# 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:** 17\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![HubZilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ccd318/32.png) [@HubZilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HubZilla)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2007, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-town-in-america/390635/161 "2007-02-15T18:55:54Z")
[QUOTE=mks57] I didn’t mind Wahiawa. Lots of fast-food joints where you could grab a bite to eat before catching the bus to Honolulu. Since I lived on-base, I didn’t have to deal with the overpriced off-base housing. [/QUOTE] I live in Mililani, but I think I’m closer to Wahiawa (its our school and voting district). My guess is the developers opted to name our area Mililani, so people wouldn’t think they were buying a house in Wahiawa? I wouldn’t count Wahiawa as the worst town in America (its no where even close to a Gary or Camden or East St Louis). I was just saying it is not the tropical paradise of Hawaii, and I wonder what new Army people think when they get their orders for Hawaii, only to end up here. Especially compared to where the Marine base is in Kaneohe. The windward side of Oahu is one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen… and military members get to live there for free! I’d enlist just for that! **Siam Sam** , I never thought Hilo was a bad town, it just has that reputation out here. I suppose it’s the constant rain and the fact that all the new development (etc) is on the Kona side, rather than the Hilo side. Hilo and (to a lesser extant) Wahiawa are still nicer than most of the places listed in this thread. The scale is just different for Hawaii. A couple threads ago, I was complaining about the bad traffic in Honolulu. The general response “Shut up, you live in Hawaii” 😛 ---
**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 18, 2007, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-town-in-america/390635/162 "2007-02-18T07:02:18Z")
[QUOTE=HubZilla] A couple threads ago, I was complaining about the bad traffic in Honolulu. The general response “Shut up, you live in Hawaii” 😛 [/QUOTE] Well, they have a point. The wife and I have fond memories of living in Honolulu. People we knew elsewhere did tend to think, though, that we lazed under palm trees all day long. ---
**Author:** ![Gleena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b3f665/32.png) [@Gleena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gleena)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2007, 9:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-town-in-america/390635/163 "2007-02-19T09:55:04Z")
Jackson, but not the one in Michigan, the one in Mississippi. Poverty, white flight, racism, classism, jingoistic patriotism (of the kind you receive one to many glurgy e-mails that play music about), uber conservatism - not the kind you can have a reasonable conversation about, either, and the sort of nasty, “you’re gonna go to hell and I’m not” Christianity that makes me just cringe. Even when they try for culture (New Stage Theatre, I’m looking at you) it comes off classist, elitist and very, very poorly done. Grew up there, educated there (well, Clinton, anyhow), went to church there…fled there, became an atheist, no desire to go back. The thought of living there depresses me to tears. Nobody can see the poverty just on the other side of State Street. Nobody cares, or if they do, they are damn quiet about it. I was offered a house (free) in Terry and in Jackson, said no to both and would not go back. Its awful, and every time I go back to visit family, it seems a lot worse. For those upthread defending the South, I must say that yeah, I’ve had some of the “wow, you’re from Mississippi, you don’t seem like that” attitude and it sucks. And maybe the whole South isn’t like Jackson, I dunno, I haven’t lived anywhere else in the South (well, Sydney now, that’s pretty southern 😃 ) but Jackson sucks like a 10 dollar hooker offered a fifty. On the other hand, I’ve lived in Michigan (but on the western side, Grand Rapids) and it wasn’t so bad. It was, however, about 7 or 8 years ago. If you could stomach Amway and the Devos/VanAndel clan and the old “if you ain’t Dutch, you ain’t much” attitude, it wasn’t bad at all. Cheers, G ---
**Author:** ![The\_Spirit\_of\_Radio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e19b73/32.png) [@The\_Spirit\_of\_Radio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Spirit_of_Radio)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2007, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-town-in-america/390635/164 "2007-03-18T19:13:12Z")
[QUOTE=danceswithcats] There are plenty of reasons to hate Philly besides the hapless sports teams-a black hole of suckitude, they. If you take away all of the crap, there are some wonderful things about the city, though. I’d be willing to toss in a vote for Camden-it’s a lot like Philly, just with less redeeming qualities and more suck. [/QUOTE] Sorry to bring back this long-dead thread, but Philadelphia is in the book, too. ---
**Author:** ![Traymoon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f04885/32.png) [@Traymoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Traymoon)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2007, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-town-in-america/390635/165 "2007-03-18T21:00:46Z")
Just saw this: > [@](#): > > Originally Posted by **Little Nemo** > Did you ever stop and consider that a lot of black Americans have some very good reasons to have bad memories about the South? And those reasons had nothing to do with their ancestors. The South that black people experienced was very different than the South that white people lived in. Being a black American whose parents grew up in the South during the Jim Crow era, yes, I’m well aware of that. I’ve heard some of my parents’ stories\* about what that was like. And I know that there are stories that they’ve never told because of memories they’d rather not revive. But I also know that the South that I experienced when I was growing up was very different than the South my parents experienced when they were young. And that the South I’m living in today is different than the one I grew up in. Hell, I’ve had my own experiences with prejudice and racism—although, interestingly, not so much as a child growing up in the South as a young adult living and going to school in other areas of the country. But I’d be a fool to try to equate anything I’ve experienced with what my parents and my grandparents (and so on) lived through. The people who made these comments to me seemed to be willfully ignorant of the reality that the South—as a whole—has not remained frozen in time. Some parts of it, maybe, but that’s true of any other region of the country as well. Besides, these folks were of my generation and none of them had ever spent more than a week or two in the South. So their comments had little or nothing to do with bad _ **memories** _, only with negative _ **associations** _ and _ **stereotypes** _, the validity of which they seemed to have little interest in questioning or challenging. \*Interestingly, not all of them negative. Some of them, for example, about the stronger sense of community and connectedness among black folks prior to desegregation. ---
**Author:** ![2pelo\_honey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/2/ecb155/32.png) [@2pelo\_honey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2pelo_honey)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2007, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-town-in-america/390635/166 "2007-03-18T21:38:31Z")
[QUOTE=tashabot] [Reading, Pennsylvania](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reading%2C_PA). 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](http://readingpa.areaconnect.com/crime1.htm), 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 [/QUOTE] My brother lives about 25-30 min outside of Reading, towards Phil, and has told me the same thing. The % of crime per capita is unbelievable, and his wife doesn’t even feel comfortable going to the Old Navy store downtown during the daytime. ---
**Author:** ![fuzzy\_fern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/50afbb/32.png) [@fuzzy\_fern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fuzzy_fern)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2007, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-town-in-america/390635/167 "2007-03-19T02:21:21Z")
Technically a city: Taunton, MA Depressing, dirty, and small-minded. Residents of this dystopia possess the delightful ‘TA’ [taunton attitude] which consists of extreme clannishness and general snootiness to ‘non-townies’. come to think of it, Middleboro, MA is the same way ---
**Author:** ![Skara\_Brae](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f0a364/32.png) [@Skara\_Brae](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skara_Brae)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2007, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-town-in-america/390635/168 "2007-03-19T03:55:34Z")
> [@](#): > > Taunton, MA Oh, come on…at least you have a nice mall… 🙂 I used to live in RI and we drove up there all the time, just for the mall… ---
**Author:** ![The\_Spirit\_of\_Radio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e19b73/32.png) [@The\_Spirit\_of\_Radio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Spirit_of_Radio)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2007, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-town-in-america/390635/169 "2007-04-01T21:19:31Z")
Philadelphia is a pretty nice city overall, I went there on a class trip, but some of the parts we had to go through to get to the Franklin Institute were pretty crummy. ---
**Author:** ![maryanne72856](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8491ac/32.png) [@maryanne72856](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/maryanne72856)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2010, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-town-in-america/390635/170 "2010-08-15T19:41:17Z")
plant city florida to many mexicans a shithole. big spring tx…a horrible town. dry and no grass. houston is big but very dangerous MB ---
**Author:** ![Gil-Martin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Gil-Martin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gil-Martin)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2010, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-town-in-america/390635/171 "2010-08-15T20:26:09Z")
> [@DJ\_Motorbike](#): > > [QUOTE=Traymoon] > > Of course I wouldn’t want anyone to Judge all of Wisconsin, or the Upper Midwest for that matter because they once visited Rockford Illinois. So, I guess I should just shut up. 😉 Rockford’s not all bad . . . ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2010, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-town-in-america/390635/172 "2010-08-15T20:46:45Z")
Raccoon City’s looking pretty bad this time of the year… ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2010, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-town-in-america/390635/173 "2010-08-15T21:48:43Z")
> [@maryanne72856](#): > > plant city florida to many mexicans a shithole. big spring tx…a horrible town. dry and no grass. houston is big but very dangerous > > MB You should definitely avoid Houston. ---
**Author:** ![Gleena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b3f665/32.png) [@Gleena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gleena)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2010, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-town-in-america/390635/174 "2010-08-15T22:53:27Z")
> [@maryanne72856](#): > > plant city florida to many mexicans a shithole. big spring tx…a horrible town. dry and no grass. houston is big but very dangerous > > MB To many Mexicans, it might be! But to other Mexicans, not so much. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2010, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-town-in-america/390635/175 "2010-08-15T22:53:48Z")
> [@fuzzy\_fern](#): > > Technically a city: Taunton, MA > Depressing, dirty, and small-minded. > Residents of this dystopia possess the delightful ‘TA’ [taunton attitude] which consists of extreme clannishness and general snootiness to ‘non-townies’. > come to think of it, Middleboro, MA is the same way Hey, I know this thread is old but my new boss is from Middleboro and one of my coworkers is from Taunton. Hmmm, maybe you have a point that there is no way either one of those makes the top 10,000 worst places list in the U.S. They are just barely trashy in that Massachusetts kind of way but not terrible. They are even sort of pretty. ---
**Author:** ![IdahoMauleMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/71c47a/32.png) [@IdahoMauleMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IdahoMauleMan)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2010, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-town-in-america/390635/176 "2010-08-16T04:18:08Z")
> [@tashabot](#): > > [QUOTE=scotandrsn] > > He says it’s Battle Mountain, Nevada. I think he is truly underestimating the suck-ness of some of Nevada’s towns. Ely, Wells, Jackpot, and Pahrump are all, IMO, a lot worse than Battle Mountain. And then there’s Winnemucca, home of the yearly bedstead races (they literally race beds minus their mattresses and box springs down a hill in the center of town). [/QUOTE] Been to all of them. They do suck. But the worst of all is Beatty, NV (down near Pahrump). I think Pahrump at least advertises a golf course, even if it is just mostly sand. Try having a flat tire there on a searing-hot weekend evening in September with a family, including small kids who need to find some cold milk. Not $3 bottles of whiskey. Not cigarettes. Not cheap, digusting whores who look like they just escaped from a prisoner of war camp. Just a small bottle of cold milk. An extraordinarily unpleasant place. ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2010, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-town-in-america/390635/177 "2010-08-16T04:51:05Z")
I’m thinkin’ Galveston. Livin’ in a place with the most radical of capitalists and republican anarchy that gets hit by reoccurring hurricanes… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-town-in-america/390635.md?page=8)