I called this place 'America's worst place to live.' Then I went there. - Washington Post (blog)
But until I wrote about the U. S. Department of Agriculture's natural amenities index -- which rates and ranks counties on measures of scenery and climate -- I had never been disagreed with so much. And the state's Red Lake County, five hours northwest of Minneapolis in the flat fertile basin of the Red River valley, came in dead-last in the nation. The summers are hot, the winters are cold, and there aren't any actual lakes in the county -- all of which contribute to a low score by the USDA's criteria. At the invite of local businessman Jason Brumwell (The Post paid), I took a trip up there last week to see the truth behind the numbers. I wanted to find out what life in America's worst county was really like. Some county residents were hurt and even angered by their last-place ranking. He's a relentlessly positive guy who keeps a beat-up copy of "The 2,548 Best Things Anybody Ever Said" in the back of his beat-up Buick LaCrosse. Where others saw a slight, Brumwell saw an opportunity. Brumwell welcomed the media attention the county's last-place ranking brought , and encouraged other businesses to do the same. My original story hadn't quite framed it this way, but some locals took it to mean that we called their county ugly. Source: www.washingtonpost.com
