Towns you avoid?

[bing101]

When I was living and working in SoCal, the one place I tried (usually unsuccessfully) to avoid was Corona

Man, were you ahead of your time!!! 

Very punny!   That town's getting a lot of unwanted shit-talking these days, according to an industry colleague whose company is located there (he's a half-block off CA 91 in the west part of town) -- such as "...You're in Corona?  Could you disinfect the amp before you ship it out.....please?"  Says it gets a bit tiring after a while!

It's funny how a city that was originally name after Crown is now getting a different meaning today.

[bing101]

As a non-white person, there's a lot of towns that are in no-go zones.

Examples?

This park

Ooof but not shocking though.

[CapeCodder]

That sounds scary. Honestly if I was ever in that situation I'd just find a way to get across the river to downtown St. Louis where the crime isn't as bad, and try to figure it out from there.

It was a well-lit location with potential witnesses nearby, so I was more concerned about the nuisance value than any threat to my safety.  A person who is trying to scam you for money is probably not going to mug you, though it certainly does make sense to "stay in Condition Yellow to stay out of Condition Red" (as dozens of self-defense how-to books preach).

Retreating across the river to St. Louis was not a viable option.  When I got lost at the beginning, the freeway was not in sight.  When I stopped at the gas station, it was right in front of me, but there was no on-ramp nearby, and I actually suspect the nearest one that would have taken me to St. Louis was at SR 3, the route I was trying to find.

Being in the middle of downtown East Saint Louis isn't bad.  But, if you get off the beaten path, you find yourself surrounded by more sketchy folk.  For example, when I had to make a deliver near here, I wasn't sure I should even get out of the truck based on the hairy eyeballs I was getting from everyone along the street.  Then I realized that a big truck with a company name on it, and a guy getting out of said truck with boxes in hand, is a different situation than Joe Schmoe getting out of his car.

Once a neighborhood falls in on itself by depopulating, so that patches of urban prairie start appearing while occupied structures fall into visible dilapidation, four-way stops (as shown in your StreetView extract) start appearing at every street intersection, not always as replacements for signals that are decommissioned due to lack of traffic.  This is true not just in East St. Louis but also in, e.g., the Fountain neighborhood of St. Louis, which is just west of the oak/hickory woodland that has replaced the long-demolished Pruitt-Igoe housing project.

I try to stay out of these thickets of four-way stops for multiple reasons--they drive up wear and tear on brakes and suspension, they make it impossible to keep moving, and they expose me to hassle from law enforcement for not drawing to a full and complete stop at each and every intersection.

This said, I think East St. Louis is less ill-favored than the now-tiny burg of Venice, Illinois, which I passed through on SR 3 every time I used it to connect to my motel near the I-270 interchange.  Venice is among several former factory towns on the Illinois side of the St. Louis metro area that are now essentially Love Canal-like toxic waste dumps, owing in part to it being formerly legal in Illinois for companies to charter their own towns and thus evade independent public-health oversight.

That whole cluster of small cities: ESTL, Venice, Brooklyn, Sauget, and up to Washington Park have fascinating UE opportunities. It's almost as if they'd make excellent case studies in urban plannning/sociology.

[TravelingBethelite]

I don't ultimately avoid them on my drives between Columbia and Texas, but I'd say be careful going through any little bumfuck town in Oklahoma. Never gotten pulled over (knock on wood), but if the speed limits are any indication, they mean business. From 60-65 to 30 in a quarter mile or less!

[I-55]

Any time there's construction in Nashville I go around it (TN-109, I-840). Even if it isn't on my route, if one interstate backs up, the whole system can easily become a log jam (I'm always there at rush hour it seems).

[Flint1979]

Also Indiana seems to have several cities that are larger cities in other states such as Nashville, Columbus, Baltimore (ghost town), Portland, Rochester and others.

[hotdogPi]

Also Indiana seems to have several cities that are larger cities in other states such as Nashville, Columbus, Baltimore (ghost town), Portland, Rochester and others.

New York has Amsterdam, Antwerp, Athens, Belfast, Berlin, Bombay, Cairo, Copenhagen, Delhi, Dover, Florence, Geneva, Genoa, Hamburg, Jerusalem, Liverpool, Madrid, Manchester, Milan, Naples, Odessa, Orleans, Paris, Potsdam, Rome, Stockholm, Venice, Vienna, Warsaw

Cuba, German, Greece, Holland, Italy, Jordan, Lebanon, Malta, Mexico, Norway, Panama, Persia, Peru, Poland, Russia, Sweden, Wales

[Flint1979]

Also Indiana seems to have several cities that are larger cities in other states such as Nashville, Columbus, Baltimore (ghost town), Portland, Rochester and others.

New York has Amsterdam, Antwerp, Athens, Belfast, Berlin, Bombay, Cairo, Copenhagen, Delhi, Dover, Florence, Geneva, Genoa, Hamburg, Jerusalem, Liverpool, Madrid, Manchester, Milan, Naples, Odessa, Orleans, Paris, Potsdam, Rome, Stockholm, Venice, Vienna, Warsaw

Cuba, German, Greece, Holland, Italy, Jordan, Lebanon, Malta, Mexico, Norway, Panama, Persia, Peru, Poland, Russia, Sweden, Wales

New York might win for world cities.

[TravelingBethelite]

Also Indiana seems to have several cities that are larger cities in other states such as Nashville, Columbus, Baltimore (ghost town), Portland, Rochester and others.

New York has Amsterdam, Antwerp, Athens, Belfast, Berlin, Bombay, Cairo, Copenhagen, Delhi, Dover, Florence, Geneva, Genoa, Hamburg, Jerusalem, Liverpool, Madrid, Manchester, Milan, Naples, Odessa, Orleans, Paris, Potsdam, Rome, Stockholm, Venice, Vienna, Warsaw

Cuba, German, Greece, Holland, Italy, Jordan, Lebanon, Malta, Mexico, Norway, Panama, Persia, Peru, Poland, Russia, Sweden, Wales

New York might win for world cities.

But Texas has got 'em all in one place.

Earth!

[Scott5114]

I don't ultimately avoid them on my drives between Columbia and Texas, but I'd say be careful going through any little bumfuck town in Oklahoma. Never gotten pulled over (knock on wood), but if the speed limits are any indication, they mean business. From 60-65 to 30 in a quarter mile or less!

Bumfuck towns in Oklahoma are actually less threatening than bumfuck towns in any other state. If a town here gets more than a certain percentage of revenue from traffic fines, the city loses the right to issue any traffic tickets (the county and OHP step in). This has caused at least one bumfuck town to dissolve because they went over the percentage, then suddenly they had no money coming in to pay government officials.

The speed limits are just ODOT being ODOT. At least they have a policy of gradually stepping down the speed limits (so instead of dropping from 65 to 35, you'll get 55 and a 45 zone first).

[J N Winkler]

Bumfuck towns in Oklahoma are actually less threatening than bumfuck towns in any other state. If a town here gets more than a certain percentage of revenue from traffic fines, the city loses the right to issue any traffic tickets (the county and OHP step in). This has caused at least one bumfuck town to dissolve because they went over the percentage, then suddenly they had no money coming in to pay government officials.

There are other states that have speedtrap laws providing for compulsory disincorporation of small towns that get too large a share of their revenue from traffic fines.  Missouri's statute is informally called the "Macks Creek law" after a small town on US 54 just west of Camdenton that is now an unincorporated CDP as a result of it.

Casual Googling is not turning up any attempts to list the states that have speedtrap laws or summarize the specific provisions in each state that has one.

The speed limits are just ODOT being ODOT. At least they have a policy of gradually stepping down the speed limits (so instead of dropping from 65 to 35, you'll get 55 and a 45 zone first).

I have adjusted to these by simply cancelling the cruise control (if I am using it) as soon as I see the first sign that indicates a reduced limit.  Other states, like Arizona, put up signs indicating that a reduced speed is ahead but do not state what it is.  I like Kansas' approach of dropping the speed from 65 (usually) to 30 (usually) at the city limit sign, but providing signing far enough in advance that most cars can coast down to the reduced speed without actually having to brake.

[Flint1979]

Also Indiana seems to have several cities that are larger cities in other states such as Nashville, Columbus, Baltimore (ghost town), Portland, Rochester and others.

New York has Amsterdam, Antwerp, Athens, Belfast, Berlin, Bombay, Cairo, Copenhagen, Delhi, Dover, Florence, Geneva, Genoa, Hamburg, Jerusalem, Liverpool, Madrid, Manchester, Milan, Naples, Odessa, Orleans, Paris, Potsdam, Rome, Stockholm, Venice, Vienna, Warsaw

Cuba, German, Greece, Holland, Italy, Jordan, Lebanon, Malta, Mexico, Norway, Panama, Persia, Peru, Poland, Russia, Sweden, Wales

New York might win for world cities.

But Texas has got 'em all in one place.

Earth!

Texas has all three of Michigan's Tri-Cities in Saginaw, Midland and Bay City but not close to each other like in Michigan.

[Gnutella]

Pennsylvania has municipalities named California, Indiana, Oklahoma, Washington, Wyoming and Jersey Shore, and unincorporated areas named Alaska, Idaho, Oregon and East Texas.

[Gnutella]

When we came back from Alabama a tornado came in and my wife was driving and I asked if she wanted to stop in Tuscaloosa to ride it out and she kept driving

April 27, 2011?

[CNGL-Leudimin]

I don't have any towns that I avoid. Either by traffic, or by being speed traps (there are none of the latter in Spain that I'm aware of). However, when you mentioned speed traps, the first place that came to mind was New Rome, Ohio. Also, when a town dissolves, does it need to be demolished altogether?

[hotdogPi]

Also, when a town dissolves, does it need to be demolished altogether?

Three towns in Massachusetts literally dissolved to become part of the Quabbin Reservoir. (The fourth is still above water level, at least downtown.)

[GaryV]

Pennsylvania has municipalities named California, Indiana, Oklahoma, Washington, Wyoming and Jersey Shore, and unincorporated areas named Alaska, Idaho, Oregon and East Texas.

And the State of Wyoming (originally territory) was named after the Wyoming in PA.

[J N Winkler]

Also, when a town dissolves, does it need to be demolished altogether?

Dissolution or compulsory disincorporation is a legal process and does not, by itself, have any effect on the built fabric.  The details can vary from state to state in interesting ways depending on the attitude taken toward laws that are of local or private application.

For example, both Kansas and Oklahoma have had to disincorporate towns that lie within the Tar Creek Superfund site.  But where the Oklahoma legislature passed a law that said, in effect, "Picher is no longer a city," the Kansas legislature phrased it as something like "Any town where residents received relocation grants through the department of health and environment is hereby dissolved," a class that presumably (one hopes) includes just the town of Treece, which is across the state line from Picher.  Because the whole area is basically a toxic waste site, nobody cares if you torch unoccupied buildings, and in fact I found one burning the last time I visited five years ago.

[I-55]

When we came back from Alabama a tornado came in and my wife was driving and I asked if she wanted to stop in Tuscaloosa to ride it out and she kept driving

April 27, 2011?

If it were April 27, 2011 or April 15, 2011 (or any of the other days) continuing to drive may have been the best decision she made that day, as April 15th hit the area near Exit 71 and April 27th destroyed McFarland Mall.

I never have had issues with Tuscaloosa. I take 359 to get to 82 west, the lights in downtown are timed well and I only hit maybe 2 red lights on McFarland. It's a good thing the 6 lanes on 20/59 are being extended to 359.

[skluth]

Also, when a town dissolves, does it need to be demolished altogether?

Three towns in Massachusetts literally dissolved to become part of the Quabbin Reservoir. (The fourth is still above water level, at least downtown.)

Times Beach, MO was. It's now a state park. I drove around it several years ago and it was hard to believe it had been a thriving community before I lived in the area.

[skluth]

Also Indiana seems to have several cities that are larger cities in other states such as Nashville, Columbus, Baltimore (ghost town), Portland, Rochester and others.

New York has Amsterdam, Antwerp, Athens, Belfast, Berlin, Bombay, Cairo, Copenhagen, Delhi, Dover, Florence, Geneva, Genoa, Hamburg, Jerusalem, Liverpool, Madrid, Manchester, Milan, Naples, Odessa, Orleans, Paris, Potsdam, Rome, Stockholm, Venice, Vienna, Warsaw

Cuba, German, Greece, Holland, Italy, Jordan, Lebanon, Malta, Mexico, Norway, Panama, Persia, Peru, Poland, Russia, Sweden, Wales

New York might win for world cities.

But Texas has got 'em all in one place.

Of course, they do. Texans can never let another state have bragging rights. 

[ftballfan]

Any time there's construction in Nashville I go around it (TN-109, I-840). Even if it isn't on my route, if one interstate backs up, the whole system can easily become a log jam (I'm always there at rush hour it seems).

Heading southbound through that part of the country on our way to Florida in late February (our timing would have put us in Nashville at peak rush hour on a Friday), Google Maps routed my dad and I on this route around Nashville:
Exit I-65 at Exit 53 in KY -> KY 70 (barely) -> KY 90 -> US 68 -> KY 1519 -> Cumberland Pkwy -> KY 90 -> KY 839 (clinched!) -> KY 63 -> KY 163 -> TN 51 -> TN 52 -> TN 111 -> US 27 -> picking up I-24 in downtown 'Nooga

[sparker]

Besides Corona -- mentioned several posts ago -- the one SoCal city that currently deserves avoidance due to it being a traffic nightmare most of the day, is Temecula.  It has the dubious distinction of being both an exurb of greater L.A. and/or the Inland Empire and San Diego metro.  Peak-hour commutes converge on the city in mid-afternoon and don't let up until at least 8 pm (at least from my experience).  It's also something of a traffic generator in itself -- often the I-15/215 "split" north of town is simultaneously packed with inbound commuters southbound and workers heading home to Moreno Valley or Riverside on I-215 northbound in late afternoons -- and that freeway remains 2+2 north through Perris.  There are windows of opportunity for free-moving travel for a couple of hours near mid-day (and overnight, of course) -- but it's advised to stay clear of the area from 5 to 9 in the morning and 3 to 8 in the evening -- best bet if you get caught is to get off, find a place to grab a bite, and cool off before making another attempt to get out of town! 

[NWI_Irish96]

Also Indiana seems to have several cities that are larger cities in other states such as Nashville, Columbus, Baltimore (ghost town), Portland, Rochester and others.

A single county has three Latin American countries: Peru, Mexico, Chili (not spelled the same) and several US locales: Denver, Miami, Bunker Hill, Brimingham, Erie, Peoria, Santa Fe.

[Flint1979]

Also Indiana seems to have several cities that are larger cities in other states such as Nashville, Columbus, Baltimore (ghost town), Portland, Rochester and others.

A single county has three Latin American countries: Peru, Mexico, Chili (not spelled the same) and several US locales: Denver, Miami, Bunker Hill, Brimingham, Erie, Peoria, Santa Fe.

And then over in Clay County you have Brazil.