So we’ll just mope about the mysterious resurgence on social media in recent days of an eight-month-old Gallup poll labeling Springfield the unhappiest city in the United States.
Chances are, you or someone you know saw the news on Facebook that, by surveying the nation’s 357 municipal statistical areas, the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index ranked Springfield dead last in the nation for frequent exercise, asthma, smokers and happiness.
What you might not know is that this was news last spring, and the Springfield News-Sun reported the findings then.
Michael McDorman, president and CEO of the Greater Springfield Chamber of Commerce, was surprised Thursday when two Dayton TV stations requested interviews about the poll.
Regardless, his answer remains the same in 2012.
“That’s not the community I see,” McDorman said. “That’s not the community the region sees.”
But, when his daughter came home Thursday from Kenton Ridge High School, it became apparent the story had legs.
“She said, ‘Dad, my teacher wanted me to ask you about this sad community thing,’ ” McDorman said. “Isn’t it amazing how fast news travels these days?”
Locally, Fox 45 and WDTN reported the poll as fresh news — and from there, the links flowed freely on social media.
Pete Levine, a 1998 North High graduate living in Chicago, didn’t know he was reading old news via Facebook but disputes the findings anyway — especially the notion that Springfield could be the unhappiest city in the U.S.
“There are places,” he said, “where people live without electricity.
“You wonder where they got the data.”
Contact this reporter at amcginn@coxohio.com.
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