Well, they can’t cap loads of places in India or Africa for poverty, but some of the small towns in Eastern Europe might make the list of the most depressing places to be. I guess it depends on what you consider loathsome. Take, for example, the town of Bobov Dol, Bulgaria. It’s a fucking hole. One of the two things in the town is a coal mine that everyone drops out of school to work in. Except that everyone also knows that the coal mine is going to run out of coal in the next few years and there won’t be any jobs, or any educated people, because everyone…dropped out of school to work in the coal mine.
The other thing in the town is a prison.
There is nothing to do in Bobov Dol.
I can tell you I’d rather visit Calcutta or Dhaka any freaking day of the week than Bobov Dol.
There’re a lot of places like this is post-Communist Eastern Europe. It’s incredibly depressing.
Juarez, MX, San Antonio, the whole Central Valley of CA, Buffalo, East Spencer, NC are all pretty loathsome. And this from a guy who genuinely likes Tijuana and New Jersey.
I’ve never been there but something about the look of Samarkand puts me off.
I lived in Jakarta, early 1980s. I hope things have improved, but back then, if you lived on Jalan Thamrin (Hotel Row), it was great. Walk one block off Jalan Thamrin, however, and you would swear you could hear Rod Serling’s voice saying, “You have just crossed over…”.
I have a friend who lived there for a while (her father was a diplomat). She’s also lived in Zimbabwe, which she vastly preferred! Her descriptions of Port Moresby make me think it could be a real winner for this. Kidnapping was a huge concern; all Westerners basically lived in an armed compound. One of the highest murder rates in the world, I think.
That site doesn’t even make sense to me. I’m pretty sure there are a lot more than 80 cities that are worse than Paris, and their supporting evidence for some cities is just pictures of hot chicks.
Yeah, not sure why the hot chicks are there. I got to the cite by googling Port Moresby, and the entry for it confirmed what I’d heard about it. Figured I’d link to it, but maybe it’s not such a great cite after all.
Suddenly Centralia, IL leaps forward in the running…
I agree with you that a lot of cities in other countries at least have a sense of history. In so many places in the US, this isn’t the case. The poverty level may not be as bad, but they can be depressing as hell and completely lack personality or a sense of community.
Not to get too OT, but Cincinnati has a fine, and fairly well known, orchestra, several pretty good art museums and a major university. For a city of its size it actually has a lot of culture.
Suranyi, you’ll note I allowed for “some” culture in the Blue Chip City and that I proposed to move on to worse places.
It is notable though that Cincinnati has a notable history of a sizable anti-cultural movement, what with Charles Keating, Simon Leis, the prosecution of Dennis Barrie, etc. So maybe Cincy loses points for that. Overall, I think Ohio becomes more cultured if you subtract Cincinnati.
Most of the non-US places I have been to have been nice. Indoor plumbing and everything.
I’d have to agree with Baltimore, though. Ugh.
They put a lot of emphasis on the beauty of the Inner Harbor and (back then) used to brag liberally and loudly about how much money they were pumping into the local businesses to make this a place people would like to visit. It even has a very neat aquarium. It is very nice, to their credit.
However, if you want to visit the Edgar Allen Poe Museum (and the church of the mysterious birthday drink), you only have to walk uphill about 3 blocks before it turns into Crackhead Central. It’s dirty, lots of litter and drinking and drug use right on the front doors of people who (I hope) live there. (I say ‘I hope’ because I would hope **not **that these people are openly using on somebody else’s doorways.) It gets worse the farther away from the Inner Harbor you go, but I didn’t have to go much further before my g/f said we would be turning back. Now.
And, no, I don’t go to Baltimore. Just like I normally don’t travel further south in DC than the National Mall. If I can help it. I am no longer bulletproof, but I’m not that stupid.
P.S. Cisco? What’s wrong with San Antonio? Sure, the Spurs didn’t perform this year, but… really?
The reason is, when we travel to other countries, we tend to go to places that are tourist-friendly. The typical American tourist doesn’t see all the international hell-holes. But when we move around domestically, we often do it for reasons other than touris, and wind up experiencing places like . . . well, Newark.
Suribayu, Java, Indonesia. Hellish, absolutely hellish it was!
A close second would be the first view of La Pas, Bolivia when you are arriving by bus. You come first into the barrio, OMG. I’ve visited lots of India and Nepal, much of SE Asia, and this was the first time I honestly thought to myself, “Perhaps you’ve found your limit.” Of course, once you pass through the barrio, and get into the city proper, it is awesome, truly.
I’ve been to Tampa’s airport and the air smelled like potatoes.
I’ve driven past Gary at night, when the US Steel plant was working overtime pumping crap into the air, and I saw a haze of smog covering the neighborhoods inexplicably built near the highway and the plant.
I visited my brother in N. Platte, Nebraska, when he worked for the railroad, and that city had nothing to offer.
But if we’re looking for loathsome, I’d say Dubai has to be at the top of the list. Lagos has to be up there too.
