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The Absolutely Worst Places to Live in America
The Absolutely Worst Places to Live in America surveyed thousands of Americans to find the fifty dirtiest, smelliest, most miserable cesspools, armpits, and tourist traps that make up this great land of ours. The "winners" of this awful distinction include the likes
· Atlantic City, New Jersey--Come for the slots. Stay for the gang warfare and fourth-rate prostitutes.
· Gary, Indiana--Like a sewer populated by 100,000 people.
· Carson City, Nevada--Perfect for folks burned out on the high culture of Reno.
· Fairbanks, Alaska--Take the most horrible place you've ever been, then subtract the sun.
· Jacksonville, Florida--Possibly the foulest-smelling city in the Western hemisphere.
· Camden, New Jersey--Once the proud home of America's first mass murderer, it's been all downhill since then.
Perfect for your friends unfortunate enough to live in Baltimore or Houston, The Absolutely Worst Places to Live in America is an uproarious look at the dregs of our otherwise wonderful country.
Paper-Over-Board Edition
· Atlantic City, New Jersey--Come for the slots. Stay for the gang warfare and fourth-rate prostitutes.
· Gary, Indiana--Like a sewer populated by 100,000 people.
· Carson City, Nevada--Perfect for folks burned out on the high culture of Reno.
· Fairbanks, Alaska--Take the most horrible place you've ever been, then subtract the sun.
· Jacksonville, Florida--Possibly the foulest-smelling city in the Western hemisphere.
· Camden, New Jersey--Once the proud home of America's first mass murderer, it's been all downhill since then.
Perfect for your friends unfortunate enough to live in Baltimore or Houston, The Absolutely Worst Places to Live in America is an uproarious look at the dregs of our otherwise wonderful country.
Paper-Over-Board Edition
- GenresNonfictionTravelHumor
272 pages, Hardcover
First published October 17, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
September 7, 2018
Dated but funny in a meanly snarky way. Author Dave Gilmartin wisely bypassed such world-famous "basket case" towns like Gary, Indiana, or East St. Louis, Illinois, focusing instead in this 2006 book on places like Granite City, Illinois (played-out steel mills and nearly as much violent crime as neighboring East St. Louis), Cranston, Rhode Island (low-class ethnic where, according to the author, Eighties fashions and hair styles still survived), and St. Cloud, Minnesota (according to one observer, an isolated, stiflingly Nordic/German-American atmosphere in which the local mall Santa refused to accommodate a little boy with darker skin than his own).
Now, who would read this book, since the places Gilmartin singles out rarely, if ever, make the "best places to retire to/live in" kind of lists? Perhaps for a few yucks, perhaps for the *Schadenfreude* effect of feeling smugly superior to these alleged Loservilles large and small, or perhaps, strangely, to take comfort in the fact that not all American towns and cities are homogenized neo-burbs virtually indistinguishable from one another. If nothing else, this book functions as a counterweight to the highly hyped charmers like St. George (UT), Chapel Hill (NC) or Lafayette (LA), of which we know plenty already.
"It is not enough to win; others must lose." ~ Gore Vidal.
Now, who would read this book, since the places Gilmartin singles out rarely, if ever, make the "best places to retire to/live in" kind of lists? Perhaps for a few yucks, perhaps for the *Schadenfreude* effect of feeling smugly superior to these alleged Loservilles large and small, or perhaps, strangely, to take comfort in the fact that not all American towns and cities are homogenized neo-burbs virtually indistinguishable from one another. If nothing else, this book functions as a counterweight to the highly hyped charmers like St. George (UT), Chapel Hill (NC) or Lafayette (LA), of which we know plenty already.
"It is not enough to win; others must lose." ~ Gore Vidal.
February 14, 2021
This was a very uneven piece of work, I thought. I was kind of hoping for road trip stories of the author's encounters with strange places, kind of a bit of negative Americana, but it was mostly a compilation of other people's opinions the author obtained from emails, which is very much the style of many of the entries. While there were some entertaining descriptions of American cities and towns, most of it consisted of angry rants I could easily find for free online.
The entries on cities were broken into various "stats," some serious such as crime and poverty rates, but most "humorous" such as the types of people who call these "hellholes" home, including such diverse undesirables as "dirty hippies," Mexicans, violently racist rednecks, gang bangers, or the obese. Blandly politically incorrect, it's the type of work that thinks it lets everyone make fun of everyone while tilting to a distinctively prejudiced angle. While including the blatantly obvious such as Detroit, others tear into small towns like St. Cloud, MN, or "overrated" cities like Seattle. I certainly wouldn't look for any unbiased opinions from this book and the majority of information obtained could easily be found by entering "city-name-here sucks" in Google. While it may provide some insight into some reasons why locals or visitors might dislike a certain place, I just felt "The Absolutely Worst Places to Live in America" slapped together.
The entries on cities were broken into various "stats," some serious such as crime and poverty rates, but most "humorous" such as the types of people who call these "hellholes" home, including such diverse undesirables as "dirty hippies," Mexicans, violently racist rednecks, gang bangers, or the obese. Blandly politically incorrect, it's the type of work that thinks it lets everyone make fun of everyone while tilting to a distinctively prejudiced angle. While including the blatantly obvious such as Detroit, others tear into small towns like St. Cloud, MN, or "overrated" cities like Seattle. I certainly wouldn't look for any unbiased opinions from this book and the majority of information obtained could easily be found by entering "city-name-here sucks" in Google. While it may provide some insight into some reasons why locals or visitors might dislike a certain place, I just felt "The Absolutely Worst Places to Live in America" slapped together.
March 8, 2021
Mildly amusing. Faintly racist at times. Maybe it would have been funnier if I only read a chapter every once in awhile. Honestly, there seemed to be no rhyme or reason to the city choices. Some actually sounded like fun places to visit. Honestly, most of the people who were quoted sounded like snobs. I can only imagine what they would think of my nice rural town.
What really shocked me was the use of the R-word, not once, but twice. I know the book was published in 2006 but I was surprised the editor didn’t stop it. (I’m not the most politically correct person in the world, but even my jaw dropped. Totally offensive and not at all funny.)
What really shocked me was the use of the R-word, not once, but twice. I know the book was published in 2006 but I was surprised the editor didn’t stop it. (I’m not the most politically correct person in the world, but even my jaw dropped. Totally offensive and not at all funny.)
March 2, 2011
Having lived in several crappy places, I can identify with this book. Missouri gets represented by the uber-sprawling world's largest strip mall that is Springfield, and Rolla gets an honorable mention.
My nominee for the worst place to live in America would have to be the Tri-Cities of central Washington state, Richland, Kennewick and Pasco. What's so bad about them? They're in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by flat sagebrush scrub, and right next to the place that made plutonium for our nuclear arsenal. The geniuses in charge of the Hanford Site thought it would be a good idea to dump TONS of highly radioactive waste in the desert, all in the name of secrecy. This is probably the worst hazardous waste site in the country.
The one upside is spectacular fishing in the Columbia and Snake Rivers. The downside is that the fish are probably radioactive.
My nominee for the worst place to live in America would have to be the Tri-Cities of central Washington state, Richland, Kennewick and Pasco. What's so bad about them? They're in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by flat sagebrush scrub, and right next to the place that made plutonium for our nuclear arsenal. The geniuses in charge of the Hanford Site thought it would be a good idea to dump TONS of highly radioactive waste in the desert, all in the name of secrecy. This is probably the worst hazardous waste site in the country.
The one upside is spectacular fishing in the Columbia and Snake Rivers. The downside is that the fish are probably radioactive.
December 19, 2007
From Aberdeen, Washington, to Yuba City, California, each city sucks more than the last.
Example, from the entry on Greeley, Colorado:
"Not content to merely stink to high heaven, Greeley is also a hotbed of gang violence and boasts a crumbling downtown whose most recognizable landmark was an abandoned K-Mart. Originally intended as a communist utopian community, the best that can be said about present-day Greeley is that some days don't smell quite as bad as others."
Example, from the entry on Greeley, Colorado:
"Not content to merely stink to high heaven, Greeley is also a hotbed of gang violence and boasts a crumbling downtown whose most recognizable landmark was an abandoned K-Mart. Originally intended as a communist utopian community, the best that can be said about present-day Greeley is that some days don't smell quite as bad as others."
March 5, 2009
This book profiles 50 of the worst places to live in the US. Some are pretty obvious: Centralia, PA (where the ground is literally burning up), Detroit, and Rock Springs, WY ("a bunch of crap in the desert"), while some are debatable: Washington DC, SLC. It contains vignettes from each place as well as some demographic information.
August 20, 2009
This was entertaining but also contradictory. For example, some of the worst cities in the country (Camden, Detroit) are precisely that way because of the people that inhabit them, yet other cities he picks for "lack of diversity". He also names many towns full of Christians, but never names any Jewish enclave horrors. Sometimes funny, very arrogantly left wing.
January 22, 2008
what? no youngstown?
August 4, 2011
This is one of the greatest books on earth!!!
May 11, 2013
I enjoyed each and every page of this book. I thought it was spot on with most of the worst places to live. Hilarious and sarcastic, it's a great book to waste your time on.
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August 10, 2011There's a section about Beloit, WI. Haha.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews