What's the worst city you've ever lived in or visited?

[smokehouse]

The funny thing is that I don't give "gimmie" cities like East St. Louis or Peoria the nod...they're known for being shit-holes. I voted for Chi-town because it isn't supposed to be a crap heap but secretly is for hidden reasons. Live in Illinois and hear the word Peoria and you automatically think "crappy"...hear Chicago and you think "Wow...I haven't been there yet but I've heard its awesome!!!". Then you go there, face that maniacal traffic, pay insane $$ for everything under the sun and run smack dab into 1,000,000 pissed off "jaggoffs" with that god awful Chicago accent and you'll wonder what all of the hype is about.

 

[GregN]

I've visited one of CA's more legendary spots: Trona. Still, with the Trona Pinnacles just outside town, it's not as awful as I imagine some of these places in the Northern Midwest that are surrounded by absolutely nothing.

What's wrong with being out in the middle of nowhere? Yuppies would kill themselves if they're not in the city. I like the quiet and relative peace of the country. It's a great place to write.

Opps. Forgot to answer the thread ?:

I've been through the steel and microchips city of Detroit on the way to Montreal, and it was scary and a shithole. Chicago was pretty scary, too.

 

[marktheshark]

I've been to some pretty lousy cities but the one that constantly takes the cake for me is Chicago. Chicago offers some pretty amazing things (as well as high expectations of it being a premiere US city destination) but then washes all of that away with insane prices, rude ass people and ridiculous traffic. It is absurd how expensive shit is in Chicago...after having been to many other major US cities, Chicago constantly takes the cake as one of the costliest places I've been...and often for no reason. Gas, parking, food, hotels...often some of the highest prices I've ever paid anywhere. Couple that to the rude/miserable motherfuckers around every corner and it makes for a place I more than often dread rather than look forward to visiting.

Basically this.

There's also the terrible weather, be it winter season or road work season.

 

[roker]

I have been to Detroit several times and it is a shit hole. The airport is one of the worst I have been in as well.

hahaha, saw this. This is still true to a degree, except for the airport. Whenever I fly back home, landing into Detroit Metro is one of those wow experiences.

Now if you want to talk about shitty airports we can talk about LaGuardia in Queens, NYC, NY

 

[Hot Chocolate]

EAST Palo Alto on the other hand, thats another story.

My hatred and disgust for EPA knows no bounds, I have family there I don't talk to until they hit the city limits. Fuck that place, glad I left and I've never looked back

 

[norton9478]

gary indiana, east st louis il, and newark nj.

just awful situations there with no redeeming qualities.

At least Camden, NJ has the waterfront, the aquarium and the tweeter center.

 

[Kristian Meller]

wtf is that?

 

[evil wasabi]

It's so weird how foreigners say things about Bakersfield like it's a city people know.

 

[Kristian Meller]

I'm just kidding here.

I'd definitely play Fallout: Bakersfield.

 

[evil wasabi]

I'm just kidding here.

I'd definitely play Fallout: Bakersfield.

ok got me. You're not the first guy from overseas to say Bakersfield, which had me wondering what kind of weird overseas marketing is going on.

 

[SetaSouji??]

Flint Michigan about two years ago. Had to pass through to get to where I needed to go, shit I felt I was gonna be mugged and stabbed every block I traveled in that fucking hell hole

 

[68k]

I'll go ahead and add Columbus, GA to the list.

 

[Adderall]

Drove through Trona, CA on our way to death valley. Wow. I would love to live there for awhile.
Used to play a lot of shows at the Flint local 432 venue... always a shady time there.

I like remote, abandoned areas with dive bars, cheap food, and basically friendly people. I'm not too keen on shady run down city neighborhoods that are dangerous.

 

[aria]

It's so weird how foreigners say things about Bakersfield like it's a city people know.

The weird thing was the Dutch bank Rabobank opted to name the city's sports arena. I imagine someone far removed from Bakersfield saw the raw numbers, 347k city (51st in US) and 839k metro (62nd) and thought they were getting a nice area of similar size (Baton Rouge, Albuquerque, etc) --not realizing that Bakersfield also ranks dead last in terms of people holding a college degree (among the top largest 150 cities) and often at the top or top-3 in most-polluted cities.

Fresno is Bakersfield with 100k more people. It's actually about the same size as Honolulu.

 

[aria]

Drove through Trona, CA on our way to death valley. Wow. I would love to live there for awhile.
Used to play a lot of shows at the Flint local 432 venue... always a shady time there.

I like remote, abandoned areas with dive bars, cheap food, and basically friendly people. I'm not too keen on shady run down city neighborhoods that are dangerous.

No, no you wouldn't. Not Trona. Passing through a town does not give you the complete experience --especially in a place so harsh that they're unable to grow a grass football field (the HS plays on a dirt field).

 

[ki_atsushi]

The weird thing was the Dutch bank Rabobank opted to name the city's sports arena. I imagine someone far removed from Bakersfield saw the raw numbers, 347k city (51st in US) and 839k metro (62nd) and thought they were getting a nice area of similar size (Baton Rouge, Albuquerque, etc) --not realizing that Bakersfield also ranks dead last in terms of people holding a college degree (among the top largest 150 cities) and often at the top or top-3 in most-polluted cities.

Fresno is Bakersfield with 100k more people. It's actually about the same size as Honolulu.

I think Bakersfield's air quality is slighly better than Fresno and LA, who usually outdo each other every other year for the worst, it seems. Worst air quality in the United States, and 2nd worst in the world (only Mexico City is worse).

Funny, because the central valley has the 2nd most fertile soil in the world behind the Ukraine. People need to stop moving here and building homes... and let this place be what it's meant to be: farmland. I plan on moving away.

 

[brentsg]

I'm surprised nobody listed any of the West or South Texas cities. The border stuff is pretty crappy, really. Oklahoma City is kind of bizarre and spread out as well, though it's not a slum or anything.

 

[OMFG]

East Detroit...close second is Al Kut, Iraq.

 

[CrackerMessiah]

I think Bakersfield's air quality is slighly better than Fresno and LA, who usually outdo each other every other year for the worst, it seems. Worst air quality in the United States, and 2nd worst in the world (only Mexico City is worse).

I'm guessing you've never been to Beijing or Shanghai. On that scale, they'd be fighting for -1 and -2 position.

 

[roker]

Flint Michigan about two years ago. Had to pass through to get to where I needed to go, shit I felt I was gonna be mugged and stabbed every block I traveled in that fucking hell hole

hahahaha.

I've lived and worked there. I walk around with too much confidence in "slummy" areas in the city where I live now (about 30 mins from me actually) and people are like you aren't scared?

I'm like, FUCK YES I AM ... but I've seen worse.

 

[aria]

I think Bakersfield's air quality is slighly better than Fresno and LA, who usually outdo each other every other year for the worst, it seems. Worst air quality in the United States, and 2nd worst in the world (only Mexico City is worse).

Funny, because the central valley has the 2nd most fertile soil in the world behind the Ukraine. People need to stop moving here and building homes... and let this place be what it's meant to be: farmland. I plan on moving away.

Brother, I recommend it, you can move just about anywhere and feel the improvement

I remember, around 2006, I forwarded this bizarre article (from the "Odd News" category) that involved some real Darwin-Award level stuff happening to some schmuck in Bakersfield to a grade school friend (happily employed in corporate finance in Long Beach) and his reply was just perfect: "Makes me so proud when I say I grew up there. Like I spent time in a war or something..."

Bakersfield usually edges out Fresno for air quality because were, geographically speaking, at the bottom of the pocket formed by the lower San Joaquin Valley and everything eventually collects there.

As I put it in college: Bakersfield is the bastard child of LA and Texas --it has the worst traits of both.

 

[aria]

I'm guessing you've never been to Beijing or Shanghai. On that scale, they'd be fighting for -1 and -2 position.

True that. Beijing was the worst I've seen, but I haven't been to Lanzhou (who's google map shows the cloud of smog) or Linfen

 

[2D_mastur]

Albuquerque is pretty bad. Depressing city.

 

[Tango]

I grew up in Buffalo and now live in Oakland. And while true, they are both shitholes... I still love them both.

Buffalo has changed for the better in recent years and even the neighborhood I grew up in in South Buffalo is now becoming a hip bustling part of the city to live in.

Where Im living currently in east Oakland though I dont ever see that kind of gentrification happening. There isn't a tree in sight and no nice but run-down old victorians like in West/Downtown Oakland.

Still though, both places have alot of redeeming qualities. It doesn't make me tough to live in rough cities, if anything... just smart about money.

 

[SSS]

St. Thomas. Was like somebody dropped southeast DC on a carribean island.