Florida leaders got a big wake up call last week when Forbes magazine posted its annual “America’s Most Miserable Places” list and ranked Miami first, with West Palm Beach fourth -- after Detroit and Flint, Michigan, of all places -- and Fort Lauderdale seventh.
The horrific rankings dismissed the time-honored perception that Florida’s warm weather, sandy beaches and lack of a state income tax make it a paradise in which to live, do business and retire.
Every year, Forbes ranks the top 200 metropolitan areas, based on 10 factors that include violent crime, unemployment rates, foreclosures, taxes, home prices, political corruption, commute times, weather and even how well the area’s professional sports teams perform.
The rankings of Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach illustrate that if there is any place in America where growing (and dangerous) income and standard-of-living discrepancies are exemplified, it is South Florida.
The main problem is South Florida’s terrible real estate market, which ranks near the top for foreclosures and sixth in the nation for homes with underwater housing values. Add in ever-increasing property and auto insurance premiums, higher taxes, higher energy and food costs, rampant political corruption, terrible commute times, and the lousy records of the Dolphins and Marlins, and South Florida appears an unpleasant place to live.
Over the last half century, Florida gained much of its population and economic growth from people and businesses moving from high-cost, high-tax states in the northeast and Rust Belt. But the Forbes list destroys the perception that Florida has a superior quality of life and is a better place to do business. Worse, it could lead to the same business flight and population migration facing overtaxed and depressed states like Michigan and California.
But maybe there is hope.
Days after the Forbes list came out, five Florida cities made the “Trashiest Spring Break Destinations” List of coedmagazine.com. This list ranked our beach communities by the number of Hooters restaurants, the preponderance of tattoo parlors, liquor stores and strip clubs; the existence of a motorcycle week and, of course, the number of times the destination has been featured on “Girls Gone Wild.”
Perhaps you think this list, too, is a perception problem for the Sunshine State, but actually the ranking means a “double thumbs up” in terms of Spring Break.
No matter the cost of housing, insurance and groceries -- and no matter how lousy the Dolphins play -- one truism persists: it takes only one great weekend on a Florida beach to hook you on the Sunshine State forever.
Steven Kurlander blogs at Kurly's Kommentary, writes a weekly column for Fort Lauderdale’s Sun-Sentinel and is a South Florida communications strategist.
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