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

crete 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

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

"sealocked" was definitely the best part!

No votes for Detroit? I've not been in 20 years, but it was rough then, and looks much worse now. Urban blight to the max.

Where is STL burbs do you go? There is actually some nice stuff out to the NW and SW esp if you are into running. I also visit for family reasons and have found it to be so much better then a lot of cities. Zoo and Science center are also free.

Try-ath-uh-leet wrote:

No votes for Detroit? I've not been in 20 years, but it was rough then, and looks much worse now. Urban blight to the max.

You should take a trip back if you haven't been in 20 years. I'm sure you wouldn't be shocked to hear that the media really only covers the troubles of the city.

adambeston wrote:

Where is STL burbs do you go? There is actually some nice stuff out to the NW and SW esp if you are into running. I also visit for family reasons and have found it to be so much better then a lot of cities. Zoo and Science center are also free.

Chesterfield. My client likes the Brick House restaurants where skeevie strippers serve you bad food on their night off. I was up there during the winter and just hit the treadmill. It was dark out in the morning and I did not know my way around. There was a trail on a levy nearby, but it was not lighted. It was also hovering between freezing and 40 deg in the morning with either light rain or snow.

I also went to St. Charles to poke around. Meh. Downtown was ok. The area around that park with the zoo is interesting enough. But the inner city area is just too much like Philly. You are always one wrong turn away from some pretty desperate part of town.

Beaver Falls is better. wrote:

Can anyone sing the virtues of Pittsburgh PA?

I used to really enjoy visting Pittsburgh for work. Its cheap and has a lot going on. Some good running trails too.

Check out East Liberty for some good restaurants and my favorite Church Brew Works a brewery inside an old church. Plus the Andy Warhol Museum.

Cities I disliked:

Kansas City, Missouri - White Trash, Rednecks.

Raleigh, NC - Never been to a town that had equal parts snobs and white trash.

Baltimore, MD - Dirty, boring, expensive, rumored to be the STD capital of the world.

Best Cities (I realize these are not major).

Vancouver, BC - Scenic, pretty, amazing food, clean.

Marquette, MI - Hippies and Blue Collar folks unite, Lake Superior is amazing.

Montpelier, VT or Westerly, RI - Stunning.

Another vote for San Fran. Visited on vacation and I was very disappointed. Everybody always talks about how great the culture is but all I saw was a bunch of people complaining/protesting something. Google, civil rights, housing prices, but mostly that the city wasn't what it used to be. Yeah, cities change and getting priced out of your house by techies sucks but I still think your wall art is dumb. I was also shocked by the number of young, able-bodied people just sitting in the park drinking and smoking at 9am on a Tuesday. Doesn't anybody work there? Maybe that's why you cant afford to live there any more? Having lived in Tampa and San Diego I am no stranger to homelessness but the SF homeless were a different breed. I saw bums attack tourists two times in one day.

Runner up is Albuquerque. Spent one day there on my way up to Zion and everything was brown. The landscape, the buildings, the highway overpass, the sky. Different shades of brown, sure. But still brown. Everything else in the city was so unremarkable that I cant even remember what I didn't like about it.

Favorite cities/towns I have visited are Savannah GA, West Yellowstone MT, Key West FL, and Morro Bay CA.

Precious Roy wrote:

. There was a trail on a levy nearby, but it was not lighted. It was also hovering between freezing and 40 deg in the morning with either light rain or snow.

The local bicyclists managed to pave what could have been a nice soft-surface trail. Chesterfield is actually very nice, though, so you're wrong about that. If you went over to St. Charles you apparently missed a bunch of trails.

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.

What makes you think the Charlotte racists are repressed?

Good one. 0/10

You know your stuff about TX cities. Two things to add:1) You're not going to stay anywhere near any of the good parts of DFW as a business traveler (and don't oversell McKinney).2) It's not thaaaat hard to find good parts of Austin hat aren't overrun. Go about 3 miles north of downtown (North Campus, Burnet Rd, North Loop, Rosedale--home of the Draughthouse, the best bar in the world-- or Allandale and just find wine neighborhood place and it'll be great) and find a neighborhood place and you won't be disappointed. And again, that's 3 miles (less than $15 in an Uber) from downtown.

Also, whoever said Hartford, I might actually be changing my vote. I was there once for a weekend for business and I've been trying to forget it (apparently successfully, until your post) ever since.

I agree that Baltimore is expensive and can sketchy or worse depending on where you go. But boring? Off of the top my head: National Aquarium, Maryland Science Center, Walters Art Museum, Mt. Vernon. You can find great food throughout the city. You can go to bars and restaurants all over Charles St, Federal Hill, Fell's Point, Inner Harbor, Little Italy, Canton. From April-early January you have home baseball or football games. It is definitely not the best city around but FAR from boring and has plenty of places to go/things to see. Just research where you are going before you go there.

LetItHappen wrote:

Cities I disliked:

Kansas City, Missouri - White Trash, Rednecks.

Raleigh, NC - Never been to a town that had equal parts snobs and white trash.

Baltimore, MD - Dirty, boring, expensive, rumored to be the STD capital of the world.

Best Cities (I realize these are not major).

Vancouver, BC - Scenic, pretty, amazing food, clean.

Marquette, MI - Hippies and Blue Collar folks unite, Lake Superior is amazing.

Montpelier, VT or Westerly, RI - Stunning.

Metro Phoenix is just one giant parking lot.

A lot of the parking lot is reserved fror Walmart customers, but there is a little space for chipotle and Chico customers as well.

Most parking spaces, however, are reserved for angry geriatric conservatives from Omaha- who are about to embark on the ultimate shopping trip to hell.

Tucson, Arizona

Cons:

- Too red (still has tons of homeless and meth heads)

- Looks like a poor wasteland. I feel like I travel back in time when I go there.

- Food and dining is weird.

- Too country

- ugly

- cactus

Pros

- heat

- cycling (although I don't cycle)

- U of A is good I hear

- great half marathon - flat, small, fast (no scenery)

- hiking and mountains

Looking Up wrote:

Riverside, CA.

My sister moved there and I visited. It wasn't terrible; maybe it's improved since you went. Smog levels are definitely lower than they were in LA county 10 years ago -- we had crisp views of the mountains. Downtown Riverside felt like a small town, which was nothing special but alright.

LetItHappen wrote:

Cities I disliked:

Kansas City, Missouri - White Trash, Rednecks.

Raleigh, NC - Never been to a town that had equal parts snobs and white trash.

Baltimore, MD - Dirty, boring, expensive, rumored to be the STD capital of the world.

Best Cities (I realize these are not major).

Vancouver, BC - Scenic, pretty, amazing food, clean.

Marquette, MI - Hippies and Blue Collar folks unite, Lake Superior is amazing.

Montpelier, VT or Westerly, RI - Stunning.

Yeah! Score one for VT!

I think any city that regularly draws large amount of tourists (NYC, DC, San Fran) is not truly in the conversation for worst cities; at least there are legitimate attractions and reasons to visit, whether you like the ambiance of the place or not.

On the whole, Detroit and Cleveland are truly depressing places, both of which I am forced to visit because of family there (technically, Akron, which also sucks).

Of places I've recently been

Yes

Burlington, Vt

Portland, Me (great food)

Charleston, SC

New Orleans

DC

Boise

No

Houston

Phoenix

Las Vegas

Boston (boring)

Wilmington, De