-D The sunshine and slightly warmer temps in Savannah leave me feeling downright jovial
It seems to be a big trend that Akronites & Clevelanders move to ATL....more diverse market. However, I keep hearing a whole lot about Savannah from different pple...guess I'll have to keep that in mind.
Pordenone is the best. Medieval stuff, an hour from the mountain, half an hour from the lake, 45 minutes from the mediterranean sea
That's so awesome, LoL. My man wanted to move to Portland, Ore. because of their culinary school and I don't really want to live there. I'm going to show him this and maybe he'll change his mind and go to school somewhere closer to home/where we're from. I think if he researched, he'd find a better one anyway.
I wouldn't go to these cities in the first place. I'm not surprised Portland is no.1. That is a horrible city and I wouldn't recommend anyone living there.
