Feb 13, 2009 11:17 am US/Eastern
US Rep. Slams Forbes For Naming Miami 'Miserable'
MIAMI (CBS4) ―
A magazine article branding Miami as among the most miserable cities in America has drawn the ire of South Florida's US Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who questioned why the Magic City received such a bad rap in the article.
Forbes Magazine ranked major metropolitan areas on nine factors, including commute times, unemployment and weather.
The study docked Miami for its level of violent crime and corruption, and said the city "has been crushed by the housing collapse."
According to numbers from Moody's Economy quoted in the Forbes article, an estimated 26 percent of mortgages in Miami are delinquent or are likely to be written off as bad debt.
Compounding the problems are the high amounts violent crime and corruption, which Forbes describes as "off the charts."
You can read the original CBS4 report, with a list of the cities, here.
Ros-Lehtinen, who represents parts of Miami, said editors accepted "confusing statistics as opposed to actually visiting and getting a feel of our tropical paradise."
She released a statement Thursday that cited South Florida's beaches, art festivals and cultural diversity in making a case against the No. 9 ranking.
Ros-Lehtinen has invited the financial magazine's editors and reporters to come see the city for themselves.
Miami was not on Forbes' 2008 list of the 'worst 10'.
The most miserable city in the nation, according to Forbes, is Stockton, California, which was last year's #2 city after Detroit, which dropped to number 7 in the current survey despite having a mayor imprisoned, high unemployment in the auto industry, NFL's first winless, 16-loss season. and severe economic problems.
Stockton, a city of about a quarter million people which is located about 40 miles east of San Francisco in California's San Joaquin Valley, has one of the worst rates of violent crime in the nation on a per-capita basis, also figured into the ranking, and also ranks high in mortgage foreclosures.
In contrast, Miami's violent crime rate has dropped, the Miami Dolphins made the playoffs after reversing a 15-loss season the year before, and as the rest of the nation froze, welcomed tourists with temperatures in the 80's.
The "Forbes Misery Measure" looks at the 150 largest metropolitan statistical areas in the U.S.The list was based on commute times, corruption, pro sports teams, Superfund sites, taxes, unemployment, violent crime and weather.
(© 2010 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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