Survey says the prairies of North fitflop australia

Survey says the prairies of North Dakota have a higher quality of life than California

If it weren't for the exhausting commutes and the seemingly eternal freeway gridlock, California would share the title with Disneyland of being the happiest place on earth. But it's the traffic, residents say, that makes life in California close to unbearable at times and likely accounts for the tarnish on the Golden State in a recent poll on the quality of life in America. "We're 18? Eighteen!" limousine chauffeur Ty Bradford said in disbelief at learning California's ranking in the recently released Gallup Healthways Well Being Index. "Well, it's gotta be because of the traffic. Otherwise, who wouldn't want to live here?" You could possibly understand Hawaii being ranked No. 1. But according to that survey, frozen tundras like North Dakota, Minnesota and Alaska were more favorable spots than California. "North Dakota! You've got to be kidding?" said surfer Leroy Edelman of Malibu, his tan glowing as he wore long swim shorts and flip flops while he took care of business at a DMV office in Canoga Park. "There's something incongruous about 'North Dakota' and 'quality of life' in the same sentence, doncha think?" Responses to the survey from people on the street in the San Fernando Valley were similar, ranging from skepticism and incredulity to outright provincial denial. But in the snowy reaches of North Dakota, residents were understandably proud of their quality of life. But she concedes there are downsides. Fargo the biggest city in the Peace Garden State, with 95,000 residents is more than an hour away. And then there's the weather. "Right now, it's in the 20s and snowy," she said. "It's been snowing since October, I think, and we can't wait for summer." For Carly Barnard, a waitress and aspiring actress who was doing laundry in a North Hollywood laundromat, the weather more than compensates for some of California's less desirable elements. "It's, like, 80 degrees in early March here right now," she said. "Sometimes it takes me an hour just to drive into Hollywood for auditions, and then I can't find a parking spot on the street. "And half the time, I think, it's because of tourists who would rather be here than any place else on their vacations." And Barnard is from Colorado, which ranked No. 5 in the survey, based on questions about life and work, emotional and physical health, and basic access to things like clean water, health care, food and shelter. A state's level of well being was graded on a scale of 0 to 100, with 100 representing the ideal, according to Gallup. Hawaii earned first place, with a score of 71.0. Other states in the top10 included Wyoming, South Dakota, Utah, Connecticut, Nebraska and Massachusetts. West Virginia ranked lowest, with a score of 61.7, with Kentucky, Mississippi, Arkansas, Alabama, Ohio, Delaware, Nevada and Louisiana scoring only slightly better. The rankings were based on data collected for the Gallup Healthways Well Being Index, which conducted telephone interviews with Fitflop Electra more than 350,000 people in 2010, including 35,543 in California. California's score may have been negatively impacted by part of the survey that found that one in five residents struggled to afford enough food for themselves and their families last year. But there were places in California that earned almost equally high marks, according to a breakdown of the results based on congressional districts. For instance, California's 30th Congressional District which includes Agoura Hills, Woodland Hills and Malibu and the 24th District Simi Valley and Ventura cheap fitflop each recorded scores of 69. That would have been good enough for third place in the survey. The 27th Congressional District, covering a large portion of the San Fernando Valley Fitflop Hyker and Burbank, each had a score 68, which would have tied them for fifth. "You can say California's not what it once was, but what is?" said Meghan Torres, a computer programmer and transplant from Arizona. "But I don't trust people who talk about the so called golden years. Didn't the California of the 1960s have terrible smog? "Sure, we have some issues, some serious. But California, top of the country's film and culture leader, is also the home to Apple, the Silicon Valley, San Francisco, Carmel. "When I moved here, for me it was like that line from (the film "Field of Dreams") and I found myself asking, 'Is this heaven?"'