Worst city center/downtown you've been to?

[Sirius_]

Any city or town in NOVA.

Alexandria doesn't belong on this list

[Electric Circus]

If we're sticking to major cities - Columbus, OH.

[GeorgiaModerate]

Tallahassee, I guess? All the one way streets are grating. I tried to Uber downtown when it was possible because parking was always hard.

this is up there too, went for a college tour and left early in part because the whole place reeked of sewage.

That was probably paper mills.  There are (or at least were) a bunch of them in the Panhandle, and you can smell them for many miles if you're unlucky enough for the wind to be blowing from their direction. 

[Upper Canada Tory]

Downtown Los Angeles. It is very unsafe and unsettling. Using public transit there is terrifying.

[President Johnson]

Pforzheim

[Penn_Quaker_Girl]

Downtown Baltimore.  Nothing against Baltimore, but I groped in a bar there, so don't have any plans to go back anytime soon.  

having been there for the AMS conference, even in the "safe/bougie" areas of downtown I felt unsafe traveling alone and constantly looked over my back during the mile walk to my hotel from the convention center. One night I tried to stop by CVS for some ibuprofen because of some killer headaches and it turns out they only let like 5 people in at a time then lock the store to prevent theft. Not even the bad parts of NY I visited were that bad. I think I have to agree here.

If we're telling stories: yeah I went to a bar with a couple of girlfriends.  This guy and what I assume were his fratboy buddies came up and started hitting on us.  He sat down next to me and just started stroking my leg -- I was wearing tights, but still...gross. 

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Downtown Baltimore.  Nothing against Baltimore, but I groped in a bar there, so don't have any plans to go back anytime soon.  

having been there for the AMS conference, even in the "safe/bougie" areas of downtown I felt unsafe traveling alone and constantly looked over my back during the mile walk to my hotel from the convention center. One night I tried to stop by CVS for some ibuprofen because of some killer headaches and it turns out they only let like 5 people in at a time then lock the store to prevent theft. Not even the bad parts of NY I visited were that bad. I think I have to agree here.

If we're telling stories: yeah I went to a bar with a couple of girlfriends.  This guy and what I assume were his fratboy buddies came up and started hitting on us.  He sat down next to me and just started stroking my leg -- I was wearing tights, but still...gross. 

I had a transwoman try and sit in my lap during a group project at Tallahassee Community College. She was like all over me, it was really, really, really uncomfortable. But that didn't happen downtown.

[GM Team Member and Senator WB]

Tallahassee, I guess? All the one way streets are grating. I tried to Uber downtown when it was possible because parking was always hard.

this is up there too, went for a college tour and left early in part because the whole place reeked of sewage.

That was probably paper mills.  There are (or at least were) a bunch of them in the Panhandle, and you can smell them for many miles if you're unlucky enough for the wind to be blowing from their direction. 

probably a combo of that and the decision for the university to have the septic tank crew there on the day they were giving campus tours.

[GeorgiaModerate]

Tallahassee, I guess? All the one way streets are grating. I tried to Uber downtown when it was possible because parking was always hard.

this is up there too, went for a college tour and left early in part because the whole place reeked of sewage.

That was probably paper mills.  There are (or at least were) a bunch of them in the Panhandle, and you can smell them for many miles if you're unlucky enough for the wind to be blowing from their direction. 

probably a combo of that and the decision for the university to have the septic tank crew there on the day they were giving campus tours.

LOL.  That's hilarious.

[Penn_Quaker_Girl]

Tallahassee, I guess? All the one way streets are grating. I tried to Uber downtown when it was possible because parking was always hard.

this is up there too, went for a college tour and left early in part because the whole place reeked of sewage.

That was probably paper mills.  There are (or at least were) a bunch of them in the Panhandle, and you can smell them for many miles if you're unlucky enough for the wind to be blowing from their direction. 

probably a combo of that and the decision for the university to have the septic tank crew there on the day they were giving campus tours.

I threw up in front of a campus tour group.  But that's another story lol. 

[GeorgiaModerate]

Tallahassee, I guess? All the one way streets are grating. I tried to Uber downtown when it was possible because parking was always hard.

this is up there too, went for a college tour and left early in part because the whole place reeked of sewage.

That was probably paper mills.  There are (or at least were) a bunch of them in the Panhandle, and you can smell them for many miles if you're unlucky enough for the wind to be blowing from their direction. 

probably a combo of that and the decision for the university to have the septic tank crew there on the day they were giving campus tours.

I threw up in front of a campus tour group.  But that's another story lol. 

The “After” half of the party-school element of the tour.

[Penn_Quaker_Girl]

Tallahassee, I guess? All the one way streets are grating. I tried to Uber downtown when it was possible because parking was always hard.

this is up there too, went for a college tour and left early in part because the whole place reeked of sewage.

That was probably paper mills.  There are (or at least were) a bunch of them in the Panhandle, and you can smell them for many miles if you're unlucky enough for the wind to be blowing from their direction. 

probably a combo of that and the decision for the university to have the septic tank crew there on the day they were giving campus tours.

I threw up in front of a campus tour group.  But that's another story lol. 

The “After” half of the party-school element of the tour.

They were standing by the trash can and I was hungover.  Perfect storm. 

[100% pro-life no matter what]

I found Lexington very underwhelming, at least since my friends and I had a very difficult time finding a place to eat at like 5:30 on a Sunday in May 2021.

[bagelman]

Youngstown

[Hash]

Cancún, Mexico -- not the hotel zone, the 'downtown' is awful, ugly and completely devoid of interest. Playa del Carmen's downtown is not all that much better but still less terrible than Cancún. Whatever downtown Cozumel is is also terrible and boring.

Las Vegas -- defined as the Fremont Street area. I realize it has some fans, but my friend and I absolutely loathed it. I think the in-your-face kitsch sensory overload killed me, after an awful bus ride through the sh**t parts of Vegas. Only stayed 20 minutes there before escaping.

Gatineau, Quebec -- somewhat unfair because Gatineau is an awkward city for many reasons, like that it's a geographically spread out amalgamation of several towns and part of the bigger Ottawa urban area, but a recent poll showed that half of the local population doesn't even know where the downtown is (Old Hull). Downtown Hull/Gatineau is pretty boring outside of a few places. The big federal government buildings from the 70s are ugly concrete towers, and with post-COVID WFH in the government, it's basically killed the local economy revolving around servicing daytime public employees. Local residents have long been neglected by bad politicians and planners who never saw it as more than a government office space for years, so it's been a food desert for years, with no grocery store in the area until one finally opens later this year. Still pretty poor and dreary in many places, but with more 'higher-end' new condos coming up, lots of talk of 'gentrification' and endless downtown revitalization strategies from the city (a lot of them stupid miracle schemes). Also in Quebec, Laval is often said to have no downtown but Laval is basically a giant suburb which was run by kleptocrats for decades.

Niagara Falls, Ontario -- what is formally defined as 'downtown Niagara Falls, Ontario' is actually a decaying, dilapidated street outside of the touristy area, close to the dreary train/bus stop, which seems to be slowly dying. Clifton Hill is kitsch sensory overload tourist trap hellhole, and the Fallsview area is poorly planned (built around the big hotels and casinos only, basically, with surrounding parking lots).

I could also mention Buffalo, NY (not bad but clearly has seen better days), Belleville, ON (boring), any number of smaller towns in Upstate NY (Plattsburgh, Ogdensburg etc) and Amman, Jordan (hellish). Downtown Ottawa doesn't belong on this list (not yet, at least) but it is rather boring, kinda tourist-trappy in parts and victim of a lot of missed opportunities and very poor urban planning decisions over decades by bureaucrats and mediocre shortsighted local politicians. Sadly kind of getting gradually worse too.

[John Dule]

Any city or town in NOVA.

Alexandria doesn't belong on this list

Fine, but Tysons is the worst place I've ever been in my life. It's like being in the backrooms.

[Penn_Quaker_Girl]

Cancún, Mexico -- not the hotel zone, the 'downtown' is awful, ugly and completely devoid of interest. Playa del Carmen's downtown is not all that much better but still less terrible than Cancún. Whatever downtown Cozumel is is also terrible and boring.

Did the whole "sorority girl spring break" in Cancun.  It was soooo overrated.  For somewhere that's touted as being vibrant and tropical, I found it to be incredibly tacky and sterile. 

[Agonized-Statism]

El Paso shortly before getting robbed in Las Cruces, and I heard Phoenix was just as bad. Not as comically bad as San Francisco (where the horror is widespread, not just in the city center), but the difference is that I went into the Southwest expecting better from what's supposed to be a booming, prosperous part of the country right now. Organized crime actually doesn't seem to be much of an issue in California comparatively, guess it's gotten too expensive for kingpins and mules there.

The most depressing place I've ever been if we can include small towns is a tie between Marfa (haven't capitalized on the alien stuff at all unlike Roswell, the Chevron was the locals' hangout of choice) and Boron (they have a firebug who keeps burning stuff down apparently). Yulara in Australia was also depressing in that one company monopolizes all the Uluru tourism, a situation created by the government to protect the aboriginals and stop development, but ironically said company has a disgustingly colonial relationship with the local clans.

On the flip side, I didn't expect much out of Hobart or Devonport and was pleasantly surprised! Tasmania is a gem, don't get why Australians diss it so much.

[kaoras]

Puerto Montt, just because Padre Las Casas doesn't really have a "city center"

Most Chilean major cities have awful city centers, I think the only big city where the "downtown" is nice and not an unholy mix of concrete buildings in wildly varied states of disrepair is Concepción. Santiago isn't really that bad either, but it's still not good.

[wnwnwn]

Puerto Montt, just because Padre Las Casas doesn't really have a "city center"

Most Chilean major cities have awful city centers, I think the only big city where the "downtown" is nice and not an unholy mix of concrete buildings in wildly varied states of disrepair is Concepción. Santiago isn't really that bad either, but it's still not good.

At least the Los Iracundos song is good

[satsuma]

idk I've never been robbed, but I don't think I ever expected a downtown to be fun or interesting unless I was doing tourism. I have been to downtown Jackson but it was for a wedding, so I barely left the church. Currently living in SETX and I know downtown Beaumont and Port Arthur are pretty boring and ungentrified. Probably hard to beat those, but it's not an uncommon situation in Louisiana either.

[vitoNova]

Austin, Texas.  Because it's VASTLY overrated. 

Yeah, I said it.

Come at me bro.

I don't know what I was expecting.  I expected this Oriental/Occidental Leftist Utopian Paradise of walkable urban areas.

Bitch, it's a carbon copy of Alburquerque.   lol

[Agonized-Statism]

Austin, Texas.  Because it's VASTLY overrated. 

Yeah, I said it.

Come at me bro.

I don't know what I was expecting.  I expected this Oriental/Occidental Leftist Utopian Paradise of walkable urban areas.

Bitch, it's a carbon copy of Alburquerque.   lol

YES. California cost of living with Texas weather, property tax, et cetera, it's the worst of both worlds. I vividly remember getting menaced by a homeless person there as a kid, can't imagine how bad it must be now.

[vitoNova]

Austin, Texas.  Because it's VASTLY overrated.  

Yeah, I said it.

Come at me bro.

I don't know what I was expecting.  I expected this Oriental/Occidental Leftist Utopian Paradise of walkable urban areas.

Bitch, it's a carbon copy of Alburquerque.   lol

YES. California cost of living with Texas weather, property tax, et cetera, it's the worst of both worlds. I vividly remember getting menaced by a homeless person there as a kid, can't imagine how bad it must be now.

Weather is overrated.  I prefer the 4 seasons.

I can handle a Hard Sun as much I can handle an Arctic freeze.  

I don't give a damn about taxes or any of that other mess.  

[Del Tachi]

Of a major U.S. city:  Charlotte, NC