ST. PETERSBURG -- Steve Kornell has had enough.

First, Men’s Health magazine in November declared St. Petersburg the saddest city in America.

Then, last month, CNBC did a survey that concluded that Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater is the most stressful metro area.

“There’s clear overwhelming evidence that what they said isn’t true,” said Kornell, a St. Petersburg council member. “It’s borderline defamatory. Clearly those reporters never set a toe here.”

On Thursday, he sought support from his seven other colleagues to approve drafting a letter to the two media outlets to address the “inaccurate” stories. Kornell said he didn’t want a correction or a retraction. He simply wanted to remind the media outlets that they could do an alternate story on St. Petersburg, one that takes into account the city’s balmy winter weather when allegedly cheerier cities are buried under a foot of snow.

His fellow council members apparently weren't as aggrieved.

“While I appreciate what you’re doing,” Jeff Danner told Kornell, “you’ll stir it up and we’ll be in the news again that we’re depressed.”

After Kornell’s motion failed, Council Chair Leslie Curran delivered the eulogy.

“It fails,” Curran said. “That really is depressing.”
 

--Michael Van Sickler, Times staff writer