Los Angeles, CA - It's either ultra expensive or dangerous. Freeways are beyond crowded with potholes everywhere. Smog everywhere. The beaches are pretty, but the water is cold.
I'll second Hartford, CT.
And Orlando, FL ( although this may be strip club related. I hate Mickey Mouse ).
I was at Bridgeport and man, that was a hell of a vacation spot to go visit. Bridgeport it self is pretty cheap to live in if you are okay with going to places like Black Rock or Fairfield for nightlife. It was jarring to see the socioeconomic difference between Bridgeport and Fairfield despite the fact that they are only few miles apart. Honestly, though, I would much rather live in Bridgeport than Fairfield.
I'll also second Los Angeles. It's basically an expensive slum with decent weather.
Las Vegas. It's fun for a quick visit, but living there is like a never-ending trip into degeneracy and desperation. You can't even go into gas stations or supermarkets without watching gambling junkies plugging money into slot machines.
Bridgeport CT/New Haven CT/Fall River MA/Brockton MA/Lowell MA. I lump these all in together because they are each basically the same small New England city, which once had factories that manufactured goods and a local population of semi-prosperous blue collar workers. Now the factories are abandoned and the cities are cesspools where everyone goes to find hookers and drugs. If you saw pictures of their downtowns from the 40s, 50s and even 60s you'd struggle to believe how far they've fallen. But hey, the people who clean houses, work in the stores and provide other support services to the nearby wealthy communities have to live somewhere, as do the numerous welfare recipients.
"I was at Bridgeport and man, that was a hell of a vacation spot to go visit."
I hope you have a concealed carry permit. Western Connecticut is mostly varying degrees of "sucks."
Other ones:
Las Vegas. Robert De Niro said it best in "Casino," the whole city's been set up to take your money. Gaudy vibe that makes even "classy" things seem tawdry. Seems to bring the worst out in all its dipshit visitors.
Portland, Oregon. Not "worst" but very overrated. Expensive, drinks its own bathwater on the hipster vibe. Always felt like I should have been having more fun than I was. This was before Antifa ran the city, might add that to the equation now.
New York. Eight million pounds of shit in a four million pound bag. Overcrowded. Locals are aggressive assholes. Like Vegas, everyone's trying to run a game on you. Dirty, whether from bums pissing on the subway tracks or people throwing shit out of the subway doors because they couldn't wait to find a trash can. And all this was before De Blasio's crime and violence problems.
Oh, and an unearned superiority complex. Yeah, you're working a 100-hour week at Goldman while your managing director leaves at 3pm on Friday for the Hamptons, or living in a 5-story walkup in Bed-Stuy and still barely making ends meet. But hey, you're a New Yorker!
@RickDugan, I'd put New Haven a little above the others. Parts of it have a nice college town vibe.
But the rest of those, yeah. Also add lot of Western Mass but I haven't spent much time there.
Worcester has some surprisingly decent spots for a place that might have made your list a couple decades ago.
Gary, Indiana sounds bad. I had a stripper in a strip club tell me she moved here to Indianapolis to get away from the high crime in her city. We have high crime here and I couldn't imagine what moving here would be an improvement over, so I asked her where she moved from. Her response was Gary.
Worcester, MA, also used to be a wasteland going back 10 years ago, but has improved a lot. I've heard bad things about Springfield, MA, but haven't visited myself.
Two more not-horrible-but-horribly-overrated cities:
New Orleans. Been there a lot for conferences. Great restaurants but like Las Vegas a lot of people go there to be immature dipshits. Bourbon Street perpetually smells like vomit and cheap booze. And for fuck's sake never go there in the summer, upper-90s, 100% humidity, and it fucking reeks.
Denver. I've had great times there, love the western vibe, but according to my best friend who lives there, it's going to hell in a handbasket. Fucked up real estate laws have led to the proliferation of ugly, overpriced slot homes. Burgeoning crime and aggressive homeless problem. I'd get out of there while the getting's good.
@Tetradon: I hear ya' re: New Haven, but outside of a very small downtown section near the school, the bulk of the city is a Grade A shithole. I've visited office supply and auto parts stores in that town that surround their parking lots with walls with barbed wire on top.
@CMI: Neither Worcester nor Springfield were ever as bad as those others. Both cities have always had from more diversified commercial bases that didn't exist in the small East Coast cities, which helped them better weather the loss of manufacturing facilities.
I think we should come to an agreement on actual worst vs. don't like the place. Does LA really seem the like worst city in America? I'd keep it off the list just because a ton of porn gets made there, and what would half the guys on TUSCL do without studio porn?
St. Louis. Summers are hot and miserable. The Mississippi River makes it humid as a Turkish Bath.
St Louis style pizza is obviously an acquired taste. Cracker think crust, sweet sauce, that weird Provel cheese blend, sweet sauce, cut into squares - pretty bad
-Birmingham and Sunderland is on there I’m guessing due to the migrant issue. When is the western world going to figure out that they can’t take on the whole worlds problems. You have to say NO sometimes and actually have a spine.
-For worst cities I gotta say I’ll check out anything atleast once. Every place tells a story, be it good or bad, has history and I want to hear it out.
-I’m not really a southern city (other than Florida) guy. It’s just not my thing. Although the people are great. And Charleston and Savannah are cool though.
-I’m not really a Vegas guy either. I’ll go back one of these days but it’s just not what I look for in a city and other people love it way more than I do. When I go im not gambling Im going to the mob museum or people watching.
-Much of the sunbelt leaves much to be desired from the excitement or unique sort of standpoint but I see the attraction for living in those cities and raising families vs trying to go there to have a wild time or be mystified in sort of way. Hell If I bolt out of NY it would probably be for one of these places, it’s just more feasible to live in.
-There’s just a lot of smaller cities where once you’ve been there for a few hours you felt like did/seen it all. It be tough for me to live in a smaller town/city I like having alot of options.
-Certain places have been just defeated by crime. St. Louis and New Orleans are gems of US cities but became just too fucking ghetto. Last time I was in St Louis at a Cardinals game there was a shooting right outside downtown after it let out. Detroit I got there, there’s sort of a morbid fascination when I drive around. It’s still a cool experience but for different reasons.
-I gotta defend El Paso a little bit, it really is one of most scenic cities in America. Checking out the view from the Franklin Mountain driving sunset or at night and tell me not.
New Orleans is pretty high on the bad list, but so are most of the cities in the Deep South. There is just too much litter, too much xenophobia (even for people from a different area code), civic pride in word only, and a lot of spitefulness and jealousy.
I've been to El Paso a handful of time and have never had a problem. Although, since the Obama and Biden border surges and caravans, I would imagine most cities along the border have worsened TREMENDOUSLY.
Vegas is what I thought it would be. Not a place I really care to go to.
Detroit is a notorious shithole. How anyone from there would be so oblivious to call other places impoverished or drug-ridden is hilariously hypocritical.
Detroit and New Orleans are examples of why federal government subsidies for failed municipalities don't work. This is your tax dollars, being taken from you at gunpoint [threat of criminal prosecution], and given to municipal governments which already mismanaged and embezzled tax dollars from their own citizens, so that those corrupt individuals can continue lining their own pockets and defrauding their citizens.
I agree with Rod. Newark is a shithole and Camden has surpassed Newark as being a more dangerous shithole.
To be honest, there are a few eastern Pennsylvania cities that suck. They were once centered on coal or steel and they now have no reason to exist as cities. Two that come to mind are Scranton and Reading.
In terms of Connecticut - I agree on Hartford, Bridgeport and New Haven. I agree with Rick as I’ve seen store parking lots with fences and barbed wire around them. That is never a good sign.
Springfield, MA is pretty bad. It’s kid brother nearby Holyoke is even worse. I had to be there on business a few months ago and was there downtown at 1 on a weekday afternoon and there was nobody on the streets. Deserted, just nothing going on. It was very creepy.
Also, Waterbury can throw its hat in the ring with the other CT cities that have been mentioned.
Houston. Limited zoning restrictions make for a shit show of any semblance of things that belong together - white collar office building next a church sitting in the shadow of a 60 foot billboard for a strip club.
@ Muddy - Not al all, Birmingham is mostly disgusting, dirty. horrible, run down. Even immigrants are reluctant to go to Sunderland, it's better than Birmingham though.
When I was in Birmingham 3 years ago, I got yelled at by a shitty drunk guy in a pub for being an immigrant.
Being a white American tourist passing through to visit friends, I guess one could make a meager argument that he wasn't entirely wrong. But even his shitty drunk friends seemed confused, and eventually one gently removed the pint from his hand and said "Ian, you're done for the night, mate."
Only one reference to Chicago? Chicago is awful, crime is literally spilling into everywhere, and not just vandalism and shoplifting, but muggings and shootings as well. Easily rivals NY for random acts of violence. People here are belligerently ignorant. Strip club scene is woeful. Worst mayor in America.
I had family in Chicago for a long time, and always had a great time visiting. More subdued party vibe than New Orleans, Las Vegas, or Miami, but still fun. Top notch restaurants. Fun history. And the times I wasn't visiting family, I was there for conferences and had a corporate meal budget to enjoy.
Now? It sounds like it's become Shit-cago. Where even on the Magnificent Mile, you aren't safe.
Camden NJ is no longer as dangerous as it was. They’re beating the national trend and somehow got safer the past few years. Homicide is way down.
Don’t get me wrong - it’s still a shit hole no one would want to live.
When it comes to strip clubs, akron is excellent. Just a few days ago I got a barside dance for $5, pulled my dick out and got a quich blowie to entertain the other patrons. Great town!
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Atlantic City, NJ anywhere off the boardwalk.
I'll second Hartford, CT.
And Orlando, FL ( although this may be strip club related. I hate Mickey Mouse ).
I was at Bridgeport and man, that was a hell of a vacation spot to go visit. Bridgeport it self is pretty cheap to live in if you are okay with going to places like Black Rock or Fairfield for nightlife. It was jarring to see the socioeconomic difference between Bridgeport and Fairfield despite the fact that they are only few miles apart. Honestly, though, I would much rather live in Bridgeport than Fairfield.
NYC...some of the worst urban planning or lack of. People talk like they have a speech impediment. Overrated and overpriced.
San Francisco....a study of unfettered gentrification
Phoenix...a hotter boring version of Vegas. The most openly racist city I've seen
Cheyenne wyoming... feels like a cult town trapped in the 1970s
I'll also second Los Angeles. It's basically an expensive slum with decent weather.
Las Vegas. It's fun for a quick visit, but living there is like a never-ending trip into degeneracy and desperation. You can't even go into gas stations or supermarkets without watching gambling junkies plugging money into slot machines.
Bridgeport CT/New Haven CT/Fall River MA/Brockton MA/Lowell MA. I lump these all in together because they are each basically the same small New England city, which once had factories that manufactured goods and a local population of semi-prosperous blue collar workers. Now the factories are abandoned and the cities are cesspools where everyone goes to find hookers and drugs. If you saw pictures of their downtowns from the 40s, 50s and even 60s you'd struggle to believe how far they've fallen. But hey, the people who clean houses, work in the stores and provide other support services to the nearby wealthy communities have to live somewhere, as do the numerous welfare recipients.
I hope you have a concealed carry permit. Western Connecticut is mostly varying degrees of "sucks."
Other ones:
Las Vegas. Robert De Niro said it best in "Casino," the whole city's been set up to take your money. Gaudy vibe that makes even "classy" things seem tawdry. Seems to bring the worst out in all its dipshit visitors.
Portland, Oregon. Not "worst" but very overrated. Expensive, drinks its own bathwater on the hipster vibe. Always felt like I should have been having more fun than I was. This was before Antifa ran the city, might add that to the equation now.
New York. Eight million pounds of shit in a four million pound bag. Overcrowded. Locals are aggressive assholes. Like Vegas, everyone's trying to run a game on you. Dirty, whether from bums pissing on the subway tracks or people throwing shit out of the subway doors because they couldn't wait to find a trash can. And all this was before De Blasio's crime and violence problems.
Oh, and an unearned superiority complex. Yeah, you're working a 100-hour week at Goldman while your managing director leaves at 3pm on Friday for the Hamptons, or living in a 5-story walkup in Bed-Stuy and still barely making ends meet. But hey, you're a New Yorker!
Akron, OH is another shithole.
But the rest of those, yeah. Also add lot of Western Mass but I haven't spent much time there.
Worcester has some surprisingly decent spots for a place that might have made your list a couple decades ago.
New Orleans. Been there a lot for conferences. Great restaurants but like Las Vegas a lot of people go there to be immature dipshits. Bourbon Street perpetually smells like vomit and cheap booze. And for fuck's sake never go there in the summer, upper-90s, 100% humidity, and it fucking reeks.
Denver. I've had great times there, love the western vibe, but according to my best friend who lives there, it's going to hell in a handbasket. Fucked up real estate laws have led to the proliferation of ugly, overpriced slot homes. Burgeoning crime and aggressive homeless problem. I'd get out of there while the getting's good.
@CMI: Neither Worcester nor Springfield were ever as bad as those others. Both cities have always had from more diversified commercial bases that didn't exist in the small East Coast cities, which helped them better weather the loss of manufacturing facilities.
You need to travel more.
St Louis style pizza is obviously an acquired taste. Cracker think crust, sweet sauce, that weird Provel cheese blend, sweet sauce, cut into squares - pretty bad
Toasted ravioli is just plain weird
It’s crime and murder rates are terrible.
Chicago
Cleveland
Pittsburgh
Philadelphia
Salina Kansas
Omaha Nebraska
Honestly once you live in California or Vegas. Every place is kidn of a shithole.
Dude, I LOVE St. Louis man. I would totally go back and live there again. I also love small towns in missoura, but that's just me.
-For worst cities I gotta say I’ll check out anything atleast once. Every place tells a story, be it good or bad, has history and I want to hear it out.
-I’m not really a southern city (other than Florida) guy. It’s just not my thing. Although the people are great. And Charleston and Savannah are cool though.
-I’m not really a Vegas guy either. I’ll go back one of these days but it’s just not what I look for in a city and other people love it way more than I do. When I go im not gambling Im going to the mob museum or people watching.
-Much of the sunbelt leaves much to be desired from the excitement or unique sort of standpoint but I see the attraction for living in those cities and raising families vs trying to go there to have a wild time or be mystified in sort of way. Hell If I bolt out of NY it would probably be for one of these places, it’s just more feasible to live in.
-There’s just a lot of smaller cities where once you’ve been there for a few hours you felt like did/seen it all. It be tough for me to live in a smaller town/city I like having alot of options.
-Certain places have been just defeated by crime. St. Louis and New Orleans are gems of US cities but became just too fucking ghetto. Last time I was in St Louis at a Cardinals game there was a shooting right outside downtown after it let out. Detroit I got there, there’s sort of a morbid fascination when I drive around. It’s still a cool experience but for different reasons.
-I gotta defend El Paso a little bit, it really is one of most scenic cities in America. Checking out the view from the Franklin Mountain driving sunset or at night and tell me not.
I've been to El Paso a handful of time and have never had a problem. Although, since the Obama and Biden border surges and caravans, I would imagine most cities along the border have worsened TREMENDOUSLY.
Vegas is what I thought it would be. Not a place I really care to go to.
Detroit is a notorious shithole. How anyone from there would be so oblivious to call other places impoverished or drug-ridden is hilariously hypocritical.
Detroit and New Orleans are examples of why federal government subsidies for failed municipalities don't work. This is your tax dollars, being taken from you at gunpoint [threat of criminal prosecution], and given to municipal governments which already mismanaged and embezzled tax dollars from their own citizens, so that those corrupt individuals can continue lining their own pockets and defrauding their citizens.
To be honest, there are a few eastern Pennsylvania cities that suck. They were once centered on coal or steel and they now have no reason to exist as cities. Two that come to mind are Scranton and Reading.
In terms of Connecticut - I agree on Hartford, Bridgeport and New Haven. I agree with Rick as I’ve seen store parking lots with fences and barbed wire around them. That is never a good sign.
Also, Waterbury can throw its hat in the ring with the other CT cities that have been mentioned.
And hotter than balls from May thru September
Being a white American tourist passing through to visit friends, I guess one could make a meager argument that he wasn't entirely wrong. But even his shitty drunk friends seemed confused, and eventually one gently removed the pint from his hand and said "Ian, you're done for the night, mate."
Now? It sounds like it's become Shit-cago. Where even on the Magnificent Mile, you aren't safe.
Don’t get me wrong - it’s still a shit hole no one would want to live.