CNBC.com has put together an interesting slide show of 20 cities you don’t want to live in … yet.
With each are a few paragraphs about that city’s problems and its good points, too. Not surprisingly, Detroit tops the list. Flint, Mich., is on there, too. And Fresno and Stockton, Calif., as well as Jackson, Miss., Little Rock, Ark., and Birmingham, Ala.
But I started looking at the unemployment rates listed with each of the so-called loser cities – and I don’t think they’re loser cities, but certainly troubled ones in many cases. The Charlotte regional jobless rate tops those of Cleveland, Buffalo, St. Louis, and possibly even Detroit. The blurb just said Detroit is “above 10 percent.” As is this region’s jobless rate: 10.7 percent in February. Mecklenburg’s rate in February was 10.2 percent. Hmmm – unemployment worse than Detroit? That would not be a Charlotte Chamber slogan you’ll be seeing anytime soon. Though it does portend sinking pay and desperate workers, which might attract some jobs …
Seriously, it’s a quick and interesting snapshot – based on someone’s set of criteria – of some cities. As the article quotes Bert Sperling of BestPlaces.net saying, in many cases young urban pioneers are moving back into the distressed cities such as Detroit, Cleveland and New Orleans, attracted by the housing prices and urban opportunities.
(Naked City is taking another long weekend break. I’ll be speaking Thursday in Beaufort, S.C., at 6:30 p.m. at the Technical College of the Lowcountry, 921 Ribault Road. The lecture’s free and open to the public so if you’re in that neighborhood, come on by. Sponsors are the Beaufort chapter of CNU Carolinas, the City of Beaufort, and Brown Design Studio.)