Rockford 14th on Forbes’ ‘Miserable Cities’ list

From online reports

Rockford is the 14th most “miserable” city in the United States, according to Forbes magazine’s third annual ranking of America’s Most Miserable Cities.

The list of cities, released Feb. 18, said of Rockford: “Once known as the Screw Capital of the World because of the billions of screws and bolts made locally, Rockford has struggled with high crime as well as soaring unemployment, which is expected to average 16.9 percent this year.”

According to Forbes.com: “Our Misery Measure takes into account unemployment, taxes (both sales and income), commute times, violent crime and how its pro sports teams have fared over the past two years. We also factored in two indexes put together by Portland, Ore., researcher Bert Sperling that gauge weather and Superfund pollution sites. Lastly, we considered corruption based on convictions of public officials in each area as tracked by the Public Integrity Section of the U.S. Department of Justice.

“We expanded the list of cities under consideration this year to include the 200 largest metro areas (in years past we’ve examined 150), which led to a shuffling in the ranks. Any area with a population of more than 245,000 was eligible.”

Following is Forbes’ list of America’s 20 Most Miserable Cities:

1—Cleveland
2—Stockton, Calif.
3—Memphis, Tenn.
4—Detroit
5—Flint, Mich.
6—Miami
7—St. Louis
8—Buffalo, N.Y.
9—Canton, Ohio
10—Chicago
11—Modesto, Calif.
12—Akron, Ohio
13—Kansas City, Mo.
14—Rockford
15—Toledo, Ohio
16—New York
17—Sacramento, Calif.
18—Youngstown, Ohio
19—Gary, Ind.
20—Philadelphia