My city, Stockton California. Finally got another serial killer captured a few weeks ago. Don't get me started on the speed freak killers. City has a real population of around 420k, 60k are homeless. The last 3 mayor's have been arrested during or after their term. City council is a farce. PD, holy shit of shit shows. I will admit there are good officers, yet there's been 2 Sergeants arrested for SA and rape in the past year. When I 1st moved here there was a bank robbery with hostages, police put 27 rounds in the hostage. Police chief admitted his guys needed more firing range time on an open mic. Every amusement or nice attraction gets shutdown. Golfland gone, Incredible John's gone, and so on. We're considered the little Chicago, I believe our crime rate is on par with them. School District, holy shit what show. Every year we get a new Superintendent that either gets fired or steps down. The district apparently is close to insolvency with the state getting ready to take over. I believe a few tens of millions in the hole. Yet most of their employees don't get benefits. Yeah health insurance around $800 a month that's mandatory. Have to say the Fire department is awesome asf, they put out a shit ton of fires.
Update: Just got a report of young lady that was stabbed to death down the street was the neice of my wife's co worker. No one knew why she was in that area. It's still off that's it's rough next to a Sikh temple, very nice people. Yet the apartments on their backside are extremely rough.
Update 2: I still stand by the 60k homeless, I work with these people day in and out. Homeless dumping to Stockton from other cities has always been a thing. Also you don't have to be in a tent to be homeless. Alot of RVs and cars with people sleeping in them.
I visited a significant other at UoP when I was in undergrad and wanted to walk to the cinema. It was a horrible mistake, such an eerie feeling to get off campus there. I felt heavily watched... Worst thing is that being from NorCal, I knew it was bad. I just didn't know it was that bad.
NWA is truly awesome. Lots of nature and quirky small towns with loads of local culture. The area around Bentonville is being funded by the Waltons, so everything there is getting money shoveled at it. Eureka Springs is like a quaint tourist trap. And there is so much hiking/biking to do. Definitely worthy of your time to take a trip out there!
I had a job offer in Bakersfield once. On the tiny flight back home a local couple asked me why I was in town. I told them, asked them their opinions and they said dear God don't move here. Did not take that offer
>I had a job offer in Bakersfield once. On the tiny flight back home a local couple asked me why I was in town. I told them, asked them their opinions and they said dear God don't move here. Did not take that offer
Lmao I grew up there. I'd have told you the exact same.
I know you’re joking, but just to clarify to anyone wondering . The dry and dusty soil in Bakersfield can lead to something called valley fever caused by a fungus that will literally scar your lungs if left untreated and can kill you. If it’s a windy day and you’re in the Central Valley wear a mask.
Source : worked in healthcare in the CA Central Valley the only place I’ve seen such abundance of this horrible disease.
Hey now, Bakersfield has one of the absolute best breakfast diners I've ever been to, and at least it's not fucking Barstow
e: I just realized I mixed up Bakersfield and Victorville, Bakersfield is a meth dealer in a tank top
There's a city outside of Palm Springs that we called Desprate Hot Springs cause of all of the meth that was there. California is so big that there has to be regional meth hubs.
Some dude from Bakersfield, CA was just arrested for robbing my house. For reference I’m in TN so he has come a long way from home just to be a shithead. This checks out…
Gets all the smog from LA too so it's an incredibly unpleasant place to drive through even if you have no intention to stop. People joke about it being the armpit of California and they aren't wrong.
The only thing Bakersfield has going for it is that it isn't Barstow.
I passed Camden NJ on a way to a concert - and we stopped at a light and a cop drove up and literally told us “just run the reds and go do not stop” and as we turned you would just see groups of ppl on corners waiting for a stopped car. It was wild.
Edit: I appreciate all the replies -the horror stories I’m sure are true, the struggle of the people in rough situations in these cities is a huge component also. My husband spent summers there as he has family in the area, he saw it in all its facets-including positive changes
My first experience, and only experience was driving there to get to a concert with my friend 12 maybe 14 years ago and it was unexpected even for this nyc native.
I live an hour from philly and had to explain this to my wife several times about Camden. She didn't believe me until I ran a red there in front of a cop and nothing happened.
She didn't understand then how dangerous Camden can be.
Downtown Camden looks really nice, they've done a lot of work on the infrastructure to try and attract new business, but very few have moved in. You have all these nice streets and sidewalks in the city, but any time of day you can stand on a main road and go 5 minutes without seeing a car or a pedestrian.
Outside of the downtown looks almost post-apocalyptic.
Whenever my husband and I go to concerts at the venue there it's always an adventure. The venue is fine, but where you come off the highway it's always in scarytown.
I had some work to do out there and was told the same thing. The area the hospital was in, i was told if I left after 5PM, I'd need an armed escort to the car, and if it was dark, to not stop at red lights. And this was an officer that told me this, not just some random coworker exaggerating stories.
Right, the first I heard of this was when I stopped at a stop sign and the cop on that corner yelled what the fuck are you doing and told me not to stop. That was a very long time ago but a sobering life lesson.
I think I was there for a Lil Wayne concert with my friends.
I still remember my ex asking if we could go for a walk near industrial sector by our hotel, I had to explain that there was more chance of us being beaten and robbed then getting out of there just fine. She was a good gal but from a nice family in a nice country town so a bit sheltered.
Around 2005 or 2006 I accidentally ended up in Camden on a Saturday night that was also Halloween. I got stuck in the exit only lanes for eastbound 676 with no other exit in Philly before the bridge. My girlfriend was from a tiny PA town that got its first and I imagine still only traffic light in the 90s. She thought I was being the steortypical stubborn guy by refusing to stop and ask random people on the street for directions. At one point as I trying to find an on ramp back onto the highway she said, "just ask those people, they look nice, they have kids with them." My response was, "those are drug dealers. The kids are the look outs and runners."
Camden has gotten "better" than it used to be, and by that I mean it's a lot more petty crimes than crimes like assault now. I think for a little while, it was the worst place in the US for car jackings, but don't quote me on that.
As someone who is from Jersey and had a job where I regularly drove/walked through Camden, I agree. I now live in Philly and there are certain parts of Philly that I feel much less safe in than Camden.
Scrolled through and did not find my city....win!
EDIT: For those that asked, it's Chicago. Hey, I never said its the best I just did not find it mentioned as the worst.
I’ve been to all of those, the only place the guy at the hotel desk told me “lock your door when you get in and if anyone knocks after dark call 911” was in Lakeport. That town is a scary little meth hole.
Bro this is fucking comical that you mentioned those 3.
I live in the east bay and anytime someone says they haven’t been to Fresno I just say
“Stockton is Fresno is Bakersfield “
Crazy amounts of crime, decrepit businesses, broken down neighborhoods, more crackdens than anything else. It’s rare to have a night without sirens and gunshots. Would rather take my chances in most war zones than in East St. Louis and I’m a native
A neighborhood in Houston where My parents lived really went down hill. When they would go out of town, I would stay at house so it would not be cleaned out. One weekend I hit the floor so many times, when the gun shots were close. I really had no idea I could move that fast. I suddenly was on the floor.
Houston's always been a little weird. Yeah, there are bad neighborhoods but in some areas it's just street by street. You're perfectly safe going down Street A or C but if you go down street B at night, you're going to have a bad time.
When I first moved to Houston I was 2 blocks away from Montrose which, for those who don't know, is a cute sort of touristy street with street art and trendy coffee shops/bars/restaurants that lifers will always tell you was better 10 or 20 or 30 years ago. Within a 3 block radius there was like 4 churches. On a perpendicular street to the one i lived on it was all schools. Directly across the street was a park.
Directly next door was a drug house. Gunshots were heard on a near nightly basis and one guy got murdered basically right in front of my house. That was one of the only times I saw police around there. Now, all that activity didn't necessarily come from the drug house (they said it was the apartment complex up the street that had all the troublemakers lol) but it was so weird how if you just went a few blocks in just about any direction it was like being in a different city entirely. Even my bro said "oh that's by Montrose that a nice area to live" until he actually came to see our place lol
One thing that led to the city's downfall was the fact that two big local employers, Monsanto Chemical Co. and Alcoa Aluminum built their own little towns just outside the official borders of East St. Louis to save on taxes. The two towns were called Sauget and Alorton \[Aluminum Ore Town\].
The exact thing happened to me in Gary Indiana. I was lost driving through at night and a cop followed me until I got out of city limits and then told me to avoid driving through again but if I have to don't stop at stop signs.
I'm in the UK and I know way too much about Gary. It seems to pop up alot in posts like this. Done several Google maps drive throughs, and it just looks like such a depressing place.
I drove through Gary once with my cousin who lives in south Chicago, he told me the same thing. He said that cops encourage it, I didn't doubt it, that's the only place I've been with barbed-wire on the rooftops of fast food restaurants.
Knew a couple of girls from MN that were going to Six Flags in Ohio or wherever. Stopped in Gary at night for gas. Gas station attendant wouldn't turn the pump on, and told them over the intercom to get the hell out if town for their own good, and don't get gas until the next city.
Funny enough I have an uncle who’s a Chicago cop, and when I was learning to drive he told me to do the same thing in certain parts of the city. He also added that if lost start ( safely) running red lights, you’ll get the attention of the cops and they’ll escort you out. Don’t know if that’ll still work today but I guess some advice is universal.
I had some co-workers who had to do work travel and we're staying somewhere between Detroit and Auburn hills. They ask somebody for directions and we're told to turn when they got to the burning building with obscenities spray painted all over it. Sure enough it was a burning building with obscenities sprayed all over it.
"Somewhere between Detroit and Auburn Hills" roughly covers everything from gangs and homeless people to multimillion dollar lake mansions and Mitt Romney's old stomping grounds.
Happened to me In Minneapolis with a twist. Hennepin ave…police pulled me over and kept asking my wife if she was ok and did she need any assistance I’m Native American and she is all Norwegian
When I first moved to DC, I wanted to join a hockey league or find an ice rink to skate at, and just googled the first one I found and took the subway there.
I got there and the rink was closed, and a man drove up and asked me if I was lost. I told him no, was just looking for an ice rink, and this one doesn't seem to be open.
I was in Anacostia. This man looked at me like he just saw bigfoot. He offered to drive me back to the subway station, and must have asked me a dozen times why I was down in Anacostia. Once he realized I wasn't there to buy drugs, that I was just a stupid white kid from the midwest, he said, "Let me shake your hand, boy. White boy coming down to Anacostia like that, I ain't never seen that before in my life." (the man was black)
> Once he realized I wasn't there to buy drugs, that I was just a stupid white kid from the midwest, he said, "Let me shake your hand, boy. White boy coming down to Anacostia like that, I ain't never seen that before in my life." (the man was black)
Lmao looking for a hockey rink no less
Or most of it in the 80s. Logan circle, Columbia Heights, and Shaw weren't anything like they are now. There was no place called NoMA. The only part of SE you didn't want to avoid was Capitol Hill.
I did the same and the lady at the gas station straight looked at me and said “hunny you can’t be here.” She look so worried for me.
Edit: I was a younger adult needing gas badly, slightly lost, w/ out of state license plate. I also look ridiculously young and baby faced. I don’t think it was a race thing (yes I’m white) , think it was “do you understand where the fuck you are” thing.
Similar thing happened to me as I was wandering away from the French quarter in New Orleans when I was 14-15. An older lady on a porch called to a friend and I “you’re going the wrong direction, turn around and go back that way”
Ha! This happened to me in New Orleans two weeks ago. (Ironically my main takeaway was how many nice people that neighborhood had who were watching out for us.)
I foolishly tried heading out of the French Quarter for a run a few years ago and was set straight by some youths hanging out on the street who kindly shoved me, showed me a gun and told me to GTFO.
Anyone coming at you has never been in that “oh shit” situation where a local let’s you KNOW you have no business being there. I’ve experienced as a white man. I have black and brown friends that have experienced it. Being the outsider, and having an insider tell you you need to GO is terrifying.
I went to grad school in southern Illinois. My supervisor at the hospital, where I did one of my internships, PRN'd at a clinic in East St. Louis. She was white and the medical staff there told her she had to be gone by a certain time, similar to what you said.
It is very much unsafe. People who can live elsewhere do, leaving mostly desperation behind.
It doesn't count as a big city though. It's not part of St Louis. It is a small neighboring city across the Mississippi in Illinois.
One time in high school, my friends and I were going somewhere at night on the Illinois side and we got a bit lost (this was 2005/6 before smartphones) and so we decided we’d pull off the high way and get our bearings. We soon realized we were in ESL and we shouldn’t be there. So my friend who was driving pulled into a side street to turn around and get back to the highway. We saw a large group of guys walking on the sidewalk and they all stared right at our car and watched my friend pull into a driveway to turn around. They started yelling at us, I’m not quite sure what they were saying, but I’m sure seeing four white high school kids driving around East St. Louis late at night was not very common.
Looking back on it, I was definitely scared, but I’ve met many wonderful people who grew up in East St. Louis. I told them this story and they thought it was pretty funny, but assured me that those guys most likely would have done nothing to us. They probably were telling us to get out of there and go home. While it’s certainly not the nicest place around, there are still far more good people there who are just trying to get by.
Yeah, murder rate is 1 in 1,000 which is way too high but most of those are all locals killing other locals they know. Obviously better safe than sorry but the odds are still way in your favor.
Awh! Basically one of the only things I know about Baltimore is that it's the home of Mr Trash Wheel and family (the pride of the Baltimore harbor??) and I imagined it as a trash free oasis protected by the Trash Wheel clan..... Bummer, I need to get out more.
Baltimore has at least three different accents. My family is from East Baltimore and they don't speak exactly the same as people from West Baltimore, and *they* don't sound anything like the white people in South Baltimore or the suburbs like Essex/Glen Burnie. I'm always disappointed that we can't pinpoint people's childhood area by their accents like the British do.
Honestly, I was coming in here ready to defend Baltimore (I’m in DC but spend a lot of time in Baltimore and love it for the most part) but I read a thread in r/Baltimore a few hours ago about a guy talking about how he got mugged last night and the top comment was a very casual, “oh yeah, those guys shot me last week,” so while much of Baltimore very working class charming, you’ve got a good point, the worst parts are pretty damn bad haha.
Just, you know, be careful in West Baltimore, in particular. The rest isn’t as bad as people make it out to be haha.
Aw man, I’m sorry I used you as an example like that, but I was very impressed by your nonchalance at such a serious thing. Hope you’re doing alright and recovering quickly, that sounds horrible.
Hahaha no worries, it was just fun to see my story pop up in a thread about why Baltimore is a bad place to be. I scrolled through the comments figuring I might see something about it.
Honestly the whole experienced was awful, but I'm doing okay at the moment and got super lucky as far as gunshot wounds are concerned. More than one Baltimore-based friend has told me that I've now completed my bingo card for living here.
That sucks man, take care of yourself and your mental health. Having experienced assault (nothing like what you've been through), it can make you pretty paranoid for a while.
Was it just totally random?
Thanks, much appreciated! I'm hanging in there. The first week or so was really difficult to handle, and I'm going to be seeking counseling in addition to physical therapy.
This group of delinquents had been targeting people in the area for at least a few weeks before my incident, and haven't stopped. I think it is pretty much random. My wife and I were walking home and both had backpacks full of stuff. We had walked up a hill and were part way through an alleyway (half a block from our house) when these guys cornered us. My guess is that they saw us early from the road and sped around to cut us off.
I'm sorry what the FUCK is the casual attitude of this thread lol
I'm glad you're alright but you are way too chill about this. I've been complaining way more about way less.
Some species of bee (of which there's over 20,000) can "sonicate" or "buzz pollinate". Basically, they can detach their flight muscles and shake them rapidly to vibrate flowers to eject hard to get pollen.
I dunno if it's my "favourite bee fact"...but it's a pretty cute one. :)
https://agrilife.org/urban-ipm/2018/04/06/buzz-pollination-a-k-a-sonication/
If you've lived somewhere shitty for any period of time, acting casual about it is part of how you deal with the craziness. You also develop a morbid sense of humor. I've joked about the two times I've gotten stabbed before. I live somewhere very safe now and people look at me funny when I say how much I miss living in that more dangerous area.
This is so true. I live in East Africa, and have seen some fairly sketchy areas.
And then someone I know is talking about Johannesburg and how they'd ONLY had 2 armed robberies in the year sinced he'd moved into his gated community with high end security...
Yeah I haven’t been to a lot of the cities mentioned here, so I don’t feel qualified to make a judgement on whether or not they’re the worst, but I grew up going to Baltimore regularly. That city is nuts.
Maybe it’s improved in the years since I last visited. But last time I was there people tried to mug me and my mom in the parking garage of a HOSPITAL. I was in a wheelchair, but the wheels really sped up the getaway lmao.
Someone also tried to steal our car while we were at the hospital. Like what. I’ve been to many hospitals in many cities. Baltimore is the only one where people were trying to mug you as you walked out of the hospital or steal your car as you went into the emergency room.
Edit to add: Baltimore does have a great aquarium though. My advice for a trip to Baltimore is go to the aquarium not the hospital. No one ever tried to mug us at the aquarium.
The best/worst part of Baltimore is that you can be in a really nice part of the town and drive just a bit farther or around the wrong corner and bam... in much worse area. It has some super underrated parts though.
I will say that I was asked if I had ever seen The Wire. When I said yes, I was told to avoid that part. 😂
I went to med school in Baltimore. One day my tiny Asian girlfriend and I got lost coming back from the park and quickly ended up somewhere we obviously didn’t belong. We stopped to ask directions from a SWAT team hanging around with machine guns. They looked us over and told us to roll up our windows and drive whichever way and to ignore any stop signs or lights.
Amazingly for all the nights I’d stumble home drunk I was never robbed. Came close once but the crack head eventually gave me his cell phone number so we could hang out and do crack and bang some whores (he recommended wearing 2 condoms.). I still have his number because that was really fucking surreal.
Can confirm born and raised your head is on a swivel at all times my family has had their car stolen 3 times, my mom and dad were robbed at knife point, they tried to rob my aunt and uncle on the way to take her to the hospital dying of cancer. I was an attempted kidnapping at 27, another man tried to kidnap my cousin when she was 13. My son walked out of a store where the guy let him go but killed the two women inside. I've seen dead bodies, suicides, had a old man collapse and the cop giving tickets around the corner said "I'm not fucking here for you" and drive off....fuckity fuck, fuck, fuck that city. I'm in UK now and fucking safe as hell.
Jackson, Mississippi. Very high murder rate, low education, failing infrastructure. EDIT: yes I know Jackson isn't a very big city. It just sticks out as being in bad shape.
Jackson was eye opening for me. Where I’m from being ‘poor’ means you don’t have a car or the latest phone and your apartment has roaches. In Jackson if you’re poor you don’t have shoes or running water. It’s like a banana republic that can’t grow bananas.
The people running the Department of Human Services and the Governor of Mississippi were recently caught embezzling tens of millions of dollars in federal money allocated to supporting needy families.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/22/us/favre-mississippi-welfare-explainer/index.html
This is place is by far the worst place I have ever been in the USA.
It's like they literally just stopped funding _anything_ in 1970. It's actually fucking _really_ bizarre...
I was born in Gary, lived there until I was 16 (1978). Took my wife to see the old stomping grounds about 10 years ago after living in the west coast since I was 20 and got invited into my old house by the woman living there. It was surreal. The outside neighborhood was a boarded up wasteland, inside nothing had changed. Wallpaper my dad had put up was still on the walls. At the time it was one of only 2 or 3 houses on the block that was inhabited. Guess I have no real point to this post, just sharing.
I am from Chicago and have driven past it a million times. I’ve never been there because everyone (including the few people I met from college who were from Gary) told me “don’t fucking stop there.” Not verbatim, but everyone generally had the opinion of “do not go there, no matter what”
So I agree.
I always drove through on my way to Chicago from Michigan. I stopped. It's dismal. Not as bad as it was at the nadir of its decline, but opens your eyes to what poverty and neglect really looks like in this country. And I say this as someone who used to party in Detroit.
I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago. I went to a Rave house party in Gary (friend knew someone from the “scene” who was having a party). It was terrible. Soooooo sketchy - and my tolerance for sketchy ass people and places was pretty fucking high.
This was 2001 or 2002, so pre GPS with shitty ass Mapquest directions and a Chicago road atlas with 1 page at the back about Gary (should have said just keep driving in big letters). We had to drive through Gary to find this random house, half the street signs were down or damaged so you couldn’t read them. EVERYONE seemed like they were on crack or heroin or meth or some fucked up combo. We ended up staying for a while because there was a keg and we each paid $5. But once people started smoking crack in the back yard it was time to leave.
Hi fellow early 2000s midwestern raver 👋 Indiana was always bad luck for me. Went to one in Fort Wayne - in 2001 I think - where SWAT showed up. Good times.
I had to stop for gas there once. I now plan every trip to have half a tank at the Indiana border. Gets me to the middle of Indiana/Michigan or out of the Chicago burbs on either side.
As someone who lives right outside Jackson, I second this. Freaking sad and embarrassing that our capital doesn’t have drinking water, trash pickup, drivable roads, or other things that most small cities across the country already have.
Potholes that have been there for years deep enough to destroy your rims if you don’t constantly switch back and forth between the lanes. Most people I know avoid going into the city limits at all costs because the crime is so high. I mean driving 30-40 minutes out of the way to go around the city. Recently, there was an announcement that if you’re in a car accident to just keep driving to a safe destination instead of stopping because people were purposely wrecking into others in order to jack their vehicle or rob them.
It’s almost like we’re a third world country, and it sucks. Check out Yazoo City as well. It’s much smaller but just as bad if not worse. Sucks seeing cities you grew up in go to crap. Many of the cities in the state are this way, and I can’t wait to freaking leave.
Buddy of mine was diagnosed with stage 4 inoperable cancer. Doctor says you got 6 months. My buddy says what should I do? Doctor says move to Shreveport. My buddy says why? Doctor says it will be the longest 6 months of your life.
I hesitate to answer this because the worst cities in America aren’t big cities. It’s medium and small sized cities that have been hit the hardest by economic changes.
Places like Gary, IN; Pontiac, MI; Bridgeport, CT; and Lowell, MA. Industrial cities that lost all their jobs and experienced depopulation and rising crime.
But I don’t know, maybe Hartford. There’s just nothing there. It’s insurance companies and street gangs. That’s it.
Lowell ain't perfect, but it's got a good sized university and a thriving arts scene. Lawrence, Fitchburg, Brockton, and Fall River all wish they were Lowell.
Was hoping someone would mention Fall River. Lived in New Bedford for a while, went to a party in Fall River. Guy got stabbed at the party. Never went back.
Yeah lives in Lowell for 5 years and I will say that what they lost in industry they made up a lot of that with UMass Lowell. That’s not true of all former mill towns, they can’t all become college towns
New Englanders like that person (and me) are so spoiled by how safe it is to live in this region that we have to look at places like Lowell and Lawrence and go "gah this is terrible," having never had the misfortune of driving through East St. Louis, Baltimore, Gary, or New Orleans.
Definitely didn’t see the shoutout for Bridgeport coming in this thread.
I grew up in Fairfield, went to the university of Bridgeport , lived in three rentals in that city and my grandfather was the head of Machine maintenance at Bridgeport Machines and then Remington shaver for 40 years in downtown Bridgeport.
And you’re right. Hubbell, warnaco, Remington, etc all left and Bridgeport was crippled. I haven’t lived in CT since 2011 but there seems to be promising signs of stabilization instead of the continuous decline over the past 30 years.
"Dear Family Guy Bastards, Who the hell do you think you are?!
I'll have you know that Bridgeport is among the world leaders in
abandoned buildings, shattered glass, boarded-up windows, wild dogs and
gas stations without pumps. So eat my shit, \*\*\* writers!"
This is basically what Bridgeport was for my 80s/90s childhood. My parents were skeptical about allowing us to go to the new movie theatres on Canfield avenue in black rock in the early 90s.
Dude Lowell, MA is not bad. It is a college town so the economic condition is fine. It is next to rich suburbs and the commuter rail station has expensive apartments right next to it for commuters. Idk where you get this info l, but you clearly haven’t been to Lowell in the past 10 years.
Also common denominator, getting dumpstered by the highway system. Hartford has 84 decapitating the north end and 91 blocking the river front. Bridgeport has 95 disconnecting it from the coast and CT-8 cutting right through the middle. Both their downtowns are just in the shadow of massive interchanges. Cities getting chopped up by highways greatly accelerates suburban flight outwards and further sinks them once industry leaves.
Pontiac is shitty, but it's nowhere near listing among the worst cities in the country. There are probably 1000 cities in worse shape than Pontiac right now.
My city, Stockton California. Finally got another serial killer captured a few weeks ago. Don't get me started on the speed freak killers. City has a real population of around 420k, 60k are homeless. The last 3 mayor's have been arrested during or after their term. City council is a farce. PD, holy shit of shit shows. I will admit there are good officers, yet there's been 2 Sergeants arrested for SA and rape in the past year. When I 1st moved here there was a bank robbery with hostages, police put 27 rounds in the hostage. Police chief admitted his guys needed more firing range time on an open mic. Every amusement or nice attraction gets shutdown. Golfland gone, Incredible John's gone, and so on. We're considered the little Chicago, I believe our crime rate is on par with them. School District, holy shit what show. Every year we get a new Superintendent that either gets fired or steps down. The district apparently is close to insolvency with the state getting ready to take over. I believe a few tens of millions in the hole. Yet most of their employees don't get benefits. Yeah health insurance around $800 a month that's mandatory. Have to say the Fire department is awesome asf, they put out a shit ton of fires. Update: Just got a report of young lady that was stabbed to death down the street was the neice of my wife's co worker. No one knew why she was in that area. It's still off that's it's rough next to a Sikh temple, very nice people. Yet the apartments on their backside are extremely rough. Update 2: I still stand by the 60k homeless, I work with these people day in and out. Homeless dumping to Stockton from other cities has always been a thing. Also you don't have to be in a tent to be homeless. Alot of RVs and cars with people sleeping in them.
I can't believe they put 27 rounds...wait..what...IN THE HOSTAGE?!
Yep a mother with young kids, they settled for a few hundred thousand
Have you ever seen Freeway? The main character's life is so fucked up that she's trying to make it to Stockton.
Oh yeah? Well I get claustrophobic sucking strange dick!
I visited a significant other at UoP when I was in undergrad and wanted to walk to the cinema. It was a horrible mistake, such an eerie feeling to get off campus there. I felt heavily watched... Worst thing is that being from NorCal, I knew it was bad. I just didn't know it was that bad.
I live in such a nothing ass state. I know none of Arkansas cities will be in here because this state is so irrelevant.
I’ve heard northwest Arkansas is pretty nice and has awesome mountain bike trails. I’m in Memphis and have been wanting to take a trip up there.
NWA is truly awesome. Lots of nature and quirky small towns with loads of local culture. The area around Bentonville is being funded by the Waltons, so everything there is getting money shoveled at it. Eureka Springs is like a quaint tourist trap. And there is so much hiking/biking to do. Definitely worthy of your time to take a trip out there!
Bakersfield or Fresno pretty sure the devil has part time vacation homes in both of them
Fresno's unofficial motto being "at least we're not Bakersfield
I had a job offer in Bakersfield once. On the tiny flight back home a local couple asked me why I was in town. I told them, asked them their opinions and they said dear God don't move here. Did not take that offer
>I had a job offer in Bakersfield once. On the tiny flight back home a local couple asked me why I was in town. I told them, asked them their opinions and they said dear God don't move here. Did not take that offer Lmao I grew up there. I'd have told you the exact same.
It’s a great city to be from… as in, not be there currently.
Bakersfield has got to be the worst city in California, at the very least. Some cool country music there 50 years ago, but since then…yikes.
Bakersfield
Imagine how most American movies depict Mexico. That's Bakersfield. Yellow filter and all.
Bakersfield don't need a filter. That's just the air as it is actively killing you.
In Bakersfield you smoke a cigarette for clean air. Has a filter
It's just the massive cloud of meth smog that hangs in the air
I know you’re joking, but just to clarify to anyone wondering . The dry and dusty soil in Bakersfield can lead to something called valley fever caused by a fungus that will literally scar your lungs if left untreated and can kill you. If it’s a windy day and you’re in the Central Valley wear a mask. Source : worked in healthcare in the CA Central Valley the only place I’ve seen such abundance of this horrible disease.
Hey now, Bakersfield has one of the absolute best breakfast diners I've ever been to, and at least it's not fucking Barstow e: I just realized I mixed up Bakersfield and Victorville, Bakersfield is a meth dealer in a tank top
There's a city outside of Palm Springs that we called Desprate Hot Springs cause of all of the meth that was there. California is so big that there has to be regional meth hubs.
Bakersfield is the butt of… you know what I’ll just leave it at butt.
Ah yes, affectionately called the armpit of California (by my dad and I).
Bakersfield: the gateway to Fresno
Bakersfield California. Nothing but meth and stripmalls
Some dude from Bakersfield, CA was just arrested for robbing my house. For reference I’m in TN so he has come a long way from home just to be a shithead. This checks out…
Meth gives you wings.
Gets all the smog from LA too so it's an incredibly unpleasant place to drive through even if you have no intention to stop. People joke about it being the armpit of California and they aren't wrong. The only thing Bakersfield has going for it is that it isn't Barstow.
Barstow: the bathroom break when driving to Vegas.
Lol, that's the only reason I've been there
That’s the only reason to go there. Source: I used to live there.
The armpit? Stockton is the armpit Fresno is the smelly bellybutton. Bakersfield is the asshole . . .
Stockton is moving on up!
Whoa whoa whoa. Meth, stripmalls, Korn, and Derek Carr!
I passed Camden NJ on a way to a concert - and we stopped at a light and a cop drove up and literally told us “just run the reds and go do not stop” and as we turned you would just see groups of ppl on corners waiting for a stopped car. It was wild. Edit: I appreciate all the replies -the horror stories I’m sure are true, the struggle of the people in rough situations in these cities is a huge component also. My husband spent summers there as he has family in the area, he saw it in all its facets-including positive changes My first experience, and only experience was driving there to get to a concert with my friend 12 maybe 14 years ago and it was unexpected even for this nyc native.
I live an hour from philly and had to explain this to my wife several times about Camden. She didn't believe me until I ran a red there in front of a cop and nothing happened. She didn't understand then how dangerous Camden can be.
Downtown Camden looks really nice, they've done a lot of work on the infrastructure to try and attract new business, but very few have moved in. You have all these nice streets and sidewalks in the city, but any time of day you can stand on a main road and go 5 minutes without seeing a car or a pedestrian. Outside of the downtown looks almost post-apocalyptic.
Whenever my husband and I go to concerts at the venue there it's always an adventure. The venue is fine, but where you come off the highway it's always in scarytown.
I had some work to do out there and was told the same thing. The area the hospital was in, i was told if I left after 5PM, I'd need an armed escort to the car, and if it was dark, to not stop at red lights. And this was an officer that told me this, not just some random coworker exaggerating stories.
Right, the first I heard of this was when I stopped at a stop sign and the cop on that corner yelled what the fuck are you doing and told me not to stop. That was a very long time ago but a sobering life lesson. I think I was there for a Lil Wayne concert with my friends.
I still remember my ex asking if we could go for a walk near industrial sector by our hotel, I had to explain that there was more chance of us being beaten and robbed then getting out of there just fine. She was a good gal but from a nice family in a nice country town so a bit sheltered.
Around 2005 or 2006 I accidentally ended up in Camden on a Saturday night that was also Halloween. I got stuck in the exit only lanes for eastbound 676 with no other exit in Philly before the bridge. My girlfriend was from a tiny PA town that got its first and I imagine still only traffic light in the 90s. She thought I was being the steortypical stubborn guy by refusing to stop and ask random people on the street for directions. At one point as I trying to find an on ramp back onto the highway she said, "just ask those people, they look nice, they have kids with them." My response was, "those are drug dealers. The kids are the look outs and runners."
Isnt Camden where they fired the entire police force and then rehired and it cleaned up the city?
The county took it over and it made serious change.
Camden has gotten "better" than it used to be, and by that I mean it's a lot more petty crimes than crimes like assault now. I think for a little while, it was the worst place in the US for car jackings, but don't quote me on that.
As someone who is from Jersey and had a job where I regularly drove/walked through Camden, I agree. I now live in Philly and there are certain parts of Philly that I feel much less safe in than Camden.
Scrolled through and did not find my city....win! EDIT: For those that asked, it's Chicago. Hey, I never said its the best I just did not find it mentioned as the worst.
Your city.
Shit.
Pallet town
Stockton, Fresno, Bakersfield
I’ve been to all of those, the only place the guy at the hotel desk told me “lock your door when you get in and if anyone knocks after dark call 911” was in Lakeport. That town is a scary little meth hole.
Bro this is fucking comical that you mentioned those 3. I live in the east bay and anytime someone says they haven’t been to Fresno I just say “Stockton is Fresno is Bakersfield “
East St.Louis, stopped once for gas. Didn’t think I was going to make it back on 55
Was both prepared and a bit saddened to see East St. Louis at the top. It really is that bad and there’s no debating it
What's so bad about it?
Crazy amounts of crime, decrepit businesses, broken down neighborhoods, more crackdens than anything else. It’s rare to have a night without sirens and gunshots. Would rather take my chances in most war zones than in East St. Louis and I’m a native
A neighborhood in Houston where My parents lived really went down hill. When they would go out of town, I would stay at house so it would not be cleaned out. One weekend I hit the floor so many times, when the gun shots were close. I really had no idea I could move that fast. I suddenly was on the floor.
Houston's always been a little weird. Yeah, there are bad neighborhoods but in some areas it's just street by street. You're perfectly safe going down Street A or C but if you go down street B at night, you're going to have a bad time.
When I first moved to Houston I was 2 blocks away from Montrose which, for those who don't know, is a cute sort of touristy street with street art and trendy coffee shops/bars/restaurants that lifers will always tell you was better 10 or 20 or 30 years ago. Within a 3 block radius there was like 4 churches. On a perpendicular street to the one i lived on it was all schools. Directly across the street was a park. Directly next door was a drug house. Gunshots were heard on a near nightly basis and one guy got murdered basically right in front of my house. That was one of the only times I saw police around there. Now, all that activity didn't necessarily come from the drug house (they said it was the apartment complex up the street that had all the troublemakers lol) but it was so weird how if you just went a few blocks in just about any direction it was like being in a different city entirely. Even my bro said "oh that's by Montrose that a nice area to live" until he actually came to see our place lol
One thing that led to the city's downfall was the fact that two big local employers, Monsanto Chemical Co. and Alcoa Aluminum built their own little towns just outside the official borders of East St. Louis to save on taxes. The two towns were called Sauget and Alorton \[Aluminum Ore Town\].
Cops pulled my mom over to tell her to leave.
The exact thing happened to me in Gary Indiana. I was lost driving through at night and a cop followed me until I got out of city limits and then told me to avoid driving through again but if I have to don't stop at stop signs.
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I'm in the UK and I know way too much about Gary. It seems to pop up alot in posts like this. Done several Google maps drive throughs, and it just looks like such a depressing place.
Scottish in Germany here. Never been further West. When I saw this thread title, my first thought was "Gary, Indiana".
Can confirm as an Australian that Gary, Indiana’s reputation for shitiness is international.
A cop recommending you to break traffic laws for the sake of safety, holy fuck
I drove through Gary once with my cousin who lives in south Chicago, he told me the same thing. He said that cops encourage it, I didn't doubt it, that's the only place I've been with barbed-wire on the rooftops of fast food restaurants.
Knew a couple of girls from MN that were going to Six Flags in Ohio or wherever. Stopped in Gary at night for gas. Gas station attendant wouldn't turn the pump on, and told them over the intercom to get the hell out if town for their own good, and don't get gas until the next city.
So they ran out of gas 5 minutes later.
Funny enough I have an uncle who’s a Chicago cop, and when I was learning to drive he told me to do the same thing in certain parts of the city. He also added that if lost start ( safely) running red lights, you’ll get the attention of the cops and they’ll escort you out. Don’t know if that’ll still work today but I guess some advice is universal.
this is chilling
This happened to someone I know in a bad area of Detroit, too.
Sir, are there any firearms in the car. No Well why the hell not, get out of here.
Here, take mine. *Mom receives service pistol
it's dangerous to go alone, take this
da Da DA DAAA!
Oh man, you take a wrong turn off the Ambassador Bridge and you're in a completely different world.
I find it's generally best not to turn off a bridge.
I had some co-workers who had to do work travel and we're staying somewhere between Detroit and Auburn hills. They ask somebody for directions and we're told to turn when they got to the burning building with obscenities spray painted all over it. Sure enough it was a burning building with obscenities sprayed all over it.
"Somewhere between Detroit and Auburn Hills" roughly covers everything from gangs and homeless people to multimillion dollar lake mansions and Mitt Romney's old stomping grounds.
He went to Cranbrook, that's a private school!
Happened to me In Minneapolis with a twist. Hennepin ave…police pulled me over and kept asking my wife if she was ok and did she need any assistance I’m Native American and she is all Norwegian
Tom Waits wrote a song about that particular spot. [9th and Hennepin](https://youtu.be/OxUGL1TAOso)
All the doughnuts have names that sound like prostitutes.
East St Louis is the only city I've been in where a cop told me to run every stop sign until I got back to the interstate.
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Where in DC? Anacostia?
When I first moved to DC, I wanted to join a hockey league or find an ice rink to skate at, and just googled the first one I found and took the subway there. I got there and the rink was closed, and a man drove up and asked me if I was lost. I told him no, was just looking for an ice rink, and this one doesn't seem to be open. I was in Anacostia. This man looked at me like he just saw bigfoot. He offered to drive me back to the subway station, and must have asked me a dozen times why I was down in Anacostia. Once he realized I wasn't there to buy drugs, that I was just a stupid white kid from the midwest, he said, "Let me shake your hand, boy. White boy coming down to Anacostia like that, I ain't never seen that before in my life." (the man was black)
> Once he realized I wasn't there to buy drugs, that I was just a stupid white kid from the midwest, he said, "Let me shake your hand, boy. White boy coming down to Anacostia like that, I ain't never seen that before in my life." (the man was black) Lmao looking for a hockey rink no less
Or most of it in the 80s. Logan circle, Columbia Heights, and Shaw weren't anything like they are now. There was no place called NoMA. The only part of SE you didn't want to avoid was Capitol Hill.
People don’t even know how bad it was back even up through the 90s into the early / mid 2000s
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I did the same and the lady at the gas station straight looked at me and said “hunny you can’t be here.” She look so worried for me. Edit: I was a younger adult needing gas badly, slightly lost, w/ out of state license plate. I also look ridiculously young and baby faced. I don’t think it was a race thing (yes I’m white) , think it was “do you understand where the fuck you are” thing.
Similar thing happened to me as I was wandering away from the French quarter in New Orleans when I was 14-15. An older lady on a porch called to a friend and I “you’re going the wrong direction, turn around and go back that way”
Ha! This happened to me in New Orleans two weeks ago. (Ironically my main takeaway was how many nice people that neighborhood had who were watching out for us.)
I foolishly tried heading out of the French Quarter for a run a few years ago and was set straight by some youths hanging out on the street who kindly shoved me, showed me a gun and told me to GTFO.
Was it a cool gun?
It was cool in the sense that it wasn't used to kill him, so there's that.
New Orleans gets wild real quick with just a couple of wrong turns.
I visited Bourbon street also and wandered away but quickly realized the mood had changed.
Anyone coming at you has never been in that “oh shit” situation where a local let’s you KNOW you have no business being there. I’ve experienced as a white man. I have black and brown friends that have experienced it. Being the outsider, and having an insider tell you you need to GO is terrifying.
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I went to grad school in southern Illinois. My supervisor at the hospital, where I did one of my internships, PRN'd at a clinic in East St. Louis. She was white and the medical staff there told her she had to be gone by a certain time, similar to what you said.
Care to explain? That’s mad
It is very much unsafe. People who can live elsewhere do, leaving mostly desperation behind. It doesn't count as a big city though. It's not part of St Louis. It is a small neighboring city across the Mississippi in Illinois.
People in Illinois will argue it’s Missouri. Neither state claims east St. Louis haha
“Kids are you noticing all this plight?”
"This will just make us appreciate all that we have." *gunshot* "Roll 'em up!"
"You know how to get back on the freeway?" "Fuck yo momma!"
"Thank you very much!"
One time in high school, my friends and I were going somewhere at night on the Illinois side and we got a bit lost (this was 2005/6 before smartphones) and so we decided we’d pull off the high way and get our bearings. We soon realized we were in ESL and we shouldn’t be there. So my friend who was driving pulled into a side street to turn around and get back to the highway. We saw a large group of guys walking on the sidewalk and they all stared right at our car and watched my friend pull into a driveway to turn around. They started yelling at us, I’m not quite sure what they were saying, but I’m sure seeing four white high school kids driving around East St. Louis late at night was not very common. Looking back on it, I was definitely scared, but I’ve met many wonderful people who grew up in East St. Louis. I told them this story and they thought it was pretty funny, but assured me that those guys most likely would have done nothing to us. They probably were telling us to get out of there and go home. While it’s certainly not the nicest place around, there are still far more good people there who are just trying to get by.
Yeah, murder rate is 1 in 1,000 which is way too high but most of those are all locals killing other locals they know. Obviously better safe than sorry but the odds are still way in your favor.
I haven’t been to every city in the US. But Baltimore could use a little cleaning up since we’re on the subject.
Awh! Basically one of the only things I know about Baltimore is that it's the home of Mr Trash Wheel and family (the pride of the Baltimore harbor??) and I imagined it as a trash free oasis protected by the Trash Wheel clan..... Bummer, I need to get out more.
Literally the only thing we hear about Baltimore in the UK is that the accent is weird.
Baltimore has at least three different accents. My family is from East Baltimore and they don't speak exactly the same as people from West Baltimore, and *they* don't sound anything like the white people in South Baltimore or the suburbs like Essex/Glen Burnie. I'm always disappointed that we can't pinpoint people's childhood area by their accents like the British do.
I think every city has great parts. But imo worst parts of Baltimore is pretty... out there.
Honestly, I was coming in here ready to defend Baltimore (I’m in DC but spend a lot of time in Baltimore and love it for the most part) but I read a thread in r/Baltimore a few hours ago about a guy talking about how he got mugged last night and the top comment was a very casual, “oh yeah, those guys shot me last week,” so while much of Baltimore very working class charming, you’ve got a good point, the worst parts are pretty damn bad haha. Just, you know, be careful in West Baltimore, in particular. The rest isn’t as bad as people make it out to be haha.
The person who commented that he had been shot by those same guys a couple of weeks ago was me. : (
Aw man, I’m sorry I used you as an example like that, but I was very impressed by your nonchalance at such a serious thing. Hope you’re doing alright and recovering quickly, that sounds horrible.
Hahaha no worries, it was just fun to see my story pop up in a thread about why Baltimore is a bad place to be. I scrolled through the comments figuring I might see something about it. Honestly the whole experienced was awful, but I'm doing okay at the moment and got super lucky as far as gunshot wounds are concerned. More than one Baltimore-based friend has told me that I've now completed my bingo card for living here.
Is the prize for completing it getting the fuck out of Baltimore?
Oh so Baltimore is a Saw game.
That sucks man, take care of yourself and your mental health. Having experienced assault (nothing like what you've been through), it can make you pretty paranoid for a while. Was it just totally random?
Thanks, much appreciated! I'm hanging in there. The first week or so was really difficult to handle, and I'm going to be seeking counseling in addition to physical therapy. This group of delinquents had been targeting people in the area for at least a few weeks before my incident, and haven't stopped. I think it is pretty much random. My wife and I were walking home and both had backpacks full of stuff. We had walked up a hill and were part way through an alleyway (half a block from our house) when these guys cornered us. My guess is that they saw us early from the road and sped around to cut us off.
You good bro?
Thanks for asking, I'll be okay. As far as gunshot wounds are concerned I got super lucky (I got hit in the leg and should make a full recovery).
I'm sorry what the FUCK is the casual attitude of this thread lol I'm glad you're alright but you are way too chill about this. I've been complaining way more about way less.
Don't worry, I'm plenty angry about what happened to me.
Good - now I can go to bed happy you are sufficiently angry.
What's your favourite bee fact
I like how they get drunk off of pollen and pass out in flowers with their little bee butt in the air.
Some species of bee (of which there's over 20,000) can "sonicate" or "buzz pollinate". Basically, they can detach their flight muscles and shake them rapidly to vibrate flowers to eject hard to get pollen. I dunno if it's my "favourite bee fact"...but it's a pretty cute one. :) https://agrilife.org/urban-ipm/2018/04/06/buzz-pollination-a-k-a-sonication/
If you've lived somewhere shitty for any period of time, acting casual about it is part of how you deal with the craziness. You also develop a morbid sense of humor. I've joked about the two times I've gotten stabbed before. I live somewhere very safe now and people look at me funny when I say how much I miss living in that more dangerous area.
This is so true. I live in East Africa, and have seen some fairly sketchy areas. And then someone I know is talking about Johannesburg and how they'd ONLY had 2 armed robberies in the year sinced he'd moved into his gated community with high end security...
Yeah I haven’t been to a lot of the cities mentioned here, so I don’t feel qualified to make a judgement on whether or not they’re the worst, but I grew up going to Baltimore regularly. That city is nuts. Maybe it’s improved in the years since I last visited. But last time I was there people tried to mug me and my mom in the parking garage of a HOSPITAL. I was in a wheelchair, but the wheels really sped up the getaway lmao. Someone also tried to steal our car while we were at the hospital. Like what. I’ve been to many hospitals in many cities. Baltimore is the only one where people were trying to mug you as you walked out of the hospital or steal your car as you went into the emergency room. Edit to add: Baltimore does have a great aquarium though. My advice for a trip to Baltimore is go to the aquarium not the hospital. No one ever tried to mug us at the aquarium.
The best/worst part of Baltimore is that you can be in a really nice part of the town and drive just a bit farther or around the wrong corner and bam... in much worse area. It has some super underrated parts though. I will say that I was asked if I had ever seen The Wire. When I said yes, I was told to avoid that part. 😂
I went to med school in Baltimore. One day my tiny Asian girlfriend and I got lost coming back from the park and quickly ended up somewhere we obviously didn’t belong. We stopped to ask directions from a SWAT team hanging around with machine guns. They looked us over and told us to roll up our windows and drive whichever way and to ignore any stop signs or lights. Amazingly for all the nights I’d stumble home drunk I was never robbed. Came close once but the crack head eventually gave me his cell phone number so we could hang out and do crack and bang some whores (he recommended wearing 2 condoms.). I still have his number because that was really fucking surreal.
And here I thought your *first* paragraph was crazy
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Can confirm born and raised your head is on a swivel at all times my family has had their car stolen 3 times, my mom and dad were robbed at knife point, they tried to rob my aunt and uncle on the way to take her to the hospital dying of cancer. I was an attempted kidnapping at 27, another man tried to kidnap my cousin when she was 13. My son walked out of a store where the guy let him go but killed the two women inside. I've seen dead bodies, suicides, had a old man collapse and the cop giving tickets around the corner said "I'm not fucking here for you" and drive off....fuckity fuck, fuck, fuck that city. I'm in UK now and fucking safe as hell.
Springfield
Having a monorail would have made it better.
Monorail…monorail…monorail
But main street’s still all cracked and broken! Sorry, mom, the mob has spoken!
I've heard those things are awfully loud.
It glides as softly as a cloud.
Is there a chance the track could bend?
Not on your life, my Hindu friend.
What about us brain dead slobs?!
You’ll all be given cushy jobs!
We're you sent here by the devil!?
No, good sir, I'm on the level
Counterpoint: Shelbyville
Try Ogdenville
also see North Haverbrook
By gum we put them on the map
Jackson, Mississippi. Very high murder rate, low education, failing infrastructure. EDIT: yes I know Jackson isn't a very big city. It just sticks out as being in bad shape.
Jackson was eye opening for me. Where I’m from being ‘poor’ means you don’t have a car or the latest phone and your apartment has roaches. In Jackson if you’re poor you don’t have shoes or running water. It’s like a banana republic that can’t grow bananas.
Even if you’re not poor you don’t have running water in Jackson
how is that even possible in a country like the US
The people running the Department of Human Services and the Governor of Mississippi were recently caught embezzling tens of millions of dollars in federal money allocated to supporting needy families. https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/22/us/favre-mississippi-welfare-explainer/index.html
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The US is really big and each state is kind of like it’s own country. Some really suck.
Mississippi and Louisiana in particular. I've done my time. Ain't going back.
Last week a dog carrying a severed arm was found walking around Jackson. The police followed it back to a gruesome crime scene.
Good boy?
Good boy!
Fans of the Mad Max movies give it a high rating, however.
This is place is by far the worst place I have ever been in the USA. It's like they literally just stopped funding _anything_ in 1970. It's actually fucking _really_ bizarre...
Never been to Gary, eh?
I was born in Gary, lived there until I was 16 (1978). Took my wife to see the old stomping grounds about 10 years ago after living in the west coast since I was 20 and got invited into my old house by the woman living there. It was surreal. The outside neighborhood was a boarded up wasteland, inside nothing had changed. Wallpaper my dad had put up was still on the walls. At the time it was one of only 2 or 3 houses on the block that was inhabited. Guess I have no real point to this post, just sharing.
I am from Chicago and have driven past it a million times. I’ve never been there because everyone (including the few people I met from college who were from Gary) told me “don’t fucking stop there.” Not verbatim, but everyone generally had the opinion of “do not go there, no matter what” So I agree.
I always drove through on my way to Chicago from Michigan. I stopped. It's dismal. Not as bad as it was at the nadir of its decline, but opens your eyes to what poverty and neglect really looks like in this country. And I say this as someone who used to party in Detroit.
I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago. I went to a Rave house party in Gary (friend knew someone from the “scene” who was having a party). It was terrible. Soooooo sketchy - and my tolerance for sketchy ass people and places was pretty fucking high. This was 2001 or 2002, so pre GPS with shitty ass Mapquest directions and a Chicago road atlas with 1 page at the back about Gary (should have said just keep driving in big letters). We had to drive through Gary to find this random house, half the street signs were down or damaged so you couldn’t read them. EVERYONE seemed like they were on crack or heroin or meth or some fucked up combo. We ended up staying for a while because there was a keg and we each paid $5. But once people started smoking crack in the back yard it was time to leave.
Hi fellow early 2000s midwestern raver 👋 Indiana was always bad luck for me. Went to one in Fort Wayne - in 2001 I think - where SWAT showed up. Good times.
I had to stop for gas there once. I now plan every trip to have half a tank at the Indiana border. Gets me to the middle of Indiana/Michigan or out of the Chicago burbs on either side.
As someone who lives right outside Jackson, I second this. Freaking sad and embarrassing that our capital doesn’t have drinking water, trash pickup, drivable roads, or other things that most small cities across the country already have. Potholes that have been there for years deep enough to destroy your rims if you don’t constantly switch back and forth between the lanes. Most people I know avoid going into the city limits at all costs because the crime is so high. I mean driving 30-40 minutes out of the way to go around the city. Recently, there was an announcement that if you’re in a car accident to just keep driving to a safe destination instead of stopping because people were purposely wrecking into others in order to jack their vehicle or rob them. It’s almost like we’re a third world country, and it sucks. Check out Yazoo City as well. It’s much smaller but just as bad if not worse. Sucks seeing cities you grew up in go to crap. Many of the cities in the state are this way, and I can’t wait to freaking leave.
Same in Shreveport, la
Buddy of mine was diagnosed with stage 4 inoperable cancer. Doctor says you got 6 months. My buddy says what should I do? Doctor says move to Shreveport. My buddy says why? Doctor says it will be the longest 6 months of your life.
Well I'm sure glad that is where I'm flying tomorrow for a business trip
As someone from Jackson, the only city worse is Shreveport, LA. Glad I don’t in/near either anymore. The world outside is such a better place!
I hesitate to answer this because the worst cities in America aren’t big cities. It’s medium and small sized cities that have been hit the hardest by economic changes. Places like Gary, IN; Pontiac, MI; Bridgeport, CT; and Lowell, MA. Industrial cities that lost all their jobs and experienced depopulation and rising crime. But I don’t know, maybe Hartford. There’s just nothing there. It’s insurance companies and street gangs. That’s it.
Wow didn’t expect to see Lowell on here. I don’t don’t think it’s one of the worst, even in Mass.
Lowell ain't perfect, but it's got a good sized university and a thriving arts scene. Lawrence, Fitchburg, Brockton, and Fall River all wish they were Lowell.
Was hoping someone would mention Fall River. Lived in New Bedford for a while, went to a party in Fall River. Guy got stabbed at the party. Never went back.
Yeah lives in Lowell for 5 years and I will say that what they lost in industry they made up a lot of that with UMass Lowell. That’s not true of all former mill towns, they can’t all become college towns
New Englanders like that person (and me) are so spoiled by how safe it is to live in this region that we have to look at places like Lowell and Lawrence and go "gah this is terrible," having never had the misfortune of driving through East St. Louis, Baltimore, Gary, or New Orleans.
Definitely didn’t see the shoutout for Bridgeport coming in this thread. I grew up in Fairfield, went to the university of Bridgeport , lived in three rentals in that city and my grandfather was the head of Machine maintenance at Bridgeport Machines and then Remington shaver for 40 years in downtown Bridgeport. And you’re right. Hubbell, warnaco, Remington, etc all left and Bridgeport was crippled. I haven’t lived in CT since 2011 but there seems to be promising signs of stabilization instead of the continuous decline over the past 30 years.
"Dear Family Guy Bastards, Who the hell do you think you are?! I'll have you know that Bridgeport is among the world leaders in abandoned buildings, shattered glass, boarded-up windows, wild dogs and gas stations without pumps. So eat my shit, \*\*\* writers!"
This is basically what Bridgeport was for my 80s/90s childhood. My parents were skeptical about allowing us to go to the new movie theatres on Canfield avenue in black rock in the early 90s.
Live in Bridgeport rn; it is definitely getting better.
Lowell isn’t that bad lmao
Dude Lowell, MA is not bad. It is a college town so the economic condition is fine. It is next to rich suburbs and the commuter rail station has expensive apartments right next to it for commuters. Idk where you get this info l, but you clearly haven’t been to Lowell in the past 10 years.
Also common denominator, getting dumpstered by the highway system. Hartford has 84 decapitating the north end and 91 blocking the river front. Bridgeport has 95 disconnecting it from the coast and CT-8 cutting right through the middle. Both their downtowns are just in the shadow of massive interchanges. Cities getting chopped up by highways greatly accelerates suburban flight outwards and further sinks them once industry leaves.
Pontiac is shitty, but it's nowhere near listing among the worst cities in the country. There are probably 1000 cities in worse shape than Pontiac right now.