<p>Really?</p>
<p>PLEASE DO NOT TAKE THIS BULL***** SERIOUSLY!!!</p>
<p>Forbes routinely prints these “scare rankings” all the time. They are virtually meaningless, and should be ignored. The reason why they are not is because they directly attack a city’s ego, and thus the people and heritage. </p>
<p>A lot of reason why they do this is for the company’s own conservative agenda. Being a particularly biased news magazine as part of News Corp’s “Crap Clan” (their portfolio also contains FOX news and many talk radio shows, among other assets), one of their main goals is to push a conservative agenda. For proof, try reading the editorials in their magazine sometime, compare their information to what’s offered by leading Republicans like Sarah Palin, Mitch McConnel, and John Boehner (it will look strikingly similar), and read carefully into their articles with proper “fact-checking”. IMO, a lot of reason why they pick on rust-belt cities is because they realize the “undesirable city” nerve is an easy one to strike, thus causing dissatisfaction with the home city among business leaders, who relocate their corporations, and take jobs and citizens with them. Then, that means more of these cities’ Democratic-leaning population bases are drained away, and the “swing states” these cities are located in become less “swing-ish”. That means rural Ohio Conservative influences will take over and cheaply give the Republicans a solid base that would be hard to unseat.</p>
<p>They choose to do these polls because they can get away with it as media in each city frequently reveals the negative side of city and local issues far more often than positive stories. Thus, a strong negative image has already been created with these cities’ economic troubles, and Forbes is trying to further beat the wounds by harassing these innocent locales. Instead of picking on liberal paradises like San Fran or Seattle, they can easily get away with picking on cities that lean strong liberal but yet do not have the common perception of being a “hot” location.</p>
<p>Notice that traditionally Conservative or southern cities did not make the list. For instance, on a true list with more accurate measurements like crime statistics, Memphis, LA, Atlanta, St. Louis, Modesto, and Las Vegas would be high on the list, among with many other cities that do not offer much in the way of identity, cultural attractions, or uniqueness (Phoenix, for example). Also, rust-belt cities are very self-contained, with many having 50+ 'burbs and up to 85% of the metropolitan population living outside city limits. Many sunbelt cities do not share this trait, and have instead annexed most of their suburban areas, skewing their statistics. If I took the whole metropolitan area into account for Cleveland, Detroit, and other cities on the list, you would see they are miles ahead of places like Phoenix or LA.</p>
<p>So yeah, if you choose to believe this garbage and not give the city a fair chance by immersing yourself in it, you can do that. Just keep in mind that it is your own loss if you choose to do so ;)</p>