Nothing miserable except your story.

Awesome illustration by Mikey Burton!

As you may have seen, Forbes has published a story about what it dubs "America's Most Miserable Cities" - and has named Cleveland #1 on the list. What's more, three other cities region-wide are on the list, including Canton (#9), Akron (#12), and Youngstown (#18). Four others, if you expand the region to include #15 Toledo. The story, predictably, has drawn the ire of people and organizations from every corner and demographic around here, and appropriately so.

The story's lede - as ledes in stories like this invariably tend to be - was lazy and uninspired. (In case you're wondering, I'm not linking to it. You can find it and, frankly, I'd rather not drive any more traffic their way.) In five short sentences, Kurt Badenhausen mentions the Cuyahoga River catching fire, the 1978 city default on its debts, Cleveland's underperforming sports franchises, and the nickname "the Mistake by the Lake." 

We're told that the city's soaring taxes, high unemployment, bad weather, public corruption and bad sports teams - seriously - are responsible for the ranking. We then learn the factors making up Forbes's "Misery Measure", including unemployment, commute time, crimes and - again, seriously - success of the area's sports teams. Because a down year for the Indians ranks right up there with those losing your job, or home, or both.

Truth be told, Cleveland does have its share of problems. So does every city. Look around, times are tough. But there are equally tough, creative people out there working on solving these problems - and Cleveland is no exception. When I drive into the city each day, I see as many signs of progress as I see signs of trouble. The situation is only miserable if you arrive with preconceived, stale notions and write about the city from a very high altitude. 

Which is why journalistic grenades like this have so little worth. This story solves nothing, proposes no solutions. It reinforces negative stereotypes and ignores grassroots progress. The work is far from complete, believe me, but this story is a needless distraction. Any positive effect it could have had as a wake-up call has been outweighed by the vast outrage it has generated.

It's not sound qualitative research, nor is it sound investigative journalism. It's much easier to establish vague, even ludicrous factors by which to compare cities than it is to sit down with actual Clevelanders in an effort to collect thick descriptions of their experiences as residents of Northeast Ohio. Yes, foreclosures and joblessness are bad, but life and happiness can't be so easily categorized as it has here. 

To show you how using categories to rank cities can be a gross oversimplification, let's delve into the newly designed Northcoast Zeitgeist Least Awesome Cities list. Deciding factors include days of the year that the skies are overcast, sunniness and warmth of summer, and potential for natural disaster. When we plotted the stats, our clear winner was San Francisco. A real hellhole, there. 

On another level, leave the criticism of this area to people actually living in this area. When it's local and more locally informed, it can be constructive. When it's neither of those things, it makes you look like a bomb-tossing jerk. 

Comments

[Chris]

http://www.whattheforbes.com/

The Plain Dealer had an article about this website today.

[Joseph]

I used to be the art director at the convention and visitors bureau!

[Cleanwash Letterpress]

Totally agree! Who exactly benefits from articles like this? I am proud of where I'm from!

[Words and Eggs]

I love your reference to "journalistic grenades"! That's fabulous.

I swear that many so-called "journalists" hired by various blogs to post various inflammatory posts don't even do actual research; they just go by persistingly lame clichés that invaded the public consciousness long ago (i.e. "Mistake on the Lake," "Hey, didn't your river catch fire?", etc.).

[Joseph]

Thanks! As for who benefits, I really wanted to put my progressive-borderline-socialist hat on and delve into my thoughts on Forbes. But I can do it here! I tend to think that magazines like that are intended for rich people to talk to other rich people. And the armchair sociologist in me tells me that those in power tend to want to do whatever they can to stay in power. Hegemony, in other words.

I think you have to view stories like this through the frame through which magazines like this operate. There were a lot of rust-belt-type cities on that list, and I really don't think that's a coincidence. Towns that, in their heyday, rose and fell on the backs of working people and many that are still, for the most part, more blue than the types of places in which people like Steve Forbes frequent.

[Charlie Wagers]

send that image to Adam at Revival. I GUARANTEE he will print that shirt. and probably even do an inside print that says "collab with Northcoast Zeitgeist" or something like that.

I am 100% serious. This would be amazing. He loves doing collaborative shirts with other companies, and then you'd have some swanky shirts to sell, too.

[Joseph]

I'm glad you like it. It's actually my friend Mikey Burton who designed it, though.

[renee]

I would wear this if it were on a tee shirt,