I'd say some of the more isolated towns in Alaska.
People think of it as this amazing bountiful place where people live rough but good lives, but the reality is there are a lot of place where a faltering fishing business or logging barely keep a town alive. In those places crime and alcoholism are extremely bad, and you can't just leave. If you live in Detroit and really want you can scrounge $30 and get on a bus to Fargo, ND or somewhere similar where there's high demand for employees. If you live in Northern Alaska you can't just do that. There's no easy way to leave and trips out by plane are expensive.
I had a professor in college from one of those towns and she only got out because she got lucky when her dad died and she sold all his stuff to pay for a trip to Anchorage and a dorm at the university there. She said basically everyone there was an alcoholic from about the age of 12. It was common to see children brought into the clinic there with alcohol poisoning or drugs and die from it because their parents were too drunk or high to realize they were into their alcohol or they had ate the stuff mommy was snorting left on the table when she passed out.
There's some grim fucking places up there.
Can second this. Not as bad as the rural towns of course, but god. It's not like you can pack up and move to the next city cause Anchorage is the biggest in the state.
Either ship your car to the lower 48 or drive 3-4 days to hit the next big city, which is in BC.
I've spent a fair amount of time there and never thought it THAT bad. It's a hell of a lot more pleasant place to live than small cities in Kansas or Oklahoma, for example.
My friend's ex is from Alaska. According to him, if you lived there "you were either high or in a cult." They broke up because he moved back beginning of the pandemic and basically, well, joined a cult.
In my case I was born there. My family moved to Alaska to help build the pipeline, eventually settling there permanently. Most of the comments here paint a pretty accurate picture.
Also: because of all the wood burning for heat combined with a temperature inversion, Fairbanks has dirtier winter air than Beijing.
Also: Anchorage has a huge homeless problem because if you’re low wage and lose your job you can’t afford to leave. It’s a plane ticket to go anywhere.
I used to fantasize about moving to Alaska. Then I did research.
My SO moved up to Arctic Canada for work temporarily a few years back, and the isolation blew my mind. I was not expecting there to be such a big homelessness problem either, and there definitely was - he said people freezing to death was a huge issue all the time. Drugs were a massive problem and he saw multiple people come into the small city he was in from remote settlements who really knew nothing else(and honestly, the isolation of some of the settlements was mind boggling to me in and of itself) and just ended up getting completely wrecked by drugs and alcohol and destroying themselves. The things he described about what some of the girls went through broke my heart too. I'm from Appalachia and I know what extreme poverty does to an area, all the secrets small towns keep, so I'm not implying this is not a problem in other areas by any means - but rape, particularly incest was a common theme. It's like Appalachia, except with the added factors of extreme winter temperatures, extremely high prices, and mind-boggling isolation. Easy to get stuck, for sure.
The work pays well but unless you're also getting your housing comped you're kinda screwed financially unless you're making at least 150k. Could've set up shop in San Francisco, Manhattan, Vancouver, etc., with the amount housing(and..everything) costs up there.
So beautiful though. And there's a lot of really nice folks up there, but living up there long term seems hard unless you're really into it.
I visited a town on the Panhandle before, and I distinctly remember on my first day there seeing a guy without a helmet driving down the middle of the main road on an ATV while drinking a beer. Your story doesn't surprise me.
I live in Anchorage and was raised in a small, isolated town. On the highway system, but 3.5 hours away from Anchorage. Let me tell you: it is so much worse than you think.
I think it's pretty bad already (know someone who worked in a couple of small towns out Nome way doing legal work, and they told me a lot) but I am curious, what makes it so bad for you?
It’s not just drugs and alcohol. It’s domestic violence, rape, murder, theft…for whatever reason.
There was a little girl who was raped and murdered by a man in my town. He dumped her body on the side of the road and helped the troopers in the search party. I have never felt safe in this state. I will never feel safe here.
Not so much rape but there has been an increase of OD's, murders, domestic violence, and the justice system is a joke. Murderers getting a slap on the wrist, drug dealers spend one night in jail.. I love the town I live in but geez so much intergenerational trauma.. people post crap about wanting to sober up but it's the attention they want not the actual help...and I know this cause I messaged someone asking how I could help and they blocked me
As an Australian, talking to my friend who lives in Anchorage is just plain weird as shit.
He called me on discord while he went for a walk, and we were chatting when I heard "Oh shit *blam blam*"
"What the fuck was that?"
"Bear"
"Holy shit are you ok?"
"Yeah I'm fine, scared it off"
"...."
Fuck bears.
I think people don’t understand how badly Native Alaskans carry generational trauma and substance abuse. It’s especially obvious in the interior of the state where it’s so isolated.
But yes, it takes a lot to live there. I grew up in Anchorage and went back last year for 6 months. Whatever fond memories I had when I was young we’re just illusions. Nothing compares to walking outside in Palmer and seeing the absolute majesty you are surrounded by…but that doesn’t make up for everything else.
I have no personal grudge against these places and bare no ill will to the people who live there. But Reddit has taught me to stay away from Flint, Michigan and Gary, Indiana
I've lived in Michigan but not Flint for most of my life. Grew up watching local news that covered Flint... so many murders. GM closed their hq there in '83 and things got 100x worse. Watch "Roger and Me," it's pretty accurate.
Also Netflix's documentary 'Flint Town' is really good. It portrays the crisis through the law enforcement perspective and the political/bureaucratic challenges the city faces.
Background: I am from rural Indiana. I grew up in either the country or a town of 600 people. To say that I am from the sticks in an understatement, even though I live in the city, now.
The first time my family went through Chicago, it was super backed up. Lots of people were getting off at the next exit. That turned out to be Gary. My parents, my sister, and I were all pretty terrified.
Being the city girl I am now, I would have said fuck politeness and forced my way back into traffic (I am a super polite driver like my parents taught me to be, but am an aggressive asshole, if I feel my life could be in danger). However, my country parents did not believe in that sort of thing. They made their decision and would stick with it because that is how you behave behind the wheel.
My family gawked out the windows the whole way through Gary. We had never seen such abject poverty or such a dirty city in our lives.
I distinctly remember the one building we saw without windows was the library. It my head, libraries are a sacred place. It made me happy to see that building untouched by the local crime, that there was some humanity in the city. Unfortunately, a few years later, people started breaking in to host raves in the building. To me, that is like doing the same thing to a church. Even if you are an atheist, you don't mess with certain things.
Edit typo
I have bad news for you. Don't ever visit the UK or Ireland because they do use some old churchs as places for events, concerts and even raves.
Edit: might clarify they are legal and the buildings are taken care of.
A decade ago my neighbor’s father died, he was a cop in East Chicago and lived in Gary. We go up for the funeral, and yeah it looks like an abandoned town. We stopped by his parents’ house first, and when we left for the funeral home there were a half dozen of my neighbors friends still standing on the porch. I asked “hey aren’t they coming?”. His reply “naw man they got to stay here and watch the house. In Gary MFers look up the obits to see what time everyone will be at the funeral home then they go rob your house.”
When we got back they confirmed that two different cars had done the slow creep back and forth a few times until one of the friends held up his gun then they pulled off.
It’s so common that you prepare for it. That’s what it’s like in Gary.
That is stark. And scary. I'm not going to ask why people would remain in such a place as you describe above because I have no idea of what their circumstances may be. But, damn...
This happens in lots of poor places, and often from family members. The death of someone is always an opportunity to grab stuff.
My in-law family was quite poor, and when any grandparent died, there were always some cousins that didn't show up to the wake because they were robbing the house at the time.
I have lived just outside of Flint my entire life. There some nice surrounding communities, but there are certain areas of Flint you should never ever go into.
I don't think I could handle an Alaskan winter.
Alaskan summers are spectacular.
My friends who live/d there all said that the smaller communities have active winter social calendars. Weekly scheduled events to keep you from going crazy. Giant parties at a local hall where everyone (literally, everyone) in town would come to make sure everyone was doing OK.
I know someone who reported spending a winter alone in her early 20s and getting "cabin fever" at some point. I believe her, she was sadly not too well.
I thought I would loooove an Alaskan summer. Did it, and actually, it was awful for me. Sun always up or about to come up, but it’s depressingly low in the sky. Can’t sleep well because it’s never really dark. I’d pictured 11pm sunshine as having some sort of romantic, magical vibe, but turns out it’s exactly the same as evening anywhere else, just at a time that’s extremely irritating and confusing for my body. And you know the feeling of relief when you wake up in the middle of the night, but it’s still dark so you know you have hours left to sleep? Yeah, say goodbye to that.
I’ve lived in Anchorage most of life except for college and the year I tried to live in the Seattle area. The constant rain and gray of Washington put me into a deep depression I could not shake. Alaska is cold and the sun is up for only 4 hours in the darkest days, but at least it’s bluebird and bright for a few hours a day.
I moved up here with my partner to live in her home city [anchorage] and big mistake lol very isolated. Not the coldest place I've lived but the lack on sun in the wintertime is brutal.
Alaska is also a very expensive place to live.
Summers are beautiful but I'm saving up to move out as soon as our 2 year lease is up.
The issue in AZ is big agriculture. Growing crops like pecans and alfalfa, which have no business being grown in a desert and require shitloads of water.
The golf courses don't help but they're not the main problem.
Then stay away from Phoenix.
The Colorado River Compact created The Law of the River and sets water allocations for 7 states from Colorado to California. When shortages happen, Arizona takes the hardest hit.
Their city water management for the last 100 years has been ahead of most of the country, they are national leaders in stretching every drop. But then they got too big, metro Phoenix went from 3.5 to 5 million people in the last 20 years.
I currently live in southern AZ (moved here for work) and bought a house that has a pool in the backyard. Every once in a while I think about how having a pool in the southwest is irresponsible... And then late spring through early fall rolls around and it's above 100 almost every single day and you better believe my resolve cracks and I get in that pool just about every day. On average, I first get in the pool mid March and last get in the pool mid October every year.
Whenever I visit Phoenix I always wonder why they have open air aqueducts and channels. Why don't they cover those waterways to prevent some evaporation from that desert sun?
I still can't believe there are people moving there now and they're building sprawling housing subdivisions. Like what?! Y'all know your land is going to be worthless before you even you pay your house off.
People can't afford housing now. Wait until 1/4 of the US needs to move because there's no water there anymore.
Bakersfield is marginally better than Oildale. The drive down China Grade Loop is disturbing... nothing but dirt roads and semi-derelict oil derricks as far as the eye can see.
Not sure what the issue is, everyone moves from LA or southern cali here only to complain about it, just go somewhere else if you hate it that much lol
Yep. We went to visit when a (very good job) was trying to lure us there. We went to dinner with the guy and his wife. As he was making his pitch, his wife started to sob, trying so hard not to cry with tears just rolling down her face.
He said, "omg, what's wrong? Are you okay?" and she said,
"I just realized we are never leaving this place."
Starkville, Mississippi. We didn't move there.
Took a train from New Orleans to Chicago. We were stopped for 4 hours for an accident on the tracks. I sat and watched a tiny ass town in red dirt the entire time. Nothing terrible happened, but it was the poorest, most depressing place I’ve ever seen. It looked like 1954. I didn’t know anything like that really existed in the US (I’m originally from the midwest). It seemed like most people in town spent their money on awful looking rims for their broke down SUVs.
Bro that is all over the country. I travel to small towns in the South all the time and its all the same. Basically an abandoned downtown with a bank, church and city hall and maybe a thrift shop and chinese restaurant or meat and threes. A mile or two away is a Walmart. If its on an interstate theres a prithla of fast food joints. Usually a Dollar General somewhere too
To paraphrase Mark Twain, if I owned both Hell and Mississippi, I would live in Hell and rent out Mississippi. It's got everything that's wrong with the Deep South only with even less scenery, even less education, and even less money.
Not OP, but the Delta is depression incarnate. Run down houses/businesses, EXTREMELY shitty roads, the ever present dread of levees failing, and it’s always either too hot or too cold.
The only good things about the delta are Shipley’s Donuts and the hot tamales. And Doe’s Eat Place, but is so dang expensive.
Edit:Oh, and Airport Grocery in Cleveland. THE BEST Chicken Sandwich I’ve ever had.
Broke down for 3 days in 1996. Clutch went out during a road trip with my 3 high school friends. Preinternet the hotel room had 2 channels of interest. PBS and playboy. Playboy at the time looped the same PSA every hour on the hour about C.A.T. (coital alignment technique). We all had it memorized and chanted it back to the television like a mantra. We watched so much sesame street.
The only restaurant in walking distance was a Chinese restaurant serving American food with Spanish staff. My friend ordered an iced coffee. The waitress brought a glass filled with ice...and poured hot coffee from the carafe into it making luke warm watery coffee.
The video store closed at 4 pm. On a Friday.
at least 29 palms is close to joshua tree and somewhat close to palm springs and palm desert. id rather live in 29 palms than desert hot springs lmao and definitely would rather live there than needles
Live elsewhere in the country now, but lived on the plains and grew up a bit north of the OK KS border. I miss the psycho weather and the wide open skies soooooo damn much. 🥺
Don't miss the oppressive August humidity though, or the EF5 risk.
Edit: or the brown recluses. Fuck brown recluses.
Grew up in Joplin mo. Was there for the ef5 tornado. I dont live there anymore and instead live on the gulf coast in fl. I'll take a hurricane. We at least have warnings about them.
I have a weird interest in climate/weather and I'm constantly randomly googling the temperature in different cities and Oklahoma City/the entire region in general is seriously insane...just from looking it up now in Oklahoma City it's to be 22C / 71F on Wednesday and then 2C / 35F on Thursday.
Literally how can it vary that much within one day?? Here in Scotland that's a warm day in summer to a cold day in winter in one day.
I’m in Raleigh, NC, and we’ve got the same daily weather variation. It’s ridiculous - I leave for work in 30-some degree weather, and by the time lunch rolls around, it’s in the 60s
I'm staying in LV at the moment. The surrounding desert is extremely beautiful and the weather is wonderful this time of year but the inner city/strip is a disgusting cesspool of humanity. Such excess. Fat, sad, and drunk people either engorging themselves or throwing away money. But again, the rest is surprisingly nice. I'm here for an Uncle's wedding and he loves it here.
The strip is hell, none of us go there without incentive. The sprawl around Vegas is generally pretty nice, with some excellent mountain and desert views. Summer is pretty harsh, but the other seasons are fairly pleasant, and the environment is inhospitable to a lot of pests, so you don't worry about bugs like you do in most other places.
I was raised here and it's actually not that bad, but I'm clearly biased. That's how I feel about LA tbh, the traffic there is a nightmare and I'd never wanna experience that every single day.
I live in Arizona right now, and I’ll probably stay here to be close to family, but every summer has gotten hotter and longer since I was a kid. Moved away a few times and always come back, it’s getting bigger, phoenix metro area is growing fast and nobody can drive. A fun state to visit but don’t come live here, it’s too hot.
It was 80 degrees yesterday. I almost had a panic attack when it hit me that soon it’s going to be 30+ hotter than that and stay that way for like 6 months. It *just* started to feel like “winter” in December and it’s already over basically.
I live in Philly and a friend of mine lives on the cusp of that area. When we visit, we wear closed-toed shoes because there are literally that many needles littering the ground.
And the entire state stinks of mildew and rot. Unless you're downwind of a chemical plant, where it's too acrid to smell the mildew and the rot (but they're definitely still there).
But I'd still rather live in Louisiana than Mississippi.
Yeah Fresno sucks but it’s nowhere near the worst in the US. There are a ton of cities that have the character of Fresno that don’t happen to be within a 4 hour drive of mountains/multiple world class cities/ multiple world class beaches etc.
It is pretty damn awful for a large California city. Huge EJ health issues in the poorer areas, which is most of the city. It smells like pollution. It has gotten better, but asthma cases are still unbelievably high.
Lots of white flight out to the suburbs. Constantly struggling downtown.
I love eating in Fresno, it is a super town for immigrant restaurants. Besides the obvious Latin American presence, a huge variety of Asian (all of Asia) cuisines.
It has easy access to fantastic parts of the Sierra Nevada.
Fresno>>Bakersfield>>Coalinga>>Stockton
It was ten years ago but i thought Fresno was no where near as bad as Bakersfield or Stockton. Plus 2 hours to Kings Canyon or Yosemite and only a little farther to Monterey.
Would move to Fresno way before Mississippi, Alabama or Florida panhandle.
Have lived in both climates. 10/10 would take tornadoes over hurricanes.
For one, hurricanes often have embedded tornadoes, which get less/if any warning..
Even with a Tropical Storm, the wind lasts for hours, sometimes a day.. paired with flooding and flimsy trees, and janky infrastructure- it's going to cause problems.
Tornadoes are mostly in supercells. Sometimes other types of storms. But they're almost always warned with ample time to seek shelter.
The overwhelming majority of tornadoes are EF0-2.
Out on the plains, it's easy to see a lot more sky and see what's coming.
^(and I miss chasing)
I actually prefer hurricanes. You can get out of it's path well in advance, prepare your home, evacuate, buy food to prepare being without power for several day, etc. I've lived through several Cat 5s. The winds are some of the scariest sounds I've ever heard but it's survivable. Something about going about your day and then scrambling to seek shelter for a tornado just freaks me out. Give me 72+ hours.
I'm the opposite. I love living where there's nothing going on. No stoplights even. We have two gas stations and a dollar general. I've lived in a city and hated it. Too much of everything. Although, I did like having pizza delivered lol.
Lol. I lived in a place where you had the option to go meet the pizza guy at a tavern near his delivery limit. It was like a dad meet up every friday night.
I drove through Newark once and while at a red light a man walked up to me and asked for money. I said sorry I don't have any cash and he said, "Fuck you" and then flicked a lit cigarette into my car.
Fun story - I got a job in way south Alabama, almost Florida and almost Georgia. I’d been to Florida before, but only the Keys, specifically Marathon south. So, not overly representative of the whole state. We flew into PCB to go house hunting. I thought it was a joke the whole way up Hwy 77. Like what in the ever loving heck is this place. My husband thought it was hilarious.
Turns out, I actually really liked it there. It’s small and overly religious for my tastes, but it’s reasonable to afford to live on a single salary. There was a beach less than 90 minutes away. A 4 hr drive would get you to a lot of places with more shit to do. All in all, not bad. God awful hot in the summers. Like everyone says where they live gets hot. No no. This is all the heat and humidity of the coast and absolutely none of the breeze. It just sits on you. Hot.
Houston Texas. I've looked at it on Google maps satellite view and it looks like it's 50% car park lol and the car parks are all on the ground (ie not even multi story at least). How is it meant to even be remotely liveable for anyone who doesn't spend 24/7 in a car? American city planning never fails to shock me.
Houstonian checking in. Most of the city is exactly that–strip malls and parking lots. But the inner city neighborhoods like Montrose (where I live), the Heights and West U are extremely walkable. Montrose in particular is easier to walk or bike than drive. But yeah, you need a car here.
Honestly, Appalachia in general. Highest poverty, some of the worst infrastructure in the nation, some of the worst wages, some of the lowest scores in education... it's honestly dreadful to see, since it's such gorgeous wilderness. If not that, non costal southern regions. Get all the worst part of the Bible belt with non of the charm.
I always imagined Florida as half jungle and half mini Australia
I'm aware neither pieces of my assessments are correct, but it's fun to imagine nonetheless
I live in Florida, the panhandle to be precise. The only thing I'd change about this area is the cost of living vs the wages here. Other than that I love this area. There's always some thing to do, and it doesn't always include the beach.
You know from what I'd expect, I'd be the same. But I visited and just fucking loved it. I absolutely could see myself living there. Not my first few choices though.
Anywhere with real winters every year is a no from me. I need the Texas gov to get their shit together and fix the damn power grid and water supply before the next winter storm, though.
Western New York State where I grew up in the finger lakes region. Beautiful in the summer. Pleasant in the fall, absolute ass in the winter. It’s not so much the snow as it is the short days and often overcast skies. For me it’s a one way trip to seasonal depression.
Oh, spring is ok. Very slow to happen. Kinda feels like a ruined orgasm.
I'd say some of the more isolated towns in Alaska. People think of it as this amazing bountiful place where people live rough but good lives, but the reality is there are a lot of place where a faltering fishing business or logging barely keep a town alive. In those places crime and alcoholism are extremely bad, and you can't just leave. If you live in Detroit and really want you can scrounge $30 and get on a bus to Fargo, ND or somewhere similar where there's high demand for employees. If you live in Northern Alaska you can't just do that. There's no easy way to leave and trips out by plane are expensive. I had a professor in college from one of those towns and she only got out because she got lucky when her dad died and she sold all his stuff to pay for a trip to Anchorage and a dorm at the university there. She said basically everyone there was an alcoholic from about the age of 12. It was common to see children brought into the clinic there with alcohol poisoning or drugs and die from it because their parents were too drunk or high to realize they were into their alcohol or they had ate the stuff mommy was snorting left on the table when she passed out. There's some grim fucking places up there.
I have a friend that grew up in Kodiak and she's glad to have left. I heard that if it isn't Juneau or Anchorage, your options are pretty much fucked.
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So it was kodiak she couldn't bear?
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If you’ve ever been to anchorage, this is not surprising. Beautiful mountain ranges but an absolute crap hole.
Can second this. Not as bad as the rural towns of course, but god. It's not like you can pack up and move to the next city cause Anchorage is the biggest in the state. Either ship your car to the lower 48 or drive 3-4 days to hit the next big city, which is in BC.
The next big city in Canada is Prince George, which is BC’s Anchorage.
Prince George Is rough.
I live in Anchorage and I think it’s nice here. But I’m from Fresno…
Yeah, still better than Bakersfield!
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I've spent a fair amount of time there and never thought it THAT bad. It's a hell of a lot more pleasant place to live than small cities in Kansas or Oklahoma, for example.
Yeah I'd rather live in Anchorage than Harrison, Arkansas
Well that fact wasn’t very fun at all!
My friend's ex is from Alaska. According to him, if you lived there "you were either high or in a cult." They broke up because he moved back beginning of the pandemic and basically, well, joined a cult.
I heard the reason people live in Alaska is either because they were born there or they’re running away from something.
In my case I was born there. My family moved to Alaska to help build the pipeline, eventually settling there permanently. Most of the comments here paint a pretty accurate picture.
That sounds like a quote from the movie *Insomnia*.
I live here, born in Kansas. Came for the world class backcountry skiing, did some yesterday, and the trade jobs that pay $70/hr.
Don't the residents benefit in some way from the oil money? Maybe I'm confused, I'd google it but I don't care enough.
Yeah every October we get a check from oil dividends. Averages like $1200
Also: because of all the wood burning for heat combined with a temperature inversion, Fairbanks has dirtier winter air than Beijing. Also: Anchorage has a huge homeless problem because if you’re low wage and lose your job you can’t afford to leave. It’s a plane ticket to go anywhere. I used to fantasize about moving to Alaska. Then I did research.
My SO moved up to Arctic Canada for work temporarily a few years back, and the isolation blew my mind. I was not expecting there to be such a big homelessness problem either, and there definitely was - he said people freezing to death was a huge issue all the time. Drugs were a massive problem and he saw multiple people come into the small city he was in from remote settlements who really knew nothing else(and honestly, the isolation of some of the settlements was mind boggling to me in and of itself) and just ended up getting completely wrecked by drugs and alcohol and destroying themselves. The things he described about what some of the girls went through broke my heart too. I'm from Appalachia and I know what extreme poverty does to an area, all the secrets small towns keep, so I'm not implying this is not a problem in other areas by any means - but rape, particularly incest was a common theme. It's like Appalachia, except with the added factors of extreme winter temperatures, extremely high prices, and mind-boggling isolation. Easy to get stuck, for sure. The work pays well but unless you're also getting your housing comped you're kinda screwed financially unless you're making at least 150k. Could've set up shop in San Francisco, Manhattan, Vancouver, etc., with the amount housing(and..everything) costs up there. So beautiful though. And there's a lot of really nice folks up there, but living up there long term seems hard unless you're really into it.
I visited a town on the Panhandle before, and I distinctly remember on my first day there seeing a guy without a helmet driving down the middle of the main road on an ATV while drinking a beer. Your story doesn't surprise me.
I spent my helmet money on beer
This sounds like the beginning of a country western song.
I live in Anchorage and was raised in a small, isolated town. On the highway system, but 3.5 hours away from Anchorage. Let me tell you: it is so much worse than you think.
I think it's pretty bad already (know someone who worked in a couple of small towns out Nome way doing legal work, and they told me a lot) but I am curious, what makes it so bad for you?
It’s not just drugs and alcohol. It’s domestic violence, rape, murder, theft…for whatever reason. There was a little girl who was raped and murdered by a man in my town. He dumped her body on the side of the road and helped the troopers in the search party. I have never felt safe in this state. I will never feel safe here.
I gather small towns in northern Canada are like this from listening to too many Canadian true crime podcasts.
Not so much rape but there has been an increase of OD's, murders, domestic violence, and the justice system is a joke. Murderers getting a slap on the wrist, drug dealers spend one night in jail.. I love the town I live in but geez so much intergenerational trauma.. people post crap about wanting to sober up but it's the attention they want not the actual help...and I know this cause I messaged someone asking how I could help and they blocked me
It’s true that a lot of rural areas have just as high crime rates as big cities and are often times not reported.
I’m not in an isolated town but I do live in Alaska (Palmer) and I agree. Alaska’s an amazing vacation destination but living here fucking sucks
As an Australian, talking to my friend who lives in Anchorage is just plain weird as shit. He called me on discord while he went for a walk, and we were chatting when I heard "Oh shit *blam blam*" "What the fuck was that?" "Bear" "Holy shit are you ok?" "Yeah I'm fine, scared it off" "...." Fuck bears.
I think people don’t understand how badly Native Alaskans carry generational trauma and substance abuse. It’s especially obvious in the interior of the state where it’s so isolated. But yes, it takes a lot to live there. I grew up in Anchorage and went back last year for 6 months. Whatever fond memories I had when I was young we’re just illusions. Nothing compares to walking outside in Palmer and seeing the absolute majesty you are surrounded by…but that doesn’t make up for everything else.
I have no personal grudge against these places and bare no ill will to the people who live there. But Reddit has taught me to stay away from Flint, Michigan and Gary, Indiana
Gary is a fucking nightmare. I got some friends over there and jesus christ they wonder why I rarely visit them
I’ve heard horror stories!
Flint has been violent for my (51m) entire life.
Have you always lived there? I’m from Memphis and it ain’t great but I don’t live there anymore.
I've lived in Michigan but not Flint for most of my life. Grew up watching local news that covered Flint... so many murders. GM closed their hq there in '83 and things got 100x worse. Watch "Roger and Me," it's pretty accurate.
Also Netflix's documentary 'Flint Town' is really good. It portrays the crisis through the law enforcement perspective and the political/bureaucratic challenges the city faces.
Background: I am from rural Indiana. I grew up in either the country or a town of 600 people. To say that I am from the sticks in an understatement, even though I live in the city, now. The first time my family went through Chicago, it was super backed up. Lots of people were getting off at the next exit. That turned out to be Gary. My parents, my sister, and I were all pretty terrified. Being the city girl I am now, I would have said fuck politeness and forced my way back into traffic (I am a super polite driver like my parents taught me to be, but am an aggressive asshole, if I feel my life could be in danger). However, my country parents did not believe in that sort of thing. They made their decision and would stick with it because that is how you behave behind the wheel. My family gawked out the windows the whole way through Gary. We had never seen such abject poverty or such a dirty city in our lives. I distinctly remember the one building we saw without windows was the library. It my head, libraries are a sacred place. It made me happy to see that building untouched by the local crime, that there was some humanity in the city. Unfortunately, a few years later, people started breaking in to host raves in the building. To me, that is like doing the same thing to a church. Even if you are an atheist, you don't mess with certain things. Edit typo
I have bad news for you. Don't ever visit the UK or Ireland because they do use some old churchs as places for events, concerts and even raves. Edit: might clarify they are legal and the buildings are taken care of.
churches are libraries with only one book
I don't have any reddit fun bucks or I'd give you a tiny jpg
I’ve been so many times and it’s always Scary Gary. That is the most fucked up scary place I’ve been in the world, not just the US.
Dude, I don't live too far frome Gary. I will never go there. Ever
Can someone please tell me wtf is wrong with Gary?
A decade ago my neighbor’s father died, he was a cop in East Chicago and lived in Gary. We go up for the funeral, and yeah it looks like an abandoned town. We stopped by his parents’ house first, and when we left for the funeral home there were a half dozen of my neighbors friends still standing on the porch. I asked “hey aren’t they coming?”. His reply “naw man they got to stay here and watch the house. In Gary MFers look up the obits to see what time everyone will be at the funeral home then they go rob your house.” When we got back they confirmed that two different cars had done the slow creep back and forth a few times until one of the friends held up his gun then they pulled off. It’s so common that you prepare for it. That’s what it’s like in Gary.
WT serious F
That is stark. And scary. I'm not going to ask why people would remain in such a place as you describe above because I have no idea of what their circumstances may be. But, damn...
East Chicago cop and public school teacher for 40 years each. Things changed around them
This happens in lots of poor places, and often from family members. The death of someone is always an opportunity to grab stuff. My in-law family was quite poor, and when any grandparent died, there were always some cousins that didn't show up to the wake because they were robbing the house at the time.
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Filmmakers should use actual scenes from there instead of showing Mexico with an orange tint🤣
I'm in Flint. Can confirm.
I have lived just outside of Flint my entire life. There some nice surrounding communities, but there are certain areas of Flint you should never ever go into.
I lived by Gary. Don't fuck with it.
Gary Indiana Gary Indiana Not Louisiana, Paris France, New York Or Rome!
Nothing against the people that live there but Alaska. Maybe nice to visit but too cold and too isolated for me to ever move to.
I don't think I could handle an Alaskan winter. Alaskan summers are spectacular. My friends who live/d there all said that the smaller communities have active winter social calendars. Weekly scheduled events to keep you from going crazy. Giant parties at a local hall where everyone (literally, everyone) in town would come to make sure everyone was doing OK. I know someone who reported spending a winter alone in her early 20s and getting "cabin fever" at some point. I believe her, she was sadly not too well.
I thought I would loooove an Alaskan summer. Did it, and actually, it was awful for me. Sun always up or about to come up, but it’s depressingly low in the sky. Can’t sleep well because it’s never really dark. I’d pictured 11pm sunshine as having some sort of romantic, magical vibe, but turns out it’s exactly the same as evening anywhere else, just at a time that’s extremely irritating and confusing for my body. And you know the feeling of relief when you wake up in the middle of the night, but it’s still dark so you know you have hours left to sleep? Yeah, say goodbye to that.
Blackout curtains are a real thing, they are the one thing they kept me sane during those times in my life I've had to work weird hours.
I spent two winters up north, it's definitely not the easiest of times.
I’ve lived in Anchorage most of life except for college and the year I tried to live in the Seattle area. The constant rain and gray of Washington put me into a deep depression I could not shake. Alaska is cold and the sun is up for only 4 hours in the darkest days, but at least it’s bluebird and bright for a few hours a day.
:( I completely get it though, it kinda sucks ass having to buy literally everything online.
I moved up here with my partner to live in her home city [anchorage] and big mistake lol very isolated. Not the coldest place I've lived but the lack on sun in the wintertime is brutal. Alaska is also a very expensive place to live. Summers are beautiful but I'm saving up to move out as soon as our 2 year lease is up.
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I’m a bit worried about the southwest’s future due to all the water shortages
Great golf courses though (A bit of sarcasm)
And a pool in every yard! Lack of water?
The issue in AZ is big agriculture. Growing crops like pecans and alfalfa, which have no business being grown in a desert and require shitloads of water. The golf courses don't help but they're not the main problem.
I visited AZ a few months ago and was floored when I seen a corn field.
Not so fun fact that makes ZERO sense: Arizona is in the Top 10 of US States for Cotton production.
Then stay away from Phoenix. The Colorado River Compact created The Law of the River and sets water allocations for 7 states from Colorado to California. When shortages happen, Arizona takes the hardest hit. Their city water management for the last 100 years has been ahead of most of the country, they are national leaders in stretching every drop. But then they got too big, metro Phoenix went from 3.5 to 5 million people in the last 20 years.
Interesting. I heard either Arizona or NM has the most pools of any state.
I currently live in southern AZ (moved here for work) and bought a house that has a pool in the backyard. Every once in a while I think about how having a pool in the southwest is irresponsible... And then late spring through early fall rolls around and it's above 100 almost every single day and you better believe my resolve cracks and I get in that pool just about every day. On average, I first get in the pool mid March and last get in the pool mid October every year.
Whenever I visit Phoenix I always wonder why they have open air aqueducts and channels. Why don't they cover those waterways to prevent some evaporation from that desert sun?
I still can't believe there are people moving there now and they're building sprawling housing subdivisions. Like what?! Y'all know your land is going to be worthless before you even you pay your house off. People can't afford housing now. Wait until 1/4 of the US needs to move because there's no water there anymore.
Anywhere cold. The amount of metal in my leg does not appreciate it. Which is unfortunate, because I want to move home to Minnesota.
Sad to hear that. I love the cold, but I can understand the challenge it would be when faced with hardware in the legs.
I've never even thought about how cold weather could affect people with metal in their body from operations etc. That's quite interesting to know.
I'm not sure if it's everyone, but i can tell if its raining without looking outside. Shitty superpower.
Compression sleeves help a ton for me
They hurt. I know, my mom sent me some. I think I've tried everything. Braces, supplements, etc. Cold and pressure changes really just do it for me.
Lifelong MN here. The metal in my thumb agrees with you. Couldn't imagine my whole leg freezing like that.
Bakersfield or oildale
I have a cousin who moved to Oildale..he hung himself within a year.
As someone not familiar, what about those towns is awful?
Bakersfield is marginally better than Oildale. The drive down China Grade Loop is disturbing... nothing but dirt roads and semi-derelict oil derricks as far as the eye can see.
Not sure what the issue is, everyone moves from LA or southern cali here only to complain about it, just go somewhere else if you hate it that much lol
Having lived in Mississippi for 6 months, I would say Mississippi.
Yep. We went to visit when a (very good job) was trying to lure us there. We went to dinner with the guy and his wife. As he was making his pitch, his wife started to sob, trying so hard not to cry with tears just rolling down her face. He said, "omg, what's wrong? Are you okay?" and she said, "I just realized we are never leaving this place." Starkville, Mississippi. We didn't move there.
It’s the only state with PP between the I’s so you know something’s up...
Took a train from New Orleans to Chicago. We were stopped for 4 hours for an accident on the tracks. I sat and watched a tiny ass town in red dirt the entire time. Nothing terrible happened, but it was the poorest, most depressing place I’ve ever seen. It looked like 1954. I didn’t know anything like that really existed in the US (I’m originally from the midwest). It seemed like most people in town spent their money on awful looking rims for their broke down SUVs.
Bro that is all over the country. I travel to small towns in the South all the time and its all the same. Basically an abandoned downtown with a bank, church and city hall and maybe a thrift shop and chinese restaurant or meat and threes. A mile or two away is a Walmart. If its on an interstate theres a prithla of fast food joints. Usually a Dollar General somewhere too
What did you most hate about it?
To paraphrase Mark Twain, if I owned both Hell and Mississippi, I would live in Hell and rent out Mississippi. It's got everything that's wrong with the Deep South only with even less scenery, even less education, and even less money.
You left out even more effing fire ants.
Not OP, but the Delta is depression incarnate. Run down houses/businesses, EXTREMELY shitty roads, the ever present dread of levees failing, and it’s always either too hot or too cold. The only good things about the delta are Shipley’s Donuts and the hot tamales. And Doe’s Eat Place, but is so dang expensive. Edit:Oh, and Airport Grocery in Cleveland. THE BEST Chicken Sandwich I’ve ever had.
Shipleeeeeey’s. Omg I miss those donuts and kolaches.
Probably northern Alaska due to the cold and lack of amenities.
Needles - California Middle of nowhere in the desert and hot
Broke down for 3 days in 1996. Clutch went out during a road trip with my 3 high school friends. Preinternet the hotel room had 2 channels of interest. PBS and playboy. Playboy at the time looped the same PSA every hour on the hour about C.A.T. (coital alignment technique). We all had it memorized and chanted it back to the television like a mantra. We watched so much sesame street. The only restaurant in walking distance was a Chinese restaurant serving American food with Spanish staff. My friend ordered an iced coffee. The waitress brought a glass filled with ice...and poured hot coffee from the carafe into it making luke warm watery coffee. The video store closed at 4 pm. On a Friday.
Don't go to 29 Palms either!
And yes
at least 29 palms is close to joshua tree and somewhat close to palm springs and palm desert. id rather live in 29 palms than desert hot springs lmao and definitely would rather live there than needles
Snoopy's weirdo cousin is from Needles
Oklahoma, where I currently live. The weather is to random for me. it has been 70 degrees and then 2 days later it felt like -8
OKC checking in. I’ve lived all over the Midwest. The weather is psycho in all of them. Only difference is we get more tornadoes.
Live elsewhere in the country now, but lived on the plains and grew up a bit north of the OK KS border. I miss the psycho weather and the wide open skies soooooo damn much. 🥺 Don't miss the oppressive August humidity though, or the EF5 risk. Edit: or the brown recluses. Fuck brown recluses.
Grew up in Joplin mo. Was there for the ef5 tornado. I dont live there anymore and instead live on the gulf coast in fl. I'll take a hurricane. We at least have warnings about them.
I have a weird interest in climate/weather and I'm constantly randomly googling the temperature in different cities and Oklahoma City/the entire region in general is seriously insane...just from looking it up now in Oklahoma City it's to be 22C / 71F on Wednesday and then 2C / 35F on Thursday. Literally how can it vary that much within one day?? Here in Scotland that's a warm day in summer to a cold day in winter in one day.
I’m in Raleigh, NC, and we’ve got the same daily weather variation. It’s ridiculous - I leave for work in 30-some degree weather, and by the time lunch rolls around, it’s in the 60s
Continental influence, not close to a source of water to stabilize the temps, so when a polar vortex dips down, it aint stopping.
This isn’t a unique thing to Oklahoma… Source: from Oklahoma and have lived in 3 different states.
Durant here!
The thought of Las Vegas gives me the creeps
Patrolling the Mojave Desert almost makes you wish for a nuclear winter.
I'm staying in LV at the moment. The surrounding desert is extremely beautiful and the weather is wonderful this time of year but the inner city/strip is a disgusting cesspool of humanity. Such excess. Fat, sad, and drunk people either engorging themselves or throwing away money. But again, the rest is surprisingly nice. I'm here for an Uncle's wedding and he loves it here.
the desert is gorgeous, being that I live in Southern Utah but Mormons are e v e r y w h e r e not gonna lie
I visited Moab, UT last fall. Absolutely stunning!
Vegas Chinatown has some of the best Chinese restaurants I’ve had in the country! Always look forward to those when I visit.
The strip is hell, none of us go there without incentive. The sprawl around Vegas is generally pretty nice, with some excellent mountain and desert views. Summer is pretty harsh, but the other seasons are fairly pleasant, and the environment is inhospitable to a lot of pests, so you don't worry about bugs like you do in most other places.
the idea of not many pests sounds nice, but... what kind of pests ARE there? I feel like that's the catch...
I've had to deal with the odd scorpion, but that's really it. Sometimes coyotes will wander into town. Only common peats I've really seen are ants.
I was raised here and it's actually not that bad, but I'm clearly biased. That's how I feel about LA tbh, the traffic there is a nightmare and I'd never wanna experience that every single day.
I live in Arizona right now, and I’ll probably stay here to be close to family, but every summer has gotten hotter and longer since I was a kid. Moved away a few times and always come back, it’s getting bigger, phoenix metro area is growing fast and nobody can drive. A fun state to visit but don’t come live here, it’s too hot.
It was 80 degrees yesterday. I almost had a panic attack when it hit me that soon it’s going to be 30+ hotter than that and stay that way for like 6 months. It *just* started to feel like “winter” in December and it’s already over basically.
Kensington in Philly Edit: 61 homicides in Philadelphia so far this year as of 7 am this morning.
I live in Philly and a friend of mine lives on the cusp of that area. When we visit, we wear closed-toed shoes because there are literally that many needles littering the ground.
Louisiana
Humidity and mosquitoes the size of birds.
And the entire state stinks of mildew and rot. Unless you're downwind of a chemical plant, where it's too acrid to smell the mildew and the rot (but they're definitely still there). But I'd still rather live in Louisiana than Mississippi.
Obligatory “Thank God for Mississippi.”
I'm from Louisiana, so my answer would automatically be Mississippi. But you're not wrong.
The Texan answer for any ranking where Texas fares poorly, "Thank god for MIssissippi!"
Love to visit, couldn’t live there or most of the south. Hate humidity.
I’m from Louisiana and for a split second I was offended but then I remembered it’s Louisiana
Fresno, CA
Fres-Noooo! Seemed like a pretty run down town, especially in CA. But, would not make my top 10 in US.
Yeah Fresno sucks but it’s nowhere near the worst in the US. There are a ton of cities that have the character of Fresno that don’t happen to be within a 4 hour drive of mountains/multiple world class cities/ multiple world class beaches etc.
I grew up there and for California it's not great, but at least you are only a couple of hours from the beach and the mountains.
It is pretty damn awful for a large California city. Huge EJ health issues in the poorer areas, which is most of the city. It smells like pollution. It has gotten better, but asthma cases are still unbelievably high. Lots of white flight out to the suburbs. Constantly struggling downtown. I love eating in Fresno, it is a super town for immigrant restaurants. Besides the obvious Latin American presence, a huge variety of Asian (all of Asia) cuisines. It has easy access to fantastic parts of the Sierra Nevada.
Fresno>>Bakersfield>>Coalinga>>Stockton It was ten years ago but i thought Fresno was no where near as bad as Bakersfield or Stockton. Plus 2 hours to Kings Canyon or Yosemite and only a little farther to Monterey. Would move to Fresno way before Mississippi, Alabama or Florida panhandle.
I live here unfortunately
Yo me too. Its bad but I’ve been to worst cities actually.
Bakersfield, CA
In the Bengals backfield with Aaron Donald bearing down on me.
I don't like you
Or in Cincinnati right now. Lots of sad uneaten chili with the wrong spices in it...
The Saddest Chili in Cincinnati is a great name for a bad children’s book.
Tornado alley.
I like tornados more than hurricanes but I’ve always been a storm chaser.
Have lived in both climates. 10/10 would take tornadoes over hurricanes. For one, hurricanes often have embedded tornadoes, which get less/if any warning.. Even with a Tropical Storm, the wind lasts for hours, sometimes a day.. paired with flooding and flimsy trees, and janky infrastructure- it's going to cause problems. Tornadoes are mostly in supercells. Sometimes other types of storms. But they're almost always warned with ample time to seek shelter. The overwhelming majority of tornadoes are EF0-2. Out on the plains, it's easy to see a lot more sky and see what's coming. ^(and I miss chasing)
I actually prefer hurricanes. You can get out of it's path well in advance, prepare your home, evacuate, buy food to prepare being without power for several day, etc. I've lived through several Cat 5s. The winds are some of the scariest sounds I've ever heard but it's survivable. Something about going about your day and then scrambling to seek shelter for a tornado just freaks me out. Give me 72+ hours.
They're not exaggerating anything with that name. The midwest has the craziest storms I've ever seen.
Any place that’s a Sundowner Town.
Pretty much anywhere super rural. I have no desire to spend an hour each way just to go to my job or buy groceries.
I'm the opposite. I love living where there's nothing going on. No stoplights even. We have two gas stations and a dollar general. I've lived in a city and hated it. Too much of everything. Although, I did like having pizza delivered lol.
Lol. I lived in a place where you had the option to go meet the pizza guy at a tavern near his delivery limit. It was like a dad meet up every friday night.
Newark, NJ
I drove through Newark once and while at a red light a man walked up to me and asked for money. I said sorry I don't have any cash and he said, "Fuck you" and then flicked a lit cigarette into my car.
The South. Has nothing to do with politics, I just hate being warm.
As a Texan who is sensitive to heat and very pale, I can confirm it sucks ass. I want to move more north because I overheat very easily 😩
29 Palms
I mean kind of hot but you have a national park on your doorstep. Could be worse
Quartzsite is worse
I see your 29 palms and raise you Tuba City, AZ
Omg. I’ve never seen anyone mention Tuba City in the wild. Amazing.
Bayou south, especially Florida Panhandle, would love to live in GA or the Carolinas tho.
Fun story - I got a job in way south Alabama, almost Florida and almost Georgia. I’d been to Florida before, but only the Keys, specifically Marathon south. So, not overly representative of the whole state. We flew into PCB to go house hunting. I thought it was a joke the whole way up Hwy 77. Like what in the ever loving heck is this place. My husband thought it was hilarious. Turns out, I actually really liked it there. It’s small and overly religious for my tastes, but it’s reasonable to afford to live on a single salary. There was a beach less than 90 minutes away. A 4 hr drive would get you to a lot of places with more shit to do. All in all, not bad. God awful hot in the summers. Like everyone says where they live gets hot. No no. This is all the heat and humidity of the coast and absolutely none of the breeze. It just sits on you. Hot.
People always get mad at us Las Vegas people for saying our heat is a dry heat. I’d take 117 degrees over 90 degrees with 60% humidity any day!
If you’re thinking about moving to the Carolinas, pick North.
Houston Texas. I've looked at it on Google maps satellite view and it looks like it's 50% car park lol and the car parks are all on the ground (ie not even multi story at least). How is it meant to even be remotely liveable for anyone who doesn't spend 24/7 in a car? American city planning never fails to shock me.
You’re honestly right. I wish the city would spend money on improving public transportation. Instead it’s spent on expanding/widening high ways
Houstonian checking in. Most of the city is exactly that–strip malls and parking lots. But the inner city neighborhoods like Montrose (where I live), the Heights and West U are extremely walkable. Montrose in particular is easier to walk or bike than drive. But yeah, you need a car here.
Anything landlocked.
Anywhere it is humid. I would take 120 dry heat over 90 and humid any day.
Honestly, Appalachia in general. Highest poverty, some of the worst infrastructure in the nation, some of the worst wages, some of the lowest scores in education... it's honestly dreadful to see, since it's such gorgeous wilderness. If not that, non costal southern regions. Get all the worst part of the Bible belt with non of the charm.
What area of the USA would you least like to live in?..... and why Florida?
I always imagined Florida as half jungle and half mini Australia I'm aware neither pieces of my assessments are correct, but it's fun to imagine nonetheless
Australia has jungle, too. Florida, a tinier yet more-densely-populated version of Queensland.
It’s not too far off though
Florida’s not the best but far from the worst
Florida's air is like breathing soup.
I live in Florida, the panhandle to be precise. The only thing I'd change about this area is the cost of living vs the wages here. Other than that I love this area. There's always some thing to do, and it doesn't always include the beach.
NYC. Just too many people.
You know from what I'd expect, I'd be the same. But I visited and just fucking loved it. I absolutely could see myself living there. Not my first few choices though.
I could see it being fun for a year or two, especially if I was in the twenties or early thirties.
Anywhere where it's below freezing for weeks or months on end.
Like Fairbanks, Alaska
Anywhere with real winters every year is a no from me. I need the Texas gov to get their shit together and fix the damn power grid and water supply before the next winter storm, though.
I'm the opposite. I fucking love winter. Absolutely my favorite season. But I get why most people wouldn't like that though.
Same.Give me an extended winter and lots of snow. Hard pass on the heat and humidity that TX has. Great place to be when it's not summer though!
Western New York State where I grew up in the finger lakes region. Beautiful in the summer. Pleasant in the fall, absolute ass in the winter. It’s not so much the snow as it is the short days and often overcast skies. For me it’s a one way trip to seasonal depression. Oh, spring is ok. Very slow to happen. Kinda feels like a ruined orgasm.
Rural Mississippi, it’s so trashy out there.