Crummiest Freaking town in America (car rental, rentals, dorms)

[Blue Grass Fever]

Detroit-segregated, poor planning, many factories within city limits-functional and nonfunctional, the (supposed) jewel of Detroit-Belle Isle is a party ground, too many ghettos in one city, "proud" politicians, bad air, bad transit system (pratically nonexistent).

Just to point out a few...

Other towns/cities:

El Paso, TX
Phoenix, AZ
L.A., CA
Little Rock, AR
Sedona, AZ
Snowflake-Taylor,AZ

[Farouche]

Wow, Travelling Paws, I just read your post on the first page describing Flint, Michigan. Sounds a lot like my vote for the worst place I ever lived in- Chelsea, Massachusetts. Oh, it was a long, long time ago, but it seems like yesterday! I doubt it has changed very much.
We believed our yuppie rental agent- shill for the local slumlord realty- when she cheerfully told us we were moving into an "up-and-coming neighborhood." We'd been there awhile when I discovered to my horror that the never-ending construction project going on downstairs (my, my, they've been scraping paint forever down there!) was really hordes of rats knawing at the floorboards, and all those cars back-firing every night were really hordes of local thugs shooting at one another. Our apartment was the unwelcome home of giant wharf rats, centipedes, cockroaches and rat lice. And every time it rained, the roof leaked into the kitchen, and then we'd have to step around glum carpenters "remodeling" and repainting our kitchen ceiling for two weeks until the next rainfall. The Dickensian D**b brothers, the Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum of Slum Lords, smug and stoutly indifferent in their twin mansions, ignored our phone calls, and our rental agent kept us at bay. I was almost bludgeoned to death by a 30-pound piece of molding that fell from the kitchen ceiling after the third flooding; it landed with an angry thud next to the kitchen sink where I was standing. Imagine the indignation and feigned innocence of my rental Lords and Lady when a call to the Board of Health wiped out every bit of vermin within a six-block radius. I was the unsung and anonymous hero of the day! (Except to them, of course!).
Renee, the crossdressing transvestite streetwalker who I used to watch gracefully walk her beat on Broadway, and who happened to be on the other end of the line when I picked up the ringing payphone at DeMoula's Market Basket one night (she told me she was wearing a pink nightie and fluffy spiked booties- well, nice to finally be introduced, Renee!)- Renee would have been proud of me, I think. I made Life just a little bit easier for her and our Chelsea neighbors, most of whom could not speak English. A couple of unpaid rent checks, five murders, and one more flooded kitchen later, we were out of there, but not before saying goodbye to our chirpy rental agent, who told us that she didn't blame us and that she would have done the same. It was off to Rockport, Massachusetts, an absolute paradise compared to Chelsea, or most other places, for that matter. I live on Cape Cod now, but occasionally I think back with genuine fondness on my days in Chelsea. My companion was great, and at least we could count the rivets on the airplane wings as they flew directly over our little home in the slums .

[Blue Grass Fever]

another vote for crummiest town:

Saginaw,MI

[IndyDiva73]

I am so surprised that Indianapolis was not mentioned in this list...I was born and raised here and I absolutely HATE it here!! Even my 13 year old hates it here and she hasn't even lived long enough to know about crummy cities. The only thing that we can brag on is the Indy 500 and I don't think many of the locals even bother to go...the majority who go are out-of-towners who insist on clogging up traffic, yelling and drinking and staggering across busy streets, almost getting hit by people who are simply trying to make it home from work or wherever else. Yes, we have the Black Expo and the Circle City Classic but the cops make sure they keep tight security on those events, which means that out-of-towners who want to attend decline because they feel that they can't walk down the street for fear of getting a ticket. There's nothing for the children to do here unless you include the zoo and the Children's Museum (the largest in the world) but who wants to visit those every single week? When you've seen one animal and one fossil, you've seen them all....Indy sucks...Oh and here's a good one...we've surpassed the Nation's Capital for having the most murders in one city this year...how depressing...

[Dd714]

The problem with this thread is people are talking about only one geographical area they are familiar with. And it's all relative to whatever they know. Certainly San Antonio is not one of the "crummiest town's in America" to anyone that has lived around the U.S., certainly Atlanta is not the hottest humidest place in the U.S. (in fact it's elevation up the piedmont means it's at least a few degrees cooler than the rest of the south), certainly Roanoke is not a hellhole to someone that is familiar with Detroit.

I've been to most everywhere in the U.S. and I can give my own top 5 worst list from a universal outlook:

Albany, GA
Fresno, CA
Detroit, MI
Jersey City, NJ
and the worst town to live in, in my opinion is:
Gary, IN

[uvafan4life2]

Gary, IN(Crime Ghetto)
Detroit,Mi ( Crime,Ghetto,Poverty,Pollution)
Camden, NJ (Everything)
East St. Louis ( Worst crime in the country)
Irvington,NJ
Flint,MI
Youngstown, Ohio

[buzzkirk]

how about a nomination for the city that used to be nice but was ruined after a lot of rich jerks moved there and ruined it. I nominate Bend, Oregon.

[Cosmic]

Yup, this is a tough contest.

Some big time hitters on that list. I have been to way to many of them.

Some clear favorites are:

Jersey City, NJ - Those sweet hotels with different shades of faded green paint and the cockroaches that could hump a nanny goat standing flat footed. Nice place to go to watch fires.

The Hartsville - Florence, SC Triangle

Franklin, VA - That smell is so appealing.

Bayonne, NJ, Newark, NJ, Trenton, NJ, Camden, NJ. Ok, make it easy; ALL OF NEW JERSEY

One easy guideline is just look for white picket fences. Seems like all of the guys who vowed that when they found the A$$Hole of the World they would drive a stake to mark the spot. Clearly that spot can only hold one stake, so seems like they just connect them all together with other wood stringers and paint it white.

So many good candidates for the prize.

But the clear winner is Chelsea, Massachusetts. Such a small spot, but such a big anus for the World. White picket fences all over the place.

Seems like a Chinese Nuke Plant had a melt down and was going to burn all the way through the Earth and come out the other side. Big Panic, but relax, they figured out it was going for the Earths Anus and that could only be Chelsea. Clearly would be an improvement.

When you go to Chelsea, you don't care what direction you are going next, as long as it is OUT

A place like Chelsea just has to be in Massachusetts.

[Saphyre]

OMG!! Your description of Jersey City - ROFL!!!!!

[aca1]

Why does everyone hate New Jersey. Ive been a few times and really like it. I havent been to the western states like California, but Im suprised the real worse city hasnt been posted (or i havent seen it) New Orleans. the worse city ever. The smell of Louisana is like a dead decaying dog you cant find to dispose of. The city is built under sea level and was just destroyed. it sucks so bad the government didnt care to save it. If you walk on bourboun street by yourself you know some crackhead going to try to get money from you and quuite possibly do it with a gun. Its hot humid and, everyone is stupid, really its not a lie. People in the south in general coulndnt tell you who the first president was and so many people think illnois is in chicago i wanted to kill myself
How can Detroit be the worse city ever if its so close to the greatest country ever- Canada.