Red Lake County Worst County in the USA to live in?
Last week, while driving home from work and listening to Minnesota Public Radio, there was an interesting conversation going on about an article published by the Washington Post written by Christopher Ingraham.
The first thing that registered as I was listening, was that Red Lake County had been named, “The absolute worst place to live in America. From Ingraham’s article: Red Lake County’s claim to fame: “It is the only landlocked county in the United States that is surrounded by just two neighboring counties,” according to the county Web site.
Apparently this was on the news the night before, but had not seen the news, so was taken by surprise. Really, worst place to live. And references to ugliest too! So to the internet I went, to find out what was what, once I was home from work. Here is the gist of the story for those who didn’t hear about this or missed it.
On August 17th, an article was posted on the Washington Post’s website titled: “Every county in America, ranked by scenery and climate” and it was based on data from the USDA, measuring the best and worst places to live in America, based on scenery and climate. And Red Lake County came in last with 3,111 out of 3,111. Norman County was at 3,108 out of 3,111 and Pennington County was 3,102 out of 3,111.
What was the measurements you may ask? The “natural amenities index” the USDA used was “a measure of the physical characteristics of a county area that enhance the location as a place to live.”
The index combines “six measures of climate, topography, and water area that reflect environmental qualities most people prefer.” Those qualities, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, include mild, sunny winters, temperate summers, low humidity, topographic variation, and access to a body of water. These aspects as the USDA describes them are supposed to be constant and not expected to change much over time.
So since we don’t have any lakes, big mark against Red Lake County and if you don’t like cold winters, more marks against the county. And if you go look at the article on the Washington Post site, http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonkblog/wp/2015/08/17/every-county-i..., you will notice that many of the counties in the Red River Valley do not score well at all.
Well, lots of folks were upset that our beautiful state was being slammed. And the State of Minnesota stood up for itself within minutes of the article being posted. Yea, Minnesota. Which resulted in a follow up article “Thick coats, thin skins: Why Minnesotans were outraged by a recent Washington Post report.” Christopher Ingraham wrote the second article also and was interviewed on MPR, which is what I heard driving home from work.
Ingraham said first he got a few tweets, and he comments in the second article, that he was publicly shamed by tweets. Then a petition was started because proud Minnesotan’s in Red Lake County wanted him to change the spelling (a capital C on county, apparently before he fixed it, it was a small c).
Then the photos started coming in with gorgeous photos from around Minnesota and more comments. And one was from one of our locals, Jessie Hamrum of Brooks, MN. She sent a photo of a beautiful wheat field and commented, “this is what the “worst place in America to live in” looks like in late summer.”
People started a hashtag, #ShowMeYourUglyCounties, to showcase Minnesota’s beauty. And to finish off Ingraham’s second article, he included Senator Al Franken’s tweet, defending Red Lake County by sending a photo of Old Crossing Treaty Park, near Red Lake Falls and commenting, “You’re totally right @ washingtonpost – Red Lake County has no natural beauty…. “
Here is what Ingraham found interesting enough to write the second article. According to the data, Minnesota wasn’t the only state that doesn’t look great according to the USDA’s natural amenities scale. Ingraham writes, “Iowa and Delaware don’t have any counties ranking at average beauty or above. A number of states -- North Dakota, Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin among them -- have just one or two counties of at least average beauty.” Ingraham continues in his article, “that he didn’t hear a single word of protest from folks these states….Only Minnesotans have taken a public stand to defend their state’s honor.”
So Ingraham asked the question why and he got a few answers. The first tweet he received was from a Matt Privratsky, who grew up in Minnesota and Privratsky answered the question with an email reply: “Minnesota does have a truly unique landscape -- from the plains in the southwest up to the lakes and forests in central and northern Minnesota all the way up the iron range in the northeast.” He added, “Minnesotans are known for being very humble and even reserved, but as this reaction shows we’re also very proud of our state - especially when in competition with those around us.”
Ingraham also asked Sen. Al Franken the same question and Franken responded. “Minnesota is a beautiful state. Maybe even the most beautiful state — from the bluffs that surround Winona, to the Mighty Mississippi cutting through the Twin Cities, and all the way up to the rivers and lush greenery in the indisputably gorgeous Red Lake County. I humbly request that you correct the record.”
To check out the data used from the USDA for the article the link is: http://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/natural-amenities-scale.aspx.
Update: On Friday night’s news cast on KVLY, Neal Carlson reported that the Washington Post reporter, Christopher Ingraham, had accepted an invitation from Jason Brumwell of Voyager’s View, to come and visit Red Lake County. And this week on Thursday, August 27th, is when he plans on coming.