Some Unhappy Cities

 Florida has four cities in the top 20 unhappiest cities in the US.  But the city that tops the list is most surprising at best.  It is St. Petersburg.  I read one lisr that said Detroit is the unhappiest city in America.  I'll go with what i read in an article and you can find your own lists.  I am not sure which magazine did the survey, but I believe it was Men magazine.  They took into consideration suicide rates, traffic congestion, crime, antidepressants, and unemployment.  All these factored into the compiling this list.  It just gives me something to write about this morning.  In one list for example, Plano, Texas was the happiest city in the US.  Ask me if I'd be happy in Plano, Texas.

Tampa was number four on the list followed by Jacksonville at number eight and Orlando at number 19.  For a comparison, Boston, for example, has a lower suicide rate than Anchorage, Alaska.  Since we now live in Florida, I didn't see how other cities fared on the list.  But both my wife and I were surprised that St. Petersburg was number one.  Now anyone can publish a list based on many factors and come to their own conclusions, but the fact is that while Men magazine isn't Forbes or some travel magazine, one could say that it's just a list.   Any list is just a list.

I watch a video channel called The World According to Briggs and he's always talking about lists that he gets from statistics.  Any list could include a number of factors and most anywhere could be on some list for some reason or another.  If it were just traffic to take into consideration, that could be the whole state of Florida, especially during the winter months.

It's almost hard to fathom Orlando on the list, but tourists are not residents.  In fact the tourism of Florida just might be a contributing factor to the unhappiness of residents.  And of course, tourism has a lot to do with employment of locals.  I can speculate on many factors about the tourimsm industry, but generally tourists are happy when they vacation, and the residents have to put up with them.  My wife said just yesterday that we may need to live here another year before we no longer feel like tourists.  

Now, I don't know what all the factors are that go into making these lists.  But to see St. Petersburg number one and Tampa number four was surprising at best.  I've also read that Tampa is a very desirable place to live, but every city has its good with its bad.  I can understand that Orlando is entirely dependent on tourism.  A lot of people move to these cities looking for work.  I might be able to understand Jacksonville being number eight on the list.  It's not on the beach.  

Neither is Orlando, but that city makes up for it with theme parks.  Orlando might be the city on this list with the most tourists.  I can imagine catering to tourists is draining at best.  Well, my wife and I might still be tourists to some locals, but we have drivers licenses with a Florida address.  We've been going to the same places and have become familiar with Cape Coral.  I no longer think of myself as a tourist.  

I have yet to find a local pipe shop, but really, I do all my ordering on-line these days.  I understand there is a pipe shop in downtown Ft. Meyers.  I might get there some day.  My pipe shop has been Smoking Pipes and they do just fine.  I am smoking my haunted Gettysburg pipe this morning with some Shwashbuckler.  Thank you for your time and Peace to each one of you.

Dave