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Beautiful weather isn’t enough to make the people of Santa Monica, Calif. happy. They’re actually pretty pissed because of the high living costs, bad traffic, and generally unhappy environment that is the Southern California suburb.

The city is spending a cool million to get people happy again.

Reports AP:

There’s a picturesque pier off in the distance with an old-fashioned merry-go-round that stands nearly side-by-side with the world’s first solar-powered Ferris wheel. The sun is shining brightly, the temperature is a pleasant 79 degrees and a light sea breeze makes everything feel just right.

But there’s also loads of traffic and a high cost of living, two things that recently prompted the real estate blog Movoto to rate Santa Monica No. 2 on its Top 10 list of America’s Most Stressed-Out Suburbs.

To do something about that, the city of 92,000 applied last year for a Bloomberg Philanthropies Mayors Challenge grant, proposing that it create a “Wellbeing Project” to determine just how much people in this picture-postcard town really like living here. Santa Monica beat out 300 other U.S. cities in securing $1 million.

This week, officials will begin asking residents how involved they are in community activities, if they know who to turn to in times of crisis, if they know their neighbors, how healthy they are, how lonely they might be and how good an education they believe their kids are receiving. Then they’ll examine what changes are needed to make life better.

Surely that $1 million could’ve gone to another city that could use the money (like Detroit?). Nevertheless, the city wants to “get a much clearer understanding of who the people of Santa Monica are, what they are doing and what we can do on a local government level to help ensure people are thriving.”

Great, now if only Chicago could get that kind of treatment.

Photo: Facebook