Camden, NJ is pretty bleak. It is (maybe was) the poorest city in America while being in one of the wealthiest states. Crime rate is high and over the last 20 years has been rated one of the worst cities in the US most years.
The murder rate is finally dropping, so if you want bad, see it soon.
If you want to be safe when you visit Camden, you basically drive directly to the Waterfront to the Aquarium, Arena or Battleship NJ and when done leave Camden by the major roads.
If you mean the city as a whole, then this will be an interesting question. I don’t even have a candidate to offer. If you mean the city with the baddest part of town, while accepting that the city has some nice parts-well then the question is one of size. Both the size of the bad part and the size of the city itself. Personally, not to highjack another’s thread, I would like to see opinions of the first interpretation of the question. Which cities in the US is, in total, are the baddest?
Well, if you go down there, you better just beware of a man name of Leroy Brown.
I hear Mos Eisley is pretty terrible. Great music scene though.
Must be one of those “inner cities” people talk about.
You want scary? Check out Tyson’s Corner in Virginia. It’s like a zombie city where the streets look like this.
The second-highest rated restaurant on Yelp is a place called Founding Farmers – a local mini-chain advertising farm to table food, but got a very rare zero star review from the Washington Post.
It’s fucking terrifying and you will see the worst America has to offer.
I saw that movie–Cecily Tyson serves up the abusive husband as BBQ in the diner. And Kathy Bates rams the snotty-women’s car (she’s better insured) for stealing her parking space. And for some reason, Idgie becomes Ms Daisy and Hoke goes to prison in Maine and has no idea Andy escaped to Zihuatanejo.
I need a drink. 
You got the idea, Burpo.
It ain’t no Cabot Cove.
Yeah, Camden is pretty crappy. I was taking my then 6 or 7 year old daughter to a hospital there and her friend wanted to come along for the ride. I accidently got off one exit too soon - maybe a half mile or so. The friend looked at the neighborhood and asked, “Is this where they bring foster children?”. I gather she had been threatened with being placed in a foster home at some point. Excellent trauma center with lots of experience treating gunshot wounds.
Here’s a tip for the OP.
Folks in the seamy underbellies of America don’t care much for wide-eyed tourists coming into that part of town and asking, “Hey, where’s all the evil?”
If you want a little sin, stick to the strip clubs and massage parlors that are often conveniently located just off the downtown and airport districts. If you want to sample the local heroin, this board is not the place to look for suggestions.
C’mon, name the city, I want to visit the witch doctor.
I agree. Tyson’s Corner is a perfect example of the concrete hellscapes of the postwar, automobile-centered development era.
I grew up right next to Tysons Corner. Back when the big mall in the area was at 7-corners. And the big attraction at Tysons was the dirt bike course. Then I left and the place-changed. Now I can’t imagine actually going there, nor do any of my relatives whom I left behind. I know they built Tysons, then Tysons II, did they build a Tysons III or IV? Or just add on more concrete in all directions?
But I don’t think it qualifies as the baddest part of town. No one around to mug for one thing, so crime can’t be too bad. Maybe if you count all the white-collar crimes that probably happen in all those office buildings it would be back in the running.
You have the Pretenders above, but Americas darkest city is wrapped in in shiny sparkles and wears clownish garish makeup. It is where Americans come to live dreams and descend into nightmares.
The OP didn’t really offer any particular definition of “bad.” Is the potential to be mugged a critical factor? We are having an epidemic of pedestrians being killed by cars. That’s a pretty good possibility in a place like Tyson’s Corner. So maybe that could be part of a definition of “bad”? Or how about places where non-white people are likely to be subject to someone calling the cops on em? There are a lot of neighborhoods like that.
Anyway, what are “dirty city stories”?
I was going to say San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood might have that covered. I remember about a decade ago riding the electric streetcar down Market Street all the way to the end of the of the line, and it seemed like that section in between Downtown and the Castro had a very high concentration of porn shops, strip clubs, and sketchy looking liquor stores. But I haven’t been to that part of San Francisco in a long time, and taking a look at Google Street View just now it looks like most of that is now gone, at least in that section that borders Market Street. Sure, there are still some telltale signs of a low income neighborhood – payday lending stores, lots of probably SRO hotels, and still a couple of sketchy looking liquor stores, but it’s nowhere near as seedy as I remember it. Could it be that even the Tenderloin is beginning to gentrify?
I hated New Orleans. Besides being hot and humid as hell, I got quickly sick of jambalaya, and the River Walk was pretty mediocre. The French Quarter, which they love to romanticize, had rusting wrought iron fences and wood swollen and peeling from the humidity. I thought it sucked and couldn’t wait to leave after only 4 days.
I love New Orleans despite hating the hot and the humid.
What time of year did you go? I was there once in July for a family thing and it was very tough.
If you were just eating jambalaya, you were of course doing something wrong. 
New Orleans is a dining city like NYC & SF. Loads of good places to eat.
Plenty of good museums, a very nice aquarium & zoo. Canoe trips in swamps with alligators close. Airboat tours. Just going to the French Quarter and hitting the market and all the great little stores. There is a lot to do. Some people enjoy the plantation tours or ghost walking tours.
Generally a lot of good and different live music throughout New Orleans.
Yep, July. I thought I was going to die. LOL
If you ever give it another chance, try December through February. It is much nicer. November & March are fine.
A city that is beloved by many that I don’t really like, Boston.
Nearly as hard to drive around as NYC though much smaller. Mass Transit is poor compared to NY or Chicago. It has historical stuff and I loved visiting the USS Constitution, but overall just wasn’t that interesting. Oh, I know Fenway is now beloved, but it is actually a crappy stadium, not like Wrigley.
I think Boston is very overrated.