New Stress Study Ranks NYC as 6th Stressed City

Last month Forbes published a story ranking NYC as the 8th most-stressed city in America, behind Dallas (#7), Tampa (#4), and Las Vegas (#1). Now along comes Portfolio.com with a study that lists NYC as the 6th most-stressed, bested by Detroit (#1), L.A. (#2), Cleveland (#3), and Riverside, California (#4). (What's wrong with sunny Riverside? They've got a 14.4% unemployment rate, and 10% living below the poverty line.) Anyway, these divergent stress stories are starting stress us out. Is the media just churning out overly-simplistic trend pieces with no verifiable basis in reality? Or are we just a bunch of cynical, semi-stressed out New Yorkers over here? We'd love to hear what those stress-baskets in St. Louis (#5?!) have to say.

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By John Del Signore in News on September 7, 2010 6:22 PM

Comments [rss]

bittinho

Neither study includes ambient noise levels or population density as a metric in the methodology. To me, these 2 things contribute greatly to stress and if included would probably make New York #1 where it should be. No way Cleveland is more stressful than New York.

just saying

I can't speak to the city proper of Riverside, but I have relatives in Riverside County so I may have some insight into stress levels for that area.

First, there is the very large percentage of foreclosures followed secondly by the high unemployment rate (about 14% vs. 9.5% U.S.). And, of course, there are the gangs. In the medium-size CA city near Riverside where my relatives live, the level of random violent crime is alarming. A few months ago, the evidence room INSIDE the local police station was blown up by some thugs.

I get stressed myself by just reading the crime reports for that city.

exnyer

Can`t they get these straight, first 8th then 6th WTF? I need a drink. Vegas is so unique it should never have been considered but Forbes is so out of it they are excused.

nik13

Raaaacists! CA is a paradise! If you're illegal. Anything beats Messico.

Bike Rider

i live in california and unless you are willing to spend a good part of your life behind the wheel where you cant sleep/read/zoneout .. it's really fucking stressful to drive everywhere. cars are why i will eventually leave this otherwise half-decent place

nicemarmot

Vegas would just be such a bizarre place to live. I used to spend a lot of time there but I can't imagine doing it fulltime. Especially if you actually WORK at a casino - very, very weird. And this is coming from someone who actually grew up in a fairly touristy area.

I've lived in both Detroit (and by that I mean downtown Detroit, Detroit proper, not the suburbs) and LA and was significantly less stressed out than I am here in both. They're just not noisy and crowded the way NYC is. I think what stresses you out varies by person, anyway. I for instance am less bothered by a long commute by car than your average person. I liked living in LA where it was warm and sunny all the time; the car was an easy tradeoff.

I didn't mind Detroit - for one thing, it's my family's native area (though I didn't grow up there), and I find it has a kind of post-apocalyptic charm. It's very quiet there these days - if you've got a job, your life there probably isn't very stressful. If you don't have a job, well, you're probably better off getting the hell out anyway.

Potty Boy

As much as I bitch and moan about some things relating to living in NY, I thank God every day I don't live in either Detroit or LA (no offense). I'm extremely curious about Vegas though. Seems like such a whole different world, a different paradigm if you will pardon the cliche.