If you are one of my national readers, let me give you a geography lesson.

Monroe, Mich., the city from where I am writing, and for whom my local content is aimed, is within commuting distance to both Toledo, Ohio, and Detroit, Mich.

We can get newspapers from both cities delivered in most of Monroe County’s neighborhoods; my cable service carries both Toledo and Detroit local stations; a lot of non-profit organizations that provide services in Monroe County have their district offices in Toledo or Detroit; local residents generally follow the Detroit professional sports teams along with Toledo’s minor league hockey and baseball; and, yes, we have workers and college students who commute from Monroe County to both Toledo and Detroit.

Monroe does have Ann Arbor connections too, but the economic and cultural impact in that direction just isn’t as pervasive as that of Detroit and Toledo.

This is the context in which to understand today’s report from the Toledo Blade: Census Bureau report lists Toledo in top 10 of downtrodden in 2008.

On that misery index of cities that have more than 250,000 residents, Toledo ranks no. 8 and Detroit ranks no. 1.