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There are some cities that people seem to realize aren’t the best to visit, at least not if you enjoy walking around and hanging onto your money (or your life), but sometimes places you’ve never heard of might also be ones to avoid.
If you’re thinking about taking a road trip or traveling to a spot that’s new to you, you might want to peruse this list first – because these 19 people have some tips about U.S. cities that are sketchier than they might seem.
19. Beyond the pines.
Schenectady, NY
It’s the place where the film “The Place Beyond the Pines” was filmed/set in, for reference.
18. Every day?
Monroe, Louisiana.
It’s gotten the nickname gunroe, shootings everyday, most of them unsolved, drugs galore, especially meth and crack, homeless everywhere, poverty is rampant, part of the city is an actual slum.
I went there for a week in 2003… sent by my large corporate employer who was headquartered there (then affectionately referred to as CenturyHell a few name changes ago…) I remember the employee who picked me up at the airport showed me how to get to my hotel and the office…
“Don’t miss this turn— get on the freeway here. If you miss it make a u-turn right away. You don’t want to be in that part of town. Stick close to the hotel for meals too… I don’t recommend exploring.”
17. It sounds so idyllic.
Butte, Montana. Small town almost entirely comprised of violent meth heads.
I’m surprised someone mentioned it on this list. I went through Butte one time and i stopped at a mall there. No more than 5 stores and half the lights weren’t working. It’s honestly a sad town.
16. Sounds terrible.
Daytona Beach, FL.
Imagine a bunch of alcoholic high school kids came for spring break in 1984, and never left, and never grew up.
I lived there for 6 years and had a great time, but it is absolutely trashy. Especially during bike week and the nascar events. But I always enjoyed those weeks anyway, it was like…entertaining to me in some way.
15. The strangest.
Saginaw, Michigan is one of the strangest cities in America because in the central part of the city near the water treatment plant and Oakley Street you have some of the worst, most dangerous, urban blight on the planet, literally the murder capital of the country at one point.
But then you drive more than twenty minutes in any direction and you are in corn fields with no houses around for miles. I feel like most people think of Michigan they think of urban decay in areas like Detroit, Flint, or Saginaw, but most people don’t realize the vast majority of Michigan is fields, forests, and farms.
14. Good ol’ Dirty Myrtle.
Myrtle Beach SC, promoted as a family-friendly beach destination , in reality it lacks any meaningful infrastructure, is rife with poverty and drug addiction, teeming with sex offenders and very familiar with murder and/or missing women and girls.
Stay away from the outskirts especially.
It’s a shame really. I’ve seen this city rise and fall. My grandfather built a lot of the original houses in North Myrtle beach. As a kid, we’d go to the Pavillion and my parents never thought twice about just letting us go ride the rides. There was this 16+ Night Club called the Magic Attic.
It was such a fun place. Not anymore. Downtown is a disaster with a parking garage and a giant ferris wheel. It’s like they are living in the past with this promotion. Even Broadway at the Beach and Barefoot landing are kind of trash.
13. A swath of California.
Bakersfield CA
Better add its equally sketchy cousin, Fresno… as well as California City… and Mojave… and Adelanto… and —
I may have grown up in the High Desert.
12. What happens in North Vegas…
North Las Vegas. Not “the north of the strip” I mean the city of North Las Vegas. I used to work there at a 7/11. It’s really rough.
Addicts, crime, homeless everywhere, and gang activity. Las Vegas has some hoods but Northtown is probably the worst.
Although the Boulder Highway crew can chime in.
11. This is very confusing.
Texarkana, Arkansas.
I thought Texarkana was in Texas. At least I thought that from watching Smokey & The Bandit about 100 times.
But it’s in both. That’s why it’s got both in the name. There’s a fuckin street named state line that runs through the middle of town along the Texas/Arkansas border.
10. Just a ballpark.
Guntersville, Alabama. If I were to ballpark it, over 80% of the population are meth addicts and traffickers.
I remember a story where a man walked into the Walmart, took all the supplies and equipment required to cook, and proceeded to cook meth in the bathroom.
But the bass fishin’ do be good tho.
You can drive your boat to the Publix. That’s got to count for something!
9. Like the Twilight Zone.
Coolidge, Arizona.
More of a town than a city, but it’s such a weird ass place, bordering on Twilight Zone. You’ll see a meth house right next to a youth theatre.
8. So many unsolved crimes in Washington.
Yakima, Washington.
I lived in a neighboring town for awhile and bodies would always turn up in farmers fields that cartel in Yakima had dropped off there.
A lot of people seem to forget that Seattle and rest of Washington state are two drastically different worlds.
7. It used to be a hotspot.
Peoria, IL
I hear all the time how back in the day the town was a hotspot for companies who were trying to find a market for their product and services. The town even has a slogan, if it plays in Peoria it plays anywhere, because of how diversive a market it used to be.
Now it’s just a couple manufacturing companies and your standard slew of retail and small businesses, but what I think makes it Worthy of being here is the fact that with barely over 100,000 people in it, we are consistently in the top 10 cities in the US for murder and crime.
6. It’s all the bad parts.
Reading, Pa, it’s like the entire city is the bad part of the city.
I went to college with a kid from a small town in northern PA. He said almost everybody in his town at one point or another worked for The Business.
You were handed a big paper bag in Philly, drove it to New York, and handed it to somebody else. Later you got paid in cash.
You did NOT, ever, look inside the bag.
He had no idea what was in the bags. Meth? Cash? Beanie Babies? Nobody ever looked.
5. Madness.
Reading Pennsylvania. It was declared the poorest small city in the nation, and Reading hospital was the 2nd busiest ER in the country pre pandemic.
Madness.
4. Horrified.
Harrison, Arkansas.
I lived in Harrison for 6 years for work. The most backward shit hole I have ever experienced. I am white, my wife is Hispanic.
I’ve made several mistakes in my life, moving my family there was the biggest.
3. All but abandoned.
West Frankfort, Illinois. Its empty, it seems like the only people that live there are people who can’t afford to leave.
I went to a residential area and most houses had for sale signs or were abandoned.
2. Blocks and blocks.
East St Louis, IL. Blocks and blocks and blocks of blight. Streets shut down bc there’s no use for them anymore. Suburban poverty.
They literally built a freeway to bypass east st Louis. My grandma lived in Belleville and I loved it as a kid but when I cleaned out her house in 2017 after she died, I realized I was steps from some of the most destitute poverty in America.
Also it’s not uncommon for east st Louis to have 30 murders a year in a city of <50k. That would be like Chicago racking up 1500 to 2000 murders a year.
1. There’s a feather in your cap.
Topeka. They boiled a hippo to death.
I googled it, safety system for the heater for the hippo pool at the zoo malfunctioned and got the pool up to 108*F
I honestly never would have pegged some of these, and obviously others I’ve never heard of, so.
Do you know of a city that belongs on this list? Drop it in the comments and warn the rest of us!
