What city don't you like?

[celtdem]

Equal time, ya know.


Me, well, not really fond of LA.

[kwassa]

1. I love LA

Wish I could afford to live there, where I want to live.

Hmmm ..... not fond of Newark.

[Guava Jelly]

2. Overland park ,Ks

It's where i reside until oct 1st

[Joe Fields]

88. Overland Park DOES suck. So does K.C.

[LTR]

3. Detroilet

Sad, sad city.

[kwassa]

5. the 'burbs are nice, though

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

10. Nice airport, too. The city itself... meh.

[ComerPerro]

54. of course they are. They're suburbs

Suburbs in California look like suburbs in New York, which look like Suburbs in Chicago, which look like suburbs in KC, which look like suburbs in Arizona.

Only difference is the trees and the weather.

[kwassa]

80. Suburbs look quite different in different places.

The architecture of suburbs is completely different on the east coast and west coast. California and the Southwest use a Mission Revival form of architecture, where the Mid-Atlantic region does a Georgian revival. Stucco vs. brick. Tile vs. shingles.

Suburbs also vary by the era in which they were built, which also determines architectural style.

[celtdem]

142. The goal of suburbs is to have each house looking alike

So they do, and so do the suburbs. Even have rules about how alike houses MUST be.

How people can live like that, I have no idea.

[erinlough]

41. I live in Michigan

but everytime I am in Detroit it strikes me how gritty and grungy it is. The downtown is very sad indeed.

[1gobluedem]

84. It's looking much, MUCH better

I admit there is still much to do. But, since Super Bowl XL, the place has been very spiffed up. I was there for Jazzfest last weekend; first time since SBXL and I was very impressed.

[noonwitch]

101. I love Detroit, too

I live just north of 8 Mile in Warren, but lived in the city for 12 years, from 1989 to 2001. I moved when I bought a house-the nice neighborhoods in the city are too expensive and the neighborhood I was renting in went downhill very quickly when the old people started dying off, and the families moved to better school districts. Also, the gay people all moved to Royal Oak and Ferndale (I was in the Woodward/McNichols area).

There are some really cool things to do in Detroit, if you know where to look. It is not as dangerous as some would have you believe-I've been working in children's services in the city for almost 20 years. I've never been a victim of a crime, either working or living in the city, because I am careful. I put my purse on my car floor, under my legs, when I'm driving, I don't carry a lot of money on me, and, most of all, I pay attention to where I am and who is around me. Everyone should do that everywhere. Suburban parking lots at night can be pretty scary places for a woman alone, too.

My Detroit list:

1. The Detroit Institute of Arts. It's a world-class collection and the Diego Rivera mural is worth seeing in and of itself.

2. C-Pop art gallery. It's got some of the best local art for sale and display around.

3. Pewabin Pottery. It's a factory that is part of Detroit history. You can see the tiles on buildings all over town.

4. Greektown. Good food, flaming cheese and a very safe area because the police headquarters is right around the corner.

5. Magnolia. Really good soulfood.

There are really cool historical buildings around, and, to be honest, there is also a kind of beauty in some of the old, decaying structures, especially in the spring when they are brightened by the lilacs.

the Henry Ford museum in Dearborn is also a fascinating place.

Go Tigers!!!

[JVS]

126. DETROIT IS THE SHIZZZ!

I love Detroit!

[celtdem]

4. See how the people from Detroit, LA, Newark, and Overland Park

are reacting? Nothing. No anger. No flames. Nothing.

I, for one, am most impressed.

[bedpanartist]

23. I love Detroit

Detroit has always shown me great love.

I will be performing at The Old-Miami in Detroit on Nov. 18th.

Come out and say hi!

[LuckyTheDog]

27. I LOVE the Old Miami

Or rather, I loved it 20 years ago when I used to hang there. I am sure it's still cool, though.

[bedpanartist]

40. Ever been to the Berkley Front??

I'm playing there soon too.

Here's the Old Miami on the web:

http://theoldmiamidetroit.com

I cannot wait to play there again.

Take care,

David

[book lady]

115. Berkley Front on 12 Mile?

When will you be playing there...

[Susang]

47. Hey, who are you?

I used to hang out there at about the same time! Most of my friends were in bands that played there. Conditioned Response, for one.

[ComerPerro]

55. cause they know Detroit sucks

[Mike03]

6. Los Angeles

I developed a real love/hate relationship with Los Angeles. I loved Pasadena and the San Gabriel Valley, and also Westwood, Santa Monica, but developed a real pathological irritation with Hollywood, Burbank, downtown.

I also really dislike Oakland, but that is for personal reasons. Someone was murdered there and I did some traveling around this particular area and it just made me physically ill.

But in general, I love urban areas and cities.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

7. Dallas.

A gigantic strip mall.

[Ron Green]

8. One of my favorite lines by the Austin Lounge Lizards:

"I'm goin' back ... to Dallas, Texas
To see if anything could be worse than losin' you."

[ooga booga]

32. 30 years living in and then near Dallas.....

have left me with a distaste for the place that only proximity could create. It's like a larger version of The Village from "The Prisoner" where the inhabitants live in quiet desperation beneath a thin veneer of forced cheerfulness. (Think of Bree the most desperate of the Desperate Housewives.) In short, it is the prototype for "Bush World."

It has some positives. Turtle Creek. The Dallas Theater Center. The Dallas Cowboys (the single biggest distraction in town)

Life is better in Tarrant County. I'd never move back into Dallas County.

[av8rdave]

34. I live in NE Tarrant County

Much prefer Ft Worth to Dallas...good entertainment, reasonably good night life, nice people.

[ooga booga]

35. Twin Cities

I don't exactly dislike the Twin Cities, but, the few times that I've been there, it just seemed such a dreary place. Then there's the cold. If you're from the South as I am, you always remember a January visit to that area.

[fudge stripe cookays]

50. Hmmm..

Automatically suspect.

Turtle Creek-- I work here. Snotty people all over the place. It's like Highland Park, but not.
Cowboys- Not great if you hate football and criminals

How about Lakewood, Oak Lawn, or Lower Greenville for dining, music, and fun?

[ooga booga]

119. I meant the scenery of Turtle Creek

The parks along it. The azaleas in April. Stuff like that.

[swag]

9. Salt Lake City, UT. Las Vegas, NV.

[Tikki]

15. Maybe we just caught it on a bad....

"couple of days'....but, Ogden Utah had just so much trash all over the streets and all over the campgrounds
when we visited there...we won't be going back.

The Tikkis

[Common Sense Party]

72. Ogden is the armpit of Utah. One of 'em, anyway.

Just stay away from my neck of the woods! You wouldn't like it up here! Nope, not picturesque at all.

[ForrestGump]

11. Among big cities in the US, Chicago, IL, and Phoenix, AZ

As soon as I entered both cities I felt a profound sense of wrongness, like I should not be there. It wasn't anything especially quantifiable -- sure, Phoenix is a violent, hot, dirty city and Chicago is a windy, dirty city -- but something rather more elemental. It was the exact oppposite of the profound 'rightness' I've felt in places like the high plateau of Eastern New Mexico and up in Joshua Tree, among others. I felt extreme foreboding, like these two cities were bad places, at least for me, even though I've been in places that were arguably worse than either by any measure. I'd give Chicago another try, though Phoenix feels wrong every time I even go near it, no matter how much I may like some of the people I've met from there.

I never liked Los Angeles, right from the first time I came to the US, but I lived there a long while and it came to be the devil I know...I know how the place works and that makes it not only a few notches above many other American cities but a place I sometimes feel almost-homesick pangs for when I'm away from it. There's good and bad in the City of Angels, and one is as extreme as the other.

I think that the worst place I have ever been in the US is Immokalee, FL. Unbelievable. It was, anyway, back in the '80s and '90s. A cross between Deliverance and some post-apocalyptic world of chaos and vioelnce. Scariest place I've ever been, in many ways, though I've also been to what were essentially fortified vilages in developing nations (actually, Immokalee is just that).

[Mike03]

12. Great Post

Wonderful descriptions of L.A. and Florida. Florida was very unsettling to me too. Phoenix is close to where I live now and I actually like it very much, shocking as that may sound. But then, I like the hot weather.

[av8rdave]

36. I lived in the Phoenix area for 5 years in the 80s

I really came to like it, though I didn't think I did at first. Stuff to do year round there.

Still get homesick for it...

[LTR]

46. Chicago's a great town

It has a lot of its own unique charm. And some of the best food anywhere.

Phoenix is an arid shithole.

[TK421]

57. I've driven through Immokalee! I used to have a job delivering tires

for a dealership down in Ft.Myers....all I saw were teepees and canals on either side of the road with alligators swimming around in them. I wanted to get the FUCK out of there as soon as humanly possible! It was, quite literally in the middle of NOWHERE. What a frigging shithole. Of course, this job also had me drive all the way out to Isle of Capri ( which is some Deliverance country as well ). Definitely the types of places that if you broke down and got lost your body would never be found again

[ForrestGump]

73. A friend of mine with whom I traveled for a while back in 1985

told me about the place and we went there while we were meandering around Florida. His wife had secured a teaching job in Ommokalee and they went but stayed a very short while. It is (or was...don't know if it still is) an unincorporated town basically caterign to the market-garden migrant workers. Lots of illegals there in thiose days, but it was the locals and Anglo drifters who were the real problem. He told me a teacher was raped there and that one day they had to call in county sherrifs and a helicopter to rescue teachers from the school there. He described it as the worst place on Earth, or as close as anywhere in the US gets to that.

When I saw it I got the sense he wasn't exaggerating. We stopped at Burger King and I got stared at like I've never been stared at before, really meancing stares that, in the movies, would be accompanied by "you ain't from roun' heyah, ur ya, boy." Scared the hell out of me, and both of us were sizeable gentlemen who've handled garden-variety unpleasant rednecks at times. The streets were stinky and dirty -- I think they had open sewers but I'm not sure (I guess being an unincorporated community meant they could skip a lot of the usual rules) and there seemed to be a growth industry in dead dogs in various states of decay littering the sides of the roads. I couldn't get out of there fast enough, and the place just felt evil. Like, real evil...the kind of evil that a lot of rational people might think is not possible as an external presence.

A decade later I was in the area on the way to a research site, this time with my wife and brother accompanying me, and I told them about Immokalee and just had to make a quick field trip to (a) let them see for themselves and (b) see if the place was as bad as it once was and, indeed, if it still even existed. We saw a little of it and it just felt so bad that we hightailed it before we pushed our luck too far.

Florida's one f***ed-up state. There're some nice parts (some really nice parts), like in the panhandle and Ocala areas and parts of the west coast, and certainly the Keys, but the poor place has been developed to hell and back by the wort kind of greedy developers and is home to just about every environmental and social ill known to humankind. It reminds me of California, in many ways, the good and the bad, and is certainly not (for the most part) what I think of as a 'southern' state, except in the north. Immokalee is a town out of time and out of place, but the sickness that pervades that hell can be found in smaller doses elsewhere.

Another Stephen-King town I remember is Lewiston, Idaho. I think it was Lewiston, anyway -- might not have been, because it's been a while and I don't have any notes or aouvenirs from there with me here. We'd just crossed the border from Oregon, anyway, and things went really weird really quickly. I'm not saying it's always like that there -- I'm sure that, survivalist wackos who aggregate thereabouts aside, it's a pretty cool place -- but when I drove through it in 1988 we were confronted by weirdo after weirdo. People in the street yelling to themselves, weirdos coming up to the car and mumbling something about something (yep -- plural: more than one person did this, and they all looked like clean-cut, well-dressed middle-class white Americans)...all sorts of crazy looking white people running around. It's possible that a busload of proto-Freeper survivalist had just unloaded, of course, or maybe it's just something in the water thereabouts. Whatever it was, I hadn't seen that much weirdness concentrated in one place since the last time I'd been to Venice Beach.

[nosillies]

89. Even scarier -- Immokalee now has a casino.

No kidding, a Seminole casino. I might have to take the fam down there this weekend for a scary field trip.

[begin_within]

105. Well if you liked Phoenix that much, you'll love Yuma and also this place:

Gila Bend, Arizona.

[Benfea]

13. Tampa Bay.

There are pockets of sanity in Tampa, but for the most part, that city and especially its suburbs is a racist Christofascist cesspool. I never want to go back.

[mainegreen]

14. Baltimore.

Awful place. Good crab cakes though.

[Mutley]

17. !

:thumbsup:

I live in Baltimore. :D

[mainegreen]

19. I miss only 2 things:

The crab cakes with all the flavor powders and BBC (Baltimore Brewing Company).
The rest of Lord Baltimore's city (including Johns Hopkins) can fall in the chesapeak for all I care.

Plus people there have really bad hair.
And the cockroaches are huge! And its to muggy in the summer. I'm glad I returned to Maine!

[Mutley]

21. Everyone knows the crab cakes're

exceptional here, hon. :7

I used to live right next door to a bar, and we'd get these Ginormous cockroaches coming over from that place. Even the dog was afraid of them.

:puke: :scared:

[RumpusCat]

24. I am a frequent visitor to your fair city

I live down the way in DC but I love visiting B'more. Brewer's Art = Most Delicious Beer Evah.

[Mutley]

25. Yeah, Baltimore does have good points.

I'll give it that. But living here sucks.

[swag]

29. Sorry to hear that.

I find visiting there to be glorious.

[Mutley]

31. What do you do when you come here?

[swag]

33. Depends why I'm in town.

American Visionary Art Museum (sometimes I come for the annual party, which is insane)
Club Charles
The Walters
Baltimore Museum of Art
Brewer's Art
Sip 'n' Bite Diner
that bar on the 13th Floor of the Belvedere Hotel
Go eat a bunch of steamed shrimp or crabs with a ton of Old Bay and beer and the John Stevens
Go buy and eat a bunch of Berger's cookies
Go hang out in some cafe near the Peabody and listen to kids talk about music
There's also some great Afghani restaurant on Charles Street (I think)

It was different 20 years ago, but that's what I would do now. Is the Cultured Pearl still open?

[Mutley]

38. Nope. It closed.

:cry:


So, yeah. You know all the good stuff to do. :D

[swag]

28. Brewer's Art is a top shelf establishment.

And among the many things I love about Baltimore is that when Brewer's Art finally kicks everybody out, you get invited to a speakeasy in somebody's apartment.

[kwassa]

83. Ever watch "The Wire"?

My favorite TV show. I was noticing a scene filmed up on Federal Hill in the last episode. Went to a family picnic there.

[Mutley]

86. Yup, I watched it.

I used to live in walking distance from there. Federal Hill is one of the things I like about Baltimore. The view of the harbor from the top of the hill is fantastic.

[swag]

98. Oh, I ate dinner at the top of that one hotel there once.

Took a water taxi there.

Should mention that the aquarium is great on a weekday in a non-tourist season, though too expensive.

[smtpgirl]

58. Baltimore is Cool, very cool

Kansas City on the otherhand, is a wasteland

[GalleryGod]

120. I found Bawl'mer to be a great place to hang and work

The people are wonderful, the food great (if unhealthy) and the location convenient.

FELLS POINT!:toast:

[dolo amber]

16. I'm pretty sure there's someone who doesn't like Chicago

I can't be sure though...they've clearly read my sig line and just weren't quite specific enough.

[Tyo]

18. Seattle n/t

[gordontron]

65. why? nt

[Tyo]

92. It's just an annoying place

It's kind of like the ultimate wannabe town. It comes across to me (as a visitor, not a resident) as a medium-sized city that desperately wants to be counted among the big boys rather than just being comfortable with what it is.

[BlueIris]

82. Oh, thank God I'm not the only one who hates that elitist wasteland.

[Blue-Jay]

20. I don't have a hardon against ANY city in particular.

I just don't like "repuplic" assholes. They are trying to destroy this great nation of ours.

[KamaAina]

22. Is Crawford, TX considered a 'city'?

No? Then I'll have to think of one...

[FILAM23]

26. Any and all cities

over 150,000 population

[swag]

59. Get back, honky cat!

[ElboRuum]

100. Interesting.

Rabid misanthropes are people too? I bet they're not really happy about it though.:evilgrin:

[LuckyTheDog]

30. Ann Arbor

I WANT to like Ann Arbor. It's walkable. It has mass transit. It has culture. It has Zingerman's Deli. The University of Michigan is a real gem. Yes, I really WANT to like that town. But I don't.

Someone always manages to piss me off when I am there. And, oh yes, there's never any place to park (which to me says "if you don't live here don't come here.")

[1gobluedem]

85. I live there

PM me before you visit next time and I'll show you how to get around and park. It's pretty easy once you get your bearings.

I love my city!

[JVS]

127. It's over-gentrified

[Zomby Woof]

37. Salt Lake City and Phoenix

I have to echo Forrest on these - there is a definite sense of profound wrongness when entering these two cities. SLC is filthy, ugly, bleak, soulless, and PASTY MORMON WHITE.

Phoenix is hell. It sucks the life force out of you. It's very Republican/Libertarian/Fascist, and way too fucking hot, dirty, and DULL.

Worst place I lived was Virginia Beach, VA. The less said about Pat Robertson's home, the better.

[erinlough]

39. I second Phoenix

I went to visit my son this summer and while he was working I was looking for something to do. So, I ask a waitress what attractions in Phoenix she would recommend. She blinks and says she didn't think Phoenix had any attractions but I could go to the mall! I ended up going to a casino and wasting time at the nickle machines....at least it was cool in there (it was 118 outside).

The next day on the radio I heard where there was a robbery in the parking lot at the casino I was at! I really hate Phoenix and I feel like it has no soul, if that makes any sense.

[Zomby Woof]

44. It makes perfect sense

:-)

I lived up in Flagstaff for 2 years - it's a complete 180 from Phoenix in every way. It's at 7000 feet in altitude, so it is much cooler, it's green because of the world's largest expanse of ponderosa pines, and it has its historic 100 year old downtown preserved, with no skyscrapers to muck it up. It's a charming little town, and I enjoyed living there most of the time (the winters could be very cold and harsh - average temps could go as low as 5-10 below zero when a storm moved in). It also leans blue, partially because of the university located there, and partially because of the high Navajo and Hopi population. It may be the only city which redeems Arizona.

[Momgonepostal]

52. I haven't been to SLC in a while, but

I was struck by how clean it was, compared to similar sized CA cities.

And, hey, I'm pasty, Mormon and white and that's not my fault. Well, OK the Mormon part is, but pasty and white is how God made me. :-)

[begin_within]

107. Not only Phoenix, but beautiful Yuma and also...

Gila Bend, Arizona.

[judaspriestess]

42. I'm not crazy about LA either

[lost-in-nj]

43. Pittsburgh

My son went to Paramedic school there and we went to visit a few times.

I hated it, he absolutely loved it and would go back in a heartbeat.....


lost

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

62. Pittsburgh does indeed suck.

I lived there for a summer while doing theatre stuff at Carnegie Mellon.

[Dulcinea]

95. NO!

Pittsburgh has nice scenery, friendly & genuine people, & the best football team. What more could you ask for? And it's Blue!

However, most of the Atlanta suburbs suck. Gwinnett County, especially, is a nightmare of McSubdivisions, strip malls, terrible traffic & Republicans.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

102. Last time I checked, the NY Giants were located in East Rutherford, NJ

not Pittsburgh, so clearly you're a confused person.

[JVS]

129. A team named after NY but not in NY, what a pathetic situation

[dropkickpa]

121. *GASP*

How could you possibly hate Pittsburgh? I have lived in Miami, Houston, Dallas, Philly, NYC, and a dink town in Iowa, and now that I live in PGH, I am HOME (phi, nyc, and IA were very brief sojourns lasting less than 3 months). I love this city. What other city has a skyline is as beautiful?



This is a city that settles in the heart and grows from there. As bad as many Pittsburghers talk about their city, they look at you in horror when you suggest leaving.

[femmocrat]

146. Thank you for posting the gorgeous photos of Pittsburgh!

I love Pittsburgh, I just hate driving there.

[JVS]

128. Pittsburgh rules!

[Susang]

45. I don't hate any city

Why waste your time hating inanimate objects? How boring, pointless and pedestrian waste of time.

[Floogeldy]

48. Thank you.

This thread disrespects Americans, everywhere.

[Susang]

51. You're welcome.

However, I may have misspoke. After I posted, I thought of one inanimate object I loathe. But since it was once inside an animal, I'm not quite sure if it counts as inanimate or merely organic.

Either way, despite what I posted earlier, I really do hate it with a passion unbounded. :hurts:

[Floogeldy]

61. Perhaps if you could identify the animal and describe the object?

Also, please delineate the difference(s) between inanimate and organic.

Thanks. :)

[Susang]

63. If you use your imagination

I think you will get the general idea. Let's just say that the animal in question is domesticated and organic means (at least to me) of, relating to, or derived from a living organism.

And I still hate it. ;-)

[SoyCat]

49. Pensacola. The level of Republican hate is horrible.

[begin_within]

103. Ack! My birth town! ... Oh, go ahead. I've never been back, anyway.

[Momgonepostal]

53. I don't care for LA either

But in all fairness, I've never lived there. Driving in it is a nightmare and everything is so spread out. As a resident of a nerdier and not glamourous part of CA, I also caught a lot of flack from LA people at college who treated us like they were a cut above us serfs. I have to admit, that experience colors my opinions about LA.

[ContraBass Black]

56. McAllen Texas.

I hope I never have to go back.

[Broken_Hero]

60. Big city wise...hmm

its hard to say, does Riverside California count? I'm sure it doesn't...hmm. Oakland...yeah, Oakland wasn't all that great...or San Jose...:(

[OnionPatch]

64. Houston

Stinky, stinky, stinky. And ugly too. And it never ends when you're driving through it, or maybe it just seems that way. :shrug:

[kedrys]

123. You have us confused with Phoenix

:D It took me forever to get out of Phoenix once - the highway basically disappeared and none of the traffic lights were timed.

I'll grant you the place is polluted as all get out...it was a lot cleaner in the 80s, before that fat drunken little frat bitch from Connecticut became governor. I wonder what happened to him...?

[gordontron]

66. LA

[aquaman]

67. Christmas Town, North Pole......

All those damn happy elves, talking about joy and stuff, what's up with that?

[Broken_Hero]

75. Yeah, how dare they!

:crazy: :crazy:

[HEyHEY]

68. Toronto...FUCK toronto

[Hand]

137. VERY interesting people live there, though...

It's really extraordinary--their shit doesn't stink. :evilgrin: :rofl:

[InvisibleTouch]

69. I don't particularly like any city, but...

...the ones I hate the worst are Columbus Ohio (because I'm stuck living in it), Gary Indiana (wall-to-wall smokestacks), and Jakarta Indonesia (ugly, crowded, and polluted).

Conversely I've enjoyed (brief!) visits to Chicago, Washington D.C., Orlando, and Las Vegas - the latter two being my favorites.

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

70. Celina Ohio

Trust me. This is one place that would NOT be missed if it were to get sucked into a black hole.

[SeattleGirl]

71. Ft. Worth, aka "Cow Town", Texas

Spent a year there in the mid-70's. Never had a desire to go back.

[gr8dane_daddy]

74. Norman, OK

where sooners reside! :puke:

[fishwax]

136. boomer sooner!

Norman is a pool of sanity in Oklahoma ... I'm biased, of course, as an OU grad and a Norman resident for ten years and change :)

:hi:

[Vidar]

76. Houston, El Paso

[Ariana Celeste]

77. Indianapolis

I miss Seattle, Tacoma, Kent, Fall City.

[RebelOne]

78. Miami, Fla., the hell hole of the South

Bugs, heat, humidity, crime, no one speaks my language anymore. So glad I moved and I'll never go back.

[ScreamingMeemie]

79. I am not fond of cities in general...

:hi:

[BlueIris]

81. Snob-attle is my least favorite city.

Evil.

[CabalPowered]

93. There's some things I like about Seattle

but I'm with you. You couldn't pay me to move there. Traffic is reason enough to stay away.

[Joe Fields]

87. L.A. and Dallas both suck.

[terrya]

90. I'm not wildly enamored about Dallas, Texas

But then again, I imagine a lot of people love Dallas and I suspect that the good citizens of Dallas, Texas don't like Chicago, just to be fair.

[nosillies]

91. Colorado City, AZ/Hildale, UT -- beyond scary

My one trip through there scarred me for life.

And Hattiesburg, Jackson, and Meridian, MS.

edited because I forgot Austin, TX.

[NewWaveChick1981]

94. Cleveland.

Ugh. :(

[dropkickpa]

122. Seconded

EVERYTIME I have been in Cleveland, something truly weird and fucked up has happened to me. And, as I live in Pittsburgh, I've been to Cleveland LOTS of times, each trip worse than the last.

[NewWaveChick1981]

135. I feel sorry for you...

:hug: I've been to Cleveland twice (my employer is based there), and both times have been terrible. Too fucking cold for words with horizontal snow, and the city is bleak, even with sunshine. :( I wasn't impressed.

[Beausoir]

96. Grand Rapids, MI

Crime infested.
Block after block of burned out buildings.
Amway. Amway. Amway.

Nothing aesthetically pleasing about it whatsoever. Just an ugly city, completely overrun with Republican Amway cultists.

I lived there for 5 long years. I RAN to the car on the last day...couldn't wait to get the hell out.

[BlueStorm]

108. Honey, I live in Grand Rapids,

I think some of the buildings are beautiful but yeah I agree with you on the Republican Amway cultists thing. Too many damn freepers here and not enough religious or cultural diversity, though it is sloooooowwwwlly getting better..

If I could move anywhere it would either be San Francisco or New Orleans.


BLue

[Arugula Latte]

97. I'm another one who doesn't like Los Angeles. Or Dallas.

I've never been to Houston, but from what I hear, it's not my kind of town at all. (Massive, massive sprawl?)

[Zomby Woof]

99. I also don't like San Francisco

I lived in Seattle for 15 years, and for snobbery, elitism, and even traffic (which is admittedly very bad there), it doesn't hold a candle to the most effete and narcissistic city of them all: San Francisco. What a waste of natural beauty.

[Taverner]

106. Hey now!

Yes we are narcisistic, but hey, we ARE smarter than the rest of the US

[Gormy Cuss]

118. ~

:rofl:


I have a friend and neighbor who is an East Bay native and his theory is that the Bay Area is loaded with transplants who like to gloat because they live here now rather than West Nowhere-stan, and they're the ones who send off the elitist vibe.

[Taverner]

124. True the transplants are the worst ones...

I'm a first-gen native (mom and dad were from the midwest) and noticed most of my ex-schoolmates either:

1 - found high-paying work in the tech or bio-tech industry
2 - moved to Tracy or Sacramento to buy a house

The Native Californians from the Steinbeck novels are all but gone...

[Arugula Latte]

151. My parents were like that.

We moved from Ohio to the Bay Area when I was a kid and they never stopped bragging about it to the folks back in Ohio... I'm sure the Midwesterners just LOVED hearing how much better California was in every respect, especially compared to their former miserable existence in a cold, humid, flat hellhole near Lake Erie ...

* on edit: The latter is my parents' view of Ohio, not mine! I actually missed a lot about Ohio, including lightning bugs and the beautiful farmland ...

[NuttyFluffers]

110. will gladly accept the compliment of effete and narcissistic. thank you.

and to be honest, we really *are* better than thou.
:evilgrin: :toast:

[XemaSab]

114. I agree with not liking SF

but for a different reason: everyone who lives there thinks they live in the best city ever, both culturally and in terms of natural beauty, but the city is FILTHY and for a city THAT expensive, there are a helluva lot of lowlifes and divy holes.

It's like everyone who lives there is high, and doesn't notice how FILTHY the city is. :P

[mark414]

147. i love the city but i hate the people

buncha savages...

[Taverner]

104. Orlando is hell on earth

Even LA has its nice spots.

Try downtown LA (amidst all the skyscrapers) on a Sunday

Then let me know how much you loved the homemade tamales

[Odin2005]

109. Green Bay, Wisconsin

(Yes, football season is about to start)

[benny05]

111. El Paso TX/Juarez n/t

[NuttyFluffers]

112. Colorado Springs? SLC? Fresno? Cincinatti?

hmm, but there's good things i could say about those cities, too... i think. you'll have to give me a bit of a head start though. hmm, now that i think about it even the worst cities i've experienced overseas (and some of those Mid East cities were pretty bad), don't really give the evil vibe, sense of oppression, and abject despair i've felt in so many american cities. something about conservative politics sucking the soul out of some beautiful areas. there's some weird bad mojo floating around in a lot of major american cities. something about the whole suburban hell vs. urban decay thing. it was even more depressing seeing rural small towns being wiped out wholesale through my road trips. it just removed another pressure valve, i think. yeah, american cities can be beautiful and vibrant, but our severe lack of reinvestment in our urban areas is now showing drastically. actually, our lack of reinvestment in the american people themselves is showing.

[Hand]

138. Colorado Springs for sure...

Apart from the fundies and freepers, it's a town that just feels like all the energy has been sucked out of it. Besides, my in-laws live there. :puke:

As to Cincinnati... who needs a city whose name NO ONE knows how to spell? :evilgrin:

[Arugula Latte]

141. Yeah, Colorado Springs is scary. What a waste of natural beauty.

:scared:

[rug]

113. Me either. It looks like it was stepped on and oozed all over.

[Puglover]

116. Montgomery Alabama

:scared:

[alittlelark]

131. I lived there twice when Dad was at the Air War College

It SUUUUUCKED!!!:puke:

[quinnox]

117. cities

El Paso does suck, have to agree with the ones that named this. Also, Houston. Only passed by it once but it was an ugly city and the humidity was like a sauna even at midnight.
Dallas is OK, only cause the people are friendly.

Oakland seems to be a crap city. San Francisco is a beautiful city, but it is true there are many homeless and trash on the streets downtown. But there are also many nice sights like the city park (they have a great arboretium that has plants from all over the world) and the coastline near the San Francisco bridge and the amazing houses and views in the San Francisco Heights neigborhood.
A city that outdoes San Francisco in beauty is Vancouver, B.C.

[leeroysphitz]

125. That one on the hill...

It's all the time shimmering and stuff...

[JVS]

143. And it cannot be hidden

[kskiska]

130. Bridgeport, CT

It was always the armpit of Connecticut. I've moved out of state, but I hear that Hartford has surpassed it.

The only pleasant memories I have of Bridgeport were birthday excursions from Norwalk (pre-I-95) along the old Post Road to Pleasure Beach, an island amusement park connected to the mainland by a rickety old wooden bridge.

[smitty]

132. Saginaw, Michigan

[5thGenDemocrat]

140. I live in Saginaw, Michigan and have my whole life

And I love it here. Mind telling me what you don't like about it?
John
I knew before I opened this thread that someone would have to leave a turd in the pool.

[celtdem]

133. I was just re-reading one of those Chicago threads

IF a city is made up of those who live there or identify with it, I've decided I can't think very well of that city. Its residents seem so insecure--and then, because of their insecurities, mean-spirited. I don't care how big your buildings or how nice your skyline. A city whose residents behave like that can't be anything but ugly.

[SKKY]

134. Personally, I'd blow Pensacola, Florida off the map...

..except it would eliminate so many of my fellow shipmates who have retired from the Navy and live there now.

[Odin2005]

145. Don't you dare, my great aunt (a loyal Dem) lives there!

[SKKY]

148. I said I'd like to, not that I will. Ok, I'll help your great aunt...

...get out first, deal?

[Odin2005]

150. Deal

:evilgrin:

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

139. Los Angeles, Dallas, and Las Vegas all suck

I've lived in all three and they reek (and it's not just because I've lived there).

[philosophie_en_rose]

144. Everett, Washington. Spokane, Washington.

[timtom]

149. Houston and Birmingham

n/t

[oustemnow]

152. Berkeley

I lived in SF for a number of years, and agree with other posters that its inhabitants can go a little overboard with the local pride. But every time I would visit Berkeley...egads, the attitude. Sheer meritless elitism. I've never encountered people so proud of accomplishing so little.