Every day we find the wildest municipal meltdown in America and run it through the Drama Meter. One instrument. Eight dials. Zero permission.
The Drama Meter isn't a "more is worse" scale. It's a U. Dead-quiet towns and full-meltdown towns both spook capital — the productive zone sits in between.
A flatline town — nothing moving, no friction, no pulse — reads as inert. A meltdown town — lawsuits, recalls, staff walking out — reads as chaos. Both are risk. The productive zone is where there's enough heat to signal life, but enough function to get a deal done.
The running archive. A new city lands every day, automatically.
Each morning the meter sweeps the national and local press for the day's most unhinged municipal story.
Eight categories, gut-read on the U-shape scale, resolved to one composite Drama Meter score.
The reading publishes here and to the Drama Meter feed. Nobody lifts a finger.
Run the real Drama Meter on your own city — one of six free intelligence tools at Street Economics. No login. No permission.
Score my city →