Chicago's The Sixth Most Stressed City In U.S., Says New Study
By Jon Graef in News on Jun 28, 2014 5:30PM
Chicago ranks as the sixth most stressed city in the United States, according to a recent article from CNN Money. We'd try to cope with this news, but most of the city's mental health clinics are closed.
NBC Chicago breaks down CNN Money's methodology and findings.
For the second time this year, Chicago has ranked among the most stressed-out cities in the nation.Thanks to its brutal winters, unemployment rates, traffic, and unhealthy lifestyles Chicagoans have been named the sixth most stressed out city residents in a new study from CNNMoney.
The study used statistics from government and non-profit sources to collect data from 55 metro areas and ranked them based on five categories—including economy and money, work, family, lifestyle and crime.
The "second time" to which NBC Chicago refers is a report from Movoto Real Estate that ranked Chicago as the seventh most stressed city, out of ten. Previously, Forbes listed Chicago as the third most stressful city back in 2011.
But back to what CNNMoney wrote about Chicago:
Brutal winters aren't the only thing raising Chicago residents' stress levels.Years after the recession ended, the unemployment rate is still above the national average. Rush hour traffic is a pain. And with sunny days occurring around half of the year, residents don't often get the mood boost that the sun's rays can provide.
Meanwhile, Chicagoans aren't exactly living the healthiest lifestyles. Binge drinking is common here, as is smoking -- and nearly 20% report they are in fair or poor health, according to a Centers for Disease Control survey.
While all of these findings certainly have an air of truth, they only seem to scratch the surface of Chicago's problems.
After all...
Chicago is a city where its citizens are six times more likely to be shot by police than those who live in New York; a city that's the worst for parking your car, thanks to a closed-door privatization effort whose effects will be felt for decades to come; a city whose efforts to make public transportation more efficient backfire spectacularly; a city where it's easier to find a gun than a parking spot; a city whose middle class simply disappeared in less than a half-century; a city that ranks 32nd amongst the top 50 biggest U.S. cities for social mobility; a city so racially segregated that a new term had to be invented to properly explain the magnitude of said racial segregation; a city where shootings happen daily, but because the dozens wounded and handful killed are in poor neighborhoods, few seem to actually care; in a city that ranks eighth for income inequality; a city where staying home with your son in one of the worst recorded winters means losing your job; a city whose poor, working African-Americans self-report weekly commutes 70 minutes longer than their white counterparts; a city where, if you're black, you're ten times more likely to be shot by police than if you're white; a city where, depending on the block where you are born, you're assumed to be in a gang, whether you want to be or not; a city where, if you're brave enough to defy gang initiations, you can have your throat cut and be left for dead inside a garbage can; a city where, if you're a woman, you can look forward to meet charming characters such as these while you're riding (frequently crumbling) public transportation to a job you're likely profoundly dissatisfied with.
Not to mention Chicago is a city whose police force is alleged again and again to mistreat its citizens; in a cruel irony, you can be tortured by the police simply for asking questions about past, well-documented police torture; a city whose police officers think wearing a shirt like this is HI-larious; a city where you can be arrested for protesting at an event the mayor is at.
And speaking of the mayor:
Chicago is a city whose mayor basically functions as a monarch, regardless of who actually occupies the seat itself; a city where the mayor controls the schools, and can turn what was meant to be a fund to help blighted neighborhoods develop into a Scrooge McDuck-esque exercise in slush-fund wish fulfillment; for this current mayor, we have someone who insists on self-identifying as a progressive in one breath, yet privatizes schools, closes mental health clinics, shuts out neighborhood organizations, and goes on TV talk shows to play modern day Nero as his city burns in the next.
All of this while the privileged among us continue their ignorant exercises in bacchanalia, simply because they can.
But, yes, it's the weather and the traffic that's freaking us all out the most.