lawrence regularly seems to make these lists-I’m puzzled as to why not:
-the entire town is decrepit-nothing has been built there since the early 1950’s
-the downtown is mostly boarded-up shops, with Chiropractic clinics and Accident lawyer’s Offices most of what’s letc.
-the giant red brick mills (wool textle swere the main industry in the past) mostly stand empty and detiorating
-Lawrence HS is under state receivership-the past 3 principals have been fired or gone to jail for embezzlement
-the main language spoken is spanish, next cambodian
-the HS dropout rate is >55%
-as of a few years ago, there was a house burning down at any given time
Oddly enough, its surrounded by fairly nice towns. still, a place that should be razed and rebuilt completely.
Now that they (supposedly) don’t have the russkie’s targeting them with nuclear ICBM’s, it is the best hope… 
Memphis, TN, aka the Armpit of the South.
Lakers coach Phil Jackson took criticism for saying it looked like Dresden in the 1940’s. He was being kind.
An entire city comprised of long stretches of abandoned buildings, liquor stores, check cashing places, etc. No water park, no amusement park, nothing for families to do. Unbelievable crime rates, large gang presence, etc. One safe mall, two others about to go under, one recently demolished, which was only built in 1981.
And hey, the Griswold’s experience in East St. Louis wasn’t that bad
Obviously, the plan went seriously wrong. Perhaps the term ‘McMansion’ isn’t exact, given the time of the area’s construction, but my post wasn’t intended to expose wood-rot; just resident-rot.
I was thinking about the comments made about Battle Mountain when I realized that I’ve actually been there (Ely, Wells and Winnemucca, also). The thing that is remarkable about it is how far it is from anywhere. Talk about forlorn. Another notable thing is the almost complete lack of vegetation in the high desert surrounding it. They did however, have the Human Power Vehicle Championships there in 2002.
Wells, Ely and Pahrump have brothels, so they’ve got something going for them, I guess.
Oh, hell no. Fresno was 145 on that list. That’s 52 spots better than even the New and Improved version of my hometown. Fresno doesn’t have the fog, or the prisons, or the third-generation welfare recipients. Their gangs are mostly Hispanic, without the cross-racial warfare. Their violent crime rate is barely above the national average. They’ve never even had a school shooting that I know of. The only real problem with Fresno is that it’s in the middle of nowhere.
Stockton, on the other hand is still a shithole, even after all the reforms. It was worse when I lived there. When I moved away for university, it took a while for certain differences about the way I viewed the world to sink in. I didn’t realize that not everyone views panhandlers as potentially dangerous instead of a bit pathetic. Posing as a panhandler was used by muggers to get close to victims more than once, or the bums were used as distractions or for a way to find out where you keep your money. I thought people were dangerously stupid for not looking behind them when they walked to make sure that no one was following them. I kept money in three locations so I wouldn’t lose it all if I got robbed or mugged.
After a couple of years away, I relaxed enough that I stopped automatically scanning guys for concealed weapons. And I lived in a “good” neighborhood most of the time my family was in Stockton. Imagine how paranoid I would have been if I’d lived in the bad parts, or had worse happen to me than a few close calls. Man, that place sucked.
In honor of the parallel Canada thread, please permit me to offer the twin cosmopolitan metropolises of Port Huron, MI and Sarnia, ON. But at least they both have waterfronts.
I’ve never even slowed down for Gary, but based on the freeway view alone it gets my vote. Lawrence, MA is a candidate, but it has one of my favorite airports - which, come to think of it, is in North Andover. It does have a lot of poor people in dense housing, sure, but physically it isn’t all that hopeless.
But spare a thought, please, for Findlay, Ohio. Home (at least formerly) to a Cooper Tire factory and a Heinz ketchup plant, on a hot summer night the scents of hot rubber and boiling tomatos will blend sensuously …
Findlay trivia, from Wiki:
Findlay was considered as the site of the first diverging diamond interchange in the United States. The road junction was planned for the interchange between Interstate 75 and U.S. Highway 224. State officials rejected this plan over the recommendation of city leaders, including mayor Tony Iriti, out of concerns that the unusual road layout could cause numerous accidents. The only other use of this system in the world is at a freeway interchange in Versailles, France.
The Findlay Reservoir No. 2 is the largest above ground reservoir in the state of Ohio with a capacity of 5 billion gallons of water.
For three months in the early 1960s, Findlay had the distinction of being the only community in the world where touch tone telephone service was available. Touch tone service was first introduced in Findlay on November 1, 1960.
As bad as Gary, Camden and East. St. Louis are, I usually don’t include them in discussions of worst American cities. They are terrible places thanks to forces beyond their control; racial strife, economic recession and deindustrialization, redlining by banks. blockbusting by real estate agents, and federal policies that encouraged development in outlying suburbs.
IMHO, the truly bad places are those that choose to be bad, through a lack of vision, zoning that is either nonexistent or which encourages lowest-common-denominator development, sign regulations that result in billboards and high-rise signs being as common as trees, and squandered potential. They may be economically healthy, but the face presented to the outside world seems to tell a different story; that people just don’t care, or that local leaders don’t have the will to create a great place. A short list:
- El Paso, Texas
- Cheyenne, Wyoming
- Laramie, Wyoming
- Alamogordo, New Mexico
- Clovis, New Mexico
- Gallup, New Mexico
- Pahrump, Nevada
- Las Vegas, New Mexico (not a typo)
- Pueblo, Colorado
- Valdosta, Georgia
- Winter Garden, Florida
- Kissimmee, Florida
- Goldsboro, North Carolina
- Almost every smaller city in Missouri
- Too many smaller cities in Texas; Amarillo, Abilene, Waco, whatever. Lubbock really isn’t bad in comparison.
- Truck stop clusters; Effingham, Illinois and Breezewood, Pennsylvanian are the most prominent that come to mind.
Canada has its share, too. What shitholes in southern Ontario lack in billboards and trailer parks, they more than make up for with dead downtowns and sheer, unbridled boredom. At least curling makes the winter go by faster.
One fairly good indicator of a Bad Town is that they were very early adopters of some now common technology. Witness television (Schenectady), parking meters (OKC), Dairy Queen (Joliet). I don’t like to diss Pittsburgh (radio) or Buffalo (electric street lighting), but they’ve seen Bad Town days, too.
The connection is heavy industry, which first makes a place Bad, then later tends to go bust, making it even Badder.
Dairy Queen is a technology? MMMMMMMMmmmmmm Technology…
As opposed to the paradise that is South Euclid? 
I’ve lived in both Laramie and Pueblo, enjoyed both experiences, and disagree with their inclusion on your list: Pueblo could be disqualified for the same reason that you don’t include Gary - it’s a steel mill town in which the mill employs about 10% of the people it used in its go-go days. Interestingly, it’s a little like Cleveland, in that it has a surprisingly large population of people with Eastern European heritages. It is also heavily Hispanic and relatively poor. Most of the places you name in New Mexico are likewise heavily Hispanic (or Native American) and relatively poor. Gallup is situated near a high-poverty Indian reservation.
Laramie may just be an example of a place whose leaders have different tastes than yours (or mine, for that matter). I remember it as having an active Chamber of Commerce and a strong drive to be attractive to visitors. However, what’s attractive in Laramie may not be considered attractive in, say, Shaker Heights. Not to damn it with faint praise, but for Wyoming, anyway, Laramie is a nice town.
Breezewood, PA, however, is the most blatant example of the apparent corruption of highway officials in the United States. Where else would it be considered reasonable to have to navigate a strip having several stoplights, with businesses lining the streets, just to remain on I-70?
This reminds me of a discussion I had with a college friend, regarding why students were leaving the state in droves following graduation: “We’re like rats abandoning a sinking ship.”
It’s sad, really. I am one of the many who have no intention to stay.
I actually did get away for several years. I came back for an 18 month assignment - back in 1989 - and have been here since.
Ha ha…it’s funny you that listed this. My cousin lives in Boonton and works in Morristown and flicks off Mountain Lakes when he crosses the bridge. Every day.
Why are military base-adjacent towns so crummy? Is it because having a LOT of bored young men on leave invade your town causes certain problems? Or is it because these places (military bases0 tend to be sited in remote areas? I had a friend who did some time in the airForce-and he said MINOT AFB (north dakota0 was one stop on the road to hell. Thule (greenland) wasn’t too nice either.
The difference perhaps being that you’re from there. I tried living there once, with no local family or roots, and was miserable… it seemed like that the only people who lived there were natives, so the people I worked with all had established families and roots to go home to at night. Nice for them, but lousy for unattached (non-religious) single people.
Good point! The only military town I’ve been to that seems even halfway livable is Colorado Springs. Leavenworth, Kansas was passable. Otherwise, the other ones I’ve visited can all be safely described as armpits.
- Alamogordo, New Mexico (Holloman AFB)
- Havelock, North Carolina (Cherry Point)
- Jacksonville, North Carolina (Camp LeJeune)
- El Paso, Texas (Fort Bliss)
- Clovis, New Mexico (Cannon AFB)
- Valdosta, Georgia (Moody AFB)
- Cheyenne, Wyoming (Warren AFB)
- Junction City, Kansas (Fort Riley)
- Goldsboro, North Carolina (Johnson AFB)
High-five your cousin for me. 
Look, its not the money. There are quite a few affluent towns in NJ. Some have their dregs but the vast majority aren’t anywhere near as bad. Alpine has money. Not as bad. Rumson has money. Not as bad. Essex Fells has money. Not as bad. Upper Montclair has money. Not as bad. There are some jerks in each of these towns, but my best guess is that they are well below the double-digits percent wise of each population.
But the spawn and brood of Mt. Lake? Calling them scum insults ponds. Calling them fetid rancid turds is an insult to fecal matter. Not that I’d ever wish death on them, because burying them would salt and curse the earth around them. The worst thing that I could wish on them is that they all stay right there, surrounded by their own. Like Hell, but with better cars.
How come post Katrina New Orleans hasn’t entered the discussion? There’s not a lot of good news coming out of there?
Please forgive me if I give offense. I don’t have an agenda on this. It’s an honest question.
I live next to Detroit (bad), used to live in inner city Dayton (pretty bad), been to Gary (horrible) and worked in East St. Louis for two weeks (by far the worst). A burned out building on every block and was told not to make a complete stop at the stop signs on the way out of town! When I see pictures of war torn, ravaged cities around the world I think of East St. Louis being right in there with them. 