If all press is good press, then Tampa Bay is on top of the world. After Men's Health declared Tampa the most vain city in America last month, this week the region received two more dubious honors.
First, the Tampa/St. Petersburg area ranked 111th out of 200 on a recent Forbes survey of the best places for businesses and careers. The list was based on data including past and projected job growth, cost of living and doing business, education of the labor force, crime rates, recreational opportunities and other factors.
Hey, at least we beat Jacksonville (No. 131), Miami (181) and Fort Lauderdale (192).
The No. 1 place for business and careers, according to those know-it-alls at Forbes, is Provo, Utah.
Then there's this: A new survey by the research firm Sperling’s BestPlaces lists the top 10 most stressful cities in the United States. Coming in at No. 1 was -- surprise, surprise -- the Tampa/St. Petersburg/Clearwater area.
"Sunny" Florida dominates the most-stressed list, which also includes Miami (No. 3), Jacksonville (4), Orlando (6) and West Palm Beach (10).
A key factor in the rankings was suicide rate. According to CNBC, Tampa has 15.5 suicides for every 100,000 residents, putting us in the 97th percentile. Other factors on the survey included divorce rate, unemployment rate, average commute time, violent and property crimes and annual cloudy days.
We're starting to think this whole vanity thing is really just a cry for help.
