What's the most depressing U.S. town you've ever visited?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The whole state of NV

So true. I lived in Las Vegas for a year for work once, and I have never been so lonely or depressed. It's so awful.

What is awful about it? I have been for vacation and loved it! Thought it would be a good retirement destination.

The faux glitz and glamor of the Strip can't hide the anger and despair that pervades Vegas. It also doesn't help that the metro area's economy is almost exclusively tied to the casinos and resorts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cumberland, MD Just gives off a Stephen King vibe to me. Not sure why.

On the other hand, as a native Midwesterner, I like some of the above named towns, like Zanesville, Ohio (with its Zane Grey museum) and Grand Rapids (which feels like my hometown suburb in its familiarity in a good way).

Agree - it's not JUST depressing, it gives off a vibe of just being "off" or "wrong" in some way. I wonder if Stephen King would go there and feel the same way.

This reminds me a lot of Erie, PA

[Anonymous]

Afton, NY - it's a tiny town outside of Binghamton that I always find sad because there are so many huge run-down main street houses that look like they used to be so beautiful once. Gables, wrap around porches, all kinds of decorative trim, but now falling apart and peeling paint.

Falls Church VA - it's like an endless hodgepodge shopping plaza and there seems to be zero cohesive design. It is just visually hideous, especially for how much it costs to live there.

[Anonymous]

Wilkes Barre, PA.
A lot of my family lives there, and wow... it's just so depressing every time we go up there. Run down streets, closed up coal and manufacturing, tons of people smoking, very little to do. It could be an absolutely beautiful area, but it's just not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For me, it would have to be a tie between Utica, New York, and Torrington, CT -- with the NY side of Niagara Falls being hot on both of their heels.

You?

My cousins lived in Utica - all of them left as soon as they graduated HS. Their HS had been taken over by the state of NY it was so academically terrible. Utica is interesting though depressed and dangerous are two words many would use to describe it if they weren’t from there. They have some decent restaurants, good arts scene, and huge vibrant immigrant population. It’s also CHEAP to live there. Anywhere is what you make of it I guess.

I have met several people whose families came from Utica. None live there anymore, but I wonder why Utica was such a destination 100 years ago?

I grew up in the rural area outside of Binghamton and know that the whole triple cities area in upstate NY used to be a thriving center of major businesses (IBM started there I believe, Endicott Johnson was an industry innovator, and there were even a few newspaper tycoons farther back), but they left one by one and the cities are really struggling. I'm old enough to remember lots of independent shops of all kinds including small grocery stores, local institution restaurants, and even heritage trades like cheesemakers, bulb nurseries, and maple syrup. Many of those are long gone following the arrival of walmart, target, etc. It's not hyperbole - I actually heard it from owners of shops as they put up going out of business signs. I'm not sure why IBM or some of the other tech companies left, but in the early to mid 90's there was a huge panic in that area because it was so sudden and there were engineers taking jobs in grocery stores and professionals moving away in droves.

They used to be thriving and local businesses were sustained, but now they're not. I'm not sure what that will mean for cities like Utica which I don't know as well - what happens when a city dies? I know Binghamton better - at least it has the university and there are still good cultural venues that breathe a little life into time there, but the airport is basically nonexistent now and they don't have train service despite once being a passenger rail hub.

[Anonymous]

Baltimore
Atlantic City

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For me, it would have to be a tie between Utica, New York, and Torrington, CT -- with the NY side of Niagara Falls being hot on both of their heels.

You?

I read this thread specifically, because I knew I would know somewhere someone was hating on. Didn't need to look too far (although I did look through the whole thread) - Torrington, CT.

I have been visiting Torrington all my life. My grandparents lived there and then my mother took over their house. In fact I was just there over the weekend! I love being in Torrington. It's a quiet town. Everything is much cheaper than where I live. There's so much to do. It's close to hiking, skiing. We go to Hartford to watch sports. Short drive up to the Berkshires. We go to the town pool. It's a small town of working people. It used to be very white. Now there are all different kinds of races and ethnicities living in town. We consider ourselves lucky to have Torrington as a free getaway. And my kids loved KidsPlay downtown when they were younger.

Having grown up in another New England post-industrial city, I'm used to the snobbery of those who consider these places "rundown". This country's anti-urban policies have left these once vibrant towns to fend for themselves. The real estate and construction lobbies push cheap new suburban construction over rehabilitation of urban areas. Our culture values the car over public transportation and walkability. Increasing concentrations of poverty intensify a vicious cycle of disinvestment.

Personally what I find depressing is suburban sprawl which we have in CT even though we have an aging and declining population. There's nothing more depressing to me than an empty suburban strip mall, but you can find those anywhere.

I am the OP Torrington poster. It's not that it's rundown - it's that it is in the middle of nowhere, the very definition of "you can't get there from here." The housing stock is shabby and cheaply built throughout much of town. There's a huge alcohol and drug issue. The Berkshires -- the part closest to Torrington -- have a lonesome, haunted feel. It just has a sad, left-behind vibe, but more than that, geographically it's just in an unfortunate corner IMO.

Maybe you should have thought twice about starting this ridiculous thread if your response to criticism consists of rationalizations. It's in the middle of nowhere, but so are tons of other places. Are you a housing inspector? How do you know the housing stock is shabby and cheaply built? Most of the housing stock is old. It's not cheaply built. Many people take great care of their homes. There are alcohol and drug issues, but tons of other places have alcohol and drug issues, too. I live in NYC and I see drug issues every day. As for the "sad, left-behind vibe", every post-industrial city in New England and the Upper Midwest feels that way. Singling out Torrington is unfair. I don't think it's an unfortunate corner and neither do others who live in the area or have second homes up there. Please spare me your opinion of a place where you probably spent one day. This is the second thread on DCUM where I've had to defend Torrington. My guess is you're the person who mentioned Torrington there, too.

Hi! I'm not singling it out -- I named a few other places, too, and I have a lot of experience with this small area of CT, so I know what I'm talking about. You're definitely entitled to your opinion, but it's OK for others to disagree.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The whole state of NV

So true. I lived in Las Vegas for a year for work once, and I have never been so lonely or depressed. It's so awful.

What is awful about it? I have been for vacation and loved it! Thought it would be a good retirement destination.

The faux glitz and glamor of the Strip can't hide the anger and despair that pervades Vegas. It also doesn't help that the metro area's economy is almost exclusively tied to the casinos and resorts.

What is the anger and despair about? Seriously asking, I don't know much about NV. Are they angry because it's such a tourist town? I would think that revenue would buoy the local economy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Gary, Indiana

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: “the world’s tiniest hillbilly horse”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Gave a paper at Ole miss and found oxford Mississippi to be pretty depressing. Found out that a lot of the faculty and administrators actually live over the border in Tennessee and commute into Mississippi because the schools are so awful, etc. The campus was so pretty but there were unbelievable poverty right outside the gates o the school. It was also just so darned hot! Not a breeze anywhere and in July!
Wow!

I find this a little hard to believe. It's about a 2 hr commute one way if they're doing this. I have two friends who are professors at Ole Miss, and they send their kids to private while living close to Ole Miss.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The whole state of NV

So true. I lived in Las Vegas for a year for work once, and I have never been so lonely or depressed. It's so awful.

What is awful about it? I have been for vacation and loved it! Thought it would be a good retirement destination.

The faux glitz and glamor of the Strip can't hide the anger and despair that pervades Vegas. It also doesn't help that the metro area's economy is almost exclusively tied to the casinos and resorts.

What is the anger and despair about? Seriously asking, I don't know much about NV. Are they angry because it's such a tourist town? I would think that revenue would buoy the local economy.

I’m crying , this is so dramatic

[Anonymous]

This is all very personal.

Here's how my cousin describes John Day, Oregon:

"You know how, when you're in a big city, there's always a sketchy dark passageway between two buildings, and the sun never shines there, and you just know that if you go down that passageway, you're going to be murdered? That's how the John Day valley feels to me."

I always love visiting there, but I would never live there.

The most depressing US town for me is a tossup between Flint, and any of the little rotten-wood shack towns in the south.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For me, it would have to be a tie between Utica, New York, and Torrington, CT -- with the NY side of Niagara Falls being hot on both of their heels.

You?

My cousins lived in Utica - all of them left as soon as they graduated HS. Their HS had been taken over by the state of NY it was so academically terrible. Utica is interesting though depressed and dangerous are two words many would use to describe it if they weren’t from there. They have some decent restaurants, good arts scene, and huge vibrant immigrant population. It’s also CHEAP to live there. Anywhere is what you make of it I guess.

I have met several people whose families came from Utica. None live there anymore, but I wonder why Utica was such a destination 100 years ago?

I grew up in the rural area outside of Binghamton and know that the whole triple cities area in upstate NY used to be a thriving center of major businesses (IBM started there I believe, Endicott Johnson was an industry innovator, and there were even a few newspaper tycoons farther back), but they left one by one and the cities are really struggling. I'm old enough to remember lots of independent shops of all kinds including small grocery stores, local institution restaurants, and even heritage trades like cheesemakers, bulb nurseries, and maple syrup. Many of those are long gone following the arrival of walmart, target, etc. It's not hyperbole - I actually heard it from owners of shops as they put up going out of business signs. I'm not sure why IBM or some of the other tech companies left, but in the early to mid 90's there was a huge panic in that area because it was so sudden and there were engineers taking jobs in grocery stores and professionals moving away in droves.

They used to be thriving and local businesses were sustained, but now they're not. I'm not sure what that will mean for cities like Utica which I don't know as well - what happens when a city dies? I know Binghamton better - at least it has the university and there are still good cultural venues that breathe a little life into time there, but the airport is basically nonexistent now and they don't have train service despite once being a passenger rail hub.

Have you been to Binghamton over the past couple of years? I've heard some examples of people moving back there from NYC since the start of the pandemic and sounds like it's getting a little better. And some public spaces getting fixed up.

[Anonymous]

Tuskegee, Alabama. Utterly depressing.