What? Most miserable?
Maybe some level of misery from time to time, but “most miserable” is what found its way into a publication saying Pine Bluff was at the bottom of the heap across the country for places to live. The site said it reached that conclusion based on a variety of factors and from talking to residents.
Such listings have become popular in the clickbait world of the internet. Looking for a toaster? Here’s the top 10 list of them. It’s hard not to look, even if we know the site may be making money along the way.
So what should the city make of landing on such a list when compared to other cities in the country? Trash the list? Trash our city?
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Maybe it’s some of both. As Allison Thompson, president and CEO of the Economic Development Alliance of Jefferson County, said, such gathered statistics are a “broad-brush collection of generalities.” To know a place, she said, one has to go there.
The listing, she said, did not “show the heart and soul and positivity of all of the different people here, all pulling in the same direction. In that regard, the conclusions they reach are very, very limited.”
On the other hand, Pine Bluff has landed in the last spot on other listings, according to Sheri Storie, director of the Advertising and Promotion Commission. That, in and of itself, was of little concern to her, she said, other than to spur her forward.
But we also think the city would be remiss in not considering the fact that Pine Bluff does, in however these stats are rounded up, wind up dead last. The social media comments posted on the newspaper article on this subject spoke volumes. A few people defended the city, but more commented on what the city needs, such as restaurants and places to shop, and several said they grew up here and that, while there was still a warm place in their heart for the city, they had left and wouldn’t return.
This list also hit some of the same notes that were found in an unscientific survey done by United Citizens for Pine Bluff. That was the one in which a high percentage of residents said crime — mainly the fear of crime — was a significant factor in how they conducted their lives.
Obviously, there is work to do. And just as obvious, we can see ourselves pretty clearly in the mirror that such surveys provide us. Clear enough that we can’t completely dismiss them.
But then there are the parts that we can dismiss because they aren’t very convincing. Hot Springs, for instance, which is a popular tourist destination where there are lakes and plenty of places to shop and eat and go for entertainment, is only a few ticks up from Pine Bluff’s last-place finish. And the places that fared the best were clustered in California and in the Northeast United States where the cost of housing has become astronomical, making living there something for the super elite.
What Pine Bluff has going for it is a collection of residents that still care about the city, that “heart and soul” group that Thompson spoke of. Translated, you can run us down and call us names, but we walk out the front door each morning with a resolve to make things better than they were the day before. Our grit and determination will win out, just you wait. Now, that does have a nice ring to it.