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People In This Online Group Share The 30 Most Unpleasant-Looking Cities In America They’ve Ever Visited
From armpits of the state to middle fingers of the country—some of the cities in the US are known for being the least attractive urban settlements. Of course, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so not everyone finds NYC or New Orleans pleasing, and perhaps some negative experiences would have influenced one's preferences. But there are definitely a few cities that stand no chance at not being called ugly and we are hoping that you are not living there.
A curious user u/teddyjr32378 on the popular Reddit community r/AskReddit decided to find out ‘What is the ugliest city you have ever visited?’ and below are what the users came up with with, so you can let us know if you agree.
More info: Reddit
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#1
Vegas. Although I wouldn’t call it much of a city; it was more of a clusterf*** of buildings, neon, and wasted lives all stitched together smack in the middle of bumf*** nowhere.
ThePracticalSarcastic 3 years ago
Las Vegas is not just the strip...next time drive a few miles in either direction then you can pass judgement. This hiker's paradise is 20 minutes from the strip and still in Las Vegas 29f460d205...f07889.jpg 
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#2
Bakersfield, CA - Never in my life have I seen such a sour sight. Oil wells as far the eye can see that it almost looks a heard of stationary ants humping the soil.
tomruns12 3 years ago
I don't know where this picture was taken but it isn't Bakersfield. Bakersfield has a population of almost 400k and while there are oil pumps throughout the city and surrounding areas its not like this. There are also orange groves and many other fruits an vegetables. Bakersfield does have the most unhealthy air in America and terrible traffic. Source: My brother lives in Bakersfield and I live 2 hours away.
#3
Gary, Indiana. The entire city was gray. No color. I thought I had gone color blind until I got to Chicago.
#4
Youngstown, Ohio. Pure depression.
#5
After I visited Aberdeen, Washington I felt like I understood Kurt Cobain better. The natural surroundings are stunningly beautiful, but in the middle of it there’s this gray, dark, depressing town built on a swamp that feels like it’s sucks the life out of you. If a town could have feelings, this one would be utterly, hopelessly depressed.
#6
Bakersfield, California, always gives me a headache when I visit it.
#7
LA. depressing concrete s***hole and I'm glad I visited nicer cities in the USA. everyone was so angry/sad there.
#8
Modesto, CA. It should be a crime to make a city as ugly as Modesto in a state with so much beauty.
Suzanne Haigh 3 years ago
Well you know, whoever designed, planned etc this will be related to errrm, well those in control who have the pennies. Same everywhere
#10
Birmingham, Alabama. Half the city is just bland brown brick buildings from the 80’s, and the other half is basically abandoned ruins of bland brown brick buildings from the 80’s
#11
Johnstown, Pennsylvania... You can almost feel that the city is dying a slow, unsettling death...
#12
Albuquerque, NM. Let me paint a picture. In a rental car after 14 hours of driving I make it about halfway into town. And need gas badly. I pullover to a pretty empty gas station. Just Some oily cardboard sheets spread out here and there. Trees pretty much envelope 3/4s of the sides of the building itself. I get ready to slide my card in the reader when 6 individuals start exiting the cover of the trees. Three guys take up sitting or lying down on the strewn cardboard and three women/girls of questionable age somewhere between 16 and 40 I ballpark approach my car and try to hem and haw and cough to get my attention. I pull my card back, say "aww s***, declines. F***." Get back in my car and speed away. In my rearview I see more people keep coming out of the trees. They didn't look pleased.
#13
Independence, MO. — meth capital of the United States. Even the buildings look like they smoke rocks.
Leigh Boatright 3 years ago
Portland oregon. Needles and trash everywhere. The area around my apartment looks like a garbage dump.
#14
Gary Indiana is the best reason ever to remove speed limits from freeways. So you can enter and exit Gary in the shortest possible time.
You know a city is bad when the local government boasts there's been less than a dozen murders and less than 20 dead crack babies this month!
Things are Lookin' up for Gary, Indiana!
#15
'City' would be generous, but take it upon yourself to never stop in Stark or Waldo, FL.
#16
Abilene, Tx. just empty buildings, ghettos, and more churches than i've ever seen. the churches are doing well. the city, not so much.
Emma Byrne 3 years ago
Interesting. I wonder if folk pay more to the tax avoiding church than they do in taxes?
#17
No one has mentioned Watertown NY so I guess I'll make the case for it. I grew up in the Watertown area. Have since traveled all over the US many times. I've seen some downright awful places but I've yet to see a place that captures the same kind of energy that Watertown does.
Watertown is unique in that it has the perfect combination of a depressed economy, dilapidated infrastructure and poor weather. It gets positively hammered with snow in the winter due to its proximity to Lake Ontario and often sets records for snowfall and low temperatures. The winters are brutal and sometimes start as early as October and can last into May. It exists in what was once the bottom of an ancient glacial lake so the low elevation means constant cloud cover which makes it gray and bleak during the summertime.
On top of that, almost any art or music that is written about the place is about how bad it is. Frank Sinatra's album Watertown is depressing as hell. Harry Chapin wrote the song "A Better Place To Be" while he was in Watertown. There are more examples too. It's so depressing that it inspires people to write about how depressing it is.
Cain Hargreaves 3 years ago
There are so many towns in New York state that are absolutely miserable (Mechanicville is another one).
#18
Albany, NY just feels like a really big Greyhound bus station to me. In the summer it's kinda gross, but in the winter it's a muddy gray sh*tpile. Whenever I've found myself there I've felt like I need to escape it - probably in an old school bus with razor wire strung around it with sharpened broomstick handles protruding from the windows.
#19
Cleveland Ohio. That place irritates my soul
Corey Smith 3 years ago
Hmmm, I don't understand. It's not the most beautiful city, but it is not ugly at all. Lots of features, lots of culture. Surrounding areas are gorgeous.
#20
Stockton, CA is some big yikes. Maybe not aesthetically ugly, but definitely socioeconomically ugly.
#21
Laurel, MS. The try to doll it up on the HGTV show, but it's a cesspool. Upgraded to the most violent city in Mississippi last year, if I'm not mistaken.
Michael Vickery 3 years ago
There used to be a local musician who sang a song that went "Laurel, is a dirty stinking place." It's the Gary, Indiana of Mississippi.
#23
I can’t believe no one had mentioned Rochester NY, Anything past Culver road. The worst parts are near Lyell and Monroe Ave. Place is a sh*t hole.
AzKhaleesi 3 years ago
Dude. .... I LOVE rochester. There's soooo much history. Yes there's some s**t parts. (especially Monroe ave) but I like to describe it as the most beautiful ghetto I've ever seen. Can't be too mad when there's trees grass and friggin squirrels everywhere. lol. But upstate NY is my fave. Rochester, Medina, Irondaquoit (I spelled that wrong I'm sure), you name it. Amazing.
#24
Blyth California
HighDesertArtist 3 years ago
But if you’re in Blythe, the shining star is the Courtesy Coffee Shop diner. Food is great and make sure to ask them to show you the amazing vintage dining room hidden behind the red padded door! They only use it for prime rib night.
#25
Lawton, OK also. Only been on a few quick in and out missions into the town, but by golly does look like a mess.
#27
Terre Haute, IN. Truly the armpit of the state.
Stephanie Bee 3 years ago
Can confirm. Anderson is one of the many armpits of Indiana. Lol.
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Philly Bob Squires 3 years ago
It went downhill because of all of us people that never paid our Columbia House bills... :)
Mark Grudzinski 3 years ago
I had a friend who went to Indiana State, which is located there. Yeah, not very appealing.
kybourbonpearls 3 years ago
Used to go up there every year for the Scheid Diesel Extravaganza! I loved it! Margaritaville and several other nice restaurants to eat at too.
Jamma 3 years ago
I once went to a camp for highschoolers on the ISU campus in T.H. The thing I couldn't get over was how bad the city smelled, constantly. A quick google search tells me that T.H. was pretty notorious for its odor, though apparently it has been addressed in the last decade or so.
#28
Cañon City, CO. The Royal Gorge is lovely, but as it's also home to multiple prisons, the rest of it is bleak as hell.
Curry on... 3 years ago
I told a friend that I was on line checking out Canon City's rents. She practically barked at me to avoid that town because of all the prisons.
#29
Spokane,WA. It feels like it got left behind in the late 80s when Seattle became a major destination with no vibrancy or anything attractive about the city in general. Just bunches of residential neighborhoods with a few upscale eateries to keep it just out of last place.
Brandi VanSteenwyk 3 years ago
I am thinking that perhaps Spokane intentionally avoided becoming "another Seattle" on purpose. There were many very-desirable rural/suburban features that faded out as Seattle became a major destination. Spokane would have been smart to retain those things.
What do you think ?
Brandi VanSteenwyk 3 years ago
Hey Pandas!! Let's flip the script and list the prettiest, most-inviting cities in the US.
Sanne H. 3 years ago
My thoughts exactly! Or the city with the most creative street-art, the city with the nicest parks, the city with the tallest buildings etc... i’ve never been to the US and don’t know much about the country, so it would be nice to see some cool places
Load More Replies...
Two_rolling_black_eyes 3 years ago
There is an extended run along I-5 in California where it should be beautiful but the cities along it are a tragic assault against everything good in life. Several of them (Modesto, Stockton, Fresno) were mentioned in the article.
Mrs. Jan Glass 3 years ago
I've driven cross country several times, and I'd probably take the Oklahoma panhandle over that stretch of Central Valley, CA. You can practically chew the smell of it.
Load More Replies...
Red Hair Blue Soul 3 years ago
Why is Baltimore, MD on here?! Don't @ me, I'm from Maryland and worked in that dump of a city forever.
Jim Ellington 3 years ago
I worked in an office that had a large photo of its skyline frames on the wall. What a miserable little city.
Load More Replies...
Don't Look 3 years ago
The trouble with listing any city in NJ on this is that most of these cities have a declining economy, sparse attractions and just a genuine lack of life. Many of these cities had a heyday of sorts with employment and movement and spending and activity. Then people left about 30-20 years ago and the werent replaced. NJ is small and connected to everything. But I feel you. I grew up in northern NJ and .... I thought it sucked. But it was one of the richest places in the country. Money moved through there. People were always up to something. I just... was too young to be involved correctly.
Load More Replies...
Jim Ellington 3 years ago (edited)
When driving to the beach from Gainesville, FL I always got a sense of abject dread driving through Palatka.
Don't Look 3 years ago
Dayton is a tough one because they have the national air force museum so the government will keep it going and they'll do it quietly.
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Nicholas Yu 3 years ago
There's a reason Saginaw MI is called Sag-nasty by the locals....Flint is rough too. They STILL don't have clean water and it's been what...7 years?
bakkysak09 3 years ago
suprised no one mentioned detroit cause i always hear that its bad lmao
Bacony Cakes 3 years ago
Detroit is if Pripyat was on the great lakes and had an abandoned car factory.
Load More Replies...
Dl B 3 years ago
Also Harrisburg. Don't go there at night if you don't want to get shot.
Load More Replies...
Vicky Z 3 years ago (edited)
It should be written in the title that it's about American ugly cities.... I'm sure there are ugly cities around the world too(edit: title post now mentions it's about American cities..)
Danieletc 3 years ago
The US is the only nation you are allowed to hate at the BP site.
Load More Replies... Athena Funk 2 years ago
Cochran,GA still literally has a wrong side of the tracks white people with money on one one side black people with no money on the other. Only real jobs in the town are Middle Georgia State University and Walmart. And Walmart hasn’t been there for a decade yet.
Tana Karrer Addington 3 years ago
Yuma AZ has an evilness about it, and it is not content until it has sucked you down to it's level of life!
Don't Look 3 years ago
WVA is a joke of a state to be honest. It's ... special.
Load More Replies...
Mario Arzani 3 years ago
I’m sorry did I miss something? Since when did bored panda get taken over by USA haters? Every single article recently is about how cr@p it is.
lunanoire 3 years ago
Midland, TX has got to be the armpit of the entire world. Just oil pumps and lots of fracking. So happy I'll never have to drive through West Texas again. Agree about Bakersfield, CA but Fresno should be on that list too. But that said I've seen some pretty sad European towns too.
Mad Mar 3 years ago
Let's ring in Connecticut here. Bridgeport. It's buildings either all broken windows or spray paint. Or college s**t or antique buildings with one last subway in the ground floor. That's the main city. As you head out there are housing complexes that were old when they looked new. Hospitals with rude staffing if any. Couple trees. Gangsters. Wanna be gangsters. Crack an meth heads. Some fast food. A tree or two. Bars everywhere. Greek owned almost everything. Greek pizza joints. Greek diners. Greek hotdog stands. Greek fried chicken. And hair salons. Idk I live a town over in Stratford an it's fine. Then it's Milford. Then orange. West haven. And then hell hole new haven. Same as Bridgeport but more grime an violence. That's just coastline cities. Inland there are many towns and cities you wouldn't stop at high noon in for directions. Oh an taxes to high hell. We work hard. Get taxed hard. And eventually all leave. If lucky...
Sam Kunz 3 years ago (edited)
Baltimore is truly America's sweaty, stinky, unwiped, unwashed butt hole. Spend a few hours downtown. If you don't get shot or mugged. Congrats! Just roaming thugs looking to rob you. Homeless sleep in the middle of the sidewalk. It's dirty. Trash every where. People piss and go boom boom anywhere and everywhere. It's the worst.
Brian Early 3 years ago
Fort Dodge, Iowa. A town so bad you should be required to wipe your feet before leaving.
Bowtechie 3 years ago (edited)
I feel like a lot of this complaining is based solely on "aesthetic" (okay, the post about the meth capital may have a point) and not the cities themselves. A lot of cities aren't "pretty" because their primary function is commerce, which means infrastructure, which is not the prettiest thing in the world. However, if you look deeper into these cities you find pockets of beauty and history that you won't find anywhere else. A lot of major cities are built around these historical pockets because of conservation laws too. It's immature to complain because you didn't want to put in the effort to finding out more about where you are and are more annoyed it doesn't look like some lavish European metropolis. By the way, if you look closely enough in those places, you'll find some dumps too.
Emma Byrne 3 years ago
What I have gathered from this is that the USA is not a place I'd like to visit. It seems like capitalism has f****d everything there. :(
Theater Kid 3 years ago
America still has lots of lovely places to visit. I would much rather see an article about the prettiest places to visit.
Load More Replies...
Beezel Palomar 3 years ago
So lame, most of these just mention places but have no explanation or context.
Chillace 3 years ago
been living in ny for my whole life, its a big dump. its gross and humid in the summer, in the winter it looks nice for a day then it turns to grey slush. the buildings are run down and gross.
AzKhaleesi 3 years ago
the run down and gross buildings are history. Do some research. Look at it from a different angle. Go take your smart phone and take some black and white photos of those run down and gross buildings, you'll have a different perspective. NY is so history rich it's incredible. Come to bigger not so old cities. Houston, Phx, LA, there's history sure, but it's all recent, and not a lot of nice old buildings to look at.
Load More Replies...
Aliquid A 3 years ago
Poor grammar, incoherent sentence structure... Try harder next time or you fail the class. I'd give that a C-
Load More Replies... Brandi VanSteenwyk 3 years ago
Hey Pandas!! Let's flip the script and list the prettiest, most-inviting cities in the US.
Sanne H. 3 years ago
My thoughts exactly! Or the city with the most creative street-art, the city with the nicest parks, the city with the tallest buildings etc... i’ve never been to the US and don’t know much about the country, so it would be nice to see some cool places
Load More Replies... Two_rolling_black_eyes 3 years ago
There is an extended run along I-5 in California where it should be beautiful but the cities along it are a tragic assault against everything good in life. Several of them (Modesto, Stockton, Fresno) were mentioned in the article.
Mrs. Jan Glass 3 years ago
I've driven cross country several times, and I'd probably take the Oklahoma panhandle over that stretch of Central Valley, CA. You can practically chew the smell of it.
Load More Replies... Red Hair Blue Soul 3 years ago
Why is Baltimore, MD on here?! Don't @ me, I'm from Maryland and worked in that dump of a city forever.
Jim Ellington 3 years ago
I worked in an office that had a large photo of its skyline frames on the wall. What a miserable little city.
Load More Replies... Don't Look 3 years ago
The trouble with listing any city in NJ on this is that most of these cities have a declining economy, sparse attractions and just a genuine lack of life. Many of these cities had a heyday of sorts with employment and movement and spending and activity. Then people left about 30-20 years ago and the werent replaced. NJ is small and connected to everything. But I feel you. I grew up in northern NJ and .... I thought it sucked. But it was one of the richest places in the country. Money moved through there. People were always up to something. I just... was too young to be involved correctly.
Load More Replies... Jim Ellington 3 years ago (edited)
When driving to the beach from Gainesville, FL I always got a sense of abject dread driving through Palatka.
Don't Look 3 years ago
Dayton is a tough one because they have the national air force museum so the government will keep it going and they'll do it quietly.
Load More Replies... Nicholas Yu 3 years ago
There's a reason Saginaw MI is called Sag-nasty by the locals....Flint is rough too. They STILL don't have clean water and it's been what...7 years?
bakkysak09 3 years ago
suprised no one mentioned detroit cause i always hear that its bad lmao
Bacony Cakes 3 years ago
Detroit is if Pripyat was on the great lakes and had an abandoned car factory.
Load More Replies... Dl B 3 years ago
Also Harrisburg. Don't go there at night if you don't want to get shot.
Load More Replies... Vicky Z 3 years ago (edited)
It should be written in the title that it's about American ugly cities.... I'm sure there are ugly cities around the world too(edit: title post now mentions it's about American cities..)
Danieletc 3 years ago
The US is the only nation you are allowed to hate at the BP site.
Load More Replies... Athena Funk 2 years ago
Cochran,GA still literally has a wrong side of the tracks white people with money on one one side black people with no money on the other. Only real jobs in the town are Middle Georgia State University and Walmart. And Walmart hasn’t been there for a decade yet.
Tana Karrer Addington 3 years ago
Yuma AZ has an evilness about it, and it is not content until it has sucked you down to it's level of life!
Don't Look 3 years ago
WVA is a joke of a state to be honest. It's ... special.
Load More Replies... Mario Arzani 3 years ago
I’m sorry did I miss something? Since when did bored panda get taken over by USA haters? Every single article recently is about how cr@p it is.
lunanoire 3 years ago
Midland, TX has got to be the armpit of the entire world. Just oil pumps and lots of fracking. So happy I'll never have to drive through West Texas again. Agree about Bakersfield, CA but Fresno should be on that list too. But that said I've seen some pretty sad European towns too.
Mad Mar 3 years ago
Let's ring in Connecticut here. Bridgeport. It's buildings either all broken windows or spray paint. Or college s**t or antique buildings with one last subway in the ground floor. That's the main city. As you head out there are housing complexes that were old when they looked new. Hospitals with rude staffing if any. Couple trees. Gangsters. Wanna be gangsters. Crack an meth heads. Some fast food. A tree or two. Bars everywhere. Greek owned almost everything. Greek pizza joints. Greek diners. Greek hotdog stands. Greek fried chicken. And hair salons. Idk I live a town over in Stratford an it's fine. Then it's Milford. Then orange. West haven. And then hell hole new haven. Same as Bridgeport but more grime an violence. That's just coastline cities. Inland there are many towns and cities you wouldn't stop at high noon in for directions. Oh an taxes to high hell. We work hard. Get taxed hard. And eventually all leave. If lucky...
Sam Kunz 3 years ago (edited)
Baltimore is truly America's sweaty, stinky, unwiped, unwashed butt hole. Spend a few hours downtown. If you don't get shot or mugged. Congrats! Just roaming thugs looking to rob you. Homeless sleep in the middle of the sidewalk. It's dirty. Trash every where. People piss and go boom boom anywhere and everywhere. It's the worst.
Brian Early 3 years ago
Fort Dodge, Iowa. A town so bad you should be required to wipe your feet before leaving.
Bowtechie 3 years ago (edited)
I feel like a lot of this complaining is based solely on "aesthetic" (okay, the post about the meth capital may have a point) and not the cities themselves. A lot of cities aren't "pretty" because their primary function is commerce, which means infrastructure, which is not the prettiest thing in the world. However, if you look deeper into these cities you find pockets of beauty and history that you won't find anywhere else. A lot of major cities are built around these historical pockets because of conservation laws too. It's immature to complain because you didn't want to put in the effort to finding out more about where you are and are more annoyed it doesn't look like some lavish European metropolis. By the way, if you look closely enough in those places, you'll find some dumps too.
Emma Byrne 3 years ago
What I have gathered from this is that the USA is not a place I'd like to visit. It seems like capitalism has f****d everything there. :(
Theater Kid 3 years ago
America still has lots of lovely places to visit. I would much rather see an article about the prettiest places to visit.
Load More Replies... Beezel Palomar 3 years ago
So lame, most of these just mention places but have no explanation or context.
Chillace 3 years ago
been living in ny for my whole life, its a big dump. its gross and humid in the summer, in the winter it looks nice for a day then it turns to grey slush. the buildings are run down and gross.
AzKhaleesi 3 years ago
the run down and gross buildings are history. Do some research. Look at it from a different angle. Go take your smart phone and take some black and white photos of those run down and gross buildings, you'll have a different perspective. NY is so history rich it's incredible. Come to bigger not so old cities. Houston, Phx, LA, there's history sure, but it's all recent, and not a lot of nice old buildings to look at.
Load More Replies... Aliquid A 3 years ago
Poor grammar, incoherent sentence structure... Try harder next time or you fail the class. I'd give that a C-
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