I have been saying for years, we are the bottom of the good lists and the top of the bad lists. Weather is not the reason, if it was Minneapolis would not be ranked No. 1….

We are still living in the 50’s as with the power structure in the political and union sense. That is most likely the biggest reason we continue to stay at the bottom. The costs of doing business, utilities, insurance, compensation, restrictions government slaps businesses with etc, etc, etc…..

Big warm cities, cold little ones get dubious honors
Buffalo, Los Angeles part of eclectic mix in MarketWatch’s Bottom 10 cities

49. Rochester, N.Y., 114 points: This upstate New York town might have finished last, were it not for Hurricane Katrina and the lack of reliable tourism statistics. The city was dead last in job growth and in the bottom 10 in population growth and Russell 2000 measures.
It did, however, finish eighth in the S&P 500 category, thanks to a handful of big-name firms like Bausch & Lomb, Eastman Kodak Co., and Constellation Brands.

47. Buffalo, N.Y., 125 points: This upstate New York City, known for its tough winters, is much in the same boat as 49th-ranked Rochester — and it isn’t just because of the weather, says Richard Deitz, senior economist for the Federal Reserve Bank’s Buffalo office.
According to Deitz, neither Buffalo nor Rochester ever fully recovered from a decline in heavy industry several decades ago.
“Our economy has not fared very well, certainly over the last couple of decades,” Deitz said. “Climate can be a factor, but it’s not the only factor.”
Buffalo was next to last in population growth, as it lost nearly 3% of its residents. It now has only one major company, M&T Bank Corp.

New York City was the highest city in the state, coming in at No. 8.

If you want proof that weather has little to do with where a business locates, just take a gander at MarketWatch’s Bottom 10 centers for business.
Two frigid towns in upstate New York — Buffalo and Rochester — made the Bottom 10 list. So did desert havens Tucson, Ariz., and Las Vegas. And the metro area with perhaps the nation’s most temperate climate, Los Angeles, also was in this dubious category.

Read the full report here..