Worst major city you're forced to visit for work or family

Texas ugh wrote:

Almost every city in Texas would get my vote. Houston. Dallas. Etc.

No mountains.

No national parks nearby.

No oceans nearby.

Hot and humid in the summer.

Cold in the winter.

Miserable winds.

At least San Antonio has the Riverwalk.

Honestly, why do Texans think their state is so great? Have they actually been to places like Colorado? Utah? northern Arizona? the Pacific Coast? the Cascades? the Sierra Nevada?

Come on people. Everyone who says Dallas has been banned. Dallas gave world myself, JK and Wejo. WIthout Dallas, there is no LetsRun.com and then what joy would there be left in the world?

Ok I'll admit the criticism of it (and Houston) being a concrete jungle is one I understand. That's why Wejo have moved to Ft. Worth. I describe Dallas/Houston as being similar to the 495 betlway in DC. Lots and lots of new stuff, chains, etc.

As for Texas. Please realize Texas is huge. Have you been to Austin? Austin has hills, an incredible state capital, river, etc. It used to be it's own country so people are proud of that. They pretty much have everything a country has. Incredible captial, beaches, desert, Rio grande, etc. One thing they don't have that most countries have - and this is huge - is a state income tax.

Texas does have some amazingparks - the Rio Grande is several days away from Dallas though.

oops, waiting for my ban notice

Any city in the U.S. South. Backwards place.

Ft worth is not much better. I lump it in with DFW, and all of DFW is devoid of identity in my opinion. It's 3,000 square miles of boring. But I shouldn't talk, I live in Nowhere, Tx. a 3 hour drive to any city people have actually heard of.

i ate cake wrote:

winnipeg

There's even a song about hating Winnipeg.

The South Sucks wrote:

Any city in the U.S. South. Backwards place.

Second this. Charlotte for example is the pits. Very insular place, unless you attend some screwy church no one will even associate with you. A lot of repressed racists down there. Not sure why this dump is even there. So glad they lost the Superbowl with their a**hole QB Newton.

I am shocked the big Florida cities haven't gotten any love (hate) on this thread. The whole state is a swampy cesspool of retirees, white trash and millennial douchebags.

Saint Louis, MO. Mostly because I hate the airport and am always shipped over there in the winter during some ice storm. I also have to go out to the soulless burbs whenever I am there. Add the whole new Ferguson vibe to all that and I do not want to go back.

Texas cities are not user friendly for business travelers. But if you take a little time to figure them out, they are great places to go. Downtown Dallas is the most bizarre place in North America. The 1980s S&L scandal resulted in building giant "victory" towers as tax shelters. The result is that there are still giant office buildings in downtown Dallas that are half full. Turn down one street and things are bustling. Turn down another and it is a ghost town. But if you do your homework, you will find the good spots. Oak Lawn and the Bishop Arts District have good restaurants and bars. So does Deep Ellum, but a bit too clubby for an old guy like me. White Rock Lake is great for a run and the Katy Trail has lots of SMU coeds for eye candy. The burbs are terrible, but there are hidden gems like downtown McKinney and Denton (home of UNT, good coffee shops and amazing live music thanks to UNT's amazing jazz program).

Houston has a restaurant scene that is on par with New York. Downtown Houston has much more life than Dallas. It does take some work to find a good spot for a drink and a bite to eat. Everything is either crazy popular and packed to the gills with a long wait or a crappy corporate chain. Feast or famine at times. But that is a good problem to have.

Austin has outgrown itself. Everything is crazy expensive and uber hip to the point of nausea. It takes a lot of work to find the few spots in town where you can hang out away from tourists and big money hipster wannabes.

San Antonio's riverwalk is a tourist trap. But San Antonio is sort of becoming what Austin used to be. Kin William and the South Flores neighborhoods have lots of great places. The Pearl Brewery development is really nice. N. St. Mary's and Tobin Hill have lots of funky places that are more Austin that a lot of Austin.

Random Dude Bro wrote:

My vote goes to San Francisco:

- no real summer

- always foggy

- quite windy

- sealocked

- too hilly

- third world highway system

- public transport is an embarrassment - I mean, really, cable cars? WTF.

- GG Bridge attracts mostly suicidal people

- and the list goes on

8/10 - you got a lot of people to respond to your trolling. I especially like the cable cars mention. Hilarious!

I liked Dallas when I lived there but I realized that I hit all the right areas the first weekend I visited and didn't find much more that I liked over the next two years. I lived in the M Streets area, across NCX from Highland Park. Running in that area was pretty nice and there were a lot of restaurants and nightlife nearby.

My favorite joke about Austin was "the only thing wrong with Austin is that it's surrounded by Texas". I only visited twice but I get the sentiment. It's somewhat of a cultural island.

Jack link wrote:

Let's keep this to major metro areas that have at least one pro sports franchise (WNBA doesn't count).

My vote goes to Dallas. LA wannabes. No real city center. Zero urban or architectural character. Too hot. Texas.

Newark, N.J.,, make it all of Noo Joisey for that matter. That show Jersey Shore epitomizes the type of white vermin that live there, but Newark is just awful. I commuted to NYC through there for years. Lucky to come out alive. Essex Catholic H.S. alma mater of Marty Liquori had to shutter cuz off it.

Random Dude Bro wrote:

My vote goes to San Francisco:

- no real summer

- always foggy

- quite windy

- sealocked

- too hilly

- third world highway system

- public transport is an embarrassment - I mean, really, cable cars? WTF.

- GG Bridge attracts mostly suicidal people

- and the list goes on

-usually sunny

-not always windy

-too hilly? just because you're bad at running hills doesn't mean there are too many of thme

- real people do not use cable cars, only tourists

- GG bridge attracts mostly runners and cyclists. you are uninformed

- 3rd world highway system means you should get your butt out of your car. this is a city, not LA.

Scalp Level wrote:

San Francisco is one of my favorite cities in the country. If you can't enjoy SF, you're a real turd.

I'm going to ignore the rules and cast my vote for Johnstown, PA. It's a sad, dying former steel/coal city with nothing at all to redeem it.

The boss included the town in his lyrics which puts it above San Francisco.

HarryThizze wrote:

Newark, N.J.,, make it all of Noo Joisey for that matter. That show Jersey Shore epitomizes the type of white vermin that live there, but Newark is just awful. I commuted to NYC through there for years. Lucky to come out alive. Essex Catholic H.S. alma mater of Marty Liquori had to shutter cuz off it.

Philly native here, so I can understand the NJ hatred. While I will say that the section of NJ along 95 and most of North Eastern NJ make up the armpit of America, there are many places in the state that are breath-takingly scenic and awesome (farmland, rivers, mountains, etc).

My vote for the worst major city to have to travel to is Orlando, FL. Just one gigantic strip-mall surrounded by screaming kids and pushy parents.

Portland is a tough place to appreciate on a first visit. Especially if you go in the winter. There are lots of neighborhoods close to downtown, that are really much more enjoyable than downtown proper but I think particularly people visiting on business may not venture to those places. Not to mention, the parks and river path are tough to enjoy in the winter. I think it wasn't until our third visit to Portland that my wife and I found things we really liked. However, I have a hard time imagining it as the worst major city considering the variety of stuff(a few museums, good food, great beer, huge park in the city, mt hood close by, Columbia gorge, some higher end shopping, pro basketball and soccer, trails along the river, and of course strip clubs).

bae area wrote:

Random Dude Bro wrote:

My vote goes to San Francisco:

- no real summer

- always foggy

- quite windy

- sealocked

- too hilly

- third world highway system

- public transport is an embarrassment - I mean, really, cable cars? WTF.

- GG Bridge attracts mostly suicidal people

- and the list goes on

-usually sunny

-not always windy

-too hilly? just because you're bad at running hills doesn't mean there are too many of thme

- real people do not use cable cars, only tourists

- GG bridge attracts mostly runners and cyclists. you are uninformed

- 3rd world highway system means you should get your butt out of your car. this is a city, not LA.

you got trolled

HarryThizze wrote:

Jack link wrote:

Let's keep this to major metro areas that have at least one pro sports franchise (WNBA doesn't count).

My vote goes to Dallas. LA wannabes. No real city center. Zero urban or architectural character. Too hot. Texas.

Newark, N.J.,, make it all of Noo Joisey for that matter. That show Jersey Shore epitomizes the type of white vermin that live there, but Newark is just awful. I commuted to NYC through there for years. Lucky to come out alive. Essex Catholic H.S. alma mater of Marty Liquori had to shutter cuz off it.

Newark probably takes the cake, but at least you can get out of the city and go somewhere nice, unlike the worst cities in the midwest.

Also, the Jersey Shore people were all Long Island types. I grew up in South Jersey and never met anyone like that, nor with that "Joisey" accent. The Joisey accent is New Yorkers or maybe the very edge of the state.

Riverside, CA.

My Dad grew up there, and when we visited family when I was a kid, it took many visits before I realized there are actually mountains right there - it was just too smoggy to see them unless the Santa Ana winds were blowing. Then the city itself was just pretty depressing.

Atlanta.

- traffic

- poorly designed highway system

- traffic

- drivers are universally incompetent

- but they make up for the incompetence with aggression

- traffic

- humidity so thick you need to spoonfeed yourself air

- spring pollen counts in the neighborhood of 10,000

- downtown, such as it is, is awful

- traffic

- endless celebration of the confederacy (aka Treason in Defense of Slavery)

- only one major sports championship (Braves, 1995)

- too many rednecks

- public transit is possibly the worst in the civilized world

- traffic

- bad culinary scene for an allegedly major international city

- music scene hasn't been decent since the early 90s

- crime

- terrible arts scene for an allegedly major international city

- Hartsfield-Jackson airport is even worse than JFK or O'Hare

- did I mention the traffic?