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[Fuchsdh]

I was there a few months ago. Don't remember seeing any litter and didn't feel like I might get jacked, no more than what you would living in any larger city.

I think especially when it comes to your sense of safety it's mostly the dangers you're familiar with versus unfamiliar.

It's like how we have threads about pickpockets and Europeans don't understand that it's basically a non-existent crime in most of the US. Likewise you have different scams and grifts in different parts of the world.

 

[Charles Brandon]

Oi birmingham is awesome, so vibrant, great nightlife, I'm moving there next year

Poor Brum, always gets shat on. It's not that bad but you have to look past a lot of stuff appreciate it.

 

[Laieon]

Houston Texas

Grew up in Houston, I completely agree with this. It has a nice zoo, amazing hospitals, and the space center is cool when you're young (taking anyone who's visiting there quickly makes the appeal disappear), but for the most part it's just boring and lacks identity. San Antonio and El Paso do Texas culture better, Austin does music and "things young people like to do" better. Houston and Dallas just seem to be there.

 

[Edsmells12345]

Dhaka

 

[tedrotheredro]

I quite liked the city itself but the people there were incredible assholes, full of hatred towards strangers.

So you come to NYC, a city of 11 million with massive diversity, think everyone is rude because that's what you've heard, refuse to assimilate into the busy city culture, and call everyone else assholes?

K

 

[Servbot24]

Siloam Springs, Arkansas. I went to school there. Going to Wal-Mart is the only activity there. It's in a dry county so no bars or easy ways to get drinks. It holds the record for most churches per capita (at the time I went anyways). And just years before I got there, there was an official sign outside the city telling black people not to enter, in much less friendly terms.

 

[bigjig]

I know it's a controversial answer, but it's honestly Rome. I traveled through Europe for 3 months and that was the only place I truly hated. Just a bag full of bad experiences.

I loved my time in Rome but I really hated Milan. Maybe I just had a bad run of experiences with the locals, but I'm never going back.

 

[SuperBanana]

The absolute worst is Detroit. Not even third world cities or ex-soviet states are as post-apocalyptic as that city. I felt unsafe on every block and was amazed how a country like America should let a city become something like it was out of a zombie movie.

Runners up:
Chișinău, Moldova. Poor as fuck, run down, dirty.
Pristina, Kosovo. They burn coals to keep warm during summer which makes the city INCREDIBLY polluted and stinks.

 

[Familienoberhauptvogel]

When I went to India we visited the Taj Mahal and the city it's located in, Agra, is dreadful. Short stay tourism and poverty can be a dreadful mix.

Our guides nearly started a fight over which shop they could take us to until we agreed to visit both.

 

[pelicansurf]

Hot Springs, VA. The town closes at 8pm, main st is like an eighth of a mile and there are like 4 restaurants total. They also close at 8pm. Also it's in the middle of fucking nowhere and there's absolutely no entertainment. It was awful. I don't even know if it counts as a city, to be honest.

 

[hobozero]

Probably a tie between Winnipeg and Bangalore. (The people were really nice in Bangalore, so maybe that edges them ahead).

 

[Sheroking]

Why do Americans visit Tijuana? It's... not good to put it lightly.

As far as I knew, Tijuana's popularity had less to do with good things and more to do with easy access to unsavory shit.

 

[sullyj]

East St. Louis

 

[Charles Brandon]

When I went to India we visited the Taj Mahal and the city it's located in, Agra, is dreadful. Short stay tourism and poverty can be a dreadful mix.

Our guides nearly started a fight over which shop they could take us to until we agreed to visit both.

Agra - fucking hell, I've been there. We went to Agra fort and thought it would be a good idea to relax in a cafe overlooking the fort with a bhang lassi (essentially a weed milkshake) then get the bus back to town.

This was a mistake.

The weed was strong as fuck and we all lost the plot on the bus back, paranoia exacerbated by the fact that it was a 'local' bus and we were the only tourists on it, everyone just stared at us for the entirety of the journey. The ride took about two hours. Occasionally the bus would stop in traffic and people were banging on the side of it for reason I don't understand. It was an oppressive experience. The next day we all got delhi belly and the three of us spent three days in the same room puking and shitting water non-stop. Good times.

 

[HotHamBoy]

Detroit

 

[Jzero]

Why do Americans visit Tijuana? It's... not good to put it lightly.

Literally the first place available after crossing the border?

 

[ExVicis]

Naples, Italy. Horrible architecture, horrible heat problems, roads in the city were awful, and to top it off when I was last there a ridiculously bad trash problem.

 

[Pikma]

Napoli, such a horrible place, there was nothing redeeming about that place nor the time I spent there.

 

[Pikma]

Naples, Italy. Horrible architecture, horrible heat problems, roads in the city were awful, and to top it off when I was last there a ridiculously bad trash problem.

When were you there? Because I'm pretty sure it was not a matter of timing

 

[Charles Brandon]

When were you there? Because I'm pretty sure it was not a matter of timing

I vaguely recall that there is some kind of ongoing dispute involving the Comorra

 

[mambadragon]

I don't know about worst but most disappointing/overhyped is Boston.

 

[spekkeh]

Crossing the Thai-cambodia border at Poipet was quite a riot. Having to pay bribes to the border control after successfully dodging three different scams and fighting off some people trying to make a run with my luggage (luckily my small 5'10 frame makes me a lumbering hulk over there), we tried to dodge the government enforced scam for the overpriced taxis to Angkor Wat by pretending to come to Cambodia solely because we were interested in Poipet. Or as it is known locally, Toilet. A long dusty road with rickety houses and shady casinos on the side. One had a very nice lady with ostensibly good looking and tasting food. After finding a taxi to drive us to Angkor Wat and then immediately getting stopped by armed security guards who put the squeeze on our taxi drivers, we were finally off to Angkor Wat. Where I spent the next three days projectile vomiting from a stomach infection.


Also I really did not care for Sharm el Sheikh. It looks derivatively middle eastern but decent enough, just there was not a single nice person there.

 

[Gutek]

Kankakee, IL

David Letterman donated two gazebos to Kankakee in 1999 after the city was rated the 354th best metropolitan area in the country to live out of 354 metropolitan areas

 

[Bert409]

Camden, New Jersey
Newark, New Jersey
Trenton, New Jersey
Atlantic City, New Jersey

You might notice a pattern here. Princeton is nice though..

 

[345triangle]

i'm a firm believer in giving cities the benefit of the doubt. i feel like i hate LA, for example, but i get that E3 probably isn't the best time to check it out. and who hasn't just had random bad luck on a holiday?

i think the only answer that makes sense for me is las vegas. i've been six times and it's the only city i know of that truly seems to have been constructed with malevolent intent.

 

[ecosse_011172]

Well, yeah.

While I agree that they are architecturally amazing, there is no excuse for the amount of rubbish and theft in any city really.

It doesn't make them amongst the worst cities in the world though, does it?
They're amongst the best in the world in so many ways and let down in some others.

 

[Charles Brandon]

i think the only answer that makes sense for me is las vegas. i've been six times and it's the only city i know of that truly seems to have been constructed with malevolent intent.

Quote the turn of phrase. I'm going to be stealing that one. Well played.

 

[ecosse_011172]

I think especially when it comes to your sense of safety it's mostly the dangers you're familiar with versus unfamiliar.

It's like how we have threads about pickpockets and Europeans don't understand that it's basically a non-existent crime in most of the US. Likewise you have different scams and grifts in different parts of the world.

I'll take pickpocketing over gun crime any day of the week, thanks.

 

[Laughing Banana]

Jakarta. Its a city without a functioning public transportation, which means the roads are congested all the time with three lanes being used by five rows of cars and motorcycles in between. Also the the i was there parts of the roads were flooded to a point where the cars felt like ships.

I loved the food and part of the city surely feel modern but man...

Jakarta ain't that bad, except all of its terrible parts, that is, hahah.

Well at least in Jakarta it won't be difficult to have and enjoy all the usual trappings of a modern life, something that you can't say about many places in the world.

 

[GSG Flash]

Probably Jacksonville, Fl. The only redeeming quality about that place was the relatively quiet beaches and the weather.

Edit: Forgot about Detroit, probably a little worse than Jacksonville, but atleast it gave us Detroit style pizza.

 

[ExVicis]

When were you there? Because I'm pretty sure it was not a matter of timing

2006. I guess I'm also forgetting the horrible traffic, horrible drivers, the Crime and Mafia, and of course....the goddamn Italian Scooters.

I wanted to be fair and say it might be timing because the Mafia was having a Civil War at the time and I think there was a Sanitation Strike but there were so many more other problems.

Best goddamn food I've ever eaten though, no question.

 

[Ahasverus]

Bogota, what a souless frankenstein shithole; insecure, drab, cold, ugly people, mean people, dirty, shapeless, everything is far away from everything and its public transist system musst be the wortst of the world. Ugh. So ashamed it's the capital of my country, it shouldn't be.

 

[PillarEN]

Detroit - had to go there for business several times - when the locals say it's okay to run red lights and stop signs in certain areas and the cops (if present) dont care, it's not a good place.

But we are getting better. I still freak out if I'm in some ghetto part driving through in the night. I was honestly pleasantly surprised with Detroit when I visited my friends last summer.

 

[ecosse_011172]

I wouldn't say Rome was the worst city I've ever been too. The old city is staggeringly beautiful and fantastic. But outside of that it's a bit sketchy.

It has some crappy suburbs like most large cities but it's an amazing place.

 

[ecosse_011172]

I was in Delhi a few weeks ago and while it may not be the worst city I've visited, I'm in no hurry to return.

 

[Charles Brandon]

It has some crappy suburbs like most large cities but it's an amazing place.

I would suggest that the 'suburbs'' seem to be a very large percentage of the city and quite close to the nice bit, unlike say Paris where you aren't going to stumble on the banlieue.

It is an amazing place though, agreed.

 

[Spuck-uk]

Fresno was an unrelenting hellscape.

 

[McBryBry]

Resident near St Louis.... Its St Louis.

Chicago was great. New York was great. The cities I've been to in Kentucky, Tennessee and Wisconsin were all great. St Louis has some fun stuff in it, but man... Driving in can be so depressing sometimes. So much looks so run down.

 

[tiebreaker]

Jakarta. My brother lived there so I.'ve visitrd the city multiple times already. But I always try to avoid whenever I can.

3 words that I'd use to describe Jakarta would be expensive, traffic, and pollution.

 

[nan0]

Can someone explain to a European why New Jersey is so frowned upon? Is it a fad like the Germans dissing the Netherlands?

 

[Jzero]

Detroit - had to go there for business several times - when the locals say it's okay to run red lights and stop signs in certain areas and the cops (if present) dont care, it's not a good place.

Wow I thought I had seen racist comments before but I just saw peak racism by reading the Youtube comments on Detroit videos.

Can someone explain to a European why New Jersey is so frowned upon? Is it a fad like the Germans dissing the Netherlands?

 

[Ahasverus]

Can someone explain to a European why New Jersey is so frowned upon? Is it a fad like the Germans dissing the Netherlands?

New Yorkers

 

[The Greek Freak]

Cleveland. The entire downtown literally smelled like feces all 3 times I've been there years apart.

The people are rude and dumb as fuck as well.

The cops are all racist cunts.

LeBron is the only good thing to ever be from Cleveland and he's actually from Akron.

Imagine if Detroit was 25% less fucked but the people were 5 times more fucked. That's Cleveland, oh plus feces smell EVERYWHERE

 

[ecosse_011172]

I've only been to the airport in Manila but that was enough, queuing for 4 hours from 1am to get a taxi, 2-3 hours to change terminals, everything utter chaos and nonsensical.

I'll no doubt be back as a friend moves there shortly so hopefully I'll find out the rest of it is better

 

[The Technomancer]

In the US, I really hated fort Wayne Indiana. Boring and ugly and sad.

I've got family in Fort Wayne and its hard for me to call it the worst just because of how...banal it is. Its a medium sized city trapped in suburban hell, an endless progression of winding housing communities and strip malls.

 

[danowat]

It doesn't make them amongst the worst cities in the world though, does it?
They're amongst the best in the world in so many ways and let down in some others.

It's just an opinion, that differs from yours

 

[Familienoberhauptvogel]

Agra - fucking hell, I've been there. We went to Agra fort and thought it would be a good idea to relax in a cafe overlooking the fort with a bhang lassi (essentially a weed milkshake) then get the bus back to town.

This was a mistake.

The weed was strong as fuck and we all lost the plot on the bus back, paranoia exacerbated by the fact that it was a 'local' bus and we were the only tourists on it, everyone just stared at us for the entirety of the journey. The ride took about two hours. Occasionally the bus would stop in traffic and people were banging on the side of it for reason I don't understand. It was an oppressive experience. The next day we all got delhi belly and the three of us spent three days in the same room puking and shitting water non-stop. Good times.

getting the runs gotta be a ritual every tourist goes through in india.

 

[Charles Brandon]

Can someone explain to a European why New Jersey is so frowned upon? Is it a fad like the Germans dissing the Netherlands?

I've always understood that NJ is seen by New Yorkers as Essex is seen by Londoners but unless you're English that won't mean much to you either.

 

[EBreda]

Naples is sadly very bad. When garbage collectors go on strikes (which is basically every other month) city goes literally full of trash on the streets. Also, most everyone I met was pretty rude.

North Italy was much more welcoming. Loved Bologna, Modena, Milan, Turin, Venice, pretty much all of Emiglia Romana .

 

[The Technomancer]

I might say Indianapolis just because of how dead that city feels whenever I'm there. Its eerie walking around the middle of downtown and having so few other people on the streets

Grew up in Houston, I completely agree with this. It has a nice zoo, amazing hospitals, and the space center is cool when you're young (taking anyone who's visiting there quickly makes the appeal disappear), but for the most part it's just boring and lacks identity. San Antonio and El Paso do Texas culture better, Austin does music and "things young people like to do" better. Houston and Dallas just seem to be there.

Houston would be my other choice. Just nothing but modern development, in the worst way.