I bought this book, The Worst Places to Live in America, by Dave Gilmartin, and it’s raised my curiosity. What do you think the worst place in America is? And real reasons, not, for example Louisianians saying “I hate Philadelphia because the Eagles beat the Saints in the Playoffs” type of thing.
I’d vote for Camden, New Jersey. Nuking it would be an improvement.
Can I say Philladelphia because of the Eagles, period?
East Saint Louis, Illinois is often put on these lists for its combination of economic blight* and political misrule.**
*The mayor used to be the head of a local funeral home. It was said that each murder in the city was money in his pocket.
**The city took a number of abandoned factories and surrounded them with barbed wire and security towers. It is the only industrial park I have ever seen dedicated to strip clubs.
Atlanta. For the unchecked sprawl, for the lack of city planning, for the crumbling infrastructure, for the ongoing identity crisis, for the shameful record of historic preservation, for the inept city government.
Atlanta.
Of the places I have more than a passing familarity with, I’ll say Pittsfield, Massachusetts. The county seat of a county (Berkshire, which contains Williamstown, Lenox, and Alice’s Restaurant, among other places) with great cultural influence and natural beauty that surpasses anything east of the Rockies, it is a grungy, depressed, polluted, dead-end, ex-company (GE) town, with leadership that wouldn’t know the future if one wrapped a road map to the future around a brick and tossed it through the window. It’s an absolute shame. It could be a great small city.
I’d say Gary, Indiana for the air pollution and the frequent ranking as having the highest per capita murder rate in the US.
There were some redeeming qualities to it, but for the most part, it existed as one gigantic drug connection. There was no other reason for it’s existence. That town sucked so much. I’m so glad I left.
Looking up crime information, in 2000, Reading was 21st on the list of the highest murder rates in the country (out of 138 cities) cite (PDF). According to this: another source, in 2004, there were 936 reported violent crimes - 22 murders, 51 rapes, 372 robberies, and 491 cases of aggravated assault. That may seem like too much or too little, but to me (I live in a town where 1 murder a year is a big deal) it seems like a lot.
Also, I do not like the word Schuylkill.
~Tasha
Heh. The company I work for was on Monday bought by a company from Reading. We’re having some bewilderment as to their corporate culture. Your post explains a lot. I shall pass it on on Monday.
This doesn’t sound all bad to me.
I had a job one summer that required driving out of Chicago and by/through Gary once a week. I never got out and looked around, so it may have undiscovered charms, but what I saw wasn’t pretty. That is one ugly town – ugly, belching smokestacks, blight everywhere you look, a foul odor in the air… Screw Prof. Harold Hill, Gary may well be the worst town in America.
I am extremely biased, but I must nominate my birthplace, Jackson Michigan, also the birthplace of the Republican Party:
(Re: the Wiki, it goes to great pains to make it sound like a good place to live. Lies. All lies.)
It really wouldn’t be such a terrible place if it weren’t for the people. You’re talking about your average sized town, with maybe theoretically some nice-ish parks, including a colored waterfall light show dealy… but the people just ruin it all.
The place is largely an old industry town, abandoned train tracks and warehouses-turned-stripjoints and cobblestone streets lined with bars. I estimate 50% white, 40% black, and 10% Latino (that’s very recent.) 80% of the people live rundown uneducated nowhere lives, and the other 20% are elitist racist middle class jackasses. And though everyone hates and fears everyone else with a burning passion, they’re all extremely conservative and close-minded. It’s not an uncommon thing to hear ni**er in everyday conversation with your average Jacksonian.
Oh, and did I mention we have one of the largest prisons in the world? Everyone hates authority. Even my beloved grandmother thinks the po-pos are out to get her.
No, seriously. I just don’t think any other town has a chance. I’ve got a friend who just passed through once, and he described it as “More depressing than Detroit. Jackson reeks of decay and degeneration.” My Aunt lives out in Syracuse NY, near one of the most polluted lakes in our country, in a neighborhood where shootings happen on a regular basis, and she still maintains that Jackson is the worst town in the U.S. “At least,” she says, “Syracuse has a good Thai restaurant.”
for the record, I happen to like Detroit, but a lot of people think of it as the most depressing place they’ve ever been
ETA: Oh I almost forgot about Foote Hospital. The worst hospital EVER!! I know a woman there who broke her thigh bone and it was so far jammed into the muscle of her leg they SENT HER HOME because they didn’t have the skill to fix it. Now she has to have her leg amputated. I hear about this kind of stuff ALL THE TIME. Daily. faints
Sorry, those were just based on my own perception. The real numbers according to the Wiki are 73% white, 20% black, 4% Latino, the rest other.
St Cloud is in the book.
He’s way off base on some elements of his statement.
The food is pretty good.
St. Cloud is in the book? What?! It’s got all sorts of stuff going for it. Like. Well like…Well, ok maybe not a ton of stuff going for it, but it’s not bad.
I have a whole bunch of hazy/drunken/under the influence sorta memories from there, it can’t be all bad.
My dad was this close to going to work in Gary, Indiana but the more he heard the worse it sounded. He is going to go back to Florida instead.
East St. Louis is crap, coming from a St. Louisian. When you make a wrong turn downtown and end up there, it’s scary. The only reason to go there is when you are partying downtown on a Saturday night and need to make a beer run after midnight. It’s all skanky strip clubs and run down buildings. Which sucks because there is a rock club there and a couple bands I liked played there in high school and my mom wouldn’t let me go. The rape rate is staggeringly high, and the rest of the crime rates are high as well.
Bridgeport, CT. Must go there every so often. The city that god forgot.
I have a coworker who used to work at the prison in Jackson, MI. He was making $20 an hours there. He quit to come work here for $8.50, and he will swear up and down that it was a good career move. “Dead men can’t collect pay checks” was his main point.
If that gives any indication on how bad Jackson is.
I have seen Gary, Indiana via the interstate, it looked horrible. I wondered if I had accidentally made my way to Mordor.
I stayed a few nights in Monticello, Arkansas once. The people I met were nice enough, but if Monticello, Arkansas is typical of a small, southern city then the entire region is a dump.