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Imagine waking up in a dystopian world where all trees are plastic, where all streets are buried in piles of trash, where pollution is so bad you can’t see the sky, and where rivers have turned into concrete.

Well, in fact, this is already happening in some places around the world, according to the eye-opening subreddit named Urban Hell. Its 689k members share “all the hideous places human beings built or inhabit,” according to the group’s description and you can see these are not pretty.

Scroll through the real-life examples of urban hell below that reveal the dark side of modern development that often remains invisible. Psst! More urban hell examples can be found in our previous post right here.

#1

A Boy Gathers Recyclable Items From A Semi-Dry Drain, At Taimoor Nagar In New Delhi

A Boy Gathers Recyclable Items From A Semi-Dry Drain, At Taimoor Nagar In New Delhi

ParaMike46 Report

#2

Magnitogorsk, One Of The Worst Polluted Cities In Russia. Only 28% Of The Children Born In The Town Are Fully Healthy

Magnitogorsk, One Of The Worst Polluted Cities In Russia. Only 28% Of The Children Born In The Town Are Fully Healthy

Travel_legend Report

#3

Inequality In Tembisa, South Africa

Inequality In Tembisa, South Africa

PTRMT Report

To find out more about urban living and the downsides of it, Bored Panda reached out to Lisa Yaszek, a Regents Professor of Science Fiction Studies at Georgia Tech, where she researches and teaches science fiction as a global language crossing centuries, continents, and cultures.

“The traditional advantage of urban life is that cities are engines of technoscientific development and cultural exchange, and that is true now more than ever, as we see new megacities of 10 million or more people springing up around the world,” Lisa explained.

According to the professor, since the development of large industrial cities in the 1800s, the downsides of urban living have become increasingly evident. “Cities organized around factories and power plants tend to be environmental disasters, with clouds of pollution sometimes literally blotting out the sun and preventing the growth of anything green on the ground.”

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#4

Ah Yes, Trees

Ah Yes, Trees

MAAAS399 Report

#5

San Francisco, USA

San Francisco, USA

Sayl0 Report

#6

Norilsk, Russia

Norilsk, Russia

carlelov Report

Another downside is that “industrial and postindustrial cities also tend to attract disproportionate numbers of both highly skilled workers (often in finance or business) and unskilled laborers (often in factories or domestic work). As such, they make evident the very real and increasing gap between the rich and the poor.”

“Finally, cities tend to be surrounded by suburbs with single-family homes that, in theory, offer a better balance between nature and technology. In practice, however, suburbs have their own problems: their emphasis on visual uniformity is often part of a larger tendency toward cultural segregation, and the need to drive everywhere—including in and out of the city—only adds to our current environmental problems,” Lisa explained.

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#7

A Photo Of Central Park During The Great Depression (New York, 1933)

A Photo Of Central Park During The Great Depression (New York, 1933)

Double_Usual3271 Report

#8

Town Square In Bartoszyce (Poland) Before And After

Town Square In Bartoszyce (Poland) Before And After

slopeclimber Report

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#9

Residential Building In Hong Kong, Shot By Me On 35mm Film

Residential Building In Hong Kong, Shot By Me On 35mm Film

dredogue Report

When asked whether we can go backward and undo the harm that historic urban development practices have done to the physical world around us, Lisa said that she doesn’t think it’s possible. “But I do believe we can go forward in new ways,” she added.

“In particular, we can learn from our mistakes and rehabilitate the spaces we’ve already created, rather than simply abandoning or bulldozing over them. We can do this by either inventing new or recovering old technoscientific practices that better respect the coincidence between nature and culture and by practicing a different kind of urban design that springs from the lived reality of city-dwellers, rather than the abstract theorizing of planners and developers who often live in spaces far removed from the cities they design.”

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#10

Burj Al Babas, Turkey (The Largest Ghost Town In The World)

Burj Al Babas, Turkey (The Largest Ghost Town In The World)

8_Hoot Report

#11

Disgusting Canal Near My Home In Manila. I Wish People Just Would Bother To Care How Our Environment Is Dying Fast

Disgusting Canal Near My Home In Manila. I Wish People Just Would Bother To Care How Our Environment Is Dying Fast

AgentFive005 Report

#12

Ferentari, The Poorest Area Of Bucharest, Romania - Most Apartments Are Squatted And Have No Electricity, Hard To Believe This Is In The European Union

Ferentari, The Poorest Area Of Bucharest, Romania - Most Apartments Are Squatted And Have No Electricity, Hard To Believe This Is In The European Union

biwook Report

Lisa explained that if this sounds like utopian science fiction, that’s because it is. “Before Lang riveted the world with his image of the city as a gray, vertical dystopia that destroys nature and literally increases the gulf between rich and poor, stories by women of color including Bengali author Rokheya Hossain’s 'Sultana’s Dream' (1905) and American writer Pauline Hopkins’s Of One Blood (1902) presented readers with an alternative to urban hell: the 'garden megacity' that runs on solar power and where the equality of all people, regardless of race or gender, is made literal through horizontal urban design.”

The professor continued: “In the 1970s, American author and New York City dweller Samuel R. Delany’s Triton and Dhalgren rebutted the narrative of 'white flight' from permanently ruined cities by celebrating the excitement he saw in the women, people of color, and LGBTQ+ people around him moving into cities and making them their own. This led Delany to imagine what he called 'heterotopian' urban spaces where people use technology and art to create so many new identities and communities that it becomes impossible for one group to economically or politically dominate another.”

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#13

The Flag Of Urban Hell

The Flag Of Urban Hell

thefridgeinthegarage Report

#14

Las Vegas

Las Vegas

Zealousideal_Ad4636 Report

#15

Macau

Macau

FishMonkeyCow Report

“More recently, works including Caribbean-Canadian author Nalo Hopkinson’s Brown Girl in the Ring (1998); Nigerian digital artist Olelekan Jeyifous’s 'Shanty Megastructures' (2015) and 'Frozen Zone' (2021), and American filmmaker Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther (2018) have created what I call a 'nutopian' tradition of speculative storytelling celebrating how indigenous peoples around the world draw and weave together their own diverse knowledge systems with Western ones to begin the long but literally fruitful process of reclaiming urban spaces and creating better futures for all,” the professor explains.

#16

Huntington Beach, California, During The Oil Boom Of 1928

Huntington Beach, California, During The Oil Boom Of 1928

RareGentleman Report

#17

Not Sure If This Fits The Sub, Gallons And Gallons Of Water Wasted Just To Keep Lush Green Golf Fields In The Middle Of The Desert

Not Sure If This Fits The Sub, Gallons And Gallons Of Water Wasted Just To Keep Lush Green Golf Fields In The Middle Of The Desert

runy05 Report

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#18

This Beautiful View From My NYC Apartment

This Beautiful View From My NYC Apartment

SlenderFinger Report

The reason why Lisa has hope—”and the reason that all these authors have such beautiful future visions of the reclaimed city—is because real people are trying to build such futures for us now, in the real world!”

“For example, here in the U.S., urban farmers Will Allen and Emmanuel Pratt have won MacArthur 'genius' grants for their innovative use of both indigenous and Western farming practices to replace urban food deserts with locally owned food oases, while members of the Black Quantum Futurism Collective hold events to collect and share Black history and urban knowledge.”

#19

16th Century Mill Surrounded By Brand New Concrete In Seaside Bulgaria

16th Century Mill Surrounded By Brand New Concrete In Seaside Bulgaria

proBICEPS Report

#20

Guangzhou Aerial

Guangzhou Aerial

tanmaypendse63 Report

#21

"Lying Skyscraper" In Moscow. About 736m Long

"Lying Skyscraper" In Moscow. About 736m Long

wicnfuai Report

According to Lisa, the conversion of old rail tracks into green beltlines through cities like New York and Atlanta indicates things are taking a turn for the better. “It shows real attention to the way that people actually live in and use their cities, as well as the possibility that we can bring together nature and infrastructure in ways that benefit the many rather than just the few.”

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Interestingly, this isn’t just happening in the U.S. “In Kisumu City, Kenya, the Food Liaison Advisory Group is working to reconnect the city with the larger region to ensure supplies of healthy food and give rural farmers access to wider markets, while urban dwellers in India can use the 'Clean India' app to track and help resolve sanitation issues in their own and other nearby cities,” Lisa explained and added that she can’t wait to see what kinds of new and hopefully more utopian science fictional cities these actions inspire.

#22

Intersection Of Two Avenues In Sao Paulo, Brazil

Intersection Of Two Avenues In Sao Paulo, Brazil

RAEL_ATK Report

#23

"Vertical Slum" Luanda Angola

"Vertical Slum" Luanda Angola

reddit.com Report

#24

Margate, United Kingdom

Margate, United Kingdom

stereoworld Report

In the not-so-distant past, urbanization was understood as this ideal mode of modern living, the one which seemed to be very efficient, orderly, and adaptable to individual needs. Most importantly, it aimed at catering to a rapidly soaring population that found itself lacking in space, infrastructure, and opportunities in suburban areas. Our economies have become more industrialized over the past few hundred years, which made people move to cities.

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The United Nations (2018) predicted that by the year 2050, 68% of the global human population would live in urban areas, constantly growing in surface. And today, we no longer talk about cities, there’s a new term for cities much bigger than a 10-million population and it’s called a “megacity.” Tokyo is an example of a megacity with nearly 40 million residents.

#25

Children Playing Basketball Near The John E. Amos Coal-Fired Power Plant In Poca, West Virginia

Children Playing Basketball Near The John E. Amos Coal-Fired Power Plant In Poca, West Virginia

ParaMike46 Report

#26

Distance Between Two Apartments, Guangzhou

Distance Between Two Apartments, Guangzhou

tanmaypendse63 Report

#27

Inequality In Mumbai, India

Inequality In Mumbai, India

tanmaypendse63 Report

#28

A Graveyard In Hong Kong

A Graveyard In Hong Kong

Porodicnostablo Report

Add photo comments
POST
Andrew Gibb
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It is in the dead centre of town. People are dying to visit it....🥁🥁🥁

Watching
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I read the other day that somewhere~I can't remember where, they only rent plots. They don't have enough space. They get 1 to 5 years and then they cremate them.

BasedWang
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

look up the bad ones in the Philippines. stacked graves, you get short period of time then the bodies are removed and burned.... Pileees of bones and people LIVING in the "cemetary" to get paid cents. Kids playing with bones n stuff... Its insane. if you wanna check it https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/mar/21/cemetery-slums-life-manilas-graveyard-settlements-philippines

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PandaGoPanda
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

So you have to climb over other people's ancestors to reach your own?

diarykeeper
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Maybe graves and burials are outdated. Why not just take an urn home ?

COLA
Community Member
3 years ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Because not everybody wants to be cremated. Some people want green burial, some people want to be burned in the pyre, it's just people's choice on confronting death really, and we can't do anything about it.

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ThePracticalSarcastic
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

i think this one is in happy valley near the horse track...this is pretty much the whole thing if it's that one. not that big but very elaborate.

Lucy Hill
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My grandma’s brother is buried here. He worked in the kitchen on a Naval ship and died of chicken pox on Christmas Day.

Vicky Z
Community Member
3 years ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

How do you visit your beloved ones? I mean i see the stairs but where do you stand?? On other people's graves?

Anta Babb
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

There's a walkway along the front of the gravestones. You get to the level your relative or friend is buried on and then walk across to it

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Ham Explosion
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Might be a cool place to be buried being that close to people when a ghost just like talking about war stories or some s**t. But a very bad place to be during the zombie apocalypse.

Ricky Moore
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Surely not a graveyard, catacombs?? And by the sound of it only temporary

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#29

Bliska Wola Tower, Warsaw, Poland. Sunlight Rarely Reaches The Bottom Floors, And Some Apartments Are As Small As 18 M²

Bliska Wola Tower, Warsaw, Poland. Sunlight Rarely Reaches The Bottom Floors, And Some Apartments Are As Small As 18 M²

gaymeteorologistlol Report

#30

Only Surviving Photo Of A Hoarder House Demolished Around 2007 In Nagoya, Japan

Only Surviving Photo Of A Hoarder House Demolished Around 2007 In Nagoya, Japan

biwook Report

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#31

Preschool In Newark, NJ, 1994

Preschool In Newark, NJ, 1994

FromLuxorToEphesus Report

#32

Copy Paste

Copy Paste

Mrmime10 Report

#33

Wuhan, China

Wuhan, China

tittlemans-crest Report

#34

Abidjan, Ivory Coast

Abidjan, Ivory Coast

gustaver19 Report

#35

My Dorm At The University Of South Carolina (1998), Since Demolished

My Dorm At The University Of South Carolina (1998), Since Demolished

tuna-from-a-stranger Report

#36

Paris, France. A Studio In The Building Between The Boulevard And The Train Rails Highways Starts At 800€/Months. If You Qualify!

Paris, France. A Studio In The Building Between The Boulevard And The Train Rails Highways Starts At 800€/Months. If You Qualify!

NormPa Report

#37

Amazon’s New Fulfillment Center In Tijuana, Mexico

Amazon’s New Fulfillment Center In Tijuana, Mexico

Azrael612 Report

#38

Beautiful Pittsburgh Architecture

Beautiful Pittsburgh Architecture

MidgetManglr Report

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#39

A Famous Bank In Pau, France

A Famous Bank In Pau, France

Adrien296 Report

#40

Fencemageddon 2 - The Panelling! Pretty Standard View Of English / Irish Estates

Fencemageddon 2 - The Panelling! Pretty Standard View Of English / Irish Estates

ParaMike46 Report

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#41

Business Is Booming

Business Is Booming

yungchewie Report

#42

Many People Told Me That This Looks Like An Urban Dystopia

Many People Told Me That This Looks Like An Urban Dystopia

mazterz Report

#43

Another One For Orange Day In San Francisco Last Year

Another One For Orange Day In San Francisco Last Year

mrrektstrong Report

#44

This Dunkin Donuts

This Dunkin Donuts

justshushi Report

#45

Ryugyong Hotel

Ryugyong Hotel

Longjumping_Virus818 Report

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#46

Is Dubai A Common Repost

Is Dubai A Common Repost

DiskEmergency Report

#47

Edifício São Vito, A Notorious Vertical Slum In São Paulo, Brazil - The Internal Corridors Were 80 Cm (31 In) Wide

Edifício São Vito, A Notorious Vertical Slum In São Paulo, Brazil - The Internal Corridors Were 80 Cm (31 In) Wide

biwook Report

#48

Mumbai, India. Lives Are Stacked Up Because They Are Poor

Mumbai, India. Lives Are Stacked Up Because They Are Poor

devansh1221 Report

#49

Residence Underneath A Highway In Naples, Italy

Residence Underneath A Highway In Naples, Italy

Picf Report

#50

New Orleans, A Sinking City

New Orleans, A Sinking City

BeardedGlass Report

#51

Apartment Building In Tel Aviv, Israel

Apartment Building In Tel Aviv, Israel

jimmythemini Report

#52

A Silk Road

A Silk Road

pile1983 Report

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#53

A View From My Hotel Room In Hong Kong

A View From My Hotel Room In Hong Kong

userfromouterspace Report

#54

Atlanta, Us Is Just A Huge Highway With Some Buildings On The Side

Atlanta, Us Is Just A Huge Highway With Some Buildings On The Side

VoicedVelarNasal Report

#55

Got The Apartment With A Sea View In Batumi

Got The Apartment With A Sea View In Batumi

vitalliuss Report

#56

Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles, And Its Absurdly Sprawling And Wasteful Parking Lot

Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles, And Its Absurdly Sprawling And Wasteful Parking Lot

LordMangudai Report

#57

L.A.'s Concrete River

L.A.'s Concrete River

Phara-Oh Report

#58

Neighborhood Near A Coal Powered Power Plant In Bogatynia, Poland

Neighborhood Near A Coal Powered Power Plant In Bogatynia, Poland

panepojdmesihrat Report

#59

Visiting This Russian City? Why Not Stay In This Hotel Built Right Behind The Local Factory

Visiting This Russian City? Why Not Stay In This Hotel Built Right Behind The Local Factory

dontflyaway Report

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#60

23-Story Archive Without Windows, Duisburg, Germany

23-Story Archive Without Windows, Duisburg, Germany

x2phantom Report

#61

Cairo , Egypt

Cairo , Egypt

roastedpickles950 Report

#62

Palladium Hell

Palladium Hell

rrsafety Report

#63

A Normal Day In The Capital City Of Mongolia

A Normal Day In The Capital City Of Mongolia

Desmond1231 Report

#64

The Mesmerizing Beauty Of Santorini

The Mesmerizing Beauty Of Santorini

Creative_Kangaroo_86 Report

#65

Dream Courtyard Between 4 Buildings Near My Work, The Floor Is Actually Painted Green

Dream Courtyard Between 4 Buildings Near My Work, The Floor Is Actually Painted Green

Lorenzo_Zaver Report

#66

What Italian Cities Actually Look Like. This Is Milan For You

What Italian Cities Actually Look Like. This Is Milan For You

4t0m77 Report

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