What is the biggest shithole town you've ever seen?

Casablanca Morocco

As opposed to Casablanca North Dakota?

r1 Oof, that's a good one. That gross oversized mosque built in 1992, which ruins the whole skyline, is basically the only thing worth seeing, along with the accompanying square. And maybe the Mohammed V Boulevard with buildings from the 1920s and '40s. Aside from that, definition of a shithole town.

R1, did you go there for the waters?

[Quote] As opposed to Casablanca North Dakota?

Yes, that’s a FABULOUS town!

Camden NEw Jersey.

[quote] did you go there for the waters?

Drugs, dirt-cheap plates and rugs

Pitts-burgh, PA

Palermo, Sicily. A toilet.

Agrigento is worse r9

Oracle and Benson, both in Arizona. Oracle reminded me of the movie Deliverance. I thought if I got out of my car I would be raped by a toothless backwoods hillbilly. Benson was right out of Norma Rae.

Most of the UK's urban environment is shockingly ugly in comparison to Europe (which is cleaner) or the US (which has trees).

The trail of detritus through the Poconos is abysmal.

Nogales, Mexico, was a dump (the people were friendly and we enjoyed a superb meal at the famous cave restaurant, so it was not unmitigated).

I was not prepared for the vapidity and trash of Toronto.

Houston is horrific.

Bologna is an exquisite city but its outskirts are some of the ugliest to mar a historic center.

Spain's small towns are vastly inferior in upkeep and architecture to those of Italy or France.

I don't think there's a single attractive small town in Australia.

New Zealand is an architectural minus.

Dubai is shit from stem to stern and contains not a single redeeming feature. The same is true of OPEC nations overall.

I love Brazil, but they don't do urbanism well.

I have never visited China, Korea or Japan. But if I ever do, it won't be because their built environment is wonderful (and classical era Asian architecture is indeed wonderful - alas, there's very little of it left).

Stockton, California

My late brother worked for a big corporation that moved him around a lot. He started in the Boston area where we grew up, then moved to upstate NY, then to Marietta, Georgia. I visited him and his wife in the late 1990's, and they were keeping their toddler sons in daycare in a shack in some sort of "holler" outside of Marietta. I mean, we went to pick them up one day and I just couldn't believe my eyes. My upper-middle-class brother and his wife were farming out raising their children to hillbillies who lived in shacks. My brother and his then wife both died when they were in their 50s due to substance abuse issues. One of my nephews is dead from a heroin overdose, and the the other one is an enthusiastic MAGA dipshit.

So my answer is the hell-holes just outside of Marietta, GA.

Istanbul, Turkey. What a shit hole, mind there I was only there 8 hours. It was enough

[quote] I don't think there's a single attractive small town in Australia.

R12 Actually some of the small towns are reasonably nice. Many though are pretty horrendous

[quote]New Zealand is an architectural minus.

I'm from New Zealand, and I agree. My home town is mostly unrelentingly ugly buildings

[quote]Dubai is shit from stem to stern and contains not a single redeeming feature. The same is true of OPEC nations overall.

Havent been, but I can well believe it

Athens Greece

Beautiful Architecture in in the Athens of 700 BC but that was a LONG time ago.

Barstow Calif

A miserable desert stop from LA to Vegas in the middle of nowhere mostly consisting of gas stations and fast food chains and meth labs.

Bakersfield, CA

A literal shit hole in central California full of oil wells, smog, dust, industry, flat and dry as far as the eye can see you would swear you are in Texas. It's smells like shit because it's full of factory farming mostly millions of cattle shitting in small fenced off pens cooking in the hot sun mixing with the unregulated amounts of smoke being burned from local factories and the oil industry.

R4 I was misinformed.

Franklin, Tennessee

Torrevieja, Spain

Port Hedland, Australia.

There’s a hideous stench that envelops the town of Dumas in the Texas Panhandle. I stopped there for gas on the way to Colorado and the smell made me gag. Not sure what it was— possibly a slaughterhouse or a tannery. I have no idea how the residents tolerate it.

Yeoville, UK

Tijuana, Mexico… a garbage dump with people living in it. Maybe it’s better now.

Peoria, IL

I’m an open minded traveller and try to see the best of everywhere visited. I like gritty places many people hate like Brussels, Naples and Athens, but many seaside UK towns truly challenge me. Go to a town like Dover which should be wonderful given the cliffs, castle and interesting geographic setting, but the social deprivation and dodging drunks and druggies midday walking through the town centre is depressingly sobering. Bleak and hopeless.

You people posting of places in Pennsylvania (the Poconos? Really?) and California must never have been to the American Deep South, never mind industrial Germany, eastern Europe, or the remaining continents.

Many parts of every major US cities.

Blackpool in the UK is a dive. I've no idea why so many visitors still flock to the 'Pleasure Beach' there. I think it's mostly the type of people who want to go to the seaside but find pretty beaches with maybe just a cafe boring, because they want shops, amusement arcades, rollercoasters, etc.

Penzance in Cornwall isn't great either. It's not terrible, but there are so many pretty coastal villages in Cornwall that Penzance sticks out like a sore thumb. It's mostly tacky and full of rundown buildings, which is in stark contrast to the pretty coast that it faces onto.

Leicester

Shenzhen is unrelieved filthy urban ugliness, in particular the border crossing point at Luohu as you emerge from the railway station after arriving from Hong Kong.

East St. Louis, IL

The American side of Niagara Falls. Sad.

Atlantic City. It’s an armpit of the U.S.

Wilkes-Barre Pennsylvania

Allentown

Lisbon has shockingly shitty slums and outskirts.

For pure city corruption and shitty quality of life, it’s hard to beat San Bernardino, Ca.

Red Level, Alabama. Red dirt everywhere and all level.

Tijuana is quite bad

Karachi, Pakistan. The stench of raw sewage, rotting food and unwashed bodies are forever etched into my soul.

Wow, some of you don't get out much if you think Palermo or Lisbon are so terrible.

Jakarta

R18

You win. That is truly a shithole.

And to be fair, most of Texas doesn’t look at all like that. Around Amarillo, yes.

Cluj-Napoca in Romania.

Newark New Jersey

Chester, Pennsylvania. Low rent individuals of every color and ethnicity.

Dai Loc VN. Not only was it a poor area no ac anywhere, but the water was bad and would sicken you, the leeches were a menace, and the locals often tried to kill you and in creative ways.

Newark and East St Louis , Chicago, and Detroit, by comparisons were pieces of cake.

[Quote] There’s a hideous stench that envelops the town of Dumas in the Texas Panhandle. I stopped there for gas on the way to Colorado and the smell made me gay.

Oh is THAT how it happens?

R49 Why did the locals tried to kill you?

Philadelphia. No, not all of it, but enough.

I always say Philly is a hole. And not in a good way.

I’ve never been but nobody I know has anything good to say about Athens.

The entire UK is trash.

Even Buckingham Palace???

Mar-o-Lago, Palm Beach, Florida

Hyannis, the ghetto of Cape Cod.

And no, the Kennedys are not there. They are in Hyannisport.

Shreveport Louisiana, aka Shitport, that's actually painted on a building you can see from the interstate, that tells you all you need to know. No one bats an eye at the constant killings

[quote] The entire UK is trash.

Oh sure... Edinburgh, Bath, York, North Berwick, St. Ives, the Lake District, etc. Just hideous 🙄

Beckley, West Va. Complete maga shithole.

Portsmouth, Ohio

Gila Bend AZ. Don't stop .Keep driving if ya wanna live boy.

Welch WV makes Beckley look like Paris

I loved Palermo and all of Sicily.

Yonkers New York

Oklahoma. The entire state.

Bay City Texas. Oh God the smell.

Worchester, MA is sad and depressing.

Well outside historic Lisbon it's just km after km of barren boulevards with 8-15 story dilapidated ugly apartment blocks and shitty retail if any, on street level. Such neighbourhoods go on forever in every direction. And very little green.

I know the worst slums of Cairo and yet they aren't as "shitty" feeling as those working class hells, in certain cities.

[quote] km after km of barren boulevards with 8-15 story dilapidated ugly apartment blocks and shitty retail if any, on street level. Such neighbourhoods go on forever in every direction. And very little green.

This describes every post-Soviet city and most large cities in the world in general. Why pick on Lisbon? Have you ever seen the outskirts of Mexico City? That's a hell on earth.

Miami!

[quote] Worchester, MA is sad and depressing.

Worcester is a bit better R68. But neither is as sad and depressing as your spelling.

R53 Athens is a weird one. Ghetto immigrant trash centre — and then just 300m down the block you find yourself in ancient Greek wonderland, with ruins, temples, statues, gorgeous old houses with vines and ivy growing against the walls, etc.

Fantastic museums, and great food of course. Just avoid the heart of the centre.

Read on if you wish to know about the true meaning of an actual shithole town. When I was in the service I drove to see a guy I was in basic training with. He and his family lived in Grove City, OH(which I had completely forgotten about until this thread resurrected the horrors) The town had, or appeared to be, a huge waste treatment plant which you couldn't fail to recognize no matter which way the wind was blowing. To make matters worse I had taken the trip in August, oy vey. Fetid, sickening aromas were everywhere and they seeped into homes, onto furnishings and into clothing, cars as well. His wife would seal his freshly-laundered,clean uniform in plastic so he could change into it at his duty station. Food was bought frequently so it wouldn't be around long enough to absorb the detestable odors.

A lot of people believe that our olfactory nerves will become desensitized to any permanent smell, whether good or bad, after awhile, but it certainly didn't apply in this case as attested to by my friend. The only reason he was living there was that real estate prices were UNamazingly low and it was all he could afford.

I wonder if the town, plant and odors still exist?

Union Grove, NC

Are we forgetting Cairo, IL?

What's it smell like R67? Never been but I live in Houston. Baytown is none to good either.

R59, And Devon in entirety, right? Plus Oxford, Cambridge, Canterbury, Stratford, Lincoln, Aylesbury, the Cotswolds,.....nothing picturesque to see here. Keep moving!

R50, I wrote ‘gag’, didn’t I? I could have sworn I wrote ‘gag’…

r23 Please tell me they pronounce the town the same way Red Foreman would refer to his son Eric. 🤨

Oh, Billy at r37! Just because you went for the easy rhyme when you meant Bethlehem and Bethlehem Steel.

Many of you seem not to have any knowledge of or experience with urban settings, apartment buildings, row homes, street parking, buses, Mom-and-Pop stores, etc. You seem to think that only suburbs and "shopping centers" are desirable, although one perforce must wonder what you think the word "suburban" actually means and requires.

P. S. In r81 is visible the erstwhile Bethlehem Steel, whose buildings stand but now transformed into a major casino, hotels, concert venues, festival site, outlet shops, and basically an arts and entertainment center.

And at his age (same as mine), Billy Joel might re-consider his opinion of Allentown!

Yes Shenzen around the train station is depressing but you only need to go several blocks north of that and it’s much better. And the neighborhood of the Overseas Chinese Town is really, really lovely.

Anyone carping on Philadelphia hasn’t been to Germantown.

I came to proffer Sao Paulo, but seeing Allentown above, brought back my few times there.

I would say it’s a bit of a shithole, but more soulless and bereft. I stayed in the Holiday Inn downtown and felt brave enough to walk a few blocks in the daylight. I can’t recall if I saw an open storefront or restaurant amongst all the closed ones.

There must have been a takeout place open, because I did return to my hotel with a bag of food. I rode the elevator up to my room with two policemen answering a domestic disturbance call on a floor lower than mine.

One warned me to get against the wall of the elevator to better stay out of view of a possible threat.

Come to think of it, São Paulo is about as threatening and unnerving as Allentown.

I mentioned Lisbon R70 because the OP question is "YOU'VE EVER SEEN". I haven't seen those other apartment block shitholes but yes I know they exist.

Aberdeen, Washington.

Quartzsite, AZ - nothing but flat, dry methed out or drunk white trash people who look like The Hills Have Eyes, and racist as f*ck. I'm not the only one who thinks so. There is literally nothing there. We stopped there for dinner and were horrified.

Daytona, FL. Such a conflagration of Assholes in an such a Shitty Place.

Gary Indiana

R24 it's Yeovil. Oh, dear.

Fall River, Ma.

Tirana, Albania but I was there in 1999. Hopefully it's better now.

And the favelas (shanty towns) above Rio de Janeiro. Actually, Rio down by the beach is not much better.

In the US? Indianapolis.

You haven't been to East St Louis one assumes, R93

Demopolis, Alabama. It’s what one poster described outskirts of Marietta, GA but in actuality.

R54 has never left his square state.

29 Palms. On the plus side you can fuck a 19yo USMC for a six-pac.

You know.

I'm sure it's in India somewhere. Overpopulation combined with little or no infrastructure is a recipe for that.

In the U.S....probably somewhere in Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, Texas, or Missouri. Even in my home state, the little shit towns usually have some kind of charm, because of the beautiful mountainous environment. Just avoid the southwestern part of the state, and you'll be fine.

Elizabeth, NJ. Or anywhere remotely close to the “meadowlands.”

When I was a kid and we made the horrific drive from the lovely North Shore of Long Island, across the BQE, across the Verrazano Narrows, through ugly Staten Island and one of this heinous bridges (the “Goethels?”) we’d end up near Elizabeth and its industrial gloom. It always smelled as we drive by in I-95 (or whatever the hell the road is called in that horrific state). We turned of the air, rolled up the windows and held our breath. It became a family joke. My dad loved to point to one of the gar refinery “flares” and say, “look! it’s the eternal flame of Elizabeth!”

When I got to Cornell I made a girl cry because she told me she was from Elizabeth. I was a clueless ass in those days. I’m a much more humble and decent person now.

When I drew through a small part of Georgia, pretty much every place I went through (en route to Athens, which is nice) was a total dump.

Trailers, churches, couches and rusted cars on front lawns, more churches and the odd Dollar General.

Thurso, Quebec. Small town built around a huge pulp and paper mill belching out the most acrid odour that hangs heavy in the air causing everywhere nearby to smell like a sewer. The town itself is nice enough though if you can choke back the smell.

R83 I lived and worked in Shenzhen for a year. For me, OCT with its multiple ugly theme parks is an example of Chinese bad taste. Yet at least it’s relatively clean. Apart from all the spitting, of course.

Athol of course. It’s even in the name.

Aberdeen, WA.

After seeing it I instantly knew why hometown boy Kurt Cobain's music was always so depressing.

[ R 48 ] Sad about Chester. Once upon a time it was a nice city. My first job in high school was at a menswear shop in Chester. Drove through the downtown area a few months ago and it was shocking. I guess attempts at revitalization with the soccer stadium and the casino haven't amounted to much.

R68 and R72, I went to college in Worcester, MA many years ago. We had a saying:

"If the world ever needed an enema, they'd put it in through Worcester!"

Glad to hear it might have improved.

Oh god, R100. You brought back memories. We used to drive through that same area of Elizabeth when we would drive from our home in Massachusetts to visit my dad’s family in North Carolina. When we’d hit Elizabeth and it would smell, my brother would say it was because one of us had farted. He made us (three siblings plus him) close our eyes and he said whoever farted, raise your hand.

He always said my sister would raise her hand. So then she’d start yelling and whining to our folks. My dad was not amused and he told us all to shut up.

Road trips were fun.

R81 - I've never been to Bethlehem PA, but I did stop in Allentown and thought it looked dreary and sad. Now this was also 30 years ago so who knows what it's like now. If it's had a renaissance, then good for them. I do remember they had like 1000 bridges crisscrossing everywhere (or so it seemed) which probably colored my perception since bridges make me uneasy.

Runner up would be Portland, ME -- but that was about 25 years ago, and I do think it's had a comeback since.

Portland. ME is supposed to be beautiful.

That milltown in Ohio (substituting in for PA) where they filmed “The Deer Hunter”. Jesus Christ, that place was a pit.

R107 According to the Boston Globe, in five years you won’t be able to afford to buy a house in Worcester. I went to school there years ago, too. It is much, much better with the WooSox and the schools, in particular UMass Medical and MA College of Pharmacy downtown.

I miss Spags but I’m glad they have a decent economy again.

Towns in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio and Washington state were used as locations for the "Deer Hunter". It wasn't just one town you saw.

My ex-husband’s, OP.

R109, Portland is absolutely wonderful. Sure you're not thinking of Bangor? (Which has also seen massive restoration).

Worcester, MA, has seen a lot of its magnificent Victoria and Beaux Arts buildings cleaned up (the train station is a masterpiece, likewise the public market) and its art museum is astoundingly good. It's hardly Palm Beach, but look at who lives in Palm Beach.

*Victorian*

Camden, NJ

Saginaw, MI

R103, Windows of the World? I thought I was hallucinating when I came out of the subway and saw the Eiffel Tower in the distance. Then there was an adorable tiny monorail that went around and over some small Chinese heritage theme park. Funniest part was I walked over to a low slung modern building that looked like a contemporary art museum and it turned out to be a Walmart. That was interesting too.

Bakersfield California has the worst air in the country--the country, not the State. The picture at R18 is too attractive since the sky ipictured is a milky blue. It's usually the same color as the oil derricks. For California it's a shithole but I would rather live there than the shitholes east of Bakersfield. Ridgecrest has to be seen to be believed.

Athens is not a shithole FFS. Lots to see and do. We had a fabulous time there.

Hamtramck.

Gary and Hammond, Indiana.

Palermo and Agrigento?

What?nAre you two joking? Culture, antiquities, fabulous food, peaceful. Explain your definition of "shithole".

R109, Yeah, there are about 2 bridges, if you don't count the historic covered ones. Have you been to NY? Maybe you have no idea how many US cities are near bodies of water?

And yes, there is an on-going renaissance in Allentown, developing the riverfront, e.g.

One great element of the entire Lehigh Valley is the staggering number of medical facilities. You can't swing a dead cat without hitting an Urgent Care, a campus of varied medical offices, or a full hospital complex. I live within 5 miles of three of the last, for example.

Thunder Bay Ontario deserves to be mentioned

Friends of mine who lived in California most of their lives just retired. They bought a condo in Philadelphia on Rittenhouse Square and plan on living in it six months out of the year and traveling the rest. They said it was the state that was best financially for them and liked the variety in PA and the East coast overall.

Agra (home of the Taj Mahal) is a pit. Casablanca, as mentioned by R1, is too. I'd also like to add the towns in Upstate NY: Rochester and Buffalo. Ew.

Lima Heights, OH

Toledo Ohio

Saginaw, Michigan

Espanola, NM

Hi r105.

[quote]but many seaside UK towns truly challenge me.

Is there anything sadder than a British seaside town, R27?

That they forgot to close down?

Imperial Beach, California. Hotbed for meth production and a haven for white nationalist terrorists.

What are British seaside towns so awful? The ones in the US can get tacky, but they're usually cheerful and most of the seacoast towns are wealthy.

Aside from industrial port areas the only place on the US seacoast that I can think of that is resolutely horrific is Atlantic City.

R125 - I’ll see your Thunder Bay and raise you a Regina, Saskatchewan.

As far as big cities go, my vote is for Los Angeles. Yes, there are sublimely beautiful areas of LA, but a huge swath of the city, especially most of the LA basin are horrors. A huge area that looks like a 50s industrial area that hasn't been upgraded in many decades. It's the most depressing area of any big city I've ever had the displeasure of driving though.

R134 - you beat me to it.

How can anyone resist R139??

Although we never stopped the car, I got a chuckle over the other “driving through Elizabeth, New Jersey as a kid” posters. Driving from Massachusetts to Florida we’d always get a five minute warning to roll up the windows. The whole stare of Georgia also had an off smell.

Does Green Bay Wisconsin still stink? There's a paper mill in the middle of the town that was so foul smelling we left the hotel early and drove all night to Madison.

"One type of odor comes from a special technique, called kraft pulping, that uses heat and chemicals to pulp wood chips for making paper. Kraft pulping produces gaseous sulfur compounds called “total reduced sulfur,” or TRS, gases. The odors these gases give off are often described as rotten cabbage or rotten eggs."

San Bernardino

Does this British seaside town look sad to you?

Or this one?

Or this one?

Or this one?

R89, Gary may be the shittiest place in America. It's the scariest place I've ever been. It's a fucking ghost town. I went to school near there and it was horrendous. Really, why would anyone want to visit Gary? "Look, it's the shack that the Jacksons lived in!"

Philadelphia

Monroe, La

Camden

[quote]Aside from industrial port areas the only place on the US seacoast that I can think of that is resolutely horrific is Atlantic City.

From Bar Harbor down to Miami, Atlantic City is the only seaside town that's a shithole.

And to think, it was at one time a lovely place with some gorgeous architecture.

Newark is not that bad r47, there are far worse places.

Even within New Jersey, Camden, Paterson, Trenton and Atlantic City for instance are all way, way worse than Newark. Newark is convenient to NY which has a really helped it out.

Manchester, Tennessee. I'm pretty sure it was the inspiration for "Children of the Corn".

[quote] Newark is not that bad

Agreed!

[quote]Palermo, Sicily. A toilet.

R9 I have a feeling you don't even own a passport. What on earth are you talking about?

A 3 hour tour of Palermo, a magnificent, vibrant, cultured historic city:

R91, Fall River, MA is WHACK!

Datalounge City

Fresno, California.

Atlantic City was unbelievable to me. I'd heard of it as some kind of resort for my grandmother's generation, she had grown up with the UK beach towns. When I finally saw Atlantic City on a casino trip I was floored by the squalor. But was also fascinated by it and felt compelled to explore. My travelling companions were having none of that.

Atlantic City was successful when gambling was unique. Now gambling is legalized everywhere, all those people from Pennsylvania don't need to go head to Atlantic City, you can gamble in PA. And it is so cheap and easy to fly out to Vegas if you want. There is little about Atlantic City that makes it a draw. It never hae anything else to offer, so it really went down hill.

[quote]Atlantic City was successful when gambling was unique

WRONG. Atlantic City was successful as a resort town; the city was already depressed when gambling entered the picture. Atlantic City was successful pre-1960. It was most popular in the 1930's.

Pottstown, PA

[quote]The trail of detritus through the Poconos is abysmal.

Oh, stop. Much of the Poconos is beautiful. Jim Thorpe is lovely.

I also agree that Newark is not that bad, and I could go into great detail explaining why, having worked there for years and knowing people who live there.

If any one NJ city truly deserves the dishonor of being a shithole it's Camden. Trenton and AC (and maybe most of Paterson) would follow.

[quote][ R 48 ] Sad about Chester. Once upon a time it was a nice city. My first job in high school was at a menswear shop in Chester. Drove through the downtown area a few months ago and it was shocking. I guess attempts at revitalization with the soccer stadium and the casino haven't amounted to much.

I am not R48, but I live in Delco, and my previous job took me to Chester almost daily. I would love to hear more about your experience in Chester back in the day. My neighbor said it had a nice downtown shopping area with a department store. The post office is beautiful.

Sinclair, Wyoming, is a vision of hell. 20 blocks of houses, 400 people, and a massive oil refinery spewing fire and stink. The wind blows so hard you are pelted with sand and small debris. The truck stop and restaurant by the interstate has a sign asking to you to avoid flushing the toilets because the sewage lagoon is full (at least it did 10 years ago when I visited).

Atlantic City still had a glimmer of its glory days through to the 1960s but it was sinking fast. The grand hotels were still there, there were still some luxury shops on the boardwalk. The 1964 Democratic convention, the Beatles, every rock band played the Steel Pier. The town had a seedy side but it was still enjoyable.

The slide accelerated in the late 60s. Iit was a dump by the time gambling moved in. If gambling had been handled properly the city would have had some hope, but they tore the best of the city down and built self-enclosed ugly monstrosities. There was no urban master plan.

^ and there was the involvement of business genius Donald Trump.

[quote]There’s a hideous stench that envelops the town of Dumas in the Texas Panhandle.

You must have been there when I was in town visiting relatives.

Newark in the mid-'80s looked like Berlin after the war. Vacant lots that looked bombed out every few blocks. I'm sure it's much improved now.

Atlantic City is still fun to visit in the summer.

If you want to hang out at the beach and boardwalk there are better places to go on the Jersey Shore than Atlantic City though.

[quote]Atlantic City is still fun to visit in the summer

There are a lot of events, lots of concerts at the casinos, some nice eateries and clubs on the beach blocks, but step outside of those areas and it's a shithole.

National City, California. As bad as Imperial Beach, but with no sea view. Strip malls and the odious car dealerships. Navy town top heavy with sailors and their ex hooker Filipino wives.

I've heard Naples Italy is awful.

East Hampton

Dudley.

Congrats R141! You found four (count 'em!) British seaside towns that do not fit the British stereotype of run-down, depressing, architecturally ugly, wind-swept shitholes.

I am aware there are exceptions to the rule.

But the British themselves seem to despise their seaside towns.

Is there a link between cheap airfare to continental Europe and the poverty of UK beach towns? Maybe people just don't go there as much as they used to.

[quote]But the British themselves seem to despise their seaside towns.

It is not my impression that British people universally despise seaside towns. Cornwall and Devon have some nice towns on the coast. My partner has been trying to persuade me to retire to Cornwall with him and the real estate prices seem to indicate that it is regarded as a desirable place to live.

In Canada we see your Brit show "Escape to the Country" albeit a few years late. Love the ones about Cornwall and Devon. If I could...

All this talk of the sea is making me hungry.

Pre-casino, why was Atlantic City so run down? It has a wide sandy beach and a boardwalk. It should’ve been a gold mine.

It was full of poor blacks living in horrible slums. They tire most of them down and the city looks better.

..tore…

R181 - AC was a major convention center for NJ, but the Wildwoods further south (which began building what was called doo wop motels along the beach) in the 1960s began competing for those bucks. In addition to competing for conventions, they also began pulling in people from the Philly area, north Jersey and (for some reason) Quebec.

The Wildwoods also had the advantage of being located above the town of Cape May, which simultaneously started becoming a drawer.

AC as a result became completely irrelevant.

Funny to watch Louis Malle’s 1980 “Atlantic City” now where they are tearing down all the fancy old hotels and people are in training to become croupiers. There’s a guarded optimism about the future of the city.

Oh well.

Atlantic City was a bit like Coney Island in that it was pitched to the lower-middle classes as an inexpensive place to have fun. It never had the social cachet of Cape May, which was full of respectable Philadelphians.

The hotels, which we see as grand, were considered dowdy by the 20th century.

[quote] It never had the social cachet of Cape May, which was full of respectable Philadelphians.

The exclusive NJ shore towns are Avalon and Stone Harbor

Caracas

R186 You really can't compare the two.

During its heyday, AC had family oriented amusement piers, small hotels and rooming houses but it also featured grand hotels that were on par with the best hotels in the US: The Traymore, The Clairidge, The Shelburn, The Chalfonte, Haddon-Hall, The Marlborough Blenheim, The Dennis.

It had top restaurants, high-end shops and clubs like the 500.

It was a mix of classes , from working class to the well-to-do.

Cape May was largely residential, second homes, quaint rooming houses and really only one big hotel.

[quote]The hotels, which we see as grand, were considered dowdy by the 20th century.

And that is false. AC's grand hotels were largely all built IN the 20th century.

Roswell, NM is a shithole.

R191 is the alien that crash landed in 1947.

Pottsville PA is almost like being on another planet. Someone mentioned Pottstown which I thought was nice. They are not too far apart.

The Correct Answer is Toledo Ohio.

R23, I've been to Dumas. It has the largest abattoir in the U.S.

When the causeway to Long Beach Island opened in the early 1960s, our family, like many others, abandoned Atlantic City for Beach Haven and points north and south on the island.

Whatever town Trump is currently in

Gomez Palacio, Mexico. The spray paint tagged covered cement bunkers acting as houses looked mighty grim.. This all plopped down in the Northern windblown sun bleached desert 500 miles below Texas. These bunkers were all that was evident as far as accommodation from the Pemex gas station I stopped in. I could see off in the distance a belching car battery recycling plant and a steel plant freely purged solid sun blocking black smoke into the cement bunker area, bathing it in its acrid death. I know people live and work there and I don't want to diss them. Im sure they would escape if they could.

Truth or Consequences NM. Desert shithole with beat up mobile homes. I also seem to recall a serial killer operating there.

Lots of tiny shitty towns when we drove from Houston to San Angelo where my memaw lived. San Angelo was no great shakes but it beat the hell out Mexia and other shitholes. San Angelo could at least boast a state college and a revitalized little downtown area and an historic old west type fort where they fought off marauding Comanche.

R164, Mexican food, right? I ate there, but it was probably 15 years ago and I don’t remember the sign.

Let's run away to Atlantic City!

Maybe we'll run into Lucy, Ricky, Ethel, Fred, and Barney Kurtz!

Diskit, India

R196 Not today, my friend, not today!

Not sure if it's a total contender, but Panama City Beach, FL was pretty disgusting on my recent trip. It was also pretty bad in 2022, but it's really bad now. Nasty, dirty Trumper MAGA bucket-beard trash ruined it. The condo we stayed at, a three-bedroom with one of them being a private apartment, was horrible. Dirty, filthy, crummy Airbnb host.

That beach is toast. The Florida panhandle should just get absorbed by Alabama already — because it's once again the Redneck Riviera.

Panama City is an outlier on the panhandle; the rest of the panhandle is very nice.

Assy

God knows it's not a shithole in the sense of trash or crime, but Perth, WA, struck me as perhaps the most culture-free major city I have ever visited in person.

The beaches were beautiful, but intellectual life was pea-brained.

I remember being shocked by how good the art museum in Toledo, Ohio, was, and how many programs and public events it held.

Perth, a city easily ten times larger and twenty times more prosperous, had nothing to compare.

You didn’t look very far, R208.

Did you?

Yep - no culture!

It's an improvement from when I was there (2002), but not exactly knock-out material.

And the architecture was resolutely bland with a sprinkling of vulgar.

Utica, NY

Elizabeth, NJ

He’s on Facebook as Louis Franco and he has a stalker too

I’m stuck here in East Hampton.

[quote] [R191] is the alien that crash landed in 1947.

The alleged UFO Crash wasn't even in Roswell. It was near Corona which is 75 miles away from Roswell.