By Mike Garrity
St. Louis, MO (KSDK) -- St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay and a well-known newspaper columnist are refuting the city's ranking in a new study about stress levels.
Out of America's 50 largest metro areas a new study says St. Louis is the fifth-most stressful. But NewsChannel 5 found St. Louisans saying "no way." Glance at crime statistics or even local highways around 5:30 p.m. and there's no question St. Louis is not without some stress.
"I think it can get pretty stressful sometimes," said Forest Park Patron Philip Puzzo.
Puzzo resorts to something called "free running" in Forest Park to help tackle his own stress.
But is St. Louis really a more stressed-out town than New York, Chicago, and Miami?
It is according to a new study by Portfolio.com and bizjournals, the parent company of the St. Louis Business Journal (http://stlouis.bizjournals.com/stlouis/stories/2010/09/06/daily2.html?surround=lfn).
But St. Louisans we talked with say common sense will tell you otherwise.
"I drive from St. Charles to the city, so half an hour, not too bad," said commuter Stephanie Danielson.
"The only lines in the city seem to be at ted drew's and the kids there move everybody in and out so...I don't think it's a stressful place to live," said St. Louis Post-Dispatch Columnist Bill McClellan.
Yet those who conducted the study insist the latest public and private data available was used to measure unemployment rates, income growth, poverty, deaths from circulatory-system diseases, sunshine, unhealthy air, robberies, murders, commuting, and housing costs all to rank stress levels in "America's Top 50" metro areas.
"Here in St. Louis, you know it's a shame that it's not 'booming,' but on the other hand there's no lines, there's no traffic, you can go to the airport, there's no security lines because you can't fly anywhere. But it's not stressful you know if you don't mind getting in a little mosquito of an airplane to go to some bigger place to fly. It's not stressful," said McClellan.
Mayor Slay's Office has even weighed in, officially refuting the study's St. Louis ranking.
"The City of St. Louis has a relatively low cost of living, so people can live 'pretty large' in the City of St. Louis and the counties in St. Louis, for a relatively small price," said Kara Bowlin, Press Secretary for St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay.
"Well, when I get stressed out I go drive in the depressed lanes. You know we have that for us, so if you really feel bad I'd drive in the depressed lanes and listen to talk radio," McClellan said.
The study found Detroit, Los Angeles, and Cleveland to be the top three most stressful cities. It found Salt Lake City to be the least stressful.
KSDK
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