The Forbes list of “America’s Most Miserable Cities” is out and Chicago has moved up to number 3 from last year’s number 6 position.
Lousy weather, long commutes, rising unemployment and the highest sales tax rate in the country are to blame for the Windy City being near the top of our list. High rates of corruption by public officials didn’t help either.
A big factor in our advancement was apparently public corruption:
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois, which includes Chicago, has been very busy in recent years. They convicted 385 public officials of crimes over the past decade, a per capita rate that puts it in the bottom third of big U.S. metros.
The Northern District office boasts of recent successful prosecutions, including “a corrupt former governor of Illinois, Chicago officials who rigged city hiring, individuals who lied about their support of foreign terrorism, corporate executives who cheated public shareholders and traditional organized-crime bosses who were responsible for notorious murders.”
Illinois’ record of public corruption, particularly in the governor’s office, is staggering. Five of the past nine governors have been charged with crimes, and three, as of now, have served time in prison.
Then there’s our economy:
The misery in Chicago runs much deeper than just corruption, though. Unemployment is expected to surge to 9.2% in 2009, up from 6.6%. The Tribune Co. is mired in bankruptcy, while big local employers like Midway Games, Motorola, and the University of Chicago Medical Center have all announced big layoffs.
Residents have been showing their dissatisfaction with Chicago with their feet, perhaps fed up by the average low temperature of 17 degrees in January. There has been a net migration of people out of Chicago for seven straight years, a trend that is expected to continue.
The article also mentions our winter weather, our sales tax—at 10.3% it’s the highest in the country—and the Cubs’ century-long losing streak, but for some reason it neglects to mention last year’s sudden surge of murders.
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