St. Petersburg, Florida Saddest City in U.S.

Photo Courtesy of the City of St. Petersburg

Ham on Wry sadly reports that a study published in Men's Health November 28, 2001, names St. Petersburg, Florida as the nation's saddest city.  Detroit, Michigan followed St. Pete as second saddest city.  Other Florida cities show marked sadness as well. Tampa placed fourth and Miami eighth, with Jacksonville at thirteenth and Orlando at nineteenth.  Wow!  What's up with that and who saw it coming? St. Petersburg's mayor, Bill Foster, can't count this as one of his most stellar accomplishments.

Men's Health also concluded, "Florida in general seems to be a depressing place to live."  What is causing the malaise in the state of Florida?  Ham on Wry holds Governor Rick Scott and a legislature determined to undermine citizens rights to easy voting access, clean water, fresh air, and an environment conducive to supporting life as culprits that contributed to our gloom.  Add to that the building boom that created a glut of unsold houses, a precipitous drop in home prices, high unemployment, and a rise in food prices and voila, depression set in.

In its research, the magazine studied data from the CDC on suicide rates, Bureau of Labor Statistics unemployment rates, and SimplyMap for numbers on households that consume anti-depressants and people who report feeling blue all or most of the time.  With all that St. Petersburg offers in amenities-- fine restaurants, the Dali Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts-- to name a few, I was surprised that the city topped the list.  Mayor Foster has "some s'plainin to do."

It takes more than sunshine and fair weather to create happiness.  Residents must have confidence in elected officials and a sense that the economy is at least stabilizing, if not growing.  It seems that confidence is lacking in five urban areas in Florida.  What to do?  We could recall the governor and vote out short-sighted legislators.  Oh, that's right.  Florida has no provision for a recall.  I guess Floridian will have to wait three more years to handle that part of the problem.