{"id":37513,"date":"2015-10-27T13:47:03","date_gmt":"2015-10-27T17:47:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=37513"},"modified":"2015-10-27T14:02:22","modified_gmt":"2015-10-27T18:02:22","slug":"according-to-the-website-roadsnacks-net-lehigh-acres-is-the-third-worst-place-to-live","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2015\/10\/according-to-the-website-roadsnacks-net-lehigh-acres-is-the-third-worst-place-to-live\/","title":{"rendered":"According To The Website Roadsnacks.Net Lehigh Acres Is The Third Worst Place To Live"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Roadsnacks writer Nick James has written an article dated Oct 27, 2015 named These Are \u201cThe 10 Worst Mid-Size Cities To Live In America\u201d, and has listed the community of Lehigh Acres as number three. \u00a0Click here<\/span><\/a><\/span> to read the article.<\/p>\n

James is quoted, \u201cThis article is an opinion based on facts and is meant as infotainment. Don\u2019t freak out.\u201d<\/p>\n

He states the following about Lehigh Acres;<\/p>\n

Population:\u00a095,767
\nUnemployment rate:\u00a05th highest in the nation
\nHome values:\u00a010th lowest
\nCrime:\u00a09th highest in the U.S.<\/p>\n

Just about everyone outside of Florida hasn\u2019t heard of Lehigh Acres, a pretty bad place to live on Florida\u2019s west coast \u2013 just outside of Fort Myers.<\/p>\n

Crime is really bad in Lehigh Acres, among other factors. Perhaps the 11.6% unemployment rate is a reason there are so many crimes occur here every year.<\/p>\n

And when home prices are under $90,000, you can bet many other people in the area are aware of the unattractive factors that are at play in this Florida community.<\/p>\n

The Lehigh Acres Gazette has tried to reach out to Nick James and Roadsnacks and their parent company Chasing Chains, LLC of North Carolina for comment and not returned are calls.<\/p>\n

Christopher Kolmar \u2013 Owner and President of Chasing Chains, LLC<\/p>\n

The following is from the Newburyport Blog<\/a>\u00a0and used by permission \u00a0about Christopher Kolmar and Chasing Chains, LLC.<\/p>\n

Chris Kolmar first crossed the radar of the Newburyport Blog when the website he owns wrote a not so complimentary \u201cinfo-entertainment\u201d snippet about the city I love so much, Newburyport, Massachusetts.<\/p>\n

1) This is not Mr. Kolmar\u2019s first rodeo.<\/p>\n

This is not\u00a0Christopher Kolmar<\/a>\u2018s first rodeo,\u00a0his words, not mine<\/a>. Chris Kolmar appears to be a boy genius when it comes to viral, content marketing.\u00a0 He has written several terrific articles and got the blog, that the company the he worked (still works??) for, to become a household name. I actually took some of his suggestions and used them in the previous post. This guy is a smart cookie, no doubt about it.\u00a0 I was wicked impressed by his previous work.\u00a0 His latest websites \u2014 not so much.<\/p>\n

2) Chris Kolmar is young.<\/p>\n

He graduated from college in 2009. So maybe at this writing he is 27 or 28.<\/p>\n

3) In my opinion, his new website(s) demonstrate an uninformed, graceless immaturity.<\/p>\n

Mr Kolmar seems to be using his terrific talent, in my mind for money, notoriety and lots of traffic to his various websites (i.e. money, fame and money).<\/p>\n

The little info-entertainment snippet on my beloved hometown contained a tweet (as part of the website\u2019s \u201cdata\u201d) from a \u201ckid,\u201d probably a very nice kid, who listed their hometown as Amherst, MA (which btw is not Newburyport \u2013 an expert? one wonders\u2026data??).<\/p>\n

4) Mr. Kolmar\u2019s website gets its data wrong.<\/p>\n

The list is very long of people pointing out all the mistakes in the data on Chris Kolmar\u2019s websites (I refuse to give the name or link to the websites, because that is exactly what Mr. Kolmar would like \u2014 it\u2019s clicks, clicks, clicks \u2014 links, links, links).\u00a0 So Mr. Kolmar\u2019s often, in my mind, cruel observations, seem to be based on data that is at times inaccurate.<\/p>\n

5) Chris Kolmar has hurt a lot of communities and the people that live them.<\/p>\n

Wow, the list of people and communities (especially communities that are struggling) that, in my opinion, he has hurt with his cruel and graceless immaturity is lengthy.\u00a0 If he ever enters a 12 step program, which in my mind could not be soon enough, the list of amends he would need to make would be in the 100,000s (really).<\/p>\n

6) Christopher Kolmar is hurting small businesses.<\/p>\n

Yup, the small business in Newburyport that he portrayed in his info-image from Google Maps, a small business that has been loved by our community for decades, was depicted in the most unflattering way (and it\u2019s a great looking place).\u00a0 And apparently\u00a0I am not alone in this opinion<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 that Mr. Kolmar finds the worst images and angles for the places that he writes about \u2014 again, cruel, cynical and thoughtless stuff.<\/p>\n

7) Mr. Kolmar will probably succeed in this new endeavor like crazy.<\/p>\n

And Christopher Kolmar will probably succeed in this recent (started in May 2015) endeavor,\u00a0 because, I believe he is playing on people\u2019s basest emotions in a slick, sloppy, cynical way.\u00a0 As almost every \u201cnews\u201d organization knows, kind, thoughtful stuff doesn\u2019t get readership or viewership like a really good catastrophe, or when someone says something really cruel and mean.<\/p>\n

(I would say that Chris Kolmar is the polar opposite of the\u00a0three young men that give me hope\u00a0<\/a>for the future of Newburyport, Massachusetts.)<\/p>\n

8) Contact Christopher Kolmar and his partner\u00a0Nikolaos (Nick) Johnson<\/a><\/p>\n

You can send them an email, people probably won\u2019t, but this is the email addresses that I used, plus an old one for Chris Kolmar that I found:<\/p>\n

Chris@HomeSnacks.net<\/a>,\u00a0Nick@HomeSnacks.net<\/a>,\u00a0info@HomeSnacks.net<\/a>,christopher.kolmar@gmail.com<\/a>\u00a0(email from 2012)<\/p>\n

And there is always snail mail.<\/p>\n

This is the information that I have on the company:<\/p>\n

Our goal is to show you the real side of places that not everyone wants to hear. We use data to create bite-sized snacks of shareable information about places and cities across the country. We call it the \u2018other\u2019 side of regional infotainment.<\/p>\n

Chasing Chains, L.L.C.
\n210 Strolling Way
\nDurham, North Carolina \u00a0 27707<\/p>\n

9) People who have stood up to Christopher Kolmar and his partner Nikolaos (Nick) Johnson (yes, \u201cstanding up to\u201d implies standing up to bullies).\u00a0 And these are just some of the many people who have done this \u2014 it is a long, long list.<\/p>\n

A)\u00a0 Dr. Andrew J. Pegoda, Texas, \u00a0\u00a0\u201cAn Open Letter to Chris Kolmar and Nick Johnson of RoadSnacks: Please Remember People Have Feelings\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cAdditionally, your list, likely not intentionally but the effect is the same nonetheless, embodies and perpetuates racism. It could cause business to avoid areas where such business could really be needed in terms of jobs and services provided.\u00a0\u201c<\/p>\n

B)\u00a0 Molly McWilliams Wilkins, Georgia,\u00a0\u00a0\u201cIn Defense of Small Towns\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cBut you need to consider the soul, and heart, of the places you write about. And realize that there are some who not only choose to live in them, but cherish their hometowns.\u201d<\/p>\n

C)\u00a0 Mike Parker, North Carolina,\u00a0\u00a0\u201d \u2018RoadSnacks\u2019 blast gives me indigestion\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cMy dad once told me: \u2018Son, figures don\u2019t lie, but liars can figure.\u2019 \u201c<\/p>\n

D)\u00a0 Aaron Brown,\u00a0 Minnesota,\u00a0\u00a0\u201cWarm greetings from Minnesota\u2019s northern hellscape\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cBefore you fall over yourselves rushing to see the site, know that it\u2019s click bait. Believe it or not, RoadSnacks.net is not a repository of our century\u2019s finest thinking, but a website that profits when people look at their ads. It lacks the dignity of a site like this one, which has the class and intellectual merit\u00a0to attract far fewer readers while making almost\u00a0no profits whatsoever.\u201d<\/p>\n

E)\u00a0 Barry Saunders, North Carolina,\u00a0\u00a0\u201cRockingham deserves better from RoadSnacks\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026it\u2019s easier to pick on struggling municipalities in which you\u2019ve probably never et a Vienna sausage than to look into what\u2019s causing the problems you so erroneously and cavalierly catalogue \u2013 for infotainment.\u201d<\/p>\n

F)\u00a0 Brian Blueskye, California,\u00a0\u201cIn Defense of DHS: An \u2018Analysis\u2019 Recently Declared That Desert Hot Springs Is the Worst Place to Live in California. Here\u2019s Why We Disagree.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201d \u2018The two people who run that website, they do one of those lists on every state,\u201d Betts said. \u201cThey\u2019re click-whores. They\u2019re just doing that to build traffic. How can they possibly analyze all 50 states?\u2019 \u201c<\/p>\n

G)\u00a0North Carolina,\u00a0\u201cOUR VIEW: Defy, don\u2019t just deny, county\u2019s \u2018worst\u2019 labels\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what\u2019s really important, after all. Proving provocateurs like RoadSnacks dead wrong is just the icing on the cake.<\/p>\n

Forget denial, Richmond County. This is a challenge that calls for defiance.\u201d<\/p>\n

H)\u00a0Mark Saal, Utah,\u00a0\u201cOgden second worst? That couldn\u2019t be worse\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201c\u2014 henceforth and forever I wasn\u2019t going to report the source of these vacuous helpings of intellectual cotton candy. Mostly because the companies that compile these lists are what we in the business affectionately refer to as \u201cpublicity whores.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026an attempt to attract as much media attention as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd finally, as authoritative as I\u2019d love to consider RoadSnacks (D\u2019oh! Mentioned it again), it\u2019s important to note that the \u201ccompany\u201d \u2014 possibly just some 20-something with a computer, living in his parents\u2019 basement \u2014 is headquartered out of Durham, North Carolina. North Carolina, people.\u201d<\/p>\n

I)\u00a0 Mark Muckenfuss, California, Who asks the question,\u00a0\u201cDoes Nick Johnson want to become the most hated man in America?\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s wrong with Nick Johnson? Does he really want to become the most hated man in America?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cJohnson has made it his job to tell people they live in terrible places\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201d \u2018I\u2019ve had some really sappy letters sent to me that made me feel sad about doing this and we almost stopped. They said \u2018You hurt everyone\u2019s feelings,\u2019 and we said, \u2018Maybe we shouldn\u2019t do this.\u2019 \u201d\u00a0 \u201c\u2026But then he (Nick Johnson) looks at the traffic on the website.\u201d<\/p>\n

J)\u00a0\u00a0Steve Urbon, Massachusetts,\u00a0\u201cWorst? Buddy, you don\u2019t know the meaning of worst \u2014 Mayor Jon Mitchell took the printout I had handed him, made a face and held it up like a soiled diaper\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cSome crackpot website in Durham, North Carolina, had messed around with some statistics\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou would think that if you\u2019re going to publish something online that serves as cheap \u201clinkbait,\u201d you could at least get the numbers right.\u201d<\/p>\n

K)\u00a0\u00a0Tasnim Shamma, Georgia,\u00a0\u00a0Faulty Data Is Behind Georgia City\u2019s Most Dangerous Ranking<\/a><\/p>\n

This article quotes the\u00a0FBI which urges people not to use their data<\/a>.\u00a0 However, Christopher Kolmar and Nick Johnson do use this FBI\u00a0 data in compiling some of their lists. The\u00a0FBI warns against using the data<\/a>, and this is what the FBI has to say:<\/p>\n

\u201cUCR (Uniform Crime Reporting) data are sometimes used to compile rankings of individual jurisdictions and institutions of higher learning.\u00a0 These incomplete analyses have often created misleading perceptions which adversely affect geographic entities and their residents. Despite repeated warnings against these practices, some data users continue to challenge and misunderstand this position.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen providing\/using agency oriented statistics, the FBI cautions and, in fact, strongly discourages data users against using rankings to evaluate locales or the effectiveness of their law enforcement agencies.\u201d<\/p>\n

The article quotes Robert\u00a0Friedmann,\u00a0the director of the Georgia International Law Enforcement Exchange\u00a0at Georgia State.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026the rankings are irresponsible clickbait. It makes people panic and can affect a city\u2019s local economy if it prevents people from moving there.\u201d<\/p>\n

So what damage has Christopher Kolmar and his writer Nick James done to the future of this community of Lehigh Acres? What you think?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Roadsnacks writer Nick James has written an article dated Oct 27, 2015 named These Are \u201cThe 10 Worst Mid-Size Cities To Live In America\u201d, and has listed the community of… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":37514,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57,32],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37513"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37513\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}