Comparison is called the thief of joy. Measuring ourselves against others can take away the joys of life and rattle our mental health. In an instant, we feel superior. Next, torpedoes broaden our ego.
So I apologize in advance. I’m taking you on that ride.
The good news is that we don’t talk about your brother constantly beating you with a pickleball, or that your perfect grass always appears to be hanging over your neighbor’s colony. No, measure the Tampa Bay area against other metro areas.
For years, the Tampa Bay Partnership has written Regional Competitiveness Reports with the Community Foundation’s Tampa Bay and United Way Suncoast. Comparisons of some cities provide the basis for findings on dimly lit data. This is not the case. The partnership survey was released in February, analyzing dozens of categories, ranging from crime rates to the number of patents awarded. Next, we compare Tampa Bay with other similar metro areas such as Orlando, Denver, Seattle, Minneapolis, and St. Louis.
It starts with the highlights. The Tampa Bay Area ranks among the top five metro areas by eight metrics. It is relatively low in overall and violent crime rates and good air quality. Our region also arched at the top of the rankings for how quickly it grew the amount of goods it exported.
The Tampa Bay Area was number one in the net transition. This is a flashy way people still say they want to move here. Not everyone is good, but economically it is better than the pain of declining population. The expanding tax base should help solve some of our challenges.
Tampa Bay has also made its top five in the starting company rates, as well as the Orlando and Miami regions. (Jacksonville, another Florida metropolitan area in the rankings, came in ninth place.) The strong Florida showcases the state’s business-friendly environment is highlighted.
The Tampa Bay Area has also improved against itself in many other categories, even if it did not acquire a position against other cities in the rankings. In fact, the report authors say that 43 of the 67 indicators improved year-over-year. That’s great. We’ve got better, at least when measured against ourselves. Immerse yourself in praise. Blow your chest a little.
Unfortunately, there is a torpedo here.
The Tampa Bay Area ranks in the bottom 5th place on 28 indicators. I couldn’t break the top half in more than three-quarters of the time. We improved over ourselves, but many of the other cities still ate our lunch in too many ways.
That’s how comparisons can curb our enjoyment.
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The Tampa Bay Area was last completed with total regional products per person, median household income, and the percentage of people aged 25-64 years looking for jobs or jobs. All three are valuable measures of the vibrancy of the local economy.
The report also reaffirmed that our area is not affordable. Paying people with abundant sunlight is no longer working, not when our area ranks in the bottom 5th due to housing and transportation costs. Previously, we didn’t pay well, so we didn’t score well. Now it’s both – our wages remain relatively low and housing costs are skyrocketing.
Research shows that our poverty, food insecurity and foster care placement rates are relatively high. It also kills pedestrians and cyclists at a higher rate than other 19 cities.
Jacksonville alone has a low percentage of people using public transport, and there are many people in the Tampa Bay Area who spend at least an hour of commute to work on one job. This study also found that it would do it on some roads with the worst pavement conditions.
The Tampa Bay Area is ranked in a variety of educational categories, including associate degrees, bachelor’s degrees and degrees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Tampa Bay ranked seventh in the proportion of people aged 24-34, but only 17th in the proportion of people in the age group who have at least completed their bachelor’s degree. A well-trained, well-educated workforce helps attract the kinds of companies that pay salaries that will make our area more competitive with other cities. These high salaries will make living here more affordable.
The Tampa Bay Partnership warns against using the findings as a comprehensive scorecard. Instead, the report could be a blueprint for moving forward. It helps you identify which areas require more work and which efforts are not working well. It can act as a wake-up call.
Still, rankings for 20 metro areas are useful for comparison. This is not flattering.
In fact, it’s stealing our joy.
