Danger Zone: Miami Dead Last in Mag's Safety Survey
Miami the least safe city on Forbes list
By BRIAN HAMACHER
Updated 9:30 AM EDT, Thu, Oct 29, 2009
Having already declared Florida's governor the worst in the nation, Forbes magazine is now taking aim at Miami, declaring the city the most dangerous on its annual list of the country's safest cities.
Coming in at number 40 out of the 40 cities ranked in the list, the Magic City is apparently the last place you want to be when mother nature strikes.
The rankings took into account four factors: violent crime, workplace fatality rates, traffic death rates and natural disaster risks. FBI statistics provided the crime rates, while figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics provided numbers on workplace deaths. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration provided traffic death rates and green living site SustainLane.com gave natural disaster statistics.
The near-constant threat of hurricanes apparently didn't help our standing in the natural disaster category, where Miami finished dead last.
"San Francisco and Oakland are due for a 100-year quake, but these only happen every 100 or so years, while Miami is in a frequent hurricane path," the article quoted Ken Ott, from SustainLane.
Overall, Miami ranked in the six worst in all four categories, coming in at number 35 in violent crime, number 34 in workplace fatality rates and number 35 in traffic death rates.
At the top of the list was Minneapolis, where nobody apparently dies at work and the streets are (nearly) crime and road hog free.
Milwaukee, Portland, Ore., Boston and Seattle rounded out the list of the safest cities.
Joining Miami at the bottom of the list is our state neighbor to the north, Jacksonville, then Houston, Nashville and Indianapolis.
Miami's utter lack of any semblance of a public transportation system attributed to our terrible traffic death rate, apparently because we don't give much of an alternative to driving drunk.
"Boston and Seattle...benefit from low traffic fatality rates," the article states. "This is largely because they boast two of the most user-friendly mass transit systems in the country. In addition to being environmentally friendly, these networks provide an alternative to driving while intoxicated."
Of course, if you live in Miami you know it doesn't take any booze to make a drive on I-95 a terror ride.
First Published: Oct 29, 2009 7:42 AM EDT
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