Speaking of "Cities"..........pick the worst..

Homesteading & Country Living Forum

Help Support Homesteading & Country Living Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Sourdough

"Eleutheromaniac"
Neighbor
HCL Supporter
Joined
Mar 17, 2018
Messages
6,100
Location
In a cabin, on a mountain, in "Wilderness" Alaska.
Based on your having actually spent some amount of time there (Hours or Longer) but you have to have actually been in the city or cities you select. Which one was the most awful......??? Select more then one if you desire, but attempt the state the most awful.

For me was México City, Mexico. There might have been some wonderful parts, I was only there for two nights on flight changes. So I was in a hotel very near the International Airport.
 
Lubbock, Texas. When driving from Denver to Austin, we always bemoaned the fact, "Why oh why didn't we just stop in Amarillo? Why did we have to push on to Lubbock?" And on the way back, "Why oh why didn't we just stop in Amarillo? Why did we have to push on to Dumas?" We never learn!
 
For me, the worst was Chicago, and that was 30 years ago. When the plant guys give you a DO NOT GO HERE, I listened. NJ sucked, NYC sucked, LA/Long Beach sucked, Baltimore sucked. Augusta GA was nice, I liked Corpus Christi TX, and Montreal Canada was fun. That was all 20-30 years ago.
 
Naples Italy 40 years ago. We would lean over the side of the ship and count turds and condoms floating in the bay. The smell taught me why big cities have street sweeping machine that wash as they go and the biblical phrase "those that pissith against the wall" meant.

In the US detroit 30 years ago there was barbed wire and an armed guard I had to get past just to get into the parking garage.

Ben
 
Los Angeles, I was there during the Rodney King riots so that may have influenced my opinion.
I never really had problems in any place I have been. There were some tense moments but mostly I stayed away from problem areas. Also, nothing good happens after midnight in most places.
I was in some really shady areas in South East Asia. I wandered into an opium den in Singapore that was not the place for an American Sailor to be. I left so fast nobody noticed me.
Olongapo, Philippines was like the wild west the first time I was there. If you hear someone telling stories about that place you can believe them. Nobody could make up a wilder story than what actually happened there. Great liberty town. :)
 
I guess I don’t really get out much. I haven’t heard of a few of the cities mentioned. But I guess worst for me is Knoxville tn. I don’t travel much if any to cities. But that was my worst. Lots of theft and who knows what all but they sure do have some good pawn shops over there!
 
I won't mention cities already mentioned, but there are several I would have listed that are already mentioned.

Bogota, Columbia or Lima, Peru in my late 1980 deployments. The Narcos in Columbia and the Sendero Luminoso in Peru made me feel a bit unwelcome, and I never really trusted the "friendlies" either (particularly in Columbia). But I would like to have the opportunity to visit Peru now. Beautiful country.
 
Naples Italy 40 years ago. We would lean over the side of the ship and count turds and condoms floating in the bay. The smell taught me why big cities have street sweeping machine that wash as they go and the biblical phrase "those that pissith against the wall" meant.

In the US detroit 30 years ago there was barbed wire and an armed guard I had to get past just to get into the parking garage.

Ben

I never rented a car and always took taxi's in Naples. No way I could master that traffic and driving habits! I did have a good pizza in what is said to be the worlds first pizzeria in Naples. But yes, a dirty city with horrific traffic.
 
I used to drive a truck as well. Washington DC was the pits. Atlanta ain't much better. I stay away from cities as much as I can.
Bluetick funny you mention Knoxville. Thats where I grew up. Other than east knoxville and northwest knoxville (both inside city limits) I never had any problems. I stayed away from both those areas. Having said that I'm glad I am no longer there and out in the country moreso now.
 
My issue with Mexico City, was massive raw sewage in the streets, and the air reeked of the stench of raw sewage. I had zero problems with any humans there, but I never left the hotel. Airport to hotel and back to the airport next morning. Should have slept at the airport. The airport had strong sewage smell, but it was nothing like the nauseating stench where the hotel was. Was really hard to grasp that humans could live there.........and Mexico City is one of the largest cities in the world by population.
 
@Neb and @Alaskajohn , interesting to hear about Naples, I didn't really notice any of that except for traffic when I was there in the mid 2000s. But then I was staying with locals and its possible they kept me away from any of the worse places.

I generally dislike all cities but another two I wouldn't go back to were Athens, Greece and Orlando. I could blame Athens on the fact I got food poisoning there lol, and I just never was particularly taken with Orlando.
Oh and Montreal, the traffic in Montreal is killer.
 
San Juan, Puerto Rico, I was praying the cab wouldn't break down on the way to the hotel. Today Los Angeles is probably worse.
When were you there? My brother was there while in the Navy in the early 1970's. He said he stepped around dead bodies in the street. I was there in 2007 and while I was aware that there were areas not to go (La Perla, for instance), the downtown area mostly was clean and safe.
 
Naples Italy 40 years ago. We would lean over the side of the ship and count turds and condoms floating in the bay. The smell taught me why big cities have street sweeping machine that wash as they go and the biblical phrase "those that pissith against the wall" meant..

Ben
Amen... Naples was the armpit of the world... Nasty, dirty would have been a compliment! I was there... What year in the 80's did we bomb Gaddafi? Now that was interesting... we were to far offshore to see flames though, darn. Besides, the MIG's were keeping us busy. Well, the ones he had left anyway.

I was in Naples in winter, cold and nasty... We had to take a bus to get to a Naval Air station to shop at the PX, have american food. The road the bus took... it was just after dark. Beside the road, every 50 yrds there was a 55-gallon drum with a fire built in it and young women standing around the barrels to keep warm. We called them "Camp Fire Girls". :rolleyes: They were there plying their trade... We were stopped at a traffic light when we noticed one of the girls had a small pet dog. Then we realized it was the biggest rat most of us had ever seen. It was as big as a beagle, would have eaten a chihuahua as a snack. I wondered aloud if it was her pimp. Even the bus driver laughed at my joke.

I never rented a car and always took taxi's in Naples. But yes, a dirty city with horrific traffic.

Every city I went to in Italy seemed to have a body shop on every street corner. There is a reason for this!!!!

You were a wise man, just get a taxi. I'd never try to drive in that country, unless it was a bumper car with wheels. Paris isn't much better but the french country side isn't to bad. I had a car in Paris. I drove about 6 blocks from my hotel, then drove back and parked it. I was there for another month, never had the inclination to drive again. Insane place to drive but at least you can't understand the people yelling at you. :rolleyes:
 
Last edited:
I generally dislike all cities but another two I wouldn't go back to were Athens, Greece and Orlando. I could blame Athens on the fact I got food poisoning there lol, and I just never was particularly taken with Orlando.
Oh and Montreal, the traffic in Montreal is killer.

I lived in Orlando most of my life, and while I can say it's not great, and I am glad I no longer live there, it certainly isn't the ******** a lot of other cities are, like Philadelphia, yuck! Or Baltimore, DC, New Orleans, LA, Newark, NYC, or St Louis.....We have traveled lots of places, and I must say American cities are THE worst. Even the old muslim slum in Delhi India wasn't as scary as parts of any of those in the U.S. I mentioned. I think for me New Orleans and Philadelphia seemed particularly horrible and scary, and parts of NYC . Never been to Detroit but I am sure that tops all from what I hear

Oh wait, I forgot since it was long ago: Juarez Mexico
 
Last edited:
I think I have been to every city mentioned in this post. For the most part I have been able to stay away from the bad areas, so I have never had any problems. I think I have driven in every one of those cities as well, and that can account for a lot of displeasure. For me the worst drivers were in Boston. When a stop light changes you can count on at least three people going through the red light. A good friend once told me that people in Detroit don't drive. They aim, but I did not have any bad experiences there.

If I had to pick a "worst" it would be Brussels Belgium. It has some beautiful parts, but the map looks like a dart board, and it is extremely difficult to find your way around. The first time I was there, by the time I found the hotel, and parked the car, that car could have grown hair on it, before I was going to drive it again. Second time was nearly as bad, since I knew what to expect.
 
The most crime ridden is Baltimore.
The worst, Capital Hill.

Those ^^. Baltimore is a cesspool for sure, I always hated going into Baltimore to pick up a load, hated it.
 
It's not exactly a city, but my choice would be Dallas-Ft. Worth simply due to the drivers and traffic in that metroplex. When we go to Texas to visit relatives, I now plan my route way around the DFW metroplex even though it adds another 100 miles and a couple hours to our trip.
 
I read most of these posts and when I think about it... My question is what city with a population of more than 500,000 people isn't the pits? I can't think of any that I would really want to go to if I didn't have to......
I can give you two...

Des Moines, Iowa has a total population of around 600,000 in the metro area and there are no truly bad parts in the city. There are some places you might stay away from after dark, but nothing really dangerous.

Kansas City really isn't too bad. There are a few real bad neighborhoods, The Bottoms can be nasty and I would avoid The Paseo and Troost, but my experience with KC have been pretty positive.

East L.A. is pretty disgusting. I've never seen any place that filthy. Dirty needles were ankle deep in some spots. Near the Coliseum in Oakland was almost as bad. The homeless would defecate into grocery sacks and then throw it into piles along the tracks. I guess it's better than just crapping on the street like in San Francisco or Portland.

Umm... Omaha has some of the worst drivers. El Paso can be nasty. East St. Louis has a lot of garbage on the freeway but I didn't stay long enough to really judge it. Of course Vegas has its rough spots. My experience with Chicago hasn't been that bad but I've never gone to the south side. I did see the cops tear a guy up there, over by Stone Park. Story was, he robbed a pharmacy at gunpoint and wrecked his car alongside the tracks a quarter mile from where we were working. About 15 cops surrounded him 50 yards from where we were working and they hauled what was left of him off in the meat wagon after the cops got done beating him. They sprayed something on the three foot wide blood stain on the sidewalk and told us that we didn't see what happened so don't talk about it...
 

Latest posts

Back
Top