Stressing News for PA

In case you missed it: an article from the Pittsburgh Business Times regarding economically stressed cities. The 'Burgh comes in at 52nd out of 245 cities of 100,000 or more and 481st out of all cities (3,550). Philie was ranked 27th and 252nd respectively. York and Reading also placed badly.

Here's the factors they measured:

Percentage of people living below the federally designated poverty level

Ratio of households with low annual incomes (below $25,000) to those with high incomes (above $100,000)

Unemployment rate

Percentage of adults (25 or older) who didn't graduate from high school

Percentage of households defined by the Census Bureau as "linguistically isolated," meaning that no one older than 13 speaks English well

Percentage of families headed by one adult, with no spouse present

Percentage of homes sitting vacant (not including vacation homes)

And for those who want to see why Pittsburgh wasn't #1, here are the most Stressed (Large) Cities:
1. Hartford
2. Newark, N.J.
3. Brownsville, Texas
4. Miami
5. Buffalo
6. East Los Angeles, Calif.
7. Cleveland
8. San Bernardino, Calif.
9. St. Louis
10. Paterson, N.J.

In general, not good news for PA, although the 'Burgh ranked 10th in "Most Improved" and the only one in the North East to get that distinction.

Full article can be found here.