What's the most depressing city in the world?

[BurtWorm]

I vote Rostock, Germany. I dont know if the situation has improved in the 10 years since I last saw it, but when I did see it, I had never seen a more depressingly ruined city in my life.

[Cuban_Liberal]

1. Kabul, Afghanistan.

When I first saw it, I thought we'd landed at the entrance to Hell...

[BurtWorm]

5. When did you see it?

I can believe that's in the running. I'll bet there are a bunch of Central Asian Republics cities in the running as well.

[Cuban_Liberal]

13. December '01

God was good to me and my enlistment expired in February '02...

[BurtWorm]

16. Congratulations for getting the hell out of there.

:hi:

[Cuban_Liberal]

37. Like I said, God was good to me...

Those poor people...that poor country...what's happened to those poor sould over the last 30 years... God, its sooo depresssing to even think about. :(

[Cuban_Liberal]

38. Dupe

.

[qwertyMike]

35. You shoulda been there in 1973

Hippie Paradise.


Close to home I'd say Buffalo

[bif]

2. Detroit

[Jack_Dawson]

9. Never been but I hear it's depressing

[bif]

17. It's a pretty sad town

Mile arter mile of vacanty houses. A dumpy downtown where the only hope for many of the buildings is to tear them down and turn them into parking lots. Litter everywhere. Huge potholes on all the roads. It's really depressing.

[ScreamingMeemie]

68. Stop it! I am here. I am exciting. I am fun. I am nice. I am upbeat.

How can I be in a depressing city? ;)

[bamademo]

3. When I saw it 20 years ago, Camden NJ

What a dump!

[ms_splash]

56. Camden IS pretty bad

That's where my husband's family is from

[StopTheMorans]

4. Buffalo, NY

not only is the weather rotten, but there are no jobs, the city is ugly, you've got the bills (and the endless super bowl loser jokes from the early 90's run of 4 straight losses) and some of the most unhealthy food in the world (i.e. wings and beef on wick). And, an extremely low number of sunny days. I could go on forever:)

[ELduchiVONpoopyBARON]

7. D.C.

as long as the Bush regime continues to reside there!

[BurtWorm]

11. Good point.

I was there on business two days before the inauguration, and it was the most depressing time I've ever spent there. Suddenly all the stores were full of the Bush boy's ugly mug on mugs and pencils. Constipated pricks in cowboy boots and cowboy hats were scooping them up in Union Station and the airport gift shops. :puke: I was back two days later having a somewhat better time protesting the whole business with a more festive crowd.

[K8-EEE]

70. My Husband Is From Hamburg, NY

It's really a pretty little village on first sight 0-- it's outside of Buffalo...but then it creeps up on you this humid, damp, heavy feeling of OPPRESSION!!! omg! I was kissing the ground at LAX when I got home.

However....the most depressing place I ever went to was Tunis, Tunesia. ARgh!! I saw this little fountain and I was like, well, THERE'S something that's not depressing....and I go over to get my picture taken by it and it's like, filthy water with starving fish all thrashing around trying to eat each other CHECK PLEASE!

However the couscous was divine!

[TNDemo]

6. Albany, Kentucky.

Lived there for two years. Had to leave every couple of weeks to visit the real world.

[Mobius]

8. Flint Michigan

[Snow]

10. Pyoungyang, capital of North Korea......

let's pretend everything's okay as the country starves to death. And the facade is obvious because the people who run things have never seen anyplace else, so they don't know what the real worldl looks like.

Then there's the whole split country thing as well, with relatives who are kept apart from each other getting old and dying. Or just dying.

[brainwashed_youth]

12. Moscow

Went there for a mission trip a few years back and I've never seen such a bleak, depressing place

[JVS]

14. Well, I'm no expert having never left North America or Europe

But how bad could Rostock have been?

I mean there are places where kids keel over dead while looking for something to eat in garbage heaps.

[BurtWorm]

19. It was block after block after block of massive closed-down factories

and warehouses, and a tiny, broken-down little "resort" area where the ferry across the Baltic left from. Rostock was notorious for neo-Nazi activity.

[JVS]

21. I can see miles of that on a drive through the mon valley

Sounds like the typical blighted East German city

Yep, depressing, but I think it could be worse

[BurtWorm]

25. I went with what I know. I've never seen Pyongyang or Kabul

but I'll bet those nominations are much closer to the mark.

[JVS]

29. Yeah this is a hard question. Few are well traveled enough to comment ...

on a worldwide contest. I'm sure there is some small city in siberia that absolutely sucks, but I've never been there.

[BurtWorm]

31. It's just a conversation starter.

;)

I was curious if anyone had seen Rostock more recently. It had nowhere to go but up.

[loftycity]

15. Detroit and Flint Michigan...n/t

[Kathy in Cambridge]

22. And Romulus Michigan, near the airport

spent lots of time there when Ford was one of my clients. Blech.

[arendt]

18. Las Vegas - American crassness writ large

A hideous town. All glitz and no substance.
A gigantic machine for separating gullible
tourists from their money.
An environmental disaster, sucking water from
all of Nevada to water lawns in the middle of
the desert.
An un-walkable landscape of giant hotels separated
by miles-wide parking lots.

Las Vegas is "Pottersville" from "Its a Wonderful
Life".

Now it bills itself as a "family friendly town".
Yeah, right - legal prostitutes hanging out on
the sidewalk. Leafleters pushing numbers of sex
clubs and call girls on everyone in their path.

Las Vegas is the perfect microcosm of what is
wrong in "get rich quick", "damn the environment",
America.

Town is a total waste of time. I was forced to go
to two or three conventions there. You seen one
slot machine, you seen em all.

We used to play a game. We would camp in the hotel
lobby and watch to spot the hookers going up to
clients' rooms. (I cannot believe the stupidity of
people who would use credit cards for such services,
but I'm told its widespread (pardon the pun).

Las Vegas - brought to you by the mob and the gambling
industry, coming soon to a slum near you.

arendt

[gator_in_Ontario]

33. I love Vegas!

of course I spent time on horseback in Red Rock Canyon. But I like the hokey glitziness of it too.

[Lost in GA]

54. You may be right, I may be crazy..

but its such fun to have fun in Vegas! And the grand canyon is only 4 hrs away by car, thats enough beauty and Nature to touch the most materialistic person.

[devilgrrl]

66. Thank you, thank you, thank you...

I had such a difficult time explaning to people why I didn't like Las Vegas, you just did it for me. :-)

[K8-EEE]

72. HATE Vegas. HATE IT!!

I used to allow myself to be dragged there by Vegas lovers but last time I said NEVER AGAIN!! IT DEPRESSES THE HELL OUT OF ME!!

When I was a kid in the 60s Vegas was great. My parents would park me in the lounges and I'd watch all the rat-pack wannabes and people watching was great there, everyone was so flamboyent. Now it's so crowded and everyone's wearing shirts with writing on them, everything is overblown, bloated and tacky.

[THUNDER HANDS]

20. Austin, TX

Went there once. Too many flying insects. Got real depressed. Never went back.

No offense, Texas DUers. :)

[Richardo]

23. Man, if you didn't like Austin; Houston or Dallas would have killed you...

...it's the best we've got, city-wise, IMO.

[NoPasaran]

42. No offense taken

If only more people would leave this would be much nicer. Especially if they took their damn Suburbans and McMansions with them.

[tedoll78]

45. I'm living here..

and I agree.

Tons of beautiful people - all more handsome than I.
Tons of intelligent voters, surrounded by an ocean of idiot voters.
90% of the advertising is based on how great it is just to simply be in Texas (ugh!).
The traffic goes on for miles.
There are no decent all-night gay bars (being from New Orleans, I didn't know what "last call" meant until I went to college at the University of Mississippi).
It doesn't rain here. And when it does, the drivers turn into mental defects. Even if it's just a sprinkle.

And it's too far away from my family. Okay. Maybe it sucks just for me. It's a really nice place, and the people here are the best one can find in such a state.

[Ediacara]

55. Austin is the best city in Texas!

You would have probably dropped dead going to Dallas, Houston, or San Antonio...

[Burma Jones]

24. Atlantic City, NJ

The beauty of Myrtle Beach and the charm of Philly.

[Clovis Sangrail]

26. South St. Louis

Haven't seen most of the world, but I've seen a lot of the US... and South St. Louis is pretty bad (across the river from St. Louis)

When I was there (years ago) they didn't have any money, hence no fire department... they just let fires burn themselves out, resulting in burnt out shells dotting the city.
The chemical plant blew it's alarm siren every couple of weeks to warn of releases of toxic clouds.
Most of the stores were boarded up and abandoned, and tall weeds broke through both parking lots and side streets.
Almost every night I would see drum fires in the middle of various side streets with people huddled around them trying not to freeze.

It was like "Escape from New York" or something.

very, very depressing place

[Red State Rebel]

47. That's East St. Louis

South St. Louis is, for the most part, pretty decent.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

27. Lubbock Texas...

A town straight out of "The Last Picture Show" -- all alone, out in the middle of nothin'. A cultural wasteland with nothing to do. SERIOUSLY unattractive, with no natual beauty.

Bleck.

And to think I have to go BACK in May....

[BurtWorm]

28. Sorry to hear that.

You make it sound so...interesting. :scared:

[achtung_circus]

30. Bumf*ck, Idaho

[On the Road]

32. Conakry, Guinea

Never been there -- just by rumor. Most of West Africa is a hellhole these days, and just getting worse.

[Richardo]

34. Mexicali, BC, Mexico...

...across the border from Calexico and home of the festering "All-American Canal" one of the most polluted bodies of water in the world.

[GhostThatWalks]

36. Flint, MI

Just cause all the crap GM put all the residence throgh and the six year old killing another six year old. The whole city is a tragety.

[CO Liberal]

39. Colorado Springs, Colorado

Beautiful scenery, and an asshole everywhere you turn.

[rockymountaindem]

44. Hell yeah buddy!

I'm with you there. I don't know though, some of the vistas out east by Powers Bvld. and down by I-25 aren't so picturesque.

BTW, I'm soooo mad they closed the County Line BBQ on Chestnut st. a few years ago.

[cryofan]

40. Carrizo Springs, Texas

Ugly little town of 5K in the middle of the huge South Texas mesquite patch known as the Brush Country. Worst thing about it is the people living there: mostly a bunch of semi-literate inbred descendants of crop pickers; no more crops to pick (the farms sucked out all the water years ago). A large part of the people there now live off the govt teat. The rest live off of ranching and petroleum industry.

[Richardo]

41. Like you said: the government teat...

The rest live off of ranching and petroleum industry.

[sbj405]

43. Niagara Falls, NY

especially in the winter. I have no idea why this is considered a honeymoon spot. I was there in the winter and the only thing open was the casino. The depression is exacerbated by the fact that you can see life over on the Canadian side.

[DS1]

46. Seconded!

It reminds me of the steel factory town in The Deer Hunter. Only much worse off.

[Melsky]

48. I went there on my honeymoon

Only for one night, and because it was on the way from Binghamton, NY to Toronto. We got one of those super tacky rooms with a heart shaped tub and spent most of our time there.

It had a lot of very, very tacky and just creepy tourist stuff. When I am back in that area I plan on just driving through.

[Kamika]

49. for some reason I imagine just about any city in Russia as that

(disclaimer: I dont have anything against Russians)

[Aristus]

50. Miami, Florida.

Filled with creepy, surly, angry people who look at you as if you are some strange breed of insect. My wife and I overnighted there before we embarked on our honeymoon cruise. The city sucked. Hot, humid, dirty, dangerous. Why is this considered a resort city? Do you have to be crazy to want to live there?

[carolinayellowdog]

51. Houston

Houston, Bombay, and Matamoros are the three worst places I've ever been. But Bombay has some architectural charm, and Matamoros isn't the seat of the evilest empire in history.

[Mrs. Overall]

52. Tijuana

Visited a squatter's site on a hill, where families made little shelters out of cardboard boxes with a few old blankets to act as the floors. From this hill you could look across the border and see the palm trees and high rises of San Diego.
Also visited an orphanage and a jail--very depressing.

[MercutioATC]

53. Gary, IN. (unless you like that Gotham City look)

[SiobhanClancy]

57. Wichita,Kansas

Most depressing place I ever visited. It was a long time ago,but there were no bars(only private clubs that you had to buy a membership and then a liquor card just to have a drink) On the other hand,there were churches on every corner. Ugly architecture,nothing downtown and flat flat flat:(

[marigold20]

58. Rock Springs WY

Blech! And people said Butte, Montana was a hole...

[The Zanti Regent]

59. Pittsburgh, PA

So sad, a city in its' death throes!

[BurtWorm]

64. You must have been there a while ago

or it's gotten much worse in the last four or so years since I saw it. I thought it was kind of an interesting place.

[Heyo]

60. I can only speak about where I personally have been...

Which is alot of the US and Alaska, plus Germany..

And the most depressing town I've been in has to Amarillo, TX (I LOVE Texas, BTW, so not the state just that town)

The word that comes to mind is "wasteland"

No offense to anyone there.

Dallas is a beautiful place where I've had some great times!

Heyo

[slack]

61. Rostock is a depressing place, ok.

but you have to look at Eisenhüttenstadt.
That's the place to be. Rostock can be a nice City, Eisenhüttenstadt can not.

[Fight_n_back]

62. Grand Junction, Colorado

Most frequently heard phrase.."Oh, that place closed"

[pfitz59]

63. Port Au Prince

Could smell it from miles away!

[I AM SPARTACUS]

74. au contraire, PaP has its distinct charms...

[Stephanie]

65. New York in Jan/Feb

Thank god THAT's over. Every year I say never again.

[AlFrankenFan]

67. Camp Hill, Pennsylvania

Where not a single liberal - to my knowledge - resides. Where I know there to be a great concentration of conservatives, even greater than my neighborhood in Orange County (at least it's diluted by a liberal or five), and there to be no hope. It's depressing to be in a town of like-minded morans. :(

[charliebrown]

69. I vote for whatever city someone named senetor Fiengold just imed me from.

I am not a Freeper and I am mad now!!!!

[Goldberg]

71. Any city in Africa...

where kids are starving and dying, people having and dying from AIDS, lack of vaccinations, malaria...the list goes on. :cry:

[SmileyBoy]

73. Yakutsk, Russia.

The heart of the former Siberian gulag country. A bleak city of 210,000 people in Northern Siberia.

Average January high: -28 degrees FARENHEIT.