# Most loathsome city in the universe **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 1, 2009, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-loathsome-city-in-the-universe/494931 "2009-05-01T03:55:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![DfrntBreign](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f6c823/32.png) [@DfrntBreign](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DfrntBreign)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2009, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-loathsome-city-in-the-universe/494931/161 "2009-05-04T08:07:22Z")
I’ve been to some of the places mentioned, and while I wouldn’t necessarily want to live in any of them, I won’t even drive through [Elohim City](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elohim_City). There are all kinds of reasons for finding someplace “loathsome”, but this pretty much defines it for me. ---
**Author:** ![jonbvn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5f9b8f/32.png) [@jonbvn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jonbvn)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2009, 8:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-loathsome-city-in-the-universe/494931/162 "2009-05-04T08:56:46Z")
> [@Labrador\_Deceiver](#): > > I’m still waiting for someone from Asia, Africa or S. America to enter this thread and laugh his or her ass off. I’ve lived in Mumbai and Lagos, Nigeria. Overall I would say Lagos just wins in the race to the bottom. ---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2009, 9:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-loathsome-city-in-the-universe/494931/163 "2009-05-04T09:51:23Z")
> [@Lamar\_Mundane](#): > > I’ve only been to the KC airport a couple of times, but who in the hell puts security checkpoints at the entry to the gate area, which have no fucking bathrooms!!! If you need to take a piss, or get something to eat or read, you have to leave the gate area and go through security again! That’s crazy. I never had to go out past security to use the restroom. The bathrooms aren’t particularly well-marked in every boarding area (they tend to be “down the hall”), but they’re there. At least in the gates I have used. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2009, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-loathsome-city-in-the-universe/494931/164 "2009-05-04T14:53:49Z")
> [@Ravenman](#): > > Bangkok. Just an awful, awful place. It is a city built on exploitation, traffic, pollution, overpopulation, foul canals, and poverty. True, that places it in league with a number of other places listed already. But what angers me to no end is that people buy into the bizarre notion that it is somehow worth it. Really? The older section has some great architecture and the downtown is so modern it looks futuristic, but I’ll grant you the street layout is insane, traffic is horrendous and it has to be the hottest area of not only Thailand but all of South East Asia. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2009, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-loathsome-city-in-the-universe/494931/165 "2009-05-04T15:16:57Z")
> [@tr0psn4j](#): > > Marysville, CA, USA. Near the Yuba River around the Sacramento area. A third world city in the USA. My grandparents retired in Oroville, which is just past Marysville on the highway and even shittier. Poor choice of towns IMO but selling a house in socal practically makes you an Earl up there, errr, did at the time. > [@Happy\_Lendervedder](#): > > I’ve been to East St. Louis, Gary, Flint, Detroit, and I still say Jefferson City, MO is the most loathsome. Those other cities may be full of poverty and violence, but Jeff City is just so bland, dreary, boring, ugly, depressing and confusing, it makes me want to kill puppies whenever I’m there. Oh, something about this post reminded me: _By far_ the most depressing city I’ve ever been to is Cheraw, SC. I wanted to hang myself as soon as I got there and the feeling didn’t pass until a few days after I left. My friend’s cousin literally tried to fuck him while we were visiting. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2009, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-loathsome-city-in-the-universe/494931/166 "2009-05-04T15:59:57Z")
> [@DfrntBreign](#): > > I’ve been to some of the places mentioned, and while I wouldn’t necessarily want to live in any of them, I won’t even drive through [Elohim City](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elohim_City). > > There are all kinds of reasons for finding someplace “loathsome”, but this pretty much defines it for me. I was under the impression that Elohim City was abandoned. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2009, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-loathsome-city-in-the-universe/494931/167 "2009-05-04T16:08:57Z")
> [@DaphneBlack](#): > > Dubai? Really? I thought the UAE generally put on a good face to the world. What was loathsome about it? I’m not sure I understand the hate for Dubai. Yeah, it’s kind of sad to see a place where 90% of the work is done by people who earn less than 5% of the salary, but that’s pretty much the default state of things in the Gulf states… and far from being unsustainable, made other economies much more sustainable. For many families in South Asia, the money being sent back by husbands/sons (or less frequently wives/daughters) from the UAE or Qatar or Bahrain or wherever was what put clothes on their backs and shoes on their feet. Heck, when we lived in Oman, our family employed five household staff essentially out of charity. For comfortably less than 10% of our household income we were supporting four families- two in Sri Lanka and two in India. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2009, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-loathsome-city-in-the-universe/494931/168 "2009-05-04T16:22:36Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > I’m not sure I understand the hate for Dubai. Yeah, it’s kind of sad to see a place where 90% of the work is done by people who earn less than 5% of the salary, but that’s pretty much the default state of things in the Gulf states… and far from being unsustainable, made other economies much more sustainable. > > For many families in South Asia, the money being sent back by husbands/sons (or less frequently wives/daughters) from the UAE or Qatar or Bahrain or wherever was what put clothes on their backs and shoes on their feet. > > Heck, when we lived in Oman, our family employed five household staff essentially out of charity. For comfortably less than 10% of our household income we were supporting four families- two in Sri Lanka and two in India. Things might not be what you think they are there. [Read this.](http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-hari/the-dark-side-of-dubai-1664368.html) ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2009, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-loathsome-city-in-the-universe/494931/169 "2009-05-04T16:32:32Z")
> [@Cisco](#): > > Things might not be what you think they are there. [Read this.](http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-hari/the-dark-side-of-dubai-1664368.html) Wow. I withdraw my objection. ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2009, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-loathsome-city-in-the-universe/494931/170 "2009-05-04T16:33:59Z")
> [@Sitnam](#): > > The older section has some great architecture and the downtown is so modern it looks futuristic… You’re only succeeding in making me more resolute in my hate of the place! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Duke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e8c25b/32.png) [@Duke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2009, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-loathsome-city-in-the-universe/494931/171 "2009-05-04T18:56:44Z")
> [@Cisco](#): > > Things might not be what you think they are there. [Read this.](http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-hari/the-dark-side-of-dubai-1664368.html) Wow. Too bad the late JG Ballard never got a chance to write about Dubai–seems it makes “Super-Cannes” look like a quaint English village. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2009, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-loathsome-city-in-the-universe/494931/172 "2009-05-04T19:27:09Z")
I caught some of the History Channel’s “World after People” (or whatever) last night and they filmed a segment in Gary, Indiana. I’ll admit I knew the city mainly because of _The Music Man_ and as the birthplace of the Jackson (as in Jackson 5) family, but apparently it’s a real hellhole these days. The population was once a quarter million, now it’s less than half that and there are whole parts of the town that are completely abandoned. (At least with that many empty houses real estate should be cheap enough that there shouldn’t be a homelessness problem.) Then there’s [Centralia, Pennsylvania](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centralia,_Pennsylvania), a fuming Salem’s Lot of a place that once had over a thousand residents and in 2007 had a population of 9. It’s literally been on fire for the past three decades due to the mines beneath it, and most of the roads to it have been detoured or closed. > [@DMark](#): > > BTW, that is pronounced Kay-Ro in Illinois. Not far from my alma mater, SIU. > We also have Marseilles, Illinois (pronounced Mar-Sales). [hijack]It is in Georgia as well. In Georgia for a while to pronounce a city the way it was spelled or the same way the place it was named for was spelled. PLACE in GA/Pronunciation Albany/all-BENNY Buena Vista/Buna vistuh [rhymes with tuna mister] Perry/Parry There are others as well. Another law is that no city or place can be located in the county of the same name. I had a geeky “that’s wrong” moment when reading _American Gods_. In the book people thought Cairo was just named that in the 19th century but was in fact named that by an immortal traveler who came there thousands of years ago and named it for his home in ancient Egypt, then “renamed” it when it was settled. The geek moment was “there wasn’t a Cairo in ancient Egypt, it’s a medieval city”. (I had no problem with the immortal part though.)[/HIJACK] ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2009, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-loathsome-city-in-the-universe/494931/173 "2009-05-04T20:16:33Z")
I guess it depends what we mean by ‘loathsome’. If it means “ugly and depressing on an existential level through no particular fault of its own” there are plenty of good candidates already mentioned. If by ‘loathsome’ we mean ‘morally despicable’ then I nominate Georgetown (OK, it’s only a neighborhood in the District of Columbia, rather than a whole city itself). Basically just college students looking to get drunk/laid and lobbyists/politicians looking to get drunk/laid/rich. All the while ignoring both a) the problems of the world and country as a whole, problems often made worse by those same lobbyists/politicians and more unforgiveably, b) the very very real problems of northeast DC, where shooting galleries and crackhouses have views of the Capitol building from their windows. Which conveniently ensures a good supply of moderately desperate people to cook and clean for Georgetown residents at starvation wages, so the Georgetowners can continue getting drunk/laid/rich. First place I would cauterize off the face of the Earth, if I could. ---
**Author:** ![Big\_Blue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/51bf81/32.png) [@Big\_Blue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Big_Blue)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2009, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-loathsome-city-in-the-universe/494931/174 "2009-05-05T03:53:40Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > Then there’s [Centralia, Pennsylvania](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centralia,_Pennsylvania), a fuming Salem’s Lot of a place that once had over a thousand residents and in 2007 had a population of 9. It’s literally been on fire for the past three decades due to the mines beneath it, and most of the roads to it have been detoured or closed. I considered Centralia, but there is something oddly beautiful about the landscape there. Sidewalks and front steps that lead only to empty grass lots, all surrounded by small mountains. I think there is something oddly beautiful about the abandoned city of Pripyat, Ukraine, but the nuclear fallout there swayed my vote away from the mine fires of Centralia. ---
**Author:** ![AboutAsWeirdAsYouCanGet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/22d042/32.png) [@AboutAsWeirdAsYouCanGet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AboutAsWeirdAsYouCanGet)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2009, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-loathsome-city-in-the-universe/494931/175 "2009-05-05T06:15:45Z")
Well my town may not be a Gary Indiana (oh and thanks…being a musicals nut I now have that song stuck in my head) or a Camden NJ or an East St. Louis…but I have to say growing up “different” in a town that makes Stepford CT look diverse was horrible. My town is just SO incredibly white and high achieving and Superfical. Let me put it this way…my town has things like antique shows, a sailboat race to Bermuda on the off years of the America’s Cup, plenty of golf etc It’s very pretencious. To the point where the PUBLIC school was MORE snotty then the local prep school! There are some OK people…and it used to be fun to see Gerhaldo around town back in the 80’s and 90’s. But overall this area is filled with pretensious prejudicated snots. I’m also not the only former kid who hated it…seems like a lot of the kids I knew who were “different” HATED HATED this town… ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2009, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-loathsome-city-in-the-universe/494931/176 "2009-05-05T11:55:51Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > Athol, Md. > > Can you imagine having to tell people where you live? Everyone would think you have a lisp. FYI Athol MD really isn’t really a city or even a town in any sense, it’s more of a road intersection at this point. ---
**Author:** ![zweisamkeit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zweisamkeit/32/4360_2.png) [@zweisamkeit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zweisamkeit)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2009, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-loathsome-city-in-the-universe/494931/177 "2009-05-05T13:36:55Z")
> [@Cisco](#): > > Things might not be what you think they are there. [Read this.](http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-hari/the-dark-side-of-dubai-1664368.html) I just wanted to say thank you for posting that link. It’s one of the most fascinating things I’ve read this year. All I head heard of Dubai before it was that it was some amazing high tech swanky Arabic place to go to. Glad I read it. ---
**Author:** ![Desert\_Nomad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desert_nomad/32/177_2.png) [@Desert\_Nomad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desert_Nomad)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2009, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-loathsome-city-in-the-universe/494931/178 "2009-05-05T19:13:16Z")
Washington DC ---
**Author:** ![Desert\_Nomad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desert_nomad/32/177_2.png) [@Desert\_Nomad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desert_Nomad)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2009, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-loathsome-city-in-the-universe/494931/179 "2009-05-05T19:22:30Z")
Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo is a close second. ---
**Author:** ![Desert\_Nomad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desert_nomad/32/177_2.png) [@Desert\_Nomad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desert_Nomad)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2009, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-loathsome-city-in-the-universe/494931/180 "2009-05-05T19:28:21Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > I’m not an American. > > I have walked through the Dharavi slum in Bombay and Alexandra township in Johannesburg and a dozen other places where a life is worth less than a pack of cigarettes… and I’d still rather not be in Newark. My dad flew for an international airline. Normally he spent all his time in the Pacific. Once he got a weird trip/layover in Newark. Upon arriving at the hotel in the early evening he asked the guy at reception where he might go for a run nearby. The reply: “How fast do you run?” 😃 He spent the evening reading quietly in his room. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-loathsome-city-in-the-universe/494931.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-loathsome-city-in-the-universe/494931.md?page=10)