Most depressing city/town you've been to?

[Stephane Dumas]

#3 Cleveland, OH: Truly a depressing city.

It reminds me of the ending of a video posted by local Cleveland comedian Mike Polk said "Cleveland still not Detroit".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIbmT2Rs8vw

[kphoger]

I've heard that "Cleveland rocks".

[thspfc]

#3 Cleveland, OH: Truly a depressing city.

It reminds me of the ending of a video posted by local Cleveland comedian Mike Polk said "Cleveland still not Detroit".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIbmT2Rs8vw

I love those videos. My favorite part was when it showed the Browns' stadium. There was a lot of hype around the Browns that offseason, so Polk sung "this place is no longer haunted by sadness". What happened the next season? The Browns were the most disappointing team in the league. Sums up Cleveland sports.

[hbelkins]

Welch, WV.

[Rothman]

Welch, WV.

Yeah...that one came to mind, too.

[ozarkman417]

Anyone who has been to the former USSR wins this thread.

[cl94]

Can I just nominate all of Coal Country, PA? It's really hard to pick one town in there, they're all so depressingly sad that it all blends together.

Welch, WV.

There and Grundy, VA are my other contenders.

[webny99]

Re: Cleveland, my one visit to downtown was actually quite enjoyable. It is the Rust Belt, for sure, but it's still got cool vibes, and parts of downtown are on the upswing.

Same could be said of parts of downtown Detroit, I guess, but those areas felt oddly empty and out of place, almost like they bulldozed it, started over, and forgot to keep the people.

[Rothman]

Can I just nominate all of Coal Country, PA? It's really hard to pick one town in there, they're all so depressingly sad that it all blends together.

Welch, WV.

There and Grundy, VA are my other contenders.

Grundy was the butt of a lot of family jokes when I was growing up, but the last time I was through there, it didn't look as bad as I remembered.

[webny99]

Can I just nominate all of Coal Country, PA? It's really hard to pick one town in there, they're all so depressingly sad that it all blends together.

I agree. Much more depressing even than Upstate NY for some reason, and I don't think it's home state bias.
Presumably Johnsonburg is too far west to be considered Coal Country, otherwise that would be my pick.

[kphoger]

Anyone who has been to the former USSR wins this thread.

I've heard good things about Moscow.

[CoreySamson]

Idk why, but Carthage, TX always feels somewhat sad every time I drive past it.

[1995hoo]

Anyone who has been to the former USSR wins this thread.

I quite liked St. Petersburg, although I wouldn't choose to live there.

[jmd41280]

The Monongahela River Valley south of Pittsburgh has several towns and cities that have seen way better days. Homestead (outside of the Waterfront development), Braddock, Duquesne, McKeesport, Clairton, Donora, Monessen and Brownsville meet the criteria. Most of these places were important steelmaking centers at one time. When the steel industry left, so did most of the people. Braddock and Clairton still have working mills, however the towns themselves have hemorrhaged people.

Population loss of the above cities from their peaks to 2010 census:
Homestead - 20,452 (1920) -> 3,165 (2010)
Braddock - 20,879 (1920) -> 2,159 (2010)
Duquesne - 21,396 (1930) -> 5,565 (2010)
McKeesport - 55,355 (1940) -> 19,731 (2010)
Clairton - 19,652 (1950) -> 6,796 (2010)
Donora - 14,131 (1920) -> 4,781 (2010)
Monessen - 20,268 (1930) -> 7,720 (2010)
Brownsville - 8,015 (1940) -> 2,331 (2010)

[Rothman]

Anyone who has been to the former USSR wins this thread.

I quite liked St. Petersburg, although I wouldn't choose to live there.

I lived in Volgograd.  Ozark's clueless.

[ozarkman417]

Then as someone who has actually lived in the former USSR, unlike myself who has only gone as far east as Austria, you may at least see where I'm coming from with that statement, as stereotypical it may be. I'm aware that the larger cities in Russia have some unique and visually appealing buildings, like palaces, Orthodox Churches, etc. What they also have is widespread brutalist/Stalinist buildings in much of the other places in those same cities.

[kphoger]

Then as someone who has actually lived in the former USSR, unlike myself who has only gone as far east as Austria, you may at least see where I'm coming from with that statement, as stereotypical it may be. I'm aware that the larger cities in Russia have some unique and visually appealing buildings, like palaces, Orthodox Churches, etc. What they also have is widespread brutalist/Stalinist buildings in much of the other places in those same cities.

I saw plenty of brutalist/Stalinist buildings in Warsaw, but that doesn't mean it was a depressing city.  The residents in those brutalist apartment blocks often decorate their windows with flowers and lace, which makes for a fascinating visual appeal.  Street vendors selling pastry down below.  I saw 'La Traviata' at the national opera there (well, I slept through a lot of it due to jetlag).

[SkyPesos]

East St. Louis by far for me.

[kendancy66]

Globe, Arizona  Everything seemed so old and decaying.  but much worse is Desert Center, California.  Absolutely nothing there but dead and burnt palm trees

[Rothman]

Then as someone who has actually lived in the former USSR, unlike myself who has only gone as far east as Austria, you may at least see where I'm coming from with that statement, as stereotypical it may be. I'm aware that the larger cities in Russia have some unique and visually appealing buildings, like palaces, Orthodox Churches, etc. What they also have is widespread brutalist/Stalinist buildings in much of the other places in those same cities.

I saw plenty of brutalist/Stalinist buildings in Warsaw, but that doesn't mean it was a depressing city.  The residents in those brutalist apartment blocks often decorate their windows with flowers and lace, which makes for a fascinating visual appeal.  Street vendors selling pastry down below.  I saw 'La Traviata' at the national opera there (well, I slept through a lot of it due to jetlag).

Easter in Volgograd was the greatest holiday celebration I've ever experienced.  More festive than anything I've experienced stateside.  Anything but depressing.

And I was there during the Yeltsin era...

[TheHighwayMan3561]

I kind of walked into that above, didn't I.

As much as I enjoyed Superior, there was a strong simultaneous mix of hopefulness/pride and depression in that city.

[nexus73]

I've passed through Death Valley on Amtrak, which is depressed (i.e. lower elevation than its surroundings).

Speaking of the desert probably the most depressing place in California that I can think of is Needles.  That’s some serious decline and neglect going on in that city. 

Edit:  I thought that you probably referring to Needles above but I wasn’t quite sure you weren’t making a geology joke about Death Valley either.  I just saw you edit so I assume you probably were thinking of Needles?

I was going to post Needles as well.  Add Tucamcari NM as another lousy US 66 city.

Rick

[webny99]

As for the most depressing state as a whole, it's gotta be West Virginia, right?

It's too bad since it's so scenic, but I don't see any other state topping it for being neglected and left behind.
Mississippi, maybe? Louisiana? Those at least have some decent-sized cities in Jackson, Baton Rouge, and New Orleans that could potentially keep people in-state.

[DandyDan]

I could go with any number of small towns here in farm country and more specifically small towns where I have a relative or 2, but I'll go the other way and say Gary, Indiana.

#3 Cleveland, OH: Truly a depressing city.

That one is up there on my list.

[kphoger]

Then as someone who has actually lived in the former USSR, unlike myself who has only gone as far east as Austria, you may at least see where I'm coming from with that statement, as stereotypical it may be. I'm aware that the larger cities in Russia have some unique and visually appealing buildings, like palaces, Orthodox Churches, etc. What they also have is widespread brutalist/Stalinist buildings in much of the other places in those same cities.

I saw plenty of brutalist/Stalinist buildings in Warsaw, but that doesn't mean it was a depressing city.  The residents in those brutalist apartment blocks often decorate their windows with flowers and lace, which makes for a fascinating visual appeal.  Street vendors selling pastry down below.  I saw 'La Traviata' at the national opera there (well, I slept through a lot of it due to jetlag).

Easter in Volgograd was the greatest holiday celebration I've ever experienced.  More festive than anything I've experienced stateside.  Anything but depressing.

And I was there during the Yeltsin era...

And, for those thinking we should talk about ex-USSR places outside of Russia–this and this don't exactly seem "depressing" to me.