Study Shows that Cleveland is Not the Worst in Everything

Cleveland, Ohio has been in the news lately because of the city's horrible reputation. None of the publicity has been positive. Cleveland has been bashed for their sports teams, unemployment rate, housing market, Clevelander's attitudes, crime rate, and education system. However, today there is some good news for people living on "the mistake on the lake." As a lifelong Clevelander, I do feel the pain, but I can see a bright side to the city and surrounding area.

First the Bad News for Clevelanders

Cleveland is the most miserable city, according to Forbes.com miserable city list. This report came out in February and took into account Cleveland's unemployment rate, large tax bills, and mediocre sports teams.

Cleveland overtook Stockton, Calif., for the #1 position this year because of an increase in foreclosures and bankruptcies. A deciding point may have been the weather. Stockton does have better weather than Cleveland. Forbes used a Misery Measure to calculate their most miserable cities.

Last week the Cleveland Indians were declared the most loathed team in baseball. I have no idea how this happened, but according to the Wall Street Journal the Nielsen's Sentiment Scale or "Hatred Index" places the Indians in first place.

The Wall Street Journal suggests that the reason may partly be because the Indians have been a pretty stagnate team for the past 13 years. I can attest that I haven't been to an Indians game since 1997 because of high ticket prices and even higher concession stand prices.

Now the Good News for Clevelanders

So as not to jinx anything, I will refrain from any predictions about a certain sports team who are in the playoffs. This good news comes from MSN Health. It seems that Cleveland is not in the first position when it comes to the fattest cities in the U.S.

Cleveland comes in at #77 out of 90 cities studied and received the passable letter grade: B. To get the rankings MSN factored in the percentage of people who are overweight, the percentage with type 2 diabetes, the percentage who haven't left the couch in a month, the money spent on junk food and the number of people who ate fast food nine or more times in a month.

Technically I guess that Cleveland being the most miserable city may go hand-in-hand with the people being thinner. Clevelanders may not be eating out as much due to the lack of extra income. Personally, I drown my sorrows in cheeseburgers but luckily I'm not depressed often.

Corpus Christi, Texas holds the #1 position for the fattest city in the U.S. You can see a complete list of all 90 cities here.

I am very happy that Cleveland did not come in at #1 for this category. For once we have some good news in Cleveland. I just hope the upswing continues.

Sources:

http://www.forbes.com/2010/02/11/americas-most-miserable-cities-business-beltway-miserable-cities.html

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704471204575210384180269378.html

http://health.msn.com/weight-loss/articlepage.aspx?cp-documentid=100257787>1=31036