Friday, February 19, 2010
By Denise Dick
YOUNGSTOWN — What do Cleveland, Chicago, New York and Youngstown have in common? They all have corrupt public officials, lousy weather and high unemployment, according to Forbes magazine.
The magazine’s online article lists Youngstown No. 18 on America’s Most Miserable Cities list.
“Youngstown’s favorite son, former Congressman Jim Traficant, is considering running for Congress again after serving seven years in prison on bribery, racketeering and tax-evasion charges,” the list reads under a photograph of Traficant. “Needless to say Youngstown ranks high on our corruption metric.”
Mayor Jay Williams doesn’t put much stock in the ranking.
His response to the article was an e-mail headed “Dear Forbes” that notes positive media coverage the city has received in recent years.
Williams’ list includes 18 examples such as the Entrepreneur magazine article that called the city the Top 10 city to start a new business, SITE Selection magazine’s “Youngstown-Warren, Ohio, Top 10 metro area for the business expansion 2009” and an Economist entry, “Youngstown, Ohio, A young town again.”
Phil Kidd, founder of Defend Youngstown, also was unimpressed with Forbes’ list.
“Forbes slams Youngstown again? What a shocker,” Kidd said. “Anyone who lives in the Youngstown area understands Youngstown’s problems, which are significant in certain instances. We have a long way to go, but I have never seen more significant involvement or investment happening in this community than I have presently. I think that speaks to the quality of the people. I love Youngstown, and [that is] probably why others do as well.”
Kidd said that no statistic or article is going to quantify or change that — “especially cheap and convenient ones like Forbes who look to make a buck off our back while we work like hell to forge ahead.”
“I think many others would agree with that statement,” Kidd said. “As far as I’m concerned, Forbes can stick their list you know where. We’ve got work to do on the ground and we’re doing it.”
A spokesman for the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber said that Chamber President Tom Humphries would refrain from comment, preferring instead to focus on this week’s positive news such as the V&M Star Steel expansion and the location to the city of Revere Data.
The lists criteria, called the Misery Measure, takes into account unemployment, sales and income taxes, commute times, violent crime, how cities’ professional sports teams have fared over the past two years, weather and Superfund pollution sites. It also factors in corruption based on convictions of public officials.
Northern Ohio is well represented on the list. Cleveland ranks No. 1 with Canton, Akron, and Toledo, ranking ninth, 12th and 15th, respectively.
This marks the third year the magazine has compiled the list, but this year, the number of cities under consideration grew from 150 to 200. Areas with populations of more than 245,000 were eligible, the article says.
denise_dick@vindy.com