Dirtiest and Cleanest cities you've seen? (America, Chicago, cons, living)

[CTownNative]

Those pictures look really depressing.You can tell by looking at the person in the third picture that living in the projects is grueling,and its a tough life to live.But it is home to some people.Its either living in there or on the streets.I'd definetly take living in the projects over living on the streets,even through both can be rough.

[Cameron Cayman]

In the USA?

1. Dirty--New Orleans--yes, also before Katrina. Nasty, filthy, dirty place
2. Cleanest?--Maybe Madison Wisconsin.

[EscAlaMike]

Dirtiest: Detroit, Boston

Cleanest: Stamford, CT

[Supernova7]

Originally Posted by Hustla718

Most of the times the halls are pretty clear, minus some trash like papers and small garbage along the edges. Maybe some graffiti. In the PJ's public spaces are made easy to clean with a hose. Cinderblock walls. Back in the early 90's used to be graffiti on the floors, cielings, and walls. In the halls, lobbies, and stairwells especially. NYCHA made graffiti a major priority by the mid 90's.

These days most trash is in the lobbies, on the grounds in front of buildings, and in the elevators. Then again it has really always been like that.





That trash leads to this pretty often:

I don't think human beings should live in scuh a cold institution. It looks like a prison and probably feels like one. No wonder people are violent in those areas, who wouldn't be after living like an animal?

[CTownNative]

Originally Posted by Supernova7

I don't think human beings should live in scuh a cold institution. It looks like a prison and probably feels like one. No wonder people are violent in those areas, who wouldn't be after living like an animal?

I agree,that second picture definetly looks like a prison,thats not to say the other pictures don't look rough,cause they definetly do too.

[NYLATINQT]

Originally Posted by Hustla718

Most of the times the halls are pretty clear, minus some trash like papers and small garbage along the edges. Maybe some graffiti. In the PJ's public spaces are made easy to clean with a hose. Cinderblock walls. Back in the early 90's used to be graffiti on the floors, cielings, and walls. In the halls, lobbies, and stairwells especially. NYCHA made graffiti a major priority by the mid 90's.

These days most trash is in the lobbies, on the grounds in front of buildings, and in the elevators. Then again it has really always been like that.





That trash leads to this pretty often:

Too bad you can't capture the smell of urine in the housing project elevators on film. I never realized how nasty NY was until I moved out of NY. I took about the 3rd visit back to suddenly realize that garbage should not be piled up all along the sidewalks. Whenever you are used to seeing something every day, you just think it's normal. It's not. And til this day, I have no idea why NY is so dirty.

[PPG]

Originally Posted by chiefs fan

These cities left an impression with me....

Dirtiest: Las Vegas, along the freeways. I was astounded/disgusted by all the litter on the sides of the freeways when we drove through there. It was pretty sad (not necessarily the caliber of the NYC photos above though). It looked like trash bags had exploded all over the place.

Cleanest: The city that surprised me as being much cleaner than I expected would have to be Pittsburgh. My husband kept telling me it has cleaned up, but I didn't really believe him until I finally visited the city a few years ago.

You must've never seen a clean city if you think Pittsburgh is clean.

50 Cleanest (Dirtiest) Cities in America

What’s the cleanest big city in the U.S.? How about the dirtiest? In our July issue, we decided to find out, by analyzing data to score each of the 50 largest cities on air quality, water quality, industrial pollution (toxics), Superfund sites, and sanitation. Rather than just the cities themselves, we looked at metropolitan areas, which include surrounding counties and suburbs. (This can have a real effect on a place’s score; Chicago, for example, has excellent water but its score is brought down by problems in the outlying areas). Because we only looked at the 50 largest places, there may be smaller cities that are much cleaner or dirtier than these—and because the scores represent relative rankings, that a city comes in first or last in a given category does not necessarily mean it’s perfectly pristine or dangerously filthy.



HOW WE SCORED: Metro areas earned points on a scale from 1 to 50 in each category, with the numbers reflecting a city's ranking next to the other places. Since it's a 50-city survey, the cleanest in a category got 50 points. Next, to get a preliminary score, we weighted the five categories in terms of the health threat each one posed relative to the others (the weighting was further adjusted for cities with no sanitation data.) Water and air scores, for example, got twice the weight of sanitation scores, since it's of little value to have pristine streets if what you drink and breathe are killing you. To get final scores, we averaged all the points for each city.

Here, then, is our list of the 50 largest metro areas in America and how they compare. Higher total numbers mean a cleaner city.


NAME Air Water Toxics Hazardous
Waste Sanitation Total
Portland (OR) 49 50 35 32 43 44.00
San Jose 41 50 50 21 32 40.71
Buffalo 34 50 27 26 47 38.29
Columbus 24 50 31 45 NA 37.33
San Francisco 47 50 34 16 12 36.57
Denver 27 50 44 19 NA 36.17
Rochester (NY) 46 32 32 43 19 35.71
Austin 44 9 48 50 NA 34.00
Orlando 48 23 9 38 48 33.86
San Diego 13 50 46 42 14 32.57
Hartford 32 29 47 9 44 31.71
Sacramento 4 50 49 40 24 31.57
Las Vegas 12 50 40 49 7 31.43
San Antonio 42 18 42 47 8 31.00
Oklahoma City 43 1 45 41 40 30.57
Minneapolis 33 30 21 35 31 30.43
Indianapolis 23 31 33 44 27 30.29
Salt Lake City 26 50 2 14 42 30.00
Jacksonville 45 24 19 20 NA 29.50
Charlotte 28 34 22 27 28 28.71
Virginia Beach 35 17 29 33 30 28.00
Cincinnati 19 35 11 38 34 27.29
Nashville 30 14 18 46 38 27.14
Riverside (CA) 1 50 43 25 15 26.43
New Orleans 39 13 10 48 21 26.14
Milwaukee 37 10 38 38 10 25.71
Seattle 36 21 37 15 13 25.57
Baltimore 16 33 14 24 41 25.29
Miami 50 11 36 8 9 25.00
Dallas 20 28 30 31 16 24.71
Tampa 40 3 17 17 50 24.29
Memphis 22 12 24 29 46 23.86
Providence 39 8 41 7 22 23.43
Louisville 21 15 15 39 35 23.00
Washington (DC) 25 19 12 13 45 22.57
Phoenix 17 37 1 22 23 22.00
Detroit 10 27 20 10 49 21.86
Richmond 31 4 13 34 36 21.86
Cleveland 9 25 26 31 26 21.57
Atlanta 15 26 4 11 39 19.43
Houston 7 39 3 19 20 19.14
Los Angeles 2 38 28 3 17 18.29
Boston 29 7 39 5 11 18.14
Philadelphia 14 22 16 2 37 18.14
Kansas City 19 16 25 13 NA 18.00
Birmingham 8 20 8 28 33 17.86
St. Louis 5 36 6 6 25 17.00
Pittsburgh 6 5 5 23 29 11.29
New York 11 2 23 1 NA 8.33
Chicago 3 6 7 4 18 6.71




RELATED LINKS
America's Top 5 Cleanest Cities
America's 100 Best: 2005 Interactive Map
5 Best Hikes in America



Subscribe to America’s most popular magazine and save 61%

Last Updated: 2005-06-08

[chiefs fan]

Originally Posted by PPG

You must've never seen a clean city if you think Pittsburgh is clean.

50 Cleanest (Dirtiest) Cities in America

What’s the cleanest big city in the U.S.? How about the dirtiest? In our July issue, we decided to find out, by analyzing data to score each of the 50 largest cities on air quality, water quality, industrial pollution (toxics), Superfund sites, and sanitation. Rather than just the cities themselves, we looked at metropolitan areas, which include surrounding counties and suburbs. (This can have a real effect on a place’s score; Chicago, for example, has excellent water but its score is brought down by problems in the outlying areas). Because we only looked at the 50 largest places, there may be smaller cities that are much cleaner or dirtier than these—and because the scores represent relative rankings, that a city comes in first or last in a given category does not necessarily mean it’s perfectly pristine or dangerously filthy.



HOW WE SCORED: Metro areas earned points on a scale from 1 to 50 in each category, with the numbers reflecting a city's ranking next to the other places. Since it's a 50-city survey, the cleanest in a category got 50 points. Next, to get a preliminary score, we weighted the five categories in terms of the health threat each one posed relative to the others (the weighting was further adjusted for cities with no sanitation data.) Water and air scores, for example, got twice the weight of sanitation scores, since it's of little value to have pristine streets if what you drink and breathe are killing you. To get final scores, we averaged all the points for each city.

Here, then, is our list of the 50 largest metro areas in America and how they compare. Higher total numbers mean a cleaner city.


NAME Air Water Toxics Hazardous
Waste Sanitation Total
Portland (OR) 49 50 35 32 43 44.00
San Jose 41 50 50 21 32 40.71
Buffalo 34 50 27 26 47 38.29
Columbus 24 50 31 45 NA 37.33
San Francisco 47 50 34 16 12 36.57
Denver 27 50 44 19 NA 36.17
Rochester (NY) 46 32 32 43 19 35.71
Austin 44 9 48 50 NA 34.00
Orlando 48 23 9 38 48 33.86
San Diego 13 50 46 42 14 32.57
Hartford 32 29 47 9 44 31.71
Sacramento 4 50 49 40 24 31.57
Las Vegas 12 50 40 49 7 31.43
San Antonio 42 18 42 47 8 31.00
Oklahoma City 43 1 45 41 40 30.57
Minneapolis 33 30 21 35 31 30.43
Indianapolis 23 31 33 44 27 30.29
Salt Lake City 26 50 2 14 42 30.00
Jacksonville 45 24 19 20 NA 29.50
Charlotte 28 34 22 27 28 28.71
Virginia Beach 35 17 29 33 30 28.00
Cincinnati 19 35 11 38 34 27.29
Nashville 30 14 18 46 38 27.14
Riverside (CA) 1 50 43 25 15 26.43
New Orleans 39 13 10 48 21 26.14
Milwaukee 37 10 38 38 10 25.71
Seattle 36 21 37 15 13 25.57
Baltimore 16 33 14 24 41 25.29
Miami 50 11 36 8 9 25.00
Dallas 20 28 30 31 16 24.71
Tampa 40 3 17 17 50 24.29
Memphis 22 12 24 29 46 23.86
Providence 39 8 41 7 22 23.43
Louisville 21 15 15 39 35 23.00
Washington (DC) 25 19 12 13 45 22.57
Phoenix 17 37 1 22 23 22.00
Detroit 10 27 20 10 49 21.86
Richmond 31 4 13 34 36 21.86
Cleveland 9 25 26 31 26 21.57
Atlanta 15 26 4 11 39 19.43
Houston 7 39 3 19 20 19.14
Los Angeles 2 38 28 3 17 18.29
Boston 29 7 39 5 11 18.14
Philadelphia 14 22 16 2 37 18.14
Kansas City 19 16 25 13 NA 18.00
Birmingham 8 20 8 28 33 17.86
St. Louis 5 36 6 6 25 17.00
Pittsburgh 6 5 5 23 29 11.29
New York 11 2 23 1 NA 8.33
Chicago 3 6 7 4 18 6.71




RELATED LINKS
America's Top 5 Cleanest Cities
America's 100 Best: 2005 Interactive Map
5 Best Hikes in America



Subscribe to America’s most popular magazine and save 61%

Last Updated: 2005-06-08

I think I need to clarify about Pittsburgh; I didn't mean to say it was the cleanest city I ever visited, but that it was much cleaner than I expected (I was expecting a grungy looking city).

[downtownnola]

[quote=chiefs fan;1271024]These cities left an impression with me....
Dirtiest: Las Vegas, along the freeways. I was astounded/disgusted by all the litter on the sides of the freeways when we drove through there. It was pretty sad (not necessarily the caliber of the NYC photos above though). It looked like trash bags had exploded all over the place.
QUOTE]

So true... if you think Las Vegas is dirty along the freeways, you should walk along the strip. The casino hotels are gorgeous but there are lots of peddlers standing along the sidewalks handing out escort service flyers full of nude pictures. It seems that most people just grab the flyers and discard them on the ground... parts of the sidewalks are covered in them. It's really disgusting, and from I've heard, the city of Las Vegas is yet to pass an ordinance to stop the peddling of these flyers.

[Minnehahapolitan]

/\ A good list, but it measures intangibles. San Francisco's water and air may be clean, but it is the filthiest city I have ever seen. Any study that tells me that New Orleans is cleaner than Milwaukee doesn't look at the physical aspect as much as it should. I would rather eat off the sidewalk on the Nicollet Mall sooner than I would walk down Market Street or in the Haight. I haven't seen people dry hump on on Nicollet.