Zoners: Top 5 Most Undesirable Cities

[theogt]

2. Houston, TX - Spent a few months there working back in late 2005/early 2006. Not a fan. Not a fan at all.

1. Houston. Too big and just soulless. No offense to any Houstonians here, but when I think "Generic Sprawl," Houston is what I'm imagining.

This is true if you consider Houston to encompass much more than it really is. Stay inside the loop, particular the northwestern portion of the loop and it's a beautiful city with ridiculous amounts of restaurants and entertainment options.

If you feel the need to go out into the hinterlands, it's bland, annoying, and in many places, dirty. That's true of any city, however. The problem is that the people in those places still identify themselves as "from Houston." Whereas, in other cities they don't tend to keep an identification with the city in the same way.

In short, what you may consider Houston isn't really Houston.

 

[YosemiteSam]

4th in the nation in murder rate, 2nd in burglaries.

:shoot3:

I have a buddy that lives just outside of Jackson, MS. He is probably responsible for the high murder rate. He fits the profile of a serial killer. He is very Dexter like. :laugh2:

 

[Seven]

This is US only?

1) Durham, NC by reputation alone.

2) Little Rock, AR lived there for a month, and got the hell out of dodge immediately.

3) anywhere south of Nashville in the Southeast states.

4) NYC I hate the crowdedness of it

5) LA - hate it (Orange County is okay though b/c of the Vietnamese culture there).

--

Top 5 cities
1) Victoria, WA (no income tax, and on the border with Oregon which has no sales tax).
2) Boston - awesome beautiful college town
3) Denver - very clean, pretty close to mountains
4) SF - just an awesome place
5) Just outside of DC (for family reasons)

And you hate the crowdedness of NYC? Just Sayin'.

 

[Tusan_Homichi]

Ah. I just thought of another city:

Baytown, TX - That place has definitely seen better days.

 

[Boom]

I have a buddy that lives just outside of Jackson, MS. He is probably responsible for the high murder rate. He fits the profile of a serial killer. He is very Dexter like. :laugh2:

lol. I work in Jackson and it's interesting how the business sector goes from government buildings to condemned houses in 1 block's distance. I wouldn't live in Jackson, either.

 

[the kid 05]

a biiiiiig forget you to the state of Illinois.

 

[baj1dallas]

Anywhere north east of Kentucky.

 

[DFWJC]

This is US only?

1) Durham, NC by reputation alone.

2) Little Rock, AR lived there for a month, and got the hell out of dodge immediately.

3) anywhere south of Nashville in the Southeast states.

4) NYC I hate the crowdedness of it

5) LA - hate it (Orange County is okay though b/c of the Vietnamese culture there).

--

Top 5 cities
1) Victoria, WA (no income tax, and on the border with Oregon which has no sales tax).
2) Boston - awesome beautiful college town
3) Denver - very clean, pretty close to mountains
4) SF - just an awesome place
5) Just outside of DC (for family reasons)

Durham? really? I guess compared to Chapel Hill, it's not too great.... But that Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area is often listed in the top on best places. Maybe they mean mostly Raleigh or CH. I know it has the highest concentration of PHDs in the world. Plus the geography is pretty with mountains and beaches not too far away. And they do actually have 4 seasons (with Fall and Spring being the longest).

NYC...really? That's one of the truly great cities--even if you don't want to live there. I would not want to live there at this stage in my life, but as far as cities go, it has it all.

To each his own I guess.

I agree on SF...great town except Pelosi ...haha.
San Diego is nice too but entirely different.

 

[Dallas]

Detroit

PhilthyDelfia

Washington D.C.

San Fransisco

Portland, OR.

 

[Chief]

2. El Paso. Really, just about any border town can make my list, but El Paso is one of the biggest so it's here. Grungy, dirty, and crime-a-rific. I feel like I need to take a shower whenever I drive through it.

http://www.elpasotimes.com/ci_13854721

Rated the second-safest city in the U.S.

Across the border is a war zone, but El Paso is much safer than people think. I like it a lot better than Albuquerque.

 

[Teren_Kanan]

Any city that's primarily..

Never mind I'll just keep it to myself.

I've loved growing up here in Orlando.. but it's going down hill quickly.

 

[63echo]

http://www.elpasotimes.com/ci_13854721

Rated the second-safest city in the U.S.

Across the border is a war zone, but El Paso is much safer than people think. I like it a lot better than Albuquerque.

You are correct. It was a general impression I got after I worked a 45 day stint down there near their border. This was back in 2004, so maybe it's tightened up a bit. My impressions don't count for a hill of beans relative to your report (and others...yes, I was skeptical ), though. Very surprising.

You're also right about Albuquerque...what a dreary city.

 

[CowboyMike]

2. El Paso. Really, just about any border town can make my list, but El Paso is one of the biggest so it's here. Grungy, dirty, and crime-a-rific. I feel like I need to take a shower whenever I drive through it.

El Paso Ranks Safest City In US

City Safest For Polulations Over 500,000

UPDATED: 3:51 pm MST November 21, 2010

EL PASO, Texas -- For the first time, El Paso has been named the city with the lowest crime rate in the United States with a population of over 500,000 residents.

Officials said El Paso Police Chief Greg Allen was proud to announce the ranking, which has just been released by CQ Press in its latest city crime rankings.

Honolulu, HI was the second safest city and New York, NY was the third.

Since 1997, El Paso has been ranked in the second or third spot of safest cities by this independent study. Other Texas cities in the top 10 are Austin at No. 6 and Fort Worth at No. 10.

In a release, police spokesman Darrel G. Petry stated, "Chief Allen attributes this accomplishment to the community policing efforts and the many partnerships that the El Paso Police Department has developed with citizens, other law enforcement agencies, city departments, and various civic groups throughout El Paso. Additionally, this success could not have been accomplished without the hard work and dedication of each and every El Paso Police Department employee, sworn and civilian that work each day to make El Paso the safest place in the United States. Chief Greg Allen wishes to extend his thanks to the citizens of El Paso for their continued success in making El Paso the safest in the United States to live and work."

Read the rest here: http://www.kvia.com/news/25870470/detail.html

 

[CowboyMike]

You are correct. It was a general impression I got after I worked a 45 day stint down there near their border. This was back in 2004, so maybe it's tightened up a bit. My impressions don't count for a hill of beans relative to your report (and others...yes, I was skeptical ), though. Very surprising.

You're also right about Albuquerque...what a dreary city.

Oops, didn't know someone had already pointed it out. Actually, it's been among the top since 1997 according to the article I posted, so it was the same in 2004. I've been here over 20 years...

El Paso doesn't change much except for new developments here and there, plus Ft. Bliss. It's one of the pros and cons of the city. We stay safe, but we stay dull.

 

[SaltwaterServr]

I don't care what the article says, El Paso sucks in every imaginable way. Yeah, it's soooo safe and you can throw a rock across the river and hit a city where they AVERAGE 8 murders a day. 8 a day, and El Paso is second safest? It's only because they've sequestered the crime to the west bank of the Rio Grande.

Not the place you want to be when it spills over.

 

[burmafrd]

Living 40 miles from El Paso in Las Cruces, and working with a number of people who live there, I can tell you that they think that survey is a total joke. Its in the interests of all the governments to play down the problems.

 

[Yakuza Rich]

Here’s mine:

5. Atlanta – Lived there for 9 painful years. It is really the worst of everything. Put it this way, I moved to Orlando which has a cheaper cost of living and despite not working for 18 months, I got a new job in Orlando that paid me 30% more than my old job. Literally, everything sucks there. If it does not suck, then it’s merely decent but it raved about as being the greatest thing ever. Had a 6 mile drive to work one time and it took me 30 minutes to get there. If you listen to traffic reports (which they do a terrible job with because they only mention 2 parts of the entire city), at least once a week there’s a car on fire. Crime rate is thru the roof and the city’s answer was to cut down on the police force and fire departments. Massive corruption in the city government, a public transportation system…which outside of going to the airport…absolutely blows. Generally the city is filled with uptight, unfriendly people. Typically the people there have gone to some SEC school and only want to deal with people that they went to that college with. There’s plenty of other things, but I don’t have time to write a thesis.

4. Buffalo – Awful weather in a very run down and dirty city with no chance for economic revival. One of the few places that never saw economic improvement in the huge economic boom in the 90’s. Crime rate is off the charts as well. The problem with a place like Buffalo is that it may not have the crime rate of a city like Atlanta, but Atlanta’s crime all happens in a few select places where people know to stay away from. Buffalo’s crime happens everywhere. Strangely enough, Toronto….which is about 90 minutes away…is like anti-Buffalo. And it’s a Canadian city. So for it to be completely different from Buffalo just absolutely puzzles me.

3. Newark – The only good thing I can say is that there’s a small section of Newark that is decent enough. And I mean a very small section. And I mean decent. The other parts of Newark are so horribly awful that I think most of us couldn’t comprehend how bad they are.

2. Flint, MI – I honestly cannot think of one good word to say about Flint.

1. Camden, NJ – I went to Camden once for a boxing match and was robbed at gun point. Everybody I’ve ever talked to that has been to Camden has been robbed or mugged at least once there. Had a friend who went to a pro wrestling card there about 15 years ago and when the event was over with, every single car in the parking lot had their windows smashed and anything they could get the hands on, stolen.


YR

 

[Yakuza Rich]

I haven't been to a ton of other cities, but I can say safely one of the worst was Binghamton,NY. I was in Buffalo a few years after I stayed in Binghamton and Buffalo was a paradise compared to it. I was only visiting in Buffalo to see the falls BTW, but my father had to work there for long patches of time.

I can say a lot of state of NY cities (upstate too) are decrepit up to a point.

I still can inference from a lot of horror stories that Binghamton is like a Detroit-light.

That's a good one. Except Binghamton has nowhere near the crime rate as Detroit.

I have probably driven thru or been in Binghamton about 50 times in my life and it has always rained every single time there. And when it stops raining it's usually very dreary. The houses almost look like they are built on top of each other as well.

I like Rochester. Hate Buffalo. Hate Albany. Grew up in Syracuse, thus I don't mind it. Although I think it's not a bad looking city.

I don't find that everything in NYC takes 30 minutes to get to. In fact, far from it. I think the public transportation there is superb. Cost of living is outrageous, but you generally will make more money. And once you get out of Manhattan, the cost of living goes down quite a bit. It's still a bit pricey, but much more reasonable.

Probably the only thing that kept me from living there was the weather.







YR

 

[YosemiteSam]

3. Newark – The only good thing I can say is that there’s a small section of Newark that is decent enough. And I mean a very small section. And I mean decent. The other parts of Newark are so horribly awful that I think most of us couldn’t comprehend how bad they are.

Would that small section be the train platform out of town?

 

[Danny White]

I lived just outside of Philadelphia for four years while I was in college, and it's not that bad of a city.

There are parts of it that aren't nice, but it's no where near as bad as some of the other cities listed like Detroit or Newark.