Cities. Those things we live in.
Reddit user, u/MorsesTheHorse, wanted to know where you would avoid if your life depended on it when they asked:
What city would you never, ever, EVER live in?
These places, while inhabited by a good number of people, aren't exactly the kind of spots you would want to go back to on a repeat visit.
Transformed Into Something Unsettling
"For me, it's Mecca. It's beautiful, but it's just not for an openly gay Western dude like me."
"Same with Tehran."
"Im surprised you think Mecca is beautiful lol. I, along with almost every Muslim I know, hates what has happened to that place. The skyscrapers are extremely ugly (especially that goddam clock tower) and overshadow the beauty of the mosque. Almost all historical sites are gone except for the Kabah. I know they need infrastructure to handle all the people but they did it in the worst way possible."
"Mecca like almost every other Arabian city has turned into places for rich Saudis to show their wealth and almost nothing else."
Don't. Stop.
"Irvington, NJ - My friend told me to run through every red light and not stop at any cost after I dropped her off at her apartment. Her wise words phased me as I stopped at the first red light. 3 seconds later a huge motherf-cker with a crowbar starts heading in my direction. 3 red lights all while screaming toward McCarter Highway."
"The following week my car was stolen while I was attending classes in Newark and they used my car to rob a liquor store in Irvington, NJ. Literally only owned my car for 2 weeks."
"F-ck Irvington, NJ."
The Literal Fast And The Furious
"Cairo, Egypt. 19 million people, 23 million cars, no stoplights. On a 3 lane road, you have 5 lanes of traffic, left shoulder, straddling first white line, middle lane, straddling 2nd white line, and right shoulder! When we visited, our tour guide told us we needed 3 things to drive there…"good brakes, good horns & good nerves!"
Cars are bumper to bumper, and then people are crossing the street in between the cars, walking, in wheelchairs, pushing baby strollers! Then along beside our bus, comes someone riding a donkey! Crazy. Soldiers with machine guns on the street corners, we even had an armed guard on our tour bus."
Hockey Isn't Enough
"Detroit. Place is a complete sh-t hole. Drove over there for a red wings game. Homes are gutted and you have blocks upon blocks of this. Downtown is dirty and gross. Then you have this beautiful billion dollar red wings/pistons stadium right in the poverty stricken down town. Made me wonder how a city could be just destroyed, and the casino in town be completely packed."
"Would never raise a family, nor will I ever visit again."
Up And Down And Up And Down And...
"San Francisco. Cost of living is too high and I'm too out of shape to go up and down hills all the time"
Bright Side? Free Weed.
"Almaty, Kazakhstan (and really all of Kazakhstan). Rampant corruption and xenophobia. You had to pay bribes to do even the smallest things here. Extremely expensive to live in to the point that Kazakhs cross the border to Kyrgyzstan to buy things a lot cheaper. The food is terrible (with the notable exception of smetana and samsi). It still feels very much like a Soviet state."
"I was doing field work there ten years ago and in the span of three weeks I was a victim of a kidnap attempt and the locals called the military on us because we were foreigners and four Army guys showed up on horseback and pointed AK-47s on our heads even though we had permits to be there. The only redeeming quality was that marijuana grew like weeds here and no one batted an eye. So we pulled a few plants off random sidewalks and smoked them on our camp site once in a while."
People Share The Craziest Lies They've Told That Came True | George Takei’s Oh Myyy
Everyone tells the occasional tall tale. Most people won't find out, right? Now imagine coming up with a silly lie that you somehow have to cover for. But wh...Then there are some cities, some you might never have visited, which have generated enough discussion and gotten enough publicity to be actively awful in your mind. You don't have to have gone there to know you never want to be there.
A Place To Skip Completely
"Mumbai. Even if I was financially secure, I couldn't stand seeing all the poverty and squalor all the time. It would weigh on me."
"A friend of a friend spent six months riding his motorcycle from London to Chennai. He recorded everything in his journal in excruciating detail except for Mumbai. There was only one sentence about Mumbai. It was about driving around Mumbai. He did everything you could imagine on the way, but decided to skip Mumbai completely."
Not All Of It. Just Some Of It.
"Paris. I used to hate all French people because of my experiences there, and then I met one who explained that there's basically two Frances; Paris and everywhere else, and then we bonded over bad mouthing the place and now my antipathy is more precise."
It's All In The Family
"LA, if you want half quality people, air, and living for double the price and problems, it might be for you"
"I have friends who live in LA, and swear it's awesome. But they actually live in Rancho Palos Verdes, in their parent's mansions."
If You Can Make It There...
"New York. Ive seen it in many tv shows and movies. The city looks like it would feel very choking with all the big buildings, no nature in sight. Even in the big city close to my city it often feels choking and thats a relatively small city of around 500.000 people."
"I was once during a stop on a flight in Istanbul. Well, i stayed just outside the airport door. It looked so tight, small, overwhelming with all the buildings."
And then there's cities like these.
Cities so bad an introduction isn't required.
120 Degree Summers Say "What's Up?"
"I occasionally consider living in Phoenix because desert landscapes are beautiful, but then I remember that that city should not exist. It's a monument to man's arrogance."
What's Your Excuse?
"Winnipeg."
"The Simpsons summed it up perfectly: "We were born here, what's your excuse?"
"I can laugh at this because I'm from Thunder Bay"
Putin Probably Doesn't Like Visitors, Anyway
"Norilsk , Russia is one of the most depressing cities in the world. Also it's one of the most poluted cities in the world and the live expectancy of a worker in Norilsk is 10 years shorter then the average life expectancy of a normal russian worker. Blood illnesses there are 44% higher, nervous system illnesses are 38% higher and bone and muscle system illnesses are 28% higher. Most of the citie's income comes from one single company, so if you protest against polution, you would get fired, and even if you don't work at the mines, this company (Norilsk Nickel) owns all local buisnesses too."
Booze. Sex. Sin. All The Best Family Values.
"Las Vegas. Fun to visit, but not where I'd want to raise my family."
"I think my first realization that people grow up and live in Las Vegas was at 16 or so when watching Criminal Minds and hearing that Spencer Reid grew up there. It was that record scratch moment. Wait, people LIVE IN and raise their babies in the city of sex, sin, and gambling? I felt stupid, of course, upon realizing that all the casino workers and strippers have to live somewhere, and might fall in love, and might marry and have kids."
"And then I had a second life-changing revelation when I realized people probably feel the exact same way about my home city, Miami. I was raised there and lived there for 2 decades. A lot of people have no concept of Miami outside TV and probably think my parents are horrible people who raised me in a den of yachts, Pitbull, cocaine, dirty money, bad boob jobs, and spring breakers. Meanwhile I actually lived in a very normal and boring suburb."
A Slow Decline Over Time
"Gary Indiana. Went through there when heading to O'hare & was not impressed. heard multiple gunshots when driving through."
"So I literally learned about Gary, Indiana from these threads where it always pops up as one of the worst places to live or be. Could you explain why it is so sh-tty?"
"Long story made short, Gary was a good place to live. Nice paying steel industry jobs. That went away. High crime rate, high poverty rate, and empty, falling down buildings everywhere. I used to live in Chicago and would avoid Gary when traveling at all cost."
Each city is different. What works for some might not be what works for others.
However, it does feel like some of these cities need to be at the top of your "Never Visit" list, don't they?
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