LEAST favorite city in the USA

I find some of the cities Upstate New York pretty boring.

Slightly off-topic but (so far) my least favorite state is Florida.

L.A. Those snotty bastards dominate the Oly and WC medals, college NCs, and Pro champs year after year and nobody cares in L.A. I've never seen a worse bunch of fans than in L.A.

You know what I hate more than a dying city? It's miles and miles of suburban sprawl. I live in metro Detroit and I am actually more depressed driving around Macomb county than going down Mt Elliot, Hamilton, or any other abandoned area of Detroit.

gv10k wrote:

I came across this article today and thought I should post it here. Flint, Michigan came up from several people as one of the worst cities in America, but I'm not sure that entirely accurate anymore. Lots of folks are working to improve Flint, and now the city's high schoolers actually have a really nice new track to train and compete on!

http://www.mlive.com/flintjournal/sports/index.ssf/2008/04/city_high_schools_back_on_track_with_new_facility.html

I used to live in Flint when they had a high school stadium good enough to host the Class A State track meet each year.

The city was still the pits and I'm glad I got out after a year.

Have lived in Houston for a few years now (because of work)

It is the crappiest place I have ever seen. The weather is horrible. It's way to hot and humid. The nature is so so ugly. It's flat like a pancake, Nothings to see, no lakes, Only disgusting bayou's full of alligators.. The beach is disgusting. The water is brown. The infrastructure is the crappiest I have ever seen. You can not go anywhere without a car. It is so spread out, you have to drive for ever to get anywhere. The people here are even more ignorant than other Americans. Yes it is so crappy it is unbelievable.

I think I might have commented on this thread a couple years ago, but my tastes have changed.

Least favorite city: Pahrump, Nevada. What. A. Dump.

At least its close to other stuff.

Denver has to be one of the worst cities in this country. Endless urban sprawl, lots of crime, it's dirty and has little to offer. There is traffic at all times of the day (people from Colorado can rubberneck anything). The only thing to like about Denver is you can be to other great towns and the mountains within a couple hours.

Least favorite city is wherever I currently live. I don't appreciate a city until I move away. Maybe I'm a pessimist or maybe a realist.

mr wrote:

Denver has to be one of the worst cities in this country. Endless urban sprawl, lots of crime, it's dirty and has little to offer. There is traffic at all times of the day (people from Colorado can rubberneck anything). The only thing to like about Denver is you can be to other great towns and the mountains within a couple hours.

You obviously haven't travelled much.

Memphis, TN

Hands down winner of this category.

thruway wrote:

take a drive along New York's thruway (route 90) and you will pass through 4 of the worst cities I've ever experienced: Utica, Syracuse, Rochester and Buffalo. Coming from Boston these 4 are all deplorable. Also, anything in Ohio or Indiana might as well be burned.

I thought Rochester was a wonderful place to work (2 weeks in summer). Really nice downtown location right on the river. Best running trails ANYWHERE.

Thursday evening X-C summer series races.

Simply loved it.

Least favorite - Las Vegas, NV. Terrible place beyond the strip.

Cleveland, OH.

It is easy to pick on small towns that got the shaft when manufacturing left. But, Cleveland has a diverse enough economy that it has no excuse.

Weather: January averages something like 24 days without sun. If you live on the east side, you get lake effect snow that is only rivaled by Buffalo. When spring finally arrives (early May), the lake acts like a giant ice cube and can keep Cleveland in the 50s when temps are hitting the 70s just thirty minutes away in Akron. Even when you luck out and get a sunny day, chances are good there will be a stiff lake breeze, which will make running/racing a bitch and send your golf ball straight up in the air. And just when a few nice summer days get strung together, the City is invaded by little "midge" flies that swarm around lighted windows at night.

People: Humorless, negative, grouchy, sour Eastern Eurpoean descendants who do not realize they are no longer living under the boot of Stalin. They talk with a midwestern cackle (car is pronounced kehrr and back sounds like beck). EVERYONE IS FAT. Not just overweight. I am talking huge morbidly obese fat.

Recreation: Lake Erie is a filthly death trap. The lake generally stays pretty cold in the summer. People go out and get all boozed up and then jump off their boat and into the lake. The cold water shocks them and they sink like a rock. Probably the most uninteresting body of water in the world.

Entertainment: The arts should be a saving grace. The orchestra and art museum are world class. But they are next to a total crap hole neighborhood on the east side. And the City let a very fine ballet group die off while everyone went nuts to try to reincarnate the crappy Browns. Rock n Roll hall of fame is a rip off. Take your $36 and get a bus ticket out of town instead.

Neighborhoods: The eastside neighborhoods still show signs of 1960s race riots. There are a few interesting victorian houses in the near west end. The remainder of the City is either dumpy multi-family houses or extra dumpy 1950s tract housing with metal awnings over all the windows.

Houston. It sucks. Bigtime.

Precious Roy wrote:

Cleveland, OH.

You've barely scratched the surface. Anyone who doesn't list Cleveland as #1 on this list has never lived there. Period.

i always hated living in sarasota, fl. naples, fl is pretty bad too. just so barren. oh, there's the beach...

Wilmington, DE

Camden, NJ. Yes I have been there. twice.

The Camden waterfront is pretty nice though. They have the battle ship New Jersey there, a decent Aquarium, a nice ballpark, and a electric trolley system. However, beyond the waterfront the city is a dive. I never venture there anyway.

NJ as a state is pretty cool, but you have to put at least 2-3 NJ cities in the top 10. That being Camden, Newark, Trenton and Patterson...take your pick. NJ seems to have the best and worst of everything. Gary IN, E. St. Louis, Baltimore, Oakland and several cities in Texas would have to be on the list as well.

Detroit gets a bad rap, but it is not as bad as people talk about and San Fran and Settle are way overrated. San Fran is surprisingly full of low lifes and Seattle's whether does not balance out all of the positives. San Diego and Monterey are pretty cool CA cities based on just visiting. Outside of Austin, pretty much all of the Texas cites are pretty bad.

Bad is a relative term, it depends on what you are looking for. I like visiting Southern cities like Memphis, Atlanta, Mobil, New Orleans, Tallahassee, etc., but I would not want to live and raise a family in any of them. If you decide to head south and live in a city, most of North and South Carolina's large cities are good or great, such as Asheville, Charlotte, Raleigh, Chapel Hill in NC and in SC, Columbia, Charleston and Savannah are ok; however, once you leave the city in NC/SC, that a whole nother story, especially in SC. A couple of NC cities could actually via for the top-10 best list.

With all of that said, I can't imagine a worst city than Camden NJ, you have to spend some time there to understand what I mean. Camden NJ is like New Jack City, although I have been there in long time and things could have improved.