Well yes, the cities themselves are crap, but all the areas ***between ***them are nice.
What the fuck is that thing, anyway? It looks like a pile of red-orange fail.
And, honestly, I think the sense of despair comes from the fact that the job market’s awful. You’re close enough to Chicago that you can see the good jobs, but far enough that commuting is a serious bitch. And the fucking thing just sprawls on and on, like a cancer. Not many remarkable buildings, though. Lots of low-crawling strip malls.
Either that, or the fact that a lot of the town is just very industrial. I don’t know. The only time I ever liked it was Waterfront, and that’s 'cause you could’ve put a street fair on the streets of 1980s Beirut and I’d have a blast.
Anyway; I totally agree with you.
I think you summed it up pretty well. I can’t imagine anybody choosing to live in Rockford unless there were some overriding circumstances. I think the weird feeling is simply that everybody else dreams of someplace better to live/work/socialize and nobody embraces the city itself. A “general malaise” as it were.
Wow–lots of those cities are in Ohio. Poor Ohio. I went to college there and thought it was the coldest place on earth, but I was coming from Florida, so maybe not. And I went there during the repression of the 70s, which didn’t help. But yeah–Ohio, definitely.
So Rockford resident: What do you do for fun up there?
Memphis is number three. And yet I love it here.
Sounds a lot like the small town where I grew up, which is plenty miserable but too small to be considered by Forbes. The townspeople said yes to a halfway house for juvenile offenders but no to a scientific research facility.
kapri writes:
> Wow–lots of those cities are in Ohio. Poor Ohio. I went to college there and
> thought it was the coldest place on earth, but I was coming from Florida, so
> maybe not. And I went there during the repression of the 70s, which didn’t
> help. But yeah–Ohio, definitely.
I think the problem is the whole Rust Belt, the Chicago to Pittsburgh (or maybe Chicago to Buffalo) urban conglomeration. Too much industry has left that area and the U.S. entirely, which means that the region that specialized in it is in bad shape. That area stretches beyond Ohio and doesn’t include most of Ohio. Except for that forty-mile-wide stretch at the top of Ohio which includes Toledo, Cleveland, and some of their suburbs, Ohio hasn’t changed much.
I grew up in rural Ohio and went to college in Florida. I like Florida while I was there, but I’m so accustomed to living in big cities now that I would be frustrated by the area in lived in while I was in Florida (Sarasota). The rest of Ohio (outside the Rust Belt) is in reasonably good shape. If you steal the main industry from a place, it will be screwed up. That’s just the way it works.
rockfordrunaway writes:
> The honest ones always had the same reply, they always said they didn’t like it,
> but they could not explain why, there was just something <i>weird</i> about it.
It’s that Hellmouth that Rockford is over.
What a stupid list. First of all, Cleveland is a pretty nice place. By any rational standard, Detroit is much, much worse off. (I’d rather live in Detroit than Cleveland anyway, but you have to keep in mind I think the worse off a place is, the more interesting it is.) And Chicago doesn’t deserve to be anywhere near this list. Chicago is a vibrant, exciting city with plenty to do. St. Louis has never struck me as a particularly thrilling place, but it’s not that bad, either. (Although I was shocked to see how dead its downtown is on a Saturday afternoon. Chicago at that time would be crowded and bustling.)
Lame.
Looking at thisvideo, Cleveland reminds me of Detroit in a lot of ways. Of course, they make a reason to tour Cleveland at the end.
Rockford resident here…what is there to do. I was actually social last night and played Volleyball at the rec center. The last cultural thing I did in town was get last second Craigslist tickets to Bob Dylan back in October. There are a couple reasonable (non-chain) restaurants, but no real culture if you are over 25. There are a couple dance clubs, but I wouldn’t even think about going there. We get 4 broadway shows a year, but they always pass thru on a Tuesday night, never on a weekend. Same thing w/ concerts, rarely one will come thru that might interest you, but always on a weekday, kinda hard if you need a sitter or just need to go to work in the morning.
We don’t even get all the movies available in a big city. We have a 14 and 16 screen multiplex, usually about ten different movies playing at once. The prestige Oscar movies get here about February, if at all. If you are lucky enough to make a good living, the housing is cheap’ish, but the property taxes are high.
Personally we go into Milwaukee or the NW burbs of Chicago for fun and try to take a week vacation every year. I would love to be able to see a play w/o having to pop an additional 2 bills for hotel, kennel, etc.
The highlight of a lot of people’s winter was Night Ranger playing after the minor league hockey game. That’s just sad.
I grew up in the Northern Illinois area and did an internship at St. Anthony’s hospital in Rockford. I lived there for a year and remember absolutely nothing about that place except for eating tons of free tacos at happy hour. I think that says it all.
Argh, forum ate my post.
I’m a born-and-raised Northeast Ohioan (grew up in Kent, went to Kent State, now live in Twinsburg, work in Beachwood), and can’t say I feel especially miserable here. The weather isn’t that bad, and sure, the Browns and Indians may not win championships, but like panache45 said, the places in between the actual cities are quite nice. We even have a National Park nearby (8th most visited in the nation, although I’ve been known to drive through there by accident more than once, while trying to find a restaurant, so maybe it’s over-counted 
).
We’ve got the Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals of Cleveland, lots of good universities, and the medical sector is becoming pretty big (I work for a small medical imaging company). As long as you don’t live in Hudson or Shaker Heights or the like, house prices and property taxes are very affordable.
Now, if you worked in the auto industry or in a steel mill, you’re probably SOL. Stop whining, figure out a new line of work. That probably contributes a lot to the unemployment, I’d guess. But it’s not like that’s really going to change any time soon…
I live in Macedonia, QuercusMax. Howdy neighbor! 
I agree with everything you said. I also agree that the actual cities of Cleveland and Akron are kind of blah (although the sports facilities in both cities are great) but the article accompanying the slide show does say the “metropolitan area” was counted in the index. Maybe Garfield Hts, Maple Hts, Barberton and Mogadore are sad places but I can’t really think of too many other suburbs that are that bad off. Those places haven’t been very happy since the 70s anyway.
Those of us who grew up in NE Ohio and stayed here, we’re just tough motherfuckers is all
I knew Rockford was a benighted spot when I learned, years ago, that it had a record store that sold nothing but 78s. Believe me, you do not want anything to do with people who listen to music on 78s.
Home of Cheap trick… how can Rockfish be too bad?
I’m suspicious of these lists… I’ve learned a lot about this kinda crap… living in the ATL now its really nonsensical that some folks just moved here thinkin the street were paved with gold… whats funny is a lot of people from FLA are moving here now… I think the gates should be closed… we need room for the traffic we have and our zebra…
Hey! I live right next to Mogadore and it’s not so bad other than the incessant speed traps. Besides, they’ve got Duma’s Meats which is an awesome full-service, old fashioned butcher shop. 
And we have the best darn Dopefests around!
Oh, and we’re close to 20% of the world’s fresh water, that’s going to count for something someday.
Amen! I love Mogadore.
I take these lists with some of the same shakers of salt as Best Cities lists. The objectivity strikes me as less than stunning. How is it exactly that Miami and St. Louis are worse places to live than Newark or Paterson, New Jersey, for example?
One of the Columbus, Ohio suburbs (Gahanna, OH) made a Best Cities list a few years back and they’re still trumpeting the award on street signs, despite the fact that the place is a sinkhole of speed traps and faux festivals (“Come celebrate Parking Days!”).
Doesn’t sound like a retail growth area. But they’d probably tell you there’s lots of great jazz and other popular music on 78s that you can’t find anywhere else.
I’m not from Buffalo (#8) and I’ve never been there, but I’d say the picture they used to represent Buffalo’s suckitude is wholly unfair considering the fact that Linens N Things is a New Jersey-based company that closed 571 stores in 47 states (probably including Forbes’ nicest place to live). I don’t think you can point to the failure of Linens N Things as a brick-and-mortar as indicative of what’s wrong with Buffalo.
I left Ohio, but apparently I left one of the only decent places to live in Ohio: Cincinnati. Coulda fooled me. Maybe Skyline Chili redeems them. I could accept that.
ETA: Back to the OP, don’t you have any good chili parlors in Rockford? Maybe that’s your problem…