I live in San Diego. It is starting to get overcrowded and overbuilt here. Rush hour traffic makes it impossible to get anywhere since the only way through is the freeway. Summers here are hot & brown. It is a nice enough place for tourist, but rather boring if you live here. We have our strip malls too. Along with the Rose Canyon earthquake fault.

I'm from Los Angeles which has turned into an awful place.

Why is it people insist on sterotyping a place by what they have seen on television? I live in Dallas, and love it. I am one of those who was not born in Texas but got here as fast as I could!! Thank God you New Yorkers don't want to live here --- we have more Yankees than we can handle now!

By the way, to Sharon who posted way back in the beginning of this thread: What is engraved on W. C. Fields gravestone is "I'd rather be here than in Philadelphia" He thought Philadelphia was the worst place of all! Haven't ever been there so can't comment from a personal viewpoint.

I have had to live in some pretty awful places due to being transferred with work. I learned a long time ago, you can either try to be happy where you are and make the best of it or you can decide to be miserable. I decided to make the best of wherever I have to live. Life is too short to decide to be miserable. Fortunately, now I get to live where I want to live.

The worst? Any "city" which can only survive on automobiles. So, I would have to say the following suburbs masking as cities:

1. LA
2. Atlanta
3. Orlando
4. Dallas
5. Houston.

I know you all will get defensive that someone actually has the nerve to criticize your sunbelt paradises, but look in your own local press and tell me if your sprawl covered "cities" are so great, why are all of your mayors trying to lure people back to your cities' centers? Because you are finally catching on to something that those of us who live in the horrid snowbelt (Boston, NYC, Chicago, etc.) have known all along: that city living is great and vibrant and keeps you a hell of a lot more vital than living in your smog-filled corner of Generica.

In the USA? Anyplace that gets snow or is east of the Mississippi. Nice places to visit, but I don't want to live there.

Freewoman--

We know what W.C. Fields sentiment was but the epitaph joke went "On the whole, I'd rather be in Philadelphia".

W.C. Fields is long dead though and I for one though think Philly's a simply fabulous city, one of America's greatest.

Port Arthur, TX
Chemical plants
Cancer
Humidity
and it smells!

I think it's interesting that someone could get away with posting a message saying "one word will suffice to say why I would never live in Utah: MORMONS..."

If someone had posted, "one word will suffice to say why I would never live in New York: JEWS..." or something similar, people would jump all over the person who posted. (Not that I would EVER agree with this example statement.)

It's too bad that there are certain groups that are "allowed" to be maligned.

I am not from Utah, but I did live there once. Most of the state's residents are not Mormon, particularly in Salt Lake City. I found it to be a very beautiful place to live with great ethnic food (believe it or not) and perfect weather. One of the down sides was not-so-good mass transit, but I understand that they have put in a light rail system.

Anyway, my point was that, while I don't find this subject (worst of the worst) mean-spirited, I do think that we should avoid unkind statements that target particular ethnic groups or religions. Had the author of the statement against Mormons ever been to Utah? Probably not.

regarding Baltimore, have you even been outside of the Inner Harbor? because the I.H. is crap...totally for tourists. Check out the nieghborhoods...Mt. Vernon, Canton, Fells Point, Mt. Washington. very liveable. Even with 90 degree weather and fog-like humidity.

Anywhere in what is considered the "midwest". Very depressing area to live in. Hopefully next year I will be living somewhere else.

I am extremely surprised that no one has metioned the terrible medium sized city, ROCHESTER, NY.
Rochester is cold for 4-5 months of the year, the weather is either freezing (blizzards), or extremely humid and hot.
In 1996, our city had the highest crime rate for it's capita.
Lake Ontario serves as our "beach", mainly just a polluted plsce for people to day dream about San Diego, CA.
Plus, we aren't near anything. It takes us about 8 hours to go anywhere that serves any importance sucha as New York City, and the Adirondack Mountains.
Upstate is dreery, and boring. I would be greatful to live in a "hip", urban city.
Ps...I love San Diego!!!!!

I can't think of a worse place to live than LA. Sure the weather is great but the roads are crowded, the school system is awful, and looks, not brains or intellect, are the measure of a person's character.
Also, as much as I love to visit new Orleans as a tourist and think it is one of the best cities in the country, it wouldn't be fun to live there. It is brutally hot in the summer, tourists run rampant, and the crime levels are among the worst in the U.S.
I'd also put Washington, DC on the list for obvious reasons.

The worst places are in the Northeast(Boston,NYC,Conn,ect.)!! Everybody there is so damn grouchy,rude, and ignorant! There voices and attitude show for it!!!

Thanks for posting the comment about Mormons/Utah -- I had the same reaction. Plus, the parts of Utah I have been to are truly beautiful (Lake Powell particularly).

Interesting to see: Why would anyone hate Vancouver? Was there once and loved it. I'm not sure why people would hate Philly either -- lived there 7 years and would move back. The city really has its beautiful parts (and not so beautiful parts, but surely that's true of everywhere).

NY is a very hard place to live in for a lot of reasons, one of them being that you pay more for an apartment than any human would deem reasonable. If we're talking about "liveability," that can really cramp your style, despite all of the positive things about the city.

Personally, I didn't like LA particularly (hated the drive-not-walk mentality). To each her own.

After having visited all 48 contiguous states this year my top five (or bottom five), in no particular order, would be this:

1)Blythe, California
2)Bastrop, Louisiana
3)Warrenton/Astoria, Oregon
4)Pine Bluff, Arkansas
5)West Memphis, Arkansas

Obviously, none of you have visited or lived in Worcester, Mass. It's a mid-size city that never quite made the transition from manufacturing to service. It's ugly, the winters are bad, and anyone there with half a brain drives the 40 miles to Boston to find something interesting to do.

I, too, have traveled the 48 contiguous states recently. Here are my bottom 5:

1. Pigeon Forge, TN
2. Barstow, CA
3. Fresno, CA
4. Des Moines
5. Houston

And my honor roll of "pleasant surprises"
1. L.A. (not nearly as horrible as everyone makes it out to be)
2. Duluth, Minnesota (beautiful)
3. Southern Indiana (around the lakes)

How thrilled am I that Pittsburgh, PA hasn't been blasted by the postings! As a recent transfer here from NYC, I've had more trouble justifying my move than making it. It's nice to know our little city gets some credit!

How about giving this thread a decent burial? It seems to be attracting nothing but meanies and me-tooers, and lord knows this board has plenty of other opportunities for mean-spirited and predjudiced people to get off.

Oops. That's "prejudiced." Let's get rid of the bad spellers, too.

Without a doubt, the worst city in the world is:

Mankato, Minnesota
Mankato, Minnesota
Mankato, Minnesota
Mankato, Minnesota
Mankato, Minnesota
Mankato, Minnesota
Mankato, Minnesota
Mankato, Minnesota
Mankato, Minnesota
Mankato, Minnesota
Mankato, Minnesota
Mankato, Minnesota
Mankato, Minnesota
Mankato, Minnesota
Mankato, Minnesota
Mankato, Minnesota
Mankato, Minnesota
Mankato, Minnesota

It is so horrible, it is worth repeating just to make sure everybody avoids it. A cultural wasteland.