By Hector Gonzalez
Staff Writer

January 5, 2015--If there’s one thing that 2014 proved it’s that Santa Monica is a city of several distinctions — good and bad.

Among the honors bestowed on Santa Monica this past year, the city was named the smartest suburb in America; the best dressed small city (of 100,000 population or less); the fifth most exciting city, big or small, in the country, and America’s — and arguably, by extension, the world’s — hot tub capitol.

But Santa Monica also made the list of the nation’s 25 most dangerous suburbs in 2014, as well as one of its most stressed out, according to the real estate website Movoto.

One might think the two categories go hand in hand, but Movoto blogger Laura Allan blamed the city’s popularity for stressing out its residents.

Too many people vying to live here, combined with a high cost of living, makes for a lot of stressed Santa Monicans, according to Allan, who ranked the city No.2 on her list of “The 10 Most Stressed Out Suburbs In America,” released in June.

Renters in the city spend 39 percent of their salaries on rent, leaving “very little left over” for other things, Allan concluded.

Put simply, “the rent is too damn high,” Allan wrote.

Santa Monica wasn’t the most stressed out place—that distinction went to Miami, according to Movoto, while three other California suburbs also made the most-stressed list — Signal Hill, Inglewood and Lomita, which ranked 6th, 7th and 8th, respectively.

Movoto also gave Santa Monica poor marks in public safety, listing it among the most dangerous suburbs in America last year. In April, after analyzing FBI statistics for 2012 — the most recent year available— the website announced Santa Monica ranked 24th among 116 most dangerous suburbs in the nation.

The website tallied major crimes including murders, violent crimes, property crimes and total crimes, and found that Santa Monica had 433 violent crimes and 4,158 total crimes per 100,000 residents.

“There’s a perception that suburbs are safer that their big city neighbors, but the truth is that they can be dangerous places just like anywhere else,” wrote Randy Nelson, Movoto’s editor.

East Point, GA, outside of Atlanta, was the most dangerous suburb in the country in 2014, according to Movoto, followed by Camden, NJ; Miami Beach, FL; Midwest City, OK, and Miami Gardens, FL.

Two Southern California cities joined Santa Monica among the top 25 most dangerous suburbs — Signal Hill, a Long Beach suburb that ranked 13th on the list, and Inglewood, which came in at 18.

With all that stress and uncertainty, Santa Monica residents need an occasional break, and in November the rental listings website Zumper revealed they’re taking them in hot tubs. It found that 4.5 percent of the city’s rented residences have hot tubs, the highest percentage in the nation and about six times the national average, the website said.

Apart from knowing how to relax, local residents were deemed the smartest suburbanites overall, topping a Movoto survey of America’s 10 smartest suburbs released in September.

The website factored in such things as the number of colleges and universities per capita; public libraries per capita; museums per capita; the percentage of residents with bachelor’s degrees or higher; the city’s high school graduation rate, and the GreatSchools.org rating of test scores for the area.

Santa Monica was followed by Evanston, IL; Berkeley; Cambridge, MA, and Towson, MD. Three other California suburbs also made the top 10: Cupertino, Seal Beach and Alameda, according to Movoto.

In October, Movoto looked at nightlife options in America’s suburbs, along with live music venues, recreational opportunities and other factors. It listed Santa Monica as the nation’s fifth “most exciting suburb” in 2014 among 104 other contenders.

Santa Monica was topped only by Cambridge and Quincy, MA; Berkeley, and Miami Beach, Movoto announced.

When it comes to fashion sense, though, the city reigned supreme among America’s suburbs, according to Movoto bloggers, who named it the best dressed small city in America in a survey released in February.

The bloggers created the rankings by “figuring out which small cities take dressing well the most seriously.”

They looked at five areas that best reflected the best-dressed category:  the number of high-end fashion stores per capita; high-end shoe stores per capita; high-end jewelry stores per capita; tailors per capita; and the number of dry cleaners per capita, the website said.

“Santa Monica strutted down the runway” in the high-end stores category, with one high-end fashion store for every 1,043 residents, Movoto said.

Newport Beach was second with one for every 1,360 residents, while Miami Beach was third with one for every 1,849 people.

Santa Monica also “walked away with a win” in the number of high-end shoe stores—one for every 4,832 residents, followed by Miami and then Newport Beach, Movoto said.

Hey, if the shoe fits.