I’m tellin’ you, it is truly a land of lost hope for mankind. I recently read a sci-fi story called “Twilight” about what the decline of civilization was going to look like in seven million years. My argument is that the decline of civilization has already begun–and is physically embodied in the phenomenon of Jackson, Michigan.
The Eagles didn’t beat the Saints in the playoffs.
Sorry. It’s been so long and I had a lot to do this week so I forgot.
Atlantic City is also in the book. So is Camden.
I would automatically put Camden and East St. Louis at the top, only because I’ve read elsewhere that their lack of infrastructure and poverty are the among the highest, if not the highest, in the nation.
For the others? Now, please take this with a grain of salt since I’ve never personally seen them, but have only read/heard about them…any of the smaller depressed cities in the east-northeast which were once one-industry/one-factory towns. I’m thinking places along the Coal Belt, upstate NY, MI, northern OH/IN/IL…
To add to Frank’s post, I’d add Holyoke and Springfield. Amazing that anyplace more than 40 west of Boston is considered a totally different state by those of us living in the Boston area. And in a lot of ways it is. Unfortunately it’s the only remotely affordable area.
There are areas of almost any large city that I’d avoid living in. The South Bronx comes to mind.
Kotzebue, Alaska? I think that was in the Book of Lists as the worst town in the US.
I’ve never been there, but my father confirmed it was a pretty depressing place in the 1990s, characterised by pre-fab housing and an extreme amount of frozen dog turds.
The weather’s not great, either.
It looks just as bad from the air. Wouldn’t surprise me to see Tina Turner driving around (Mad Max).
Yeah, I passed through that area by mistake. I was doing Route 66, and got lost trying to find the Chain of Rocks Bridge. Pretty scary place.
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.
And how. To paraphrase Seymour Skinner, “I was only there to get directions on how to get away from there.” My travel advice for Gary? Roll up the windows and speed through it, trying to take as shallow of breaths as possible. What a sad, blighted place it is.
I think you find a lot of that in rural Small Town, America. The town I live in is much the same way-- it has loads to offer in terms of scenic and historic treasures, but for the most part, its citizens are fiercely anti-intellectual and culture is something your doctor does when you report a sore throat. Crime, traffic, racism, pollution . . . it’s got all of the problems of a big town and few of the charms that come with a small town. (No bookstores, only chain resturants . . .)
I had a friend who insisted Arkansas was an embarrassment to the United States, and I can’t help but agree. So if one of their worst towns or cities is bad, just think…
Holyoke yeah definitly…Springfield’s not TOO bad. It’s grungy but I know kids who go clubbing/dancing there, and there’s no problems. There is a lot of room for improvement…god the bus station is fucking creepy!
On a road trip my wife and I stayed overnight in Independence MO. Partly because she wanted to see the Harry Truman presidential museum and partly because it was geographically about in the middle of a two-day journey. Maybe it was just the bargain motel we stayed in (because they allowed dogs, which we had with us) but what I saw of Independence looked as though poverty were a communicable disease. I can imagine provinces of Mordor looking like Independence MO.
I vote, as many others have done, for Gary, IN. I’ve been through it many times, and not just on the highway. I don’t think that there’s a “good side” of Gary.
I’m kind of glad to see that no one’s mentioned Flint, MI yet. It usually tops these lists, and I think it gets un unfair rap. I lived in Flint for a summer, and though there are parts of it that should be avoided at all costs, it’s nowhere near as bad as some have made it out to be. I mean, there are places in Chicago and New York (other cities I’ve lived in) that you avoid at all costs as well, and believe it or not, there are a lot of people who live in Flint because they want to. My in-laws live just outside of Flint, and it’s a fairly pleasant area.
I vote for Flint, MI.
I grew up there & when I went back recently I seriously felt like I was in some kind of remake of Back to the Future-II. The amount of deterioration was abysmal. There are acres of land with barbed wire around them where Buick City and Chevrolet Manufacturing used to be.
Flint is ridiculous. My husband grew up in Grand Blanc, not far from there. It’s kind of a hell hole. I won’t ever forget going to the David’s Bridal there to pick up my SIL’s shoes. It was every bad stereotype loaded into one room. Bridal stores are usually unbearable, but this was so over the top. Racism and classism seems to be really bad there too. Being in Flint definitely gnaws at my hope for humankind a little bit.
Keeping this in mind for a moment – Jackson is way, way worse.
Okay, I’m probably a little bit defensive about this ( 
), and I apologize in advance if my response is not entirely appropriate in this forum, but…
Why would anyone assume that any given city is representative of anything other than itself? And why is it that generalizations of this sort most often seem to be made about small, southern, or rural areas, or those that are otherwise considered to be “flyover country?” And usually by people who have spent little or no time in the places that they are generalizing about. I mean, I don’t go to a city like New York or L.A. and assume that it is “typical” of the entire state or region. I don’t presume to know anything about places that I’ve never been. And I’ve found that almost every place that I have ever been has something in its character that I can genuinely appreciate, even if I wouldn’t necessarily be inspired to live there.
City limits are no barrier to ignorance, small-mindedness, anti-intellectualism, lack of culture, or any other forms of social blight that are stereotypically associated with rural and small-town America. One of the most depressing places I’ve ever lived was a major metropolitan area with much to recommend it in many respects—Chicago. The small-mindedness that I encountered there is one of the forces that motivated me to move back home after years of traipsing around in pursuit of higher education. In particular, I grew weary of constantly being assaulted by negative stereotypes about Southerners.
When I told one guy where I was from, he said, “Wow, I wouldn’t have thought you’d be from the South…you don’t look like I’d expect someone from the South to look.” “What does that mean?” “Oh, it’s not bad.” “Okay, but what does that mean?” “Well, I’d expect someone from the South to be BIG, like corn-fed.” “Oh, you mean, like I grew up milking cows and slopping hogs?” “Yeah…and picking cotton.” He was not joking. You can imagine how well that went over with a woman whose ancestors started out as slaves and sharecroppers but who have made considerable progress over the past couple of generations…
And what was most astounding to me—at least initially—was that the people who made comments like this were black and generally no more than two generations removed from the South themselves. (The guy in the “cotton-picking” anecdote above? His own mama was from Mississippi. One woman couldn’t be bothered to visit her own grandmother because Arkansas was just too “country” for her.) So it was their own heritage that they were denigrating. Once I realized that this was their way of distancing themselves from a past that is still painful for many black Americans to contemplate, it started to make more sense.
Didn’t mean to go off on a rant like this…it’s just kind of a sensitive topic for me.
Hey…I’ve been to that David’s Bridal! Anyway, I agree that Flint is ridiculous, but it’s not the worst. There is a “good side” to town.
Interesting to note, that except for Kotzebue, Alaska (of which I’ve never heard), none of the bad spots listed are in the southwest or west.
For what it’s worth, I second both Gary and E. St Lous, both of which I’ve been through, but never and any desire to stop!