angriest cities

STFU, Darwinism says me in my car has the right-of-way over your two legs.

 

One question.

Where the hell is Dallas?

The City of Hate?

The Town that Killed Kennedy.

I see they're No. 16.

No fucking way.

Big D is Top Five. The antithises of Austin.

 

If you live in Detroit, Baltimore or Wilmington, you are entitled to be angry.
What the heck are the people in St. Petersburg angry about, the beautiful Florida gulf weather?

 

I noticed this morning that I'm lucky enough to live in the angriest city in the United States.

I believe it was last night that I pulled up to the gate at the front of my apartment complex and reached around to my rear pocket to get my gate card. I had been there for all of a half-second when someone behind me honked. I'll admit that I had a phone to one ear, but it couldn't have added more than a single second to my time.

Of course, I'm from the Midwest, which has almost no cities on the list. So I'm not familiar with life across the country. All I know is that people here run red lights so late that I routinely slam on my brakes to miss them. And these are people who don't even seem to be aware that you're present.

I've had dozens of people push past me in crowded malls, grocery stores and restaurants while I was holding my infant daughter in my arms. One lady at Blockbuster nearly knocked me over.

I don't think it's so much that people are mean. It's more that almost nobody makes it a point to be nice. Sometimes, it's just nice to have someone wave or smile or wave you on at an intersection. When that never happens, I think people become cold and emotionless.

I'm also second the heat comment. I think that plays a major role.

 

If I lived in Orlando, I'd be pissed off, too.

 

Orlando is the TGI Friday's of cities.
I'd be angry, too.

 

An apt description, Buck.

Someone, fetch this mind the finest pastrami Orlando has to offer, posthaste!

 

Nice comment.

I've noticed some things about Orlando and a lot of other cities in Central Florida.

First, they lack identity. It's like it's somebody else's city (tourists), and we just live here. That's part of the reason that Bianchi and some of the other guys at the Sentinel have emphasized the importance of a new arena to replace the T.D. Waterhouse Centre. So much money is poured into tourism that little is used to support the people who live here.

As a freelancer, I feel the effect. Since football season is approaching, I decided to spend a few hours putting together a calendar of local sporting events for the next year. There is no shortage, but it's sad that Orlando never hosts such things as NCAA basketball tournament games. As a radio DJ said a few days ago, all of the big rock shows are housed in St. Pete because it's a nicer facility.

I've met a lot of nice people here, but I've only been out on the town twice. The first time was when I joined a new paper. The second time was when I departed said paper. I can hit any one of about 15 bars in my hometown of almost 30 years and see someone I know intimately. Here, I'd be lucky to recognize a single face after touring every bar in the county.

Even the people who live here have virtually no comaraderie because most are from somewhere else. And some cities are so young that they haven't had a chance to develop a social structure. The few who have lived here their whole lives seem pissed that Yankees have invaded.

That's about the best that I can explain it, and I'm not sure that it sheds much light.

 

Go shove a Primanti's sandwich up your...

;D

 

Ding, ding, ding. We have a winner. There is a huge amount of pent-up hatred among native Floridians toward the 'tourists' - and that term applies to both temporary and permanent visitors. The influx of non-natives, a group largely comprised of folks from the northeast, has driven cost of living through the roof and chased the locals out of their old haunts. The irony is that the money made off the 'tourists' provides a lot of things the native takes for granted.

If you hear a Floridian say the word tourist, you can almost hear the the implied 'goddam' prefix.

Plus - and I am prepared to defend this statement - Floridians as a whole are the rudest, most aggressive drivers in the United States. I'm a native through and through, and even I'll admit to that. We even take an odd pride in it.

I guess the heat might be a factor the transplants, but not for anyone who grew up down there. We're used to it. It's cold weather that pisses us off.

 

You know, they should have broken up "Los Angeles" (ranked a preposterous 36th, and the first California city to even make the list) into about a dozen other locales that would have made up about half the top 25. Just sayin'.

The fact that San Diego made even the top 100 is a fucking joke.

 

You gotta figure Dallas' ranking is due almost entirely to Bob Yates.