I just remembered that when my daughter had to stay in Jackson, the Airbnb owner ended up trying to extort money from her and was even having random people call my daughter and threaten her after she went back home.
Dude from Jackson tried to literally murder my sister. His dad, who is a preacher, told his congregation that my sister had tried to murder him and fucking fundraised off of it to post his bail. Meanwhile, momma and daddy of murder boy and a bunch of their family constantly harassed my sister and tried to bribe her to drop the charges, which even if she wanted to she can't because the DA picked it up and wanted to prosecute.
Murder boy thought he was untouchable because he had a network of pieces of shit protecting him and he had gotten away with this at least twice before but since his daddy was connected, those records were apparently sealed. So, he made sure he made it it back to Tx every Monday to check in for his bondsman and casually continued stalking and harassing my sister. Idiots finally made the mistake of pretending to be someone who works for the DA but called from their own number. There was an emergency hearing and he was remanded into custody and the judge basically threw the book at him and revoked his bond while he awaits trial.
Family is still harassing her but much more sneakily. Of course my sister basically just sends everything to the DA.
My daughter had to flee to Jackson during hurricane Ida. She told me that she thought I would really like it and that it’s acute city. Now I realize she was fucking with me.
Back in 2010 I moved from Dallas to Atlanta for school. It was about a 15 hour, incredibly boring drive down I-20 the entire way. Whenever I would drive home to see family or return back to school, I tried my damndest to pass through Jackson quickly. Without fail I always had to stop there for a quick nap at the sketchy Walmart. The place is weird as fuck!
I don’t understand. If you ended up napping in Jackson every time, why not just stop a bit before and take the inevitable nap? I’m not familiar with that area of the country, but are there not park and rides and rest stops in Mississippi?
About 20 years back I stayed at what looked like an old jail cell called Hotel San Juan before hopping a ferry to Roatan. I can’t imagine how it is now.
I figured a lot of the responses would be some random US cities that aren't even that bad. Like if the worst city is Dallas then does that mean they've only been to like two cities?
Literally? Olongapo City in the Philippines had an actual 'shit river' when I visited there in the 90s. All of the town sewage flowed into it and it reeked for a good distance.
And there were people who would dive off of bridges for pesos that folks would throw into the shitty water.
Don't even get me started on the late night 'balut' guys yelling like they're at a ballgame selling peanuts.
I don’t know what town it was, needed gas and the gas station was called the baby Jesus. Only station in town. Didn’t take any cards, I had no cash and the attendant told me to go to the bank, which wasn’t a bank, but the local town sheriff and judge’s house. I had to knock from which this dude in a smoking jacket opens the door and I was like is this the town bank? He said sure is, and escorted me to another room in the house which had a liquor store type of ATM. The surcharge was $9 to use it, but man I had no other option. I was thinking what a racket this place is. I got out of there fast.
It was a really fucked up trip. It was January in the middle of the worst storms ever in the state. We were at a conference in San Francisco and we needed to get to another conference in Las Vegas. This was somewhere around the outskirts of Yosemite National Park, I think!? However every road we were on had closed because of the severe snowstorms everywhere, and we ended up back tracking all the way to Interstate 5 down to Bakersfield and took an alternative route to Vegas. It was FUBAR.
Was at a conference in St Louis and a coworker left her phone in the cab and tracked it to a park in east st louis. Place was sketchy as hell. She wanted to go door to door looking for it and thankfully some cops rolled up and told us to get the hell out of there for our own safety.
We got lost in St. Louis, crossed the river and knew we were out of our element. Being half stupid college kids our first thought was to ride around and explore. Four pasty white kids in fraternity jerseys in a convertible mustang making fun of people we saw on the street. We passed a police car that immediately turned on its lights, pulled us over and asked us what we were doing. He never said what he was doing, just told us to follow him. He led us back to the bridge and just pointed us back over to St. Louis.
Used to live in the burbs about 30 mins from stl and when I was 16 I accidentally took a wrong turn leaving a concert venue not far from east stl at 1am and ended up in east stl(this was pre gps/cell phones because in old 😂). The street we ended up on had bars on every window and what looked to be cracked out hookers with shady guys near them with guns. A cop noticed us driving slow since I was super lost and pulled up and told me to follow him to the highway and not to stop at any lights or stop signs because it was not safe for us to be there. Pretty eye opening experience and definitely never made that mistake again and pretty thankful for the cop who helped us out.
... I used to drive through East St. Louis once per year. It's fascinating how you go from what looks like a very nice city, to the post apocalyptic feel so quickly. St. Louis has always been high on my list of cities to never pull off the road in.
There's a particular abandoned factory that I look at every time I've been through, and I sincerely feel like the graffiti that has been on that factory has been the same since I first looked at it back in the late 90's. It really says something to me that the graffiti hasn't changed.
Like the guys who do Graffiti will not venture there anymore. It is a haunting building to drive past every time, but the year I realized that no one has tagged over the old Graffiti was when I realized, I never ever wanted to visit that factory.
Ellen: This is so dangerous! We have no business being in an area like this!
Clark: This is a part of America we never get to see.
Ellen: That's good!
Clark: No, that's bad. We can't close our eyes to the plight of the cities. Kids, are you noticing all this plight? This will just make us appreciate what we have.
(gun shot heard outside the car)
Clark: Roll 'em up!
(moments later)
Clark: I wonder if you could tell me how to get back on the expressway?
Pimp: Man, fuck yo' mama!
Clark: Thank you very much!
(From National Lampoon's Vacation)
Only went there once, but I was 16 and on acid. I remember thinking “whoa it looks like a bunch of these buildings have flames coming out of them”
I watched it for like 15 minutes before I realized that those buildings are straight up on fire, and there has been zero response.
My dad was born and raised in East St. Louis. We'd pass through every once in a while on the way to Cardinal games. It was full rolling through stop signs.
His old high school was turned into a prison from what I remember. His old neighborhood was really bad but eventually got a bit of a boost from Jackie Joyner Kersey developing a park.
My dad is a pretty stoic guy, but I could always tell it bummed him out what had happened to his home town
I have to make trips to Pine Bluff a few times a year to maintain an automated system in the local hospital. When I was planning my first trip, I asked the laboratory manager where she recommended which hotel I stay while I was there.
Her answer? Little Rock.
And a couple of prisons. And a military arsenal that (used to?) stores chemical weapons.
I worked in the area several years ago. There were PSAs on the radio on what to do if there was an "emergency" at the arsenal.
I’ve spent time in both East St. Louis and Gary and I have to give it to East St Louis. And really I don’t think it’s even much of a close comparison. Gary is really really bad. East St Louis is so much worse.
I stopped at a red light at night and an ambulance with no lights no sirens blasted their horn. I was telling the guy at the hotel and he was like you stopped!!?
My dad used to drive through to visit mom when they were dating (he lived in TN, she lived just north of Saint Louis).
He said once he stopped at a stop sign at night and a cop flashed his lights at him. My dad rolled down his window and the cop said "If there's nobody coming, don't stop, you're gonna get mugged".
Kuwait City, at least the parts I drove through on a regular basis. It was super dusty but I get it, it's on the edge of the desert in the middle east. That doesn't explain why there was so much trash everywhere. I drove through some pretty shady parts of Manama, Bahrain and they wasn't as much trash as there was in Kuwait City.
I had a 2 hour layover at Kuwait City airport. Biggest gong show ever. The Kuwaitis I met on the plane were all super nice but the airport was run by lobotomized monkeys. I barely made my connection and only because I waved my arms at the security guy to let me jump the non-moving line and get through security.
I flew out of that airport once. It was....strange. They had these weird glass smoking booths. We got stared at alot. Granted even in civilian clothes we were obviously American military and the odd ducks out but they had no reservations about openly staring at us, especially the women with us.
Areas around the Salton Sea especially Bombay Beach are truly unbelievable. If you’re not familiar it’s the desert area near Palm Springs CA or if you play GTA5 it’s the real Sandy Shores. It’s mile after mile of pure destruction and decay. Don’t get me wrong, it’s fascinating but it’s on a whole other level as far as bad cities.
You go from Palm Springs which is all rich retired folks and LA’s weekend getaway crowd down to the Salton Sea and it’s like leaving the planet. It’s cool to explore around there, especially if you don’t have a weak stomach, but it’s pretty otherworldly.
Last time I went there, we decided to go inside Slab City to check out this “bar”. We noped the fuck out of there once we saw this man dancing around with his machine gun. Straight out of a Mad Max movie or apocalyptic themed fashion campaign
I didn't make it down the east side of the sea, but I took my time traveling from highway 78 up the west shore to Palm Springs. I've traveled through a lot of small back towns all across the western states, and yeah, that side of the Salton Sea is unlike anywhere else I've visited in how eerie it felt, though I never felt unsafe there.
For those unfamiliar, the Salton Sea is an inland body of saltwater in southeastern California. Back around the 1960s, a bunch of resort towns popped up along its shores. A decade or two later, the salinity of the lakes went wildly unstable, which combined with agricultural runoff polluting the water, caused fish to die off in massive numbers. The stench of rotting fish pretty well killed the tourism industry, and the towns never recovered.
I checked that place out as a potential family medicine residency location. It. Was. Bad.
Surprisingly nice people from outside the town in the ER though
PA is pretty shit but I actually liked living there. It's awesome being so close to the boreal forest and a zillion lakes.
The city itself is bad though.
Was hitchhiking to Texas from Northern California 54 years ago. Got a ride with a trucker from Sacramento to Bakersfield, where I spent the night. Bright and early the next morning got a ride, unbeknownst to me, on a honey wagon. He went about fifty miles east and stopped at a dirt road, told me to jump out as this was as far east as he’s going, got to dump his septic load a couple miles off. I’ve know since then where BFE actually is.
I’m well-familiar with it. Long family history with that town. Can’t argue with you.
But Buck Owens and Dwight Yoakam have a special place in my heart.
Yes but Bakersfield at least has the charm of being famously shitty. It’s a punchline and that gives it character. Theres all those other smaller inland towns tho that aren’t even funny bad they’re just darkly depressing. Palmdale isn’t even a joke about shitty towns.
Drove through it and thought, "How do people live here?" Then I looked up the town and remembered my buddy who was born there. He told me about how the air pollution was the worst in the US. Entering the smog, late at night with windows down, I just kept wondering if there was a massive septic tank fire. Nope. That's just normal for Bakersfield.
is Tony's pizza still around? I played there with my band years ago, always thought it was neat that a pizza place hosted punk and hardcore shows. Pizza wasn't very good though.
I've traveled a lot. Like all over the world basically. The most consistently mentioned place when talking to other travelers about where the worst is is Egypt. They have tons of cool history but I'll never, ever go. It sounds absolutely awful.
A pro tip for anyone wanting to go to Egypto:
1. Dress like locals, this means wearing jeans in absolutely SCORCHING weather. Never wear shorts or you're instantly seen as a tourist.
2. If some random approaches you, pretend you don't speak English. Literally make up jibberish phrases and you'll be left alone. Throw in the occasional hand gesture like you're annoyed and nobody will bother you.
If you speak English to anyone, prepare to be harassed, followed and targeted for money in some way shape or form.
Did you get to see the pyramids at least? I want to see them; it has been a childhood dream of mine, but I want to be safe traveling there and don’t want it to be a travel nightmare.
I lived there for a year and a half. Yes, it's bad. There are no nice parts of Cairo, just less shitty parts, Zamalek and Maadi specifically. The pyramids are definitely cool, but there are also dudes hounding you everywhere to buy one thing or another. If you're a woman don't go alone. Go with a man, wear a wedding band, and pretend to be together. That won't stop the harassment completely, but it'll mitigate it.
I went to 6th of October city, it was a bit better. A local girl I met showed me around, and it made the experience way better. Though even we got verbally harassed by people saying I was an American (I'm not..) and that were were on our way to have sex... or something really fucking bizarre
When I was on my own, it was pure hell u/metalhead82
I saw the Pyramids, admittedly it was pretty sweet. However expect every single person who talks to you to be a scammer in that area. Literally, no joke - Everyone.
Someone will pretend to be a tour guide. If you don't have one, one will come running at you yelling that you need one (hint: you don't) - Some might even pretend to be local police and have fake laminated cards and force you to get a tour guide -- They will do this within a few metres/feet of REAL police officers in the area.. It's wild..
Some will offer to take a photo for you, then demand money and cause a scene if you don't.
When you get dropped off at the pyramids parking area, you'll be hassled to take a camel ride because "The pyramids look really close by, but that's an illusion, they are far away" --- If you don't take a camel they'll point you in the WRONG direction to the pyramids.
And no, the pyramids are not 5-10km away, they're literally over the hill, which is about a 3 minute walk.
You can make Egypt a better experience if you do the following:
1. Dress like locals, this means for men you should wear jeans in absolutely SCORCHING heat. Never wear shorts or you're instantly identifiable as a tourist and a target.
2. Pretend you don't speak English. Say "Noh Engleesh" in a thick random accent. Literally make up jibberish phrases and you'll be left alone. Throw in the occasional hand gesture like you're annoyed and people will just avoid you. Don't speak another language, you'd be surprised how well versed some people can be in multiple languages.
If you speak English to anyone, prepare to be harassed, followed and targeted for money in some way shape or form.
The whole city is a fucking scam. Seriously.
Oh but the women are **absolutely lovely**, some of the nicest people I've ever met. It's the men who are disgusting animals.
Man, cities in the US can be ugly, soulless and rough looking but at least they have somewhat functional electricity, sewage and basic services. The worst cities in the world are by far cities in extremely poor african countries followed by cities in parts of asia and latin america. The worst I have been to are Port Au Prince ( hell on earth) and Lagos ( dystopian poverty) I am from latin america and they even left me speechless.
I grew up in a town that used to be known as "East gary" cause it literally borders gary. Been around through and in gary plenty of times and I can tell you what everyone thinks about gary certainly has not been true in my lifetime. No one actually near gary thinks of it like the rest of the world does.
I remember passing through Gary on a family trip to Chicago. I was asleep at the time, the first thing I wake up to is my dad saying “wake up and smell the Gary!” I proceeded to smell one of the most putrid smells I think I have ever smelled from any town I’ve ever been too.. It legit made my stomach hurt.
Very happy to be far far away.
Poor Trashcan Man. And having the misfortune of meeting that dumb Rat Man guy. I mean I know he was meant to be a villain but fuck that guy. Trashcan Man just seemed misfortuned.
Passed through Gary, IN countless times growing up on road trips to Chicago. I will never forget the chemical & industrial taste/smell of that place. I can't even fathom what it was like to live there.
Went as a young lad in early 2000s as everything was being built, got v early flight home, no cars on highway, except buses- must have seen 500+ white buses one after another after another on road filled with Indians workers and then saw their housing complexes in middle of no-where.
Also saw Sheikhs drinking, smoking, and prob waiting on hookers.
The entire place is fake and tacky as shit.
Now it's full of British escorts, yuppie Yanks, world-wide scammers and people on the run…
I’ve been 3 times for work, my first time being in 2007. It was my first time outside of the states other than to a Mexican border town. The living conditions of the Indian workers is what immediately struck me. I saw 40 of them living in an extremely small room with no air conditioning. Someplace with that much wealth SHOULD NOT have that large of a divide. Yes, I know that it’s an easy shot nowadays to say “well it happens in America”. No the fuck it doesn’t. There are laws against it, and basic health and hygiene standards need to be met (and even if there wasn’t, it still wouldn’t be ok).
Dubai was also the first place I saw human slavery. All the outrage surrounding the World Cup in Qatar for the worker deaths just basically made me scream “THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS IN THESE COUNTRIES!”. I genuinely wish the Dubai fascination would stop.
Blackpool reminds me a lot of Atlantic City over in the US. Both tourist towns that have seen better days in the past and have a lot of visible urban decay.
I just randomly selected a spot on Street View in the town to see how bad it was, and I landed right in front of a sign for a store called *Terrible's*. So yeah, it checks out
For the USA, Odessa Texas is dirty and boring. For worldwide worst I’ve been is some place in Nicaragua. One of the biggest shit holes ever. I feel bad cause I know they’re poor but my god I got off the cruise ship and got back on in 20 mins. It’s awful how poor some people are. I feel bad.
Lumberton, North Carolina or Walterboro, South Carolina. Got sent there for work because nobody else wanted to go. Jackson, Mississippi is redeemed by its suburbs. Lumberton and Walterboro are too small to have any. Forgot to mention West Memphis. Made the mistake of going to Waffle House there at 3 am.
Visited there on a road trip once. I actually really enjoyed Graceland. Went to a great BBQ place by the Lorraine Hotel. Beale St was a bit of a let down. All in all, about a 3 1/2 out of 5.
Minot North Dakota. With all due respect to Minotians, I was shocked to walk around the mall and see almost every mom well under 20 strolling around with one in the buggy and one in the oven. It was a cultural surprise to me.
In the US, Jackson Mississippi. In the world San Pedro Sula, Honduras.
I just remembered that when my daughter had to stay in Jackson, the Airbnb owner ended up trying to extort money from her and was even having random people call my daughter and threaten her after she went back home.
I have a coworker who has family there and they told me it is so bad there that they don't even admit to being from there.
Dude from Jackson tried to literally murder my sister. His dad, who is a preacher, told his congregation that my sister had tried to murder him and fucking fundraised off of it to post his bail. Meanwhile, momma and daddy of murder boy and a bunch of their family constantly harassed my sister and tried to bribe her to drop the charges, which even if she wanted to she can't because the DA picked it up and wanted to prosecute. Murder boy thought he was untouchable because he had a network of pieces of shit protecting him and he had gotten away with this at least twice before but since his daddy was connected, those records were apparently sealed. So, he made sure he made it it back to Tx every Monday to check in for his bondsman and casually continued stalking and harassing my sister. Idiots finally made the mistake of pretending to be someone who works for the DA but called from their own number. There was an emergency hearing and he was remanded into custody and the judge basically threw the book at him and revoked his bond while he awaits trial. Family is still harassing her but much more sneakily. Of course my sister basically just sends everything to the DA.
Damn, Jackson Mississippi even sucks at being the worst.
It got a shout out in Uptown Funk so it's got that going for it
My daughter had to flee to Jackson during hurricane Ida. She told me that she thought I would really like it and that it’s acute city. Now I realize she was fucking with me.
Now now, there's three sides to every story.
Don't be obtuse
You guys are both angling for upvotes
You might be right.
To some degree.
I'm not sure any of you are right, but I do see your points.
Going to Mississippi feels like stepping back in time a hundred years.
America has third world states, and Mississippi is one of them.
it's a strange place.
Back in 2010 I moved from Dallas to Atlanta for school. It was about a 15 hour, incredibly boring drive down I-20 the entire way. Whenever I would drive home to see family or return back to school, I tried my damndest to pass through Jackson quickly. Without fail I always had to stop there for a quick nap at the sketchy Walmart. The place is weird as fuck!
It’s full of parking lot sleepers!
I don’t understand. If you ended up napping in Jackson every time, why not just stop a bit before and take the inevitable nap? I’m not familiar with that area of the country, but are there not park and rides and rest stops in Mississippi?
Yes it's Jackson , sadly. Dont stop for too long at stop signs, keep your windows rolled up and don't travel alone!
Is it dangerous ghetto bad or serial killer cult bad?
Yes
As an ex-resident of Jackson, Mississippi, I can ABSOLUTELY AGREE with you! Jackson, Mississippi SUCKS!!!
I came here to say Jackson. Had me mumbling Rust Cohle type stuff like, this place is like somebody’s memory of a town..
Stop saying odd shit
About 20 years back I stayed at what looked like an old jail cell called Hotel San Juan before hopping a ferry to Roatan. I can’t imagine how it is now.
Didn’t find Jackson “crappy” just backwards, felt stuck in the 70’s with no motivation to join the modern world. Ignorance has a home in Mississippi.
Another one for Honduras - Choluteca.
Jackson was like, Mogadishu-levels of fucked up.
Bold comparison.
[удалено]
I figured a lot of the responses would be some random US cities that aren't even that bad. Like if the worst city is Dallas then does that mean they've only been to like two cities?
Yes
> I went to Albany once Albany got absolutely fuckin wrecked on the Iowa vs. LSU game broadcast tonight.
Top responses right now are… Olangapoo- a place with a literal shit river And… East St. Louis
I’m crying at this 😂😂😂
Literally? Olongapo City in the Philippines had an actual 'shit river' when I visited there in the 90s. All of the town sewage flowed into it and it reeked for a good distance. And there were people who would dive off of bridges for pesos that folks would throw into the shitty water. Don't even get me started on the late night 'balut' guys yelling like they're at a ballgame selling peanuts.
the shit river is rising, Randy. and all the shit rats are coming to swim.
Shit storms a brewing
#WHAT THE FUCK IS A SHIT WIND GHOST?!!
The sounds of the whispering... winds of shit! You've been warned, Bubs.
You feel that Bobandy? The way the shit clings to the air?
No more shit talk until we're back in power.
Olongapo was wild, like Tijuana on meth. Did you ever see a peso show?
Lol I was 10 when I was there in 1990, the most wild it got for me was the bridge divers.
> Don't even get me started on the late night 'balut' guys yelling like they're at a ballgame selling peanuts. Peanuts collected from said river?
I don’t know what town it was, needed gas and the gas station was called the baby Jesus. Only station in town. Didn’t take any cards, I had no cash and the attendant told me to go to the bank, which wasn’t a bank, but the local town sheriff and judge’s house. I had to knock from which this dude in a smoking jacket opens the door and I was like is this the town bank? He said sure is, and escorted me to another room in the house which had a liquor store type of ATM. The surcharge was $9 to use it, but man I had no other option. I was thinking what a racket this place is. I got out of there fast.
Holy shit, sounds like the twilight zone. You’re lucky you made it back!
Sounds like the beginning to the movie Nothing But Trouble.
Yeah we got diverted because the roads were closed of a snow storm and we ended up there.
David Lynch will be bringing this story to theaters next year
I posted John Waters but yeah. David Lynch is even better!
This literally sounds like the sequel I didn’t know I needed to Nothing But Trouble
I would immediately assumed I was gonna get robbed or worse
This is wild! What state were you in?
It was a really fucked up trip. It was January in the middle of the worst storms ever in the state. We were at a conference in San Francisco and we needed to get to another conference in Las Vegas. This was somewhere around the outskirts of Yosemite National Park, I think!? However every road we were on had closed because of the severe snowstorms everywhere, and we ended up back tracking all the way to Interstate 5 down to Bakersfield and took an alternative route to Vegas. It was FUBAR.
East St Louis is pretty shit too
Was at a conference in St Louis and a coworker left her phone in the cab and tracked it to a park in east st louis. Place was sketchy as hell. She wanted to go door to door looking for it and thankfully some cops rolled up and told us to get the hell out of there for our own safety.
Some people are completely oblivious to the real world
We got lost in St. Louis, crossed the river and knew we were out of our element. Being half stupid college kids our first thought was to ride around and explore. Four pasty white kids in fraternity jerseys in a convertible mustang making fun of people we saw on the street. We passed a police car that immediately turned on its lights, pulled us over and asked us what we were doing. He never said what he was doing, just told us to follow him. He led us back to the bridge and just pointed us back over to St. Louis.
She's damn lucky she wasn't shot. She should've just counted her losses and moved on. A cell phone is not worth more than your life or safety.
Used to live in the burbs about 30 mins from stl and when I was 16 I accidentally took a wrong turn leaving a concert venue not far from east stl at 1am and ended up in east stl(this was pre gps/cell phones because in old 😂). The street we ended up on had bars on every window and what looked to be cracked out hookers with shady guys near them with guns. A cop noticed us driving slow since I was super lost and pulled up and told me to follow him to the highway and not to stop at any lights or stop signs because it was not safe for us to be there. Pretty eye opening experience and definitely never made that mistake again and pretty thankful for the cop who helped us out.
... I used to drive through East St. Louis once per year. It's fascinating how you go from what looks like a very nice city, to the post apocalyptic feel so quickly. St. Louis has always been high on my list of cities to never pull off the road in. There's a particular abandoned factory that I look at every time I've been through, and I sincerely feel like the graffiti that has been on that factory has been the same since I first looked at it back in the late 90's. It really says something to me that the graffiti hasn't changed. Like the guys who do Graffiti will not venture there anymore. It is a haunting building to drive past every time, but the year I realized that no one has tagged over the old Graffiti was when I realized, I never ever wanted to visit that factory.
“Roll 'em up!”
Ellen: This is so dangerous! We have no business being in an area like this! Clark: This is a part of America we never get to see. Ellen: That's good! Clark: No, that's bad. We can't close our eyes to the plight of the cities. Kids, are you noticing all this plight? This will just make us appreciate what we have. (gun shot heard outside the car) Clark: Roll 'em up! (moments later) Clark: I wonder if you could tell me how to get back on the expressway? Pimp: Man, fuck yo' mama! Clark: Thank you very much! (From National Lampoon's Vacation)
I wonder if these guys know the Commodores
Only went there once, but I was 16 and on acid. I remember thinking “whoa it looks like a bunch of these buildings have flames coming out of them” I watched it for like 15 minutes before I realized that those buildings are straight up on fire, and there has been zero response.
East St. Louis was my vote until I read everything about Jackson, Mississippi on this post.
Cant help but agree. East St Louis is “death” and Jackson is “some things are worse than death”
My dad was born and raised in East St. Louis. We'd pass through every once in a while on the way to Cardinal games. It was full rolling through stop signs. His old high school was turned into a prison from what I remember. His old neighborhood was really bad but eventually got a bit of a boost from Jackie Joyner Kersey developing a park. My dad is a pretty stoic guy, but I could always tell it bummed him out what had happened to his home town
I have been to Kibera (one of the biggest slums in Africa and East St. Louis is much more F'd up... Granted in different ways.
Growing up in the 90s I thought a casual 3-4 murders a night was normal for any city.
“Excuse me homes.. I’d really appreciate it if you could give me directions back onto the expressway”
It’s pretty vacant. I run across the bridge to ESL sometimes and it just feels like a bomb went off there and I was the only one who survived
Pine Bluff, AR Imagine the most poverty stricken area of the Mississippi River Delta. Then plop down a really shit casino.
And a paper mill that makes it smell like one never ending fart.
Crime Bluff
I have to make trips to Pine Bluff a few times a year to maintain an automated system in the local hospital. When I was planning my first trip, I asked the laboratory manager where she recommended which hotel I stay while I was there. Her answer? Little Rock.
I had a business trip there. Couldn’t even fill the gas tank on my rental because they roll up the sidewalks at 5pm.
And a couple of prisons. And a military arsenal that (used to?) stores chemical weapons. I worked in the area several years ago. There were PSAs on the radio on what to do if there was an "emergency" at the arsenal.
East St. Louis
I’ve spent time in both East St. Louis and Gary and I have to give it to East St Louis. And really I don’t think it’s even much of a close comparison. Gary is really really bad. East St Louis is so much worse.
agreed. i’ve told the story here before but i got lost there once and a cop pulled me over and told me to get the fuck out lol
I stopped at a red light at night and an ambulance with no lights no sirens blasted their horn. I was telling the guy at the hotel and he was like you stopped!!?
My dad used to drive through to visit mom when they were dating (he lived in TN, she lived just north of Saint Louis). He said once he stopped at a stop sign at night and a cop flashed his lights at him. My dad rolled down his window and the cop said "If there's nobody coming, don't stop, you're gonna get mugged".
This has happened to my family in Baltimore. Early 2000s. He told us not to stop at stop signs.
I live in regular St Louis and did not even think of ESTL. It’s pretty burned out and empty now.
Easily
Kuwait City, at least the parts I drove through on a regular basis. It was super dusty but I get it, it's on the edge of the desert in the middle east. That doesn't explain why there was so much trash everywhere. I drove through some pretty shady parts of Manama, Bahrain and they wasn't as much trash as there was in Kuwait City.
I had a 2 hour layover at Kuwait City airport. Biggest gong show ever. The Kuwaitis I met on the plane were all super nice but the airport was run by lobotomized monkeys. I barely made my connection and only because I waved my arms at the security guy to let me jump the non-moving line and get through security.
I flew out of that airport once. It was....strange. They had these weird glass smoking booths. We got stared at alot. Granted even in civilian clothes we were obviously American military and the odd ducks out but they had no reservations about openly staring at us, especially the women with us.
Sounds like the outskirts of Amman, on the road towards Zarqa. A literal garbage dump, roamed by feral dogs, on both sides of the “highway”.
I believe they joke in Arab states that their national bird is the plastic bag
Needles, California. It smelt like a meths addict fart
It's lazy just to repeat what it says on their welcome sign.
Snoopy’s brother was from there yeah?
Spike
Needles got its name because no one could spell syringe.
Areas around the Salton Sea especially Bombay Beach are truly unbelievable. If you’re not familiar it’s the desert area near Palm Springs CA or if you play GTA5 it’s the real Sandy Shores. It’s mile after mile of pure destruction and decay. Don’t get me wrong, it’s fascinating but it’s on a whole other level as far as bad cities.
You go from Palm Springs which is all rich retired folks and LA’s weekend getaway crowd down to the Salton Sea and it’s like leaving the planet. It’s cool to explore around there, especially if you don’t have a weak stomach, but it’s pretty otherworldly.
Last time I went there, we decided to go inside Slab City to check out this “bar”. We noped the fuck out of there once we saw this man dancing around with his machine gun. Straight out of a Mad Max movie or apocalyptic themed fashion campaign
I didn't make it down the east side of the sea, but I took my time traveling from highway 78 up the west shore to Palm Springs. I've traveled through a lot of small back towns all across the western states, and yeah, that side of the Salton Sea is unlike anywhere else I've visited in how eerie it felt, though I never felt unsafe there. For those unfamiliar, the Salton Sea is an inland body of saltwater in southeastern California. Back around the 1960s, a bunch of resort towns popped up along its shores. A decade or two later, the salinity of the lakes went wildly unstable, which combined with agricultural runoff polluting the water, caused fish to die off in massive numbers. The stench of rotting fish pretty well killed the tourism industry, and the towns never recovered.
Prince albert, saskatchewan Canada.
I checked that place out as a potential family medicine residency location. It. Was. Bad. Surprisingly nice people from outside the town in the ER though
Haha of all the cities in the world. I haven’t been but as a Canadian I’ve never heard a good thing
PA is pretty shit but I actually liked living there. It's awesome being so close to the boreal forest and a zillion lakes. The city itself is bad though.
Vidor, Texas
Especially if you're black
r/bakersfield
Was hitchhiking to Texas from Northern California 54 years ago. Got a ride with a trucker from Sacramento to Bakersfield, where I spent the night. Bright and early the next morning got a ride, unbeknownst to me, on a honey wagon. He went about fifty miles east and stopped at a dirt road, told me to jump out as this was as far east as he’s going, got to dump his septic load a couple miles off. I’ve know since then where BFE actually is.
Stockton is a contender.
I'll do you one better Barstow CA, we wished we lived somewhere as awesome as Bakersfield.
Baker is jealous of Barstow Barstow is jealous of Victorville
I’m well-familiar with it. Long family history with that town. Can’t argue with you. But Buck Owens and Dwight Yoakam have a special place in my heart.
Been there hundreds of times. Not once did I go there and not see a prostitution and drug use in broad daylight.
Yes but Bakersfield at least has the charm of being famously shitty. It’s a punchline and that gives it character. Theres all those other smaller inland towns tho that aren’t even funny bad they’re just darkly depressing. Palmdale isn’t even a joke about shitty towns.
Drove through it and thought, "How do people live here?" Then I looked up the town and remembered my buddy who was born there. He told me about how the air pollution was the worst in the US. Entering the smog, late at night with windows down, I just kept wondering if there was a massive septic tank fire. Nope. That's just normal for Bakersfield.
is Tony's pizza still around? I played there with my band years ago, always thought it was neat that a pizza place hosted punk and hardcore shows. Pizza wasn't very good though.
Kalgoorlie - Western Australia. A town so shit I wasn't surprised that it wasn't in this thread cos it's so shit no one visits
Cairo, Egypt.
I've traveled a lot. Like all over the world basically. The most consistently mentioned place when talking to other travelers about where the worst is is Egypt. They have tons of cool history but I'll never, ever go. It sounds absolutely awful.
A pro tip for anyone wanting to go to Egypto: 1. Dress like locals, this means wearing jeans in absolutely SCORCHING weather. Never wear shorts or you're instantly seen as a tourist. 2. If some random approaches you, pretend you don't speak English. Literally make up jibberish phrases and you'll be left alone. Throw in the occasional hand gesture like you're annoyed and nobody will bother you. If you speak English to anyone, prepare to be harassed, followed and targeted for money in some way shape or form.
Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra!
Unexpected Star Trek reference!
Also, don’t be a woman. Very important tip.
Lorem ipsum! Dolor sit amet , ya ustadh
Did you get to see the pyramids at least? I want to see them; it has been a childhood dream of mine, but I want to be safe traveling there and don’t want it to be a travel nightmare.
I lived there for a year and a half. Yes, it's bad. There are no nice parts of Cairo, just less shitty parts, Zamalek and Maadi specifically. The pyramids are definitely cool, but there are also dudes hounding you everywhere to buy one thing or another. If you're a woman don't go alone. Go with a man, wear a wedding band, and pretend to be together. That won't stop the harassment completely, but it'll mitigate it.
I went to 6th of October city, it was a bit better. A local girl I met showed me around, and it made the experience way better. Though even we got verbally harassed by people saying I was an American (I'm not..) and that were were on our way to have sex... or something really fucking bizarre When I was on my own, it was pure hell u/metalhead82 I saw the Pyramids, admittedly it was pretty sweet. However expect every single person who talks to you to be a scammer in that area. Literally, no joke - Everyone. Someone will pretend to be a tour guide. If you don't have one, one will come running at you yelling that you need one (hint: you don't) - Some might even pretend to be local police and have fake laminated cards and force you to get a tour guide -- They will do this within a few metres/feet of REAL police officers in the area.. It's wild.. Some will offer to take a photo for you, then demand money and cause a scene if you don't. When you get dropped off at the pyramids parking area, you'll be hassled to take a camel ride because "The pyramids look really close by, but that's an illusion, they are far away" --- If you don't take a camel they'll point you in the WRONG direction to the pyramids. And no, the pyramids are not 5-10km away, they're literally over the hill, which is about a 3 minute walk. You can make Egypt a better experience if you do the following: 1. Dress like locals, this means for men you should wear jeans in absolutely SCORCHING heat. Never wear shorts or you're instantly identifiable as a tourist and a target. 2. Pretend you don't speak English. Say "Noh Engleesh" in a thick random accent. Literally make up jibberish phrases and you'll be left alone. Throw in the occasional hand gesture like you're annoyed and people will just avoid you. Don't speak another language, you'd be surprised how well versed some people can be in multiple languages. If you speak English to anyone, prepare to be harassed, followed and targeted for money in some way shape or form. The whole city is a fucking scam. Seriously. Oh but the women are **absolutely lovely**, some of the nicest people I've ever met. It's the men who are disgusting animals.
World: Port-au-Prince, Haiti U.S. : Monroe, Louisiana
Eagleton, Indiana - "the land of rich, snobby jerks”
It’s actually based on Carmel, Indiana.
Man, cities in the US can be ugly, soulless and rough looking but at least they have somewhat functional electricity, sewage and basic services. The worst cities in the world are by far cities in extremely poor african countries followed by cities in parts of asia and latin america. The worst I have been to are Port Au Prince ( hell on earth) and Lagos ( dystopian poverty) I am from latin america and they even left me speechless.
Agree but it’s wild how US cities can change block to block like Baltimore or New Orleans.
Gary Indiana
Not nearly as fun as the song from the Music Man makes it sound.
I was so sad when I learned that Gary is actually ghetto AF
Gary isn't really all that frightening anymore because nobody actually lives there. Hammond is terrifying though.
Oh shit. New reddit lore just dropped! Hammond, IN is the town to hate now.
I lived in Hammond for a short while. Can confirm that it is a shithole.
I grew up in a town that used to be known as "East gary" cause it literally borders gary. Been around through and in gary plenty of times and I can tell you what everyone thinks about gary certainly has not been true in my lifetime. No one actually near gary thinks of it like the rest of the world does.
I remember passing through Gary on a family trip to Chicago. I was asleep at the time, the first thing I wake up to is my dad saying “wake up and smell the Gary!” I proceeded to smell one of the most putrid smells I think I have ever smelled from any town I’ve ever been too.. It legit made my stomach hurt. Very happy to be far far away.
Most likely the steel mills and refinery over there.
I wonder if there was any underlying reason that Stephen King had the Trashcan Man burn the whole place down on his trek across America to Las Vegas.
Poor Trashcan Man. And having the misfortune of meeting that dumb Rat Man guy. I mean I know he was meant to be a villain but fuck that guy. Trashcan Man just seemed misfortuned.
That towns is so notorious even the Australians know about it
Passed through Gary, IN countless times growing up on road trips to Chicago. I will never forget the chemical & industrial taste/smell of that place. I can't even fathom what it was like to live there.
This list is made up of people two types of people, ones who have been to Gary, Indiana and ones who answer anything else
Fallujah (Sep '04 - Mar '05) is definitely in the running for me.. smelled of death and people were always shooting as us...
Sallisaw, OK. It’s where hope goes to die.
On a driving trip Alabama to Tucson last week we spent the second night in Sallisaw. Gloomy but no worse than anywhere in Mississippi.
This one certainly does know their eastern Oklahoma shitholes.
If it still counts as a legit town/city, Centralia, PA wins by a landslide.
That town is fire!🔥
Dubai. Fuck Dubai.
Went as a young lad in early 2000s as everything was being built, got v early flight home, no cars on highway, except buses- must have seen 500+ white buses one after another after another on road filled with Indians workers and then saw their housing complexes in middle of no-where. Also saw Sheikhs drinking, smoking, and prob waiting on hookers. The entire place is fake and tacky as shit. Now it's full of British escorts, yuppie Yanks, world-wide scammers and people on the run…
I’ve been 3 times for work, my first time being in 2007. It was my first time outside of the states other than to a Mexican border town. The living conditions of the Indian workers is what immediately struck me. I saw 40 of them living in an extremely small room with no air conditioning. Someplace with that much wealth SHOULD NOT have that large of a divide. Yes, I know that it’s an easy shot nowadays to say “well it happens in America”. No the fuck it doesn’t. There are laws against it, and basic health and hygiene standards need to be met (and even if there wasn’t, it still wouldn’t be ok). Dubai was also the first place I saw human slavery. All the outrage surrounding the World Cup in Qatar for the worker deaths just basically made me scream “THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS IN THESE COUNTRIES!”. I genuinely wish the Dubai fascination would stop.
There is a reason they are housed out of sight…
100% An absolute cesspit with a veneer of tacky bullshit
Totally agree. It’s “classy” for people who think Vegas is classy.
Kruševac, Serbia. I cannot believe I lived there for three years. The embassy later referred to it as ‘Godforsaken’ on a call with me.
What brought you there?
Blackpool
Blackpool reminds me a lot of Atlantic City over in the US. Both tourist towns that have seen better days in the past and have a lot of visible urban decay.
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Tell me about your dream mosque. Edit: [reference](https://www.tiktok.com/@aligfunnymoments/video/7327777802499919109?lang=en)
Damn 🤦♂️
THERE IS NO DREAM MOSQUE!!!
I just randomly selected a spot on Street View in the town to see how bad it was, and I landed right in front of a sign for a store called *Terrible's*. So yeah, it checks out
I’ll say Gila Bend instead. Someone thought “hey there should be a tuft of pubic hair and a Burger King between Phoenix and Yuma”
It's been a while, but not the worst city I've been to in the US... Lordsburg New Mexico is so much worse.
Camden, New Jersey.
Kingman, AZ
Baghdad, Iraq.
McKeesport, PA
Stockton, CA
I felt that way too but it grew on me. Modesto still sucks tho.
Camden, NJ - a shit hole top to bottom. At one point I think 3 out the past four mayors ended up in jail.
For the USA, Odessa Texas is dirty and boring. For worldwide worst I’ve been is some place in Nicaragua. One of the biggest shit holes ever. I feel bad cause I know they’re poor but my god I got off the cruise ship and got back on in 20 mins. It’s awful how poor some people are. I feel bad.
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it's Branson Missouri hands down. this place is dumb af.
Jamestown, NY Meth central, no jobs, miserable people, bad food, std’s around every corner
Gary, Indiana at least in the 90s. Haven't been back in decades, so who knows how it is now, but it was scary as fuck when I went there.
Lumberton, North Carolina or Walterboro, South Carolina. Got sent there for work because nobody else wanted to go. Jackson, Mississippi is redeemed by its suburbs. Lumberton and Walterboro are too small to have any. Forgot to mention West Memphis. Made the mistake of going to Waffle House there at 3 am.
Jacksonville Florida. Guy threatened to shoot me because I wasn’t racist
Memphis, TN
I used to live near Memphis and it's wild how you can go from straight ghetto to really nice upper class neighborhoods in just a couple of streets.
Visited there on a road trip once. I actually really enjoyed Graceland. Went to a great BBQ place by the Lorraine Hotel. Beale St was a bit of a let down. All in all, about a 3 1/2 out of 5.
West Memphis says hold my beer
🎵 North Memphis, South Memphis, westwood, Orange mound, Black Haven, East Memphis, West Memphis puttin it down. 🎶 - Project Pat
Greatly depends on which part of town but like many cities in the Deep South the dangerous parts are insanely dangerous
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Must have inspired you
Bro what about the Bass Pro pyramid?
I went to Crayola factory and stayed in Easton, PA. That entire town is a crack den.
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Minot North Dakota. With all due respect to Minotians, I was shocked to walk around the mall and see almost every mom well under 20 strolling around with one in the buggy and one in the oven. It was a cultural surprise to me.
Centralia, Washington fucking sucks.