Top 5 most stressed-out U.S. cities are run by Democrats, research shows

The country’s Top-5 most stressed out cities are run by Democrats, according to a new study this week. 

The study by WalletHub released Monday puts Cleveland, Detroit, Baltimore, Birmingham, Alabama, and Philadelphia at the top of the list.

Cleveland, Ohio’s second-most populous city, has a long and serious list of stressors that includes being the most-dangerous U.S. city, according to the survey. Its crime rate is 5.5 times above the state average and 4.3 times higher than the national average.

Like many U.S. cities, Cleveland is in the situation of rising crime amid a dwindling police force. 

Over the past two years, the city has lost nearly 400 officers to resignations, retirements and transfers.

Democrat Mayor Justin Morris Bibb vowed after a July 9 mass shooting to redouble efforts to beef up the city’s police force. But such promises appear too little, too late for City Council member Michael Polensek.

"As of yesterday, 101 people have lost their lives in the city due to homicides," Polensek, who has been on the council since 1978, said Wednesday at a public meeting. "At the present path that we are on, we will hit a 30-year record for homicides in the city … . I'm not going to live like this." 

He also said the city is down 313 officers from where it was in 2020.

The city also has the country’s second-highest poverty rate. 

Detroit comes in No. 2 on the WalletHub list in large part over its crime, too.

According to recent statistics, using a scale of 1-100, the violent crime rate in Detroit is 94.3, compared to the national average of  22.7.  

Detroit residents, as a result, are four times more likely to be a victim of violent crime, compared to residents of other U.S. cities.

Democrat Mayor Mike Duggan this spring acknowledged that the spike in violent crime during the pandemic remains a problem and said his administration is addressing the issue by improving wages for police officers.

However, he acknowledged that’s not enough.

“Detroit Police are very good at taking the gun out of the shooters’ hands, but they don’t have the ability to take the anger out of the shooters’ hearts,” he said.

Baltimore, which has struggled in recent decades with crime, averages one murder every 15 hours. 

Over the past July Fourth weekend, two people were killed and 28 were wounded in a mass shooting at a block party. One victim was just 13. 

“We will not rest until the people responsible are held accountable,” Democrat Mayor Brandon Scott said after the shooting. However, more than two weeks later, police have yet to name suspects or make an arrest.

Birmingham has a crime rate that is 112% higher than the national average. Though Alabama is among the most conservative-leaning states in the U.S., Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin is a Democrat.

Philadelphia has 230 homicides so far this year. However the number represents a 21% decrease from the previous year, according to the city. 

Democrat Mayor Jim Kenney is leaving office next year due to term limits.

In a Democrat primary in May to replace him, the winner was Cherelle Parker, who served for 10 years as a state representative before her election to the city council in 2015.

Her victory over a progressive candidate appears to be the latest indication of how residents of some of the country’s biggest U.S. cities feel about persistent crime and poverty after the pandemic.

In February, then-Chicago Democrat Mayor Lori Lightfoot, a progressive, lost her bid for reelection, and last year, residents ousted San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin, another progressive, according to The Associated Press.