# Worst town in America? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 3, 2007, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-town-in-america/390635 "2007-02-03T03:03:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![scotandrsn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a4c791/32.png) [@scotandrsn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scotandrsn)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2007, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-town-in-america/390635/81 "2007-02-05T19:32:20Z")
[QUOTE=Lamar Mundane] Some towns in Western Kansas, Western Nebraska, and Eastern Colorado have gone from nice to horrid in just the last 20 years or so. The small farmers and ranchers have been driven off by the corporates, and these towns have sold out to the huge conglomerates to stay alive. Once busy downtowns are now boarded up, and the towns smell of feedlots. The schools are full of the kids of illegal immigrants, and everyone lives in trailers strewn about randomly. Property values are miniscule. Driving through these places is pretty sad. Garden City, KS is one of the larger examples, and while still OK, is clearly on a downward slide. [/QUOTE] I was in Grand Island, Nebraska about ten years ago. It seemed OK, but I’d be sad to hear that it had gone downhill. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2007, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-town-in-america/390635/82 "2007-02-05T19:41:29Z")
I’m gonna go ahead and nominate [Centralia, Pennsylvania](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centralia,_Pennsylvania), even without having been there. Reason: an underground coal fire has been burning beneath Centralia for about 40 years now, causing the majority of the residents to evacuate. And why not, what with the sinkholes and toxic gases and smoking earth and whatnot. The look for the town in the **Silent Hill** movie was inspired by Centralia. Need I say more? ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2007, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-town-in-america/390635/83 "2007-02-05T21:16:01Z")
[QUOTE=clayton\_e] Fayettsville N.C., IIRC.. Is a horrible place. My family was robbed there while we passed through on vacation when I was young (broke into our hotel room while we were out and tore apart the place) and every once in a while I hear something on the news about gangs or murders there.. But it might just be that its a city of a good sized population without many cultural events going on.. making murders and gangs the only news to come out of the place, even though the rest of the city is public parks and puppy dogs. I don’t know. Either way I’ll just never stop there for lunch if I’m on the interstate. [/QUOTE] I applied for a planning position in Fayetteville coming out of grad school. I was offered the job but turned it down in favor of a lower-paying position elsewhere before I had even heard if I had gotten the other job. When I visited for the onsite interview the office reminded me over and over of the movie _Brazil_. I have a cousin who’s husband was in the 82nd airborne and they live there and think it’s the garden of Eden. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2007, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-town-in-america/390635/84 "2007-02-05T21:51:55Z")
> [@](#): > > I wouln’t bet on any revival of places like Detroit, Flint, Ypsilanti, etc. I used to think badly of Ypsilanti when I lived on the University of Michigan campus. It gets a bad rap because it’s right next to the wealthy and elitist town of Ann Arbor (which I also happen to love, FWIW.) I currently live in Ypsilanti. It is full of working class people from various ethnic backgrounds… it is a truly refreshing change from all the campus snobbery. I don’t believe Ypsilanti is comparable to Detroit or Flint in terms of decay (also, I happen to rather like Detroit, though I can’t deny it has its flaws, such as an alarmingly high child murder rate.) Ypsilanti is not dangerous or crime-ridden or decaying. It is home to its own university, Eastern Michigan, which is one of the top Education schools in the country. The people are sweet and friendly. My neighbors say hello to me and if anyone is having car trouble, they will get help, regardless of race or ethnicity. My theory is that people assume Yspilanti is a pit because low-income, working class ethnic people from all over live there. In fact, that is part of its charm. They have an Asian market where you can buy fresh, live eel. There are authentic ethnic restaurants everywhere. Housing is very affordable compared to Ann Arbor. It has the open-minded “multicultural” feel of Ann Arbor without the elitism. I for one feel blessed to have discovered it, because if I didn’t live there I’d probably lump it in with the rest of Michigan’s notorious shit towns. ---
**Author:** ![PoorYorick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecccb3/32.png) [@PoorYorick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PoorYorick)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2007, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-town-in-america/390635/85 "2007-02-05T22:17:44Z")
[QUOTE=Furious\_Marmot] In the mid-sized category, I nominate Oklahoma City. [/QUOTE] I lived in Oklahoma City for several years, and all I can say is that you’ve never lived in Louisiana, especially Shreveport. Yeah, Louisiana might be imbued with racism and classism, with neither the money nor the will to improve, but at least it has culture and sense of place out the wazoo. Except for Shreveport, which is trying its damndest to be East Texas. I never thought I’d miss the culture of Oklahoma City until I moved to Shreveport. ---
**Author:** ![TV\_time](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f17d59/32.png) [@TV\_time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TV_time)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2007, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-town-in-america/390635/86 "2007-02-05T22:44:53Z")
I’ve been to a handful of the above mentioned communities and in my experience Butte, MT wins hands down. For Heaven’s sake an open pit mine is eating the city. ---
**Author:** ![clayton\_e](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c57346/32.png) [@clayton\_e](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clayton_e)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2007, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-town-in-america/390635/87 "2007-02-05T22:49:18Z")
[QUOTE=Spectre of Pithecanthropus] But then there are other places that are vibrant and pedestrian friendly–they’re a whole other animal. [/QUOTE] Its sad when a city has to put “pedestrian friendly!” on its tourist sites as if it should be an added plus.. Any place where you just can’t manuver without a vehicle for even a day long tourist walk around isn’t worth visiting… What’re you gonna do? Take pictures of the overpasses? ---
**Author:** ![ExTank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2007, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-town-in-america/390635/88 "2007-02-05T23:22:36Z")
[QUOTE=Darryl Lict] This doesn’t sound all bad to me. [/QUOTE] You haven’t seen the strippers! :eek: Or streetwalkers (technically, they were in Brooklyn) :eek: :eek: My work occasionally takes me over there, and I’m depressed afterwards for upwards of a week. I have to go to Creve Coeur park just to regain some sense of harmony and natural beauty in the world. I vote for E. St. Louis, too. Everyone else in this thread who’s been there has said they wound up there on accident, and left as fast as humanly possible. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2007, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-town-in-america/390635/89 "2007-02-05T23:38:16Z")
Northampton, MA-in the late 1970’s this town was dying-although the county seat, businesses were moving out, houses were decaying, young people moving away. Then, in the late 80’s, young people were attracted by the low housing prices, young professionals and artists moved in. New restaurants, stores and art galleries took over the old downtown-and prpopert values soared. Now Northampton is a very derieable place to live. I guess it helps to be in a beautiful rural area, with colleges and universities around. I don’t see this as happening in Detroit though-too old, too run down, and too poor. ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2007, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-town-in-america/390635/90 "2007-02-05T23:40:15Z")
Compton, CA is pretty friggin’ dismal. ---
**Author:** ![Deaf\_Geek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3be4f8/32.png) [@Deaf\_Geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Deaf_Geek)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2007, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-town-in-america/390635/91 "2007-02-06T00:05:05Z")
> [@](#): > > My vote is for New York City. 😕 Um why? It’s not THAT bad…I love wandering around there! ---
**Author:** ![Shayna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shayna/32/17976_2.png) [@Shayna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shayna)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2007, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-town-in-america/390635/92 "2007-02-06T00:20:56Z")
[QUOTE=myskepticsight] 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 rape rate is staggeringly high, and the rest of the crime rates are high as well. [/QUOTE] East St. Louis is indeed, the [Scariest Place on Earth](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_St._Louis%2C_Illinois#Crime) (IMNSHO). > [@](#): > > East St. Louis is one of the most crime-ridden cities in the nation. According to FBI’s data of 2005, its murder rate hit 63.4 per population of 100,000, surpassed that of murder-infamous cities such as Gary, Indiana (56.4 per pop. 100,000), New Orleans, Louisiana (54.5, 2004 data due to unavailability of 2005 data), Richmond, Virginia (42.5), Baltimore, Maryland (41.3), Camden, New Jersey (41.3), Detroit, Michigan (37.2), and Washington, D.C. (34.1), as well as that of its neighbor St. Louis (37.6). Their data also showed East St. Louis’ very high rape rate, which exceeded 300 per pop. 100,000. There’s a reason East St. Louis natives Al Joyner and Jackie Joyner-Kersee could run so damn fast – they were running for their lives! When we who are familiar with it say it’s the Cesspool of the Midwest, we mean that literally, not figuratively, as it wasn’t that long ago that “[s]ewers failed; garbage pickup ceased because the city could not pay the haulers [and] _City Hall was awarded to the plaintiff in a lawsuit against the city_”! Trust me, if you accidentally find yourself in East St. Louis at _any_ time of day or night, lock your doors and get the hell out of there as fast as is humanly possible. ---
**Author:** ![Darryl\_Lict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7cd45c/32.png) [@Darryl\_Lict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darryl_Lict)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2007, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-town-in-america/390635/93 "2007-02-06T02:35:12Z")
[QUOTE=Furious\_Marmot] In the mid-sized category, I nominate Oklahoma City. \ The locals are fat, intolerant, lazy, willfully ignorant, poorly educated, sentimental, crass, self-deluding, fat, provincial, big talkers, wasteful, puerile, dishonest, materialistic, fat, and bad drivers. The most depressing thing is the phoniness of it all: fake cowboys, fake punks, fake moral outrage, fake Hummers, fake hairdos, fake breasts, fake piety. If you like anything besides college sports and country music, save yourself the trouble and go someplace else. [/QUOTE] Let me complement you on a brilliant post, you angry rodent! I’ve snipped it only in the interests of brevity. Only your 12th post, I envy your pitting proficiency. ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2007, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-town-in-america/390635/94 "2007-02-06T04:09:08Z")
Isn’t there some old coal mining town in PA that has had underground (and some above ground) coal fire going for like fifty years? With a few stubborn, dumb-as-fuck, people (probably all with brain damage and lung cancer from the smoke) still living there? I’d say that qualifies as _something._ ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Joe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@Evil\_Joe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Joe)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2007, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-town-in-america/390635/95 "2007-02-06T04:15:21Z")
[QUOTE=mks57] I’d vote for [Camden, New Jersey](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camden,_New_Jersey). Nuking it would be an improvement. [/QUOTE] The first reply and thats instantly what I thought of as well. ---
**Author:** ![scotandrsn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a4c791/32.png) [@scotandrsn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scotandrsn)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2007, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-town-in-america/390635/96 "2007-02-06T13:25:06Z")
[QUOTE=bouv] Isn’t there some old coal mining town in PA that has had underground (and some above ground) coal fire going for like fifty years? With a few stubborn, dumb-as-fuck, people (probably all with brain damage and lung cancer from the smoke) still living there? I’d say that qualifies as _something._ [/QUOTE] Check out post #82 for mention of Centralia, although I think the same could be said of Scranton, which is a true hole. ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2007, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-town-in-america/390635/97 "2007-02-06T14:33:05Z")
[QUOTE=Kilvert’s Pagan] In the meantime, Compton, CA, or Oakland for that matter, could already be in the running. [/QUOTE] Oakland has more than it’s share of problems, but it’s still a very beautiful, very liveable city. It’s gotten over the hump of the eighties and ninties and now a mix of new immigrants, artists (more per capita than anyplace west of Manhattan), people fleeing the high rents of SF and Berkeley and regular old working class people make it a lively, hip, interesting place with an unbeatable location. All of the fun of it’s neighbors with better food, cheaper rent and lot fewer snobs. Call me nuts, but it’s my favorite city in California. I kind of figured it’d show up on this list somewhere and figured I’d come in to defend it. Don’t tell everyone though, I want to keep the rents low for when I move back. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2007, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-town-in-america/390635/98 "2007-02-06T18:30:51Z")
[QUOTE=ElvisL1ves] There’s one in Ketchikan, Alaska, if you’re ever on a cruise up that way. [/QUOTE] There’s also a whorehouse museum in Fort Smith, Arkansas, in an old bordello. That’s a pleasant city, pretty, but the people are a bit odd. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2007, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-town-in-america/390635/99 "2007-02-06T18:45:00Z")
[QUOTE=Furious\_Marmot] In the mid-sized category, I nominate Oklahoma City. While numerous rustbelt cities outrank it in the more concrete terms of pollution, economic malaise, crime, and hopelessness, OKC is on top when it comes to the less tangible aspects of misery. I used to think that most people’s complaints about the USA were exaggerated or unfounded, then I came here. This city is a near-perfect distillation of all the bad parts of American culture, a warped microcosm, if you will. “Highbrow” culture is nearly non-existent. “Lowbrow” culture is either of the Wayne Newton/Riverdance variety, or restricted to a small number of venues and generally on weeknights (the worthwhile bands are just stopping over between real gigs). The food is so appallingly bad it deserves a pitting. The roads are in horrible condition, which is especially distressing considering that the climate isn’t terribly hard on pavement. Most overpasses are literally falling apart and many shudder palpably as traffic passes under them. It’s a minimum 5 hour drive to anywhere good. The schools are terrible, the cost of living is middling, and the taxes are high (not like New York, but ridiculous considering how little service the taxpayers get). The biggest tourist attraction is the federal building bombing memorial. The locals are fat, intolerant, lazy, willfully ignorant, poorly educated, sentimental, crass, self-deluding, fat, provincial, big talkers, wasteful, puerile, dishonest, materialistic, fat, and bad drivers. The most depressing thing is the phoniness of it all: fake cowboys, fake punks, fake moral outrage, fake Hummers, fake hairdos, fake breasts, fake piety. If you like anything besides college sports and country music, save yourself the trouble and go someplace else. [/QUOTE] Well, being sentimental is not so bad. But I know what you mean about OK City. In fact, it’s not just the city, but rather the whole friggin’ state! Many times in my long-ago youth, I had occasion to drive the entire length of Oklahoma, journeying between the Texas panhandle and Arkansas. I’ve always thought that if I had to live anywhere in Oklahoma, I would slit my wrists. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2007, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-town-in-america/390635/100 "2007-02-06T18:49:24Z")
[QUOTE=Max Torque] I’m gonna go ahead and nominate [Centralia, Pennsylvania](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centralia,_Pennsylvania), even without having been there. Reason: an underground coal fire has been burning beneath Centralia for about 40 years now, causing the majority of the residents to evacuate. And why not, what with the sinkholes and toxic gases and smoking earth and whatnot. The look for the town in the **Silent Hill** movie was inspired by Centralia. Need I say more? [/QUOTE] I dunno, Max. You live in Lubbock, Texas, which I have more than a nodding acquaintance with, and you’re nominating other cities? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-town-in-america/390635.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-town-in-america/390635.md?page=6)