2 Missouri Cities Make Worst Places List, Not St. Louis

When you've lived in Missouri as long as I have, it's hard to come up with something about my birth state that surprises me. This is one of those rare cases. There are two Missouri cities that have just ended up on a new top 25 worst places to live in America list and I was genuinely taken back by one of the choices.

Because of my admittedly twisted world view, I am amused by things that are shared by Homesnacks. They have a snarky way of presenting data that I find entertaining especially their "Saturday Night Science" they use to compile lists. They've just shared a new 10 worst places to live in America list by using some real science including population, unemployment rate, home values and median income of residents. Using that methodology, they say that the following two Missouri cities are among the 25 worst places to live in the nation.

#20 - Independence

2 Missouri Cities Make Worst Places List, Not St. Louis

#24 - Springfield

Google Maps Street View

Please don't take this personally if you live in Springfield, but I was not surprised to see it make this list simply because Springfield gets picked on often by national best of/worst of lists. However, I was truly surprised to see Independence called out for being a less than ideal place to live. I know there are pockets of high crime areas in metro Kansas City, but the suburbs and outlying parts of that region are generally looked upon with rose-colored glasses. Perhaps the person who compiled this list doesn't like the Chiefs? Hey, it's a valid theory.