Palo Alto, CA. The worst dichotomy of rich and poor. Go down El Camino and it's boarded up and vacant store fronts. Much of the city has small, tiny houses worth a million bucks... Then there's the part where there are $20 million mansions.

The worst part of it is the phony "I vote Democrat" liberal old money rich people who cock-block any zoning that could bring about affordable housing. Why? Because they don't want their $20 million mansion tol only be worth $19 million. Then, of course, the East Palo Alto putsch, where the former U.S. murder capital was transformed into some gentrified monstrocity with Ikea, the Home Despot and even a Four Seasons hotel?!? Gee, where are all the servants going to live now? Oh, they can just move to the East Bay and get up two hours earlier so they can take junior to his $1800/mo preschool.

The most greedy, phony, crappy place on Earth, next to the most obnoxious robber baron grade inflation university that churns out obnoxious idiots that 10 years after graduation are still talking about their boring masters thesis where they created a restaurant ordering system on a palm pilot (ohhh! You can insert data in a database and retreive it too!)

But maybe I should tell you how I really feel about that place sometime...

SF is also kind of this way. Phony liberalism. I'm sure you saw the piece on the Daily Show about how much nicer the SF SPCA is than homeless shelters. That is SF for you. Vegan wuss hippie lemmings spray painting "vegan" tags on Vietnamese restaurants... This just in -- Vietnam is next to the ocean and they eat a lot of seafood because it is abundant. They don't go to the Whole Foods and eat vegan bran muffins... Anyway, those militant vegans are ALL from Detroit...

While these have been 7 pages worth of informative suggestions, I think the thread may have benefitted from making a couple key distinctions.

There should be some size requirement. I'm sure that someplace like Aberdeen, WA or Jackson, MI really sucks a whole lot, but they're also not the kind of places I would expect to do anything but suck. And if we had a contest to start naming cities I don't think anyone would have those two in their first hundred.

Second, there is a difference between bad and truly miserable. It's the difference between being able to say "__________ is boring/crappy" and "_______ is essentially the manifestation of all the bad parts of the Bible." For instance I have been through Dayton many times. It sucks. It is boring. I do not want to live there, ever. But if you really think it is the worst city in America then you need to travel a little more. It might not even be in the bottom 20.

Fontana, California. NASCAR fans, Hells Angels, horrible roads, nightly shootings.

And to top it off, from the sound of it (when I was there), they have the largest population of Pterodactyls and Screech Owls.

Tampa, FL

Milwaukee, WI (sorta comes alive at night...but it's one of those cities where no one is walking around).

Grand Rapids, MI (You can visit the Gerald Ford Museum).

Gary, IN is so industrialized and fucked that it's almost beautiful.

Charleston, IL...any number of places in downstate IL suck hard though.

Des Plaines and Rolling Meadows, IL - the getos of the NW suburbs

Sault Ste. Marie, MI...it was actually kinda neat in a way...you can go into Canada and drink when you're 19 if you want if you go to the school there...but no.

ginandtacos.com wrote: For instance I have been through Dayton many times. It sucks. It is boring. I do not want to live there, ever. But if you really think it is the worst city in America then you need to travel a little more. It might not even be in the bottom 20.

Perhaps you need to travel a little more.

Who cares anyways? It's all personal preference. This has nothing to do with facts.

Dayton, OH it is.

ginandtacos.com wrote: I have been through Dayton many times. It sucks. It is boring. I do not want to live there, ever. But if you really think it is the worst city in America then you need to travel a little more. It might not even be in the bottom 20.

Shit, Dayton isn't even one of the 20 worst cities in OHIO.

judging by this thread most of america sucks.

I think Baghdad would be kind of a crappy place to live right now.

simmo wrote:Luxembourg City, Luxembourg. That's the worst city I've ever been to.

I like this city.
LOTS of rare CDs !

Worst ever fucking city to me is Cairo !!

Pollution, dusty from dusk till dawn.
At night, it's gray.
Don't mind the heat though.

The people, ask them to take my photos, they ask for money !
Ask the policemen to take my photos, they also ask for money.
Nothing is Free, they said.
FUCK !!!!!!!!! How true !

Around the Giza pyramids, got on the camel...my wallet dropped. No money of course because it was the last leg of my tour.
Money was in my front pocket.
I had some small coins for people back home as souvenirs in the wallet.
The camel guy found it.
The small coins were all gone !
The truth, the camel guy picked my wallet out when the camel was galloping, he sat behind me.

Seeing the Pharoah tomb, lined up for hours & hours.
People who sneeze or cough are prohibited.

WORST EVER CITY I'VE BEEN TO !!!!!!!!!!!!!