The Skinny White Boy KastPod

A few days ago, Forbes dropped an article on the world about the 10 most miserable cities in the US to live in. I love the human race, we do two things really well. Complaining (so no wonder Forbes writes about miserable cities) and overstating the obvious (Is Memphis really that bad?). As a species we seem to be able to do those things until the cows come home. A species I personally never heard complain about anything. While my steak my not scream “eat me, eat me!” from my plate, it also never said “Hey get your hands off me!”

I was amused by the reaction my fellow Memphian tweets had in stock for the article! I am also a little proud. Sure the owner of a downtown restaurant will decry what has been put in writing about the city he does business in (Yes, @cookycanuck you know who you are) but it was heart warming to see so many people coame to defend what, in the last year or so, I came to call HOME!

Of course I know the Grizzlies bite major ass! I didn’t need Forbes to remind me they lost 70-some percent of all their games. What they failed to mention is they won four in a row since they got a new head coach. Matter of fact, I was at a game yesterday that they won. And that was without their star player Rudy Gay. BTW, we are one of only 30-some cities that even have an NBA team… Ok? While we are on the topic of sports, did Forbes mention that we have the #1 ranked college basketball team in the nation (Go Tigers!)? That the Tennessee Titans (ok, technically that’s Nashville, close enough) got damn close to playing in the Super Bowl?

Get some perspective people. The violent crime rate in The greater MEM area is only second to Cleveland… Well that’s still better than Cleveland, isn’t it? I have lived here more than a year, I have yet to see any sign of violent crime. Sure there are neighborhoods you may not want to go in after dark. Cool, stay out! My take on crime is that (when it comes to violent crime anyway) bad people get upset with other bad people. Make a point not to hang out with them! You’ll do just fine. I grew up in Amsterdam, city of sex drugs and more drugs. There are places there, you couldn’t pay me enough to go there during the day, let alone at night. Every city has it bad spots, the red light district is still the best part of Amsterdam! And downtown street is still the best part of Memphis! We have live music every day of the week! The restaurants are outstanding and the police does a great job of keeping it safe!

What surprises me the most about people complaining is that once you do, someone will latch on and agree with you, spouting some more crap that is totally unsubstantiated. In the 150 or so comments on this Forbes article I found some truly priceless nuggets of total ignorance. Here is one:

“Beale is a a crumbling, filthy, urine-soaked, tourist trap.” I was just on Beale street last night. I am sorry, it’s arguably the cleanest street in Memphis! Nuff Said!

I love this one too: “The sales tax is abomination on the poor. ” Yes the sales tax in TN is high. That is because TN doesn’t have state income tax. That’s a good thing for people with low incomes! DUH! They get to keep more of their money, and only get taxed when they spend it. In other words, the more you spend, the more you pay…. Isn’t that how it is supposed to be?

Memphis is miserable my ass! Come have some BBQ in my front yard and we’ll see how miserable you think it is!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 10th, 2009 at 6:19 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.