What's the shitiest place in the US y'all have stayed?

[00kissmarrykick00]

I am speaking in Phoenix arizona. I was there for a short time and I met great people while I was out there, and I even got into Comic-Con for free. Seems like I was one of the lucky ones.

But the two worst places I've been in were Philadelphia Pennsylvania and Richmond Virginia.

 

[Usagi]

Clemson, SC is a shithole and not worth visiting. If you aren't part of the University expect to get treated like shit by everyone and every place of business.

 

[Usagi]

From there on out every interaction was tainted in some odd way, sometimes hard to put your finger on, like there was something in the water. I got the fuck out after a few days. Only redeaming quality was the street art.

JAX's problem is nearly everyone that lives there either
-isn't from Florida
-has never left the city

So you get this hodgepodge of cultures that are constantly clashing together. No one living in JAX really wants to be in JAX. Everyone ended up stuck there for whatever reason or they've never been able to escape the area. I met a lot of cool people there but the vast majority are shady. Then there is the whole gangland thing going on that's worse than anywhere else I've been. Other places I've been like that there are two-three major gangs and you know who's property you're on and it's easy to steer clear of trouble. JAX has like 2,000 different gangs with blood feuds between them. They're all right on top of each other so you might end up passing through 5 different territories just walking to the nearest store. If they've never seen you before they assume you're a cop even if you have hair down to your ass. JAX is the only city I've been in where the police will seize a drug dealer's car then put it back out on the street the next day with an undercover officer.

JAX also has this thing where you can be right in a major section of the city, take a turn down a road and next thing you know you're on a dirt road to nowhere. There are lots of pockets of woodland like that. Always a big dealer at the end of those dead end roads. So you can easily take a wrong turn and end up becoming gator food.

Downtown smells like chemicals and shit. Pretty much every area is dangerous or unfriendly to outsiders. Gated planned communities right next to business parks and the hood. Traffic worse than LA sometimes. You get the option of taking 1 of 3 suicide bridges home where you're going to be running 85mph+ with traffic watching every car around you bounce. People went over the railings into the river all of the time. Murders happening in broad daylight all of the time. When I lived there it had the highest murder rate in the country.

There is no reason to go there unless you want to check out the beach and pass on through. Or if you need a quick job to stack some cash. That's the one saving grace of the area. It doesn't cost that much to live there.

You're right. JAX is the largest city by land area in the entire United States. Technically, the entire county is considered part of the city. There is no way you could walk across it in a day. I used to leave my work place downtown at 8am and wouldn't get to my client's property on the beach until 10am. Some of the guys I worked with took the bus into work and talked about leaving at 5am in the morning to make it to the yard by 8am. I lived outside of the city proper. If I didn't leave by 5:30am I'd be an hour late. If I left at 5am I'd be an hour early. Traffic in JAX is a real mother fucker.

 

[Usagi]

Sorry for triple post but I wanted to make sure I told you about the water situation in JAX. DO NOT drink the tap water in JAX. No one drinks that shit and no one cooks with it. Most people don't even like bathing in it. It smells horrible and leaves a layer of shit on your skin when you bathe in it. Smells like straight sulfur.

Everyone that lives in that area buys water from vending machines. I think it's $1.25 for 5 gallon (or was it 3?). Something like that. Once a week I'd have to fill up 20-30 gallon milk jugs. That was my water for making tea, coffee, cooking etc.

JAX is the only place where I've lived that required building a 3 foot mound of dirt in the yard to have a septic tank. The cable guys won't run wires under your house either. I wouldn't even crawl under my house. Everything there is attempting to kill you including the water and people.

 

[Usagi]

I've talked so much shit about JAX I thought it prudent to add something positive. Forgive my ranting please.

I just wanted to say that despite how rough an area it is I saw plenty of folks looking out for each other. There was a homeless guy near one of the properties I worked at every week. One week I noticed that his cart was abandoned right by the highway. It was there for weeks. No one messed with it or stole it. I went on the JAX subreddit and there was a large thread about it. At least 20 people worried about the guy. Can't remember if he got picked up by the police or what but no one messed with his stuff for weeks. The city had to eventually come and haul it away.

I knew a lot of homeless people squatting in different areas of the city. No one messed with them. Most of the murders were gang related and in general they'd leave you alone if they didn't think you were the police. If you minded you own business people would mind theirs.

Also if you're stuck there and want to get out I'll give you a tip. If you're on the I-295 exit towards Orange Park around rush hour you should easily be able to hustle up at least $100 and probably a ride as well. Just don't get spooked by the other 20-30 people there doing the same thing you are. They're there every day like clock work on weekdays. Traffic will back up for miles up that exit. If you stay on the interstate side of the jam no cop will mess with you. Don't walk into Orange Park and try it though because the local police on that side love messing with people.

If for some crazy reason you decide you want to work in JAX long term do not bother trying to find a place within the city limits. Stay out in Clay county instead. Trust me the money you'll be paying for the car+gas to get in and out is worth it. We stayed right in the heart of Westside for 3 years. I busted my ass saving money for 3 years to get out because it was so horrible. When the house two over from mine got shot up I decided we had to go right then and there. The neighbors were fucking crazy. Kid across the street from me couldn't have girlfriend's in his mother's house. So he fucked them right in the street for all to see. I was surrounded by no less than 300 Pit bulls. I LOVE dogs and pits but I hated those dogs. All of them were mean and I saw lots of children mauled in the 3 years I was living there. This is considered the good area of the city. The places I worked during the day were much much worse.

If you're hanging out around the VA clinic downtown in the morning you can watch all the crack dealers report in for work at 9am. If you see someone with a bandana covering their face do yourself a favor and keep walking. We had it in our contract that we couldn't work on the sidewalks after 9am because of them. At 9am all our people and equipment had to be within the fence/gate of the VA clinic or it was an instant dismissal.

I've lived in a lot of rough areas both rural and in cities. JAX is by far the worse area I've ever been in as far as gang stuff is concerned. I'm willing to bet it's worse than Chiraq even today. In JAX they don't find many bodies because the gators are always hungry.

Speaking of gators never hang around bodies of water in the city. Ever retaining pond has at least one gator lurking in it.

I'll shut up about JAX now. Seeing it brought up always brings back bad memories. I was only supposed to be there for 2 weeks and I ended up getting stuck for 5 years.

 

[Spazz]

ITA that northern CA went down the tubes quickly. It's pretty much all meth (no offense intended to responsible moderate users) and suits trying to make a buck of Prop64.

I raised kids in YouTweaka and they went bad. Lost a husband to "rich people crystal meth) when the US flooded the cocaine market and blah blah blah everybody's got problems.

There were still some cool people in SoHum when i hit the ground running after an illegal lockout/covid eviction in the spring of '21 but now I'll sing with the choir about garbageville and the rich people's kids burning people's motorhomes and something sinister in the air about all the dead people with fentanyl in their meth.

Nothing wrong with smoking a little weed, but Humboldt is not a safe place right now. Please stay safe and understand that things changed very quickly.

I'd avoid Cali altogether if you can. Speaking from a very dark place of grief for my late furry purry right now, but also out of love for my human community.

The fantasy world that marketing agents put in our heads from an early age doesn't exist. My cat's life was more important than those Colonel McHippies' profit margins.

We are punks. Our culture goes back to the beatnik culture of our parents' generation. We.should be proud of who we are instead of buying into the hype of an advertisement and chasing after a "Hippie" fantasy that never existed in the first place.

Thanks for the heads up about Austin. Skeered out of my wits about going to Texas, but I haven't been there in 40-odd years and have a lot of cool online friends and acquaintances who live there and love it.

I'd avoid the US altogether if that's a reasonable option, to be bluntly honest. It's going down.

 

[sevedemanos]

the shittest award probably goes to phoenix, for me. baytown tx, or clovis nm runners up. ofc california has its own special place in my heart too but i think it probably does for everybody.

yeah.

 

[Gin]

the shittest award probably goes to phoenix, for me. baytown tx, or clovis nm runners up. ofc california has its own special place in my heart too but i think it probably does for everybody.

yeah.

Totally agree w/Phoenix & Calif. Never had any issue w/Clovis. Good or bad. It just is. Baytown I've never been to but I'll take your word & avoid it

 

[Gin]

ITA that northern CA went down the tubes quickly. It's pretty much all meth (no offense intended to responsible moderate users) and suits trying to make a buck of Prop64.

I raised kids in YouTweaka and they went bad. Lost a husband to "rich people crystal meth) when the US flooded the cocaine market and blah blah blah everybody's got problems.

There were still some cool people in SoHum when i hit the ground running after an illegal lockout/covid eviction in the spring of '21 but now I'll sing with the choir about garbageville and the rich people's kids burning people's motorhomes and something sinister in the air about all the dead people with fentanyl in their meth.

Nothing wrong with smoking a little weed, but Humboldt is not a safe place right now. Please stay safe and understand that things changed very quickly.

I'd avoid Cali altogether if you can. Speaking from a very dark place of grief for my late furry purry right now, but also out of love for my human community.

The fantasy world that marketing agents put in our heads from an early age doesn't exist. My cat's life was more important than those Colonel McHippies' profit margins.

We are punks. Our culture goes back to the beatnik culture of our parents' generation. We.should be proud of who we are instead of buying into the hype of an advertisement and chasing after a "Hippie" fantasy that never existed in the first place.

Thanks for the heads up about Austin. Skeered out of my wits about going to Texas, but I haven't been there in 40-odd years and have a lot of cool online friends and acquaintances who live there and love it.

I'd avoid the US altogether if that's a reasonable option, to be bluntly honest. It's going down.

My parents were Beatniks. My generation are Hippies, self included. I'm late 60s agewise

 

[DankBudz]

Stockton is definitely up there. I saw a girl at that donut shop crying and hitting herself in the head repeatedly until someone would give her a kickdown..

Carlsbad NM is shitty too. It's basically a worse version of Roswell which is bad too. I got my pack and banjo jacked in my sleep and I was only there one night.

Also Florida, most of California, Salina KS Maybe most of KS. Atlanta but it's good for trains. Houston ig.

I actually kind of like TX though. Ig I just thought it would be worse, but I dont mind going through there. Got a free bike from a guy and got a job and place to stay from another guy last time I was in ft worth

 

[SigNuL]

Nebraska.

 

[deadbeatwinner]

Chicago is the worst city in the US. While we stayed their my friend was assaulted on the train by some homophobes, another friend was shot and killed, and the constant racial abuse we received was really shocking and disturbing.

 

[Hellfire]

Great Falls, MT. What a dump.

 

[sevedemanos]

Totally agree w/Phoenix & Calif. Never had any issue w/Clovis. Good or bad. It just is. Baytown I've never been to but I'll take your word & avoid it

i never had issues persay. these were just some of the scummiest places i can remember crashing in at night. tfw youre wading through the absolute void, everybodys got an iq of 80 and theres trash everywhere, third world country methlab town vibes.. those towns felt so barren and they were all somewhat difficult to get out of.

i woke up in baytown once when i was stuck in houston trying to find a wbd. trace said “elgin”, which is a town near austin.. turned out “elgin” is the name of the grain industry in baytown.

tried hitching for days. no roads west but the i-10.

ive read about el centro. but ive never had the pleasure of accidentally grabbing the infamous sbd out of colton into there like a lot of folks have. nor have i ever felt like going to chicago.. bc you know , thats chicago mang. hell no.

 

[Gin]

Stockton is definitely up there. I saw a girl at that donut shop crying and hitting herself in the head repeatedly until someone would give her a kickdown..

Carlsbad NM is shitty too. It's basically a worse version of Roswell which is bad too. I got my pack and banjo jacked in my sleep and I was only there one night.

Also Florida, most of California, Salina KS Maybe most of KS. Atlanta but it's good for trains. Houston ig.

I actually kind of like TX though. Ig I just thought it would be worse, but I dont mind going through there. Got a free bike from a guy and got a job and place to stay from another guy last time I was in ft

i never had issues persay. these were just some of the scummiest places i can remember crashing in at night. tfw youre wading through the absolute void, everybodys got an iq of 80 and theres trash everywhere, third world country methlab town vibes.. those towns felt so barren and they were all somewhat difficult to get out of.

i woke up in baytown once when i was stuck in houston trying to find a wbd. trace said “elgin”, which is a town near austin.. turned out “elgin” is the name of the grain industry in baytown.

tried hitching for days. no roads west but the i-10.

ive read about el centro. but ive never had the pleasure of accidentally grabbing the infamous sbd out of colton into there like a lot of folks have. nor have i ever felt like going to chicago.. bc you know , thats chicago mang. hell no.

El Centro! I forgot that shit hole exsists