British Couple Reacts to the 8 Worst Places in the U.S.

[@mc2120]

George carlin said it best " the American dream...you have to be asleep to believe it"

[@smiller987123]

Funny that Millie says New York would be her favorite or the best place to visit. I've visited New York twice and have no desire to ever spend another minute there again.

[@beckycaughel7557]

Me too!

[@stevenj2380]

I understand. There are lots of tourists back, especially since C- V masking restriction, etc. have eased such as on transit and in all restaurants. NYC is worth a visit if one plans well, has a generous budget (for hotel and a good area and lots of uber or taxi rides instead of transit in the evening and at night) and can be at ease in a big city. You cannot be immune against possible violence. It is rare but increased greatly in the last several years since restorative justice polices changed sentencing and Policing.

[@R777-RLM]

I have relatives in Hilldale UT/Colorado City AZ. My mom was born in a polygamous family. Her dad had 5 wives, including my grandma (who divorced him). She had 11 full, and 31 half, brothers & sisters. At a family reunion, I noticed some girls in long dresses with long sleeves, playing soccer with the boys - it was mid summer and hot. I was a kid then, When I pointed them out to my mom, she said, they're your cousins from some of her brothers and sisters that stayed in polygamy. Then she explained to me what that was. They're not bad people, just confused, scared, and lost.

[@turntodusk]

The Appalachias, besides tourists attractions ofc, really just gives zombie apocalypse vibes.

[@timmid5476]

My family is from southwest West Virginia. The area he spoke about in West Virginia and Kentucky is where the Hatfield and McCoy fued occurred. The poverty is due to the coal mines shutting down. It's a logistical problem to bring any other businesses in because you'd have to transport the material in and the product out through a substantial part of the Appalachian Mountains. No company wants to deal with it. It's sad because the people there are known as hard workers. But, a country boy can survive!

[@annfrost3323]

Detroit had the automobile factories for Ford, Chevrolet, Chrysler. When manufacturing was moved away including overseas, the plants were abandoned. The empty buildings are still there. Workers took their families and left hundreds maybe thousands of homes and with this, commerce stopped as well. Detroit is an abandoned reminder of the industries that made it rich and famous.

[@blindlite5264]

Fun Fact: Chicago has some of the strictest gun laws in the nation and look at the gun deaths and that's annually basically.

[@DannyNomad]

I was a law enforcement officer in West Virginia for many years and there absolutely are parts like this. There are affluent parts with nice homes and shopping, but a short drive into the rural areas there is no running water, dirt floors, and rampant drug use. It is bad and has been getting worse for years.

[@zachhoward9099]

Considering West Virginians took up arms generations ago to protest the terrible working conditions of the coal mines I find it insane how no one in that state has taken up arms over the Federal Government essentially abandoning them

[@adriannecote5319]

Those shotgun homes were built narrow because at one time taxes were levied based on street frontage. Detroit was Ford all the way and when they started manufacturing out of the country the jobs dried up. Schools were huge with 3000 students and before they closed there were only a few hundred students. So sad.

[@charleswheeler3689]

I grew up in a upper middle class suburban environment in Silicon Valley in the 70's. I thought everyone lived that way.

[@aarondavis8433]

if you saw the one "lost in the pond" video of a holiday celebration where they heard gunshots and panic insued. Chicago is really bad, and now the crime is moving into the nicer areas. It is basically due to horrible governance.

[@beesnort3163]

Detroit was a major metropolis and a very rich area but with the industry sending jobs overseas it collapsed and it slowly seeing a comeback. There are areas of Detroit that are still very very wealthy and beautiful.

[@gramalinda750]

You cannot leave out Slab City!! Must look that up; people come from all over the world to visit the community!

[@christypriest30]

I live in the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia and I can tell you from experience that some of the poorest people in Appalachia don’t want to change how they live! There have been people who have tried to modernize some of the areas in W Virginia but the people who live there don’t want help

[@vcentlee-theunexpectedone]

Most definitely true from that guys video!

[@ESUSAMEX]

The homes you see 6:25 in New Orleans are "Shotgun Homes." They're built really narrow due to space and the size makes them easier to keep cool without air conditioning. You can open the front door and the backdoor so that the air travels through the entire house.

[@edwardmclaughlin719]

Along with a wave of animals.

[@ronclark9724]

@@edwardmclaughlin719 That is what the two screen doors are for, to keep unwanted animals and insects out...

[@ronclark9724]

Most of these shotgun homes were built before the Second World War... Ranch style homes replaced them after the Second World War almost to the end of the century in the South...

[@disgustedvet9528]

We called them breeze-ways .

[@RobbSkates]

You are right. Detroit went downhill when GM left. So sad. I was just to Detroit last week and I was so blown away by how abandoned it actually is.

[@zachhoward9099]

I was there last year for a 4 day summer vacation with my family. We stopped in Ann Arbor for the night before going into Detroit the next day for a Tigers game before heading North to Bay City, leaving the game in what was supposed to be rush hour I was amazed by the wide multi lane interstates cris crossing and running through Detroit that barely had any cars on it, once we got to the outer suburbs the typical bumper to bumper developed but driving through Detroit even on the interstate I was blown away at how built up the interstate was versus how few cars were on it, this was on a weekday too

[@JKM395]

We have all these problems and yet we send billions overseas. Unreal.

[@kindredsoul79]

I was totally hoping Bombay Beach would be mentioned. It's not just pollution that is killing everything, it's the extreme saltiness of the water. There are birds that have died and been turned into salt trees basically.

[@iodine63]

Detroit really started its decline in the 60s. During the 50s the suburbs were built up and the houses had more of a draw with new amenities available ( family rooms, mud/laundry rooms, more space for young families. Because of the auto industry the families had the money to spend on these houses and the move. Then in the beginning of the 70s when the bussing of school age children away from the area they lived to desegregate schools, the remainder of middle class moved out. The people left were mainly the poorer families who didn't have the means to move.

[@Stache987]

A very rural nearly abandoned town is Delta Iowa, you see one business hanging by a thread, houses in such disrepair they're caving in and many which haven't seen a coat of paint in 50 years. Sadly the law enforcement isn't large enough to bust the meth labs, and removal of the contaminated houses has such strict procedures it has to sit and rot windowless for decades before the bulldozer takes it down. IMHO persons caught operating a meth lab should be responsible for demolition and also pay the home owner for the lost value.

[@nancy9891]

This is definitely an opinion. I’m from near Chicago and it’s violent on the west side. New Orleans is very poor due to the politics. Mostly the poverty is because of the politicians who believe in keeping their people poor.

[@pageribe2399]

And the politicians there have been pocketing Federal dollars forever, instead of using the money for the intended improvements. New Orleans withstood the winds of Katrina very nicely. (The Mississippi coast received the Category 5 winds, NOT NOLA). Had the necessary improvements & modernization of the levee system been made (and there had been money available to do it over the years), NOLA would weathered Katrina just fine. It was a man-made disaster, alright, but, it didn't happen because of CAGW, it happened because of political corruption.

[@lawrencecooper2361]

Surprised he didn't mention Camden NJ, like a miniature Haiti. Same with E. St Louis. Regions of poverty have always existed in the US but the country is big enough that people could "vote with their feet" and move to places of greater economic opportunity. Much of the world lives on the equivalent of one dollar a day. Here poor people somehow own 900 dollar "devices". In the early 70's the decision was made by the American Uniparty, a subsidiary of the globalist elites, to de-industrialize and crush the middle class. Minus gainful employment people fill the void with drugs. Now everything is manufactured in China, even American flags. I don't see things ever turning around

[@jlpack62]

Those aren't caravan homes in New Orleans. Those are called shotgun houses. They are site built homes but very narrow with rooms stacked one after the other going back from the front door. These houses got their nickname because it was said that you could shoot a bullet from the front of the house through to the back door without hitting anything.

[@zillatattoo]

yes, the south, makes house that still look like a trailer, lol

[@kristiskinner8542]

@@zillatattoo nope sorry, those are not new builds

[@imweakfordeaky]

Shotgun houses are set up that way to maximize airflow in hot climates, where that style of home is most prevalent - the style is said to be derived from Afro-Haitian traditional building style.

[@teddysmith8725]

@@imweakfordeaky I thought it was due to tax reasons. Like they got taxed based on the width of the front of your house. Not sure though

[@jasonmistretta4295]

@@imweakfordeaky The north has them as well in cities, but we call them "Railroad Houses." The rooms are like railroad cars stacked one after another. My first apartment in Hoboken, NJ was a railroad apartment. My roommate literally had to walk THROUGH my bedroom to get to his bedroom. None of the rooms had doors. It was just a hallway from my roommate's room, through my room, through the living room, through the kitchen, to the bathroom in the back of the house. Weird.

[@barbarapetitfils5017]

I grew up in New Orleans in a shotgun home. They were built after WWII and were all people could afford.

[@yourenotthere]

The New Orleans shotgun houses: We took a tour while we were visiting there and our tour guide said the shotgun house came about because property taxes used to be levied based on how many rooms there were in the house. So, these houses had doors aligned all the way through from the front to the back and the inside doors were usually pocket doors. They'd close the doors to make separate rooms, but when the tax assessor came, they'd open all the inside doors and the whole house would be counted as one room. And yes, the nickname was because you could shoot a shotgun all the way through the house and not hit anything, just like the others have said.

[@Inkymits]

Yes, you are right, Detroit WAS home of the auto industry. That's how it got the nickname "the motor city". Also, R&B and soul was big there in 60's and 70s. It was home to MoTown( motor town) recodes and the Motown sound .

[@brandonperry9209]

Was the richest city in the world with the highest standard of living. Modern industrial culture basically started here.

[@tofargone16]

and the motown kind ruined it.

[@Cricket2731]

Detroit was once one of the biggest cities in the US--5th largest, I think.

[@bobdobb9017]

Detroit is the most misunderstood metro area in the country. The auto industry and city population never left or got poor, it just moved to the suburbs. My uncle ran for mayor in the 60’s. I really need to make a video on it.

[@brandonperry9209]

@@Cricket2731 was the second largest. Bigger than Chicago. As Bob said I think there's around 5 million in the metro area, but if you ask one of those 5 million that live 10 miles from the city, they still live in Detroit. Big ass metro area too, I'd say 90 square miles of just straight suburb/urban surrounding Detroit

[@clonexx]

Detroit used to be the automotive capital of the US, if not the world. Unfortunately, government policies incentivizing sending manufacturing overseas destroyed Detroit. All of the amazing auto factories were moved to cheap labor countries due to the new government policies and all of the jobs dried up. Detroit used to be an amazing, vibrant city full of life. Now it’s just a shell, thanks to our government.

[@lawabernathy9256]

I guess that white privilage skipped right over kentuky

[@brijitglapion4577]

Political corruption plays a big part in many of these big cities. I can't speak for Detriot or Chicago but New Orleans, for sure.

[@toegunn4905]

Detroit is a pretty cool city when you're downtown, one of the best in America. But the population dropped 70% over 50 years, it's impossible to maintain the majority of the city when that happens. The suburbs around it are both safe and affluent and the downtown is one of the most artistic and unique in the US, but a block in the wrong direction, you'll know it. Plenty of locals want all the abandoned homes torched and the roads to be ripped up to make it forest again. Much easier to maintain a forest than an empty street.

[@marilynpomponio8335]

It is sad that the Native American are still treated badly. I have meet people from South Dakota

[@marilynpomponio8335]

Who are really hatful to the Native people.

[@ShellysMusic13]

The car factories all shut down and left. The town died!

[@robertsepulveda2229]

The Salton Sea was great in the 60s and early 70s. Really good saltwater fishing. The salt levels increase and everything died. Just up the road is ‘Slab City’ and ‘Salvation’ Mt. That is a weird place. There KZbin videos on it. Don’t rule out the Salton Sea just yet. It was once connected to the Sea of Cortez and is ten times the size of San Diego Harbor. If they build a canal connecting then the Salton Sea to the Sea of Cortez it will turn that area into a huge commerce/ industrial / shipping area plus sports fishing, Hotels and other such things. Great place to invest because it’s so cheap now.

[@bintheredonethat]

St. Louis city is bad, I live 25 miles west of it. Never go there, if I do I definitely go armed. From the late 50s to 1976 there was a housing development called Pruitt-Igoe. Largest in the country at the time. Place turned into an urban jungle in short order. Firefighters wouldn't respond to alarms with out police escorts. I worked at a firehouse in the county as a senior project and the guys there knew firefighters in the city and told us this. Crews would be shot at. The place was finally blown up starting in 1972 & finished off by 1977.

[@kupski1964]

The salinity of the lake increased and killed off all the fish and wildlife in the lake.

[@Joe_Okey]

Bombay Beach, California was one of the inspirations for Sandy Shores, Los Santos in GTA V, and you can really see it in these photos too.

[@MarceloD1976]

The Area's around it is great for off-roading. Super fun

[@Stache987]

I'd hate to be a person flying in from a foreign country with a road trip to "Bombay Beach" expecting a luxurious time. Drive in theaters were cool, in Allentown Pennsylvania area we still had two operating and were said to be near if not original to the concept. Becky's and Shankweiler's (original families too). Most abandoned drive ins have become shopping areas with parking galore much of which is unused outside of holiday shopping.

[@eaglelove00]

Haha I live about 45 min from there and during the Santa Ana winds, we smell the nasty from it. 🤮

[@Area51byDaveReale]

Detroit was a powerhouse way back. Bad governance for decades.

[@johnalden5821]

Millie remarked on the collection of aluminum cans in the photo of Appalachia. It is a common sideline way to earn some money there to collect the cans for recycling. They run over them in the driveway to compact them down for easier loading and shipping in trucks.

[@sdv73168]

Well that's just sad and depressing 😟

[@catherinelevison3310]

The Pacific Northwest is beautiful. Western Washington state has a rain forest in the Olympic mountains, plus the beautiful Cascade mountain range. Many lakes and rivers. Also the ocean beaches in Washington and Oregon are so pretty. This beauty is extended into Vancouver, British Columbia. Mountains and both BC and WA have these gorgeous islands accessible by ferry boats, called the San Juan islands in the Straight of Juan de Fuca. Another very pretty and fascinating place is Holmes County in Ohio. Very beautiful, tons of pretty Amish countryside. For a great beach try Destin Florida with its white “sugar” sand. The Redwood forest in Northern California has the trees that are so big cars can drive through the center of them. Nearby is Mt. Shasta, very beautiful.

[@happymom73]

There are only certain neighborhoods or wards in Chicago that are bad. There are also some Chicago suburbs that are bad too, but not all. I happen to live in one of the decent suburbs.

[@chrisjohnson1599]

I got the first two right, but I forgot how bad New Orleans got after Hurricane Katrina, my guess was Baltimore.

[@ouachitawoman]

I live in southeast Arkansas and agree with everything he said about this area.

[@lawrenceliebman9079]

I'm from the Chicago area. Almost all those murders are gang-related. Unless you live around that area, you don't go near there. Don't be discouraged from visiting Chicago. New Orleans is the poorest because of Hurricane Katrina. Hundreds of thousands of people who escaped never came back.

[@stevenj2380]

Massive amount of carjackings, Lincoln Park / 'Gold Coast'. Attacks on or near CTA Chinatown, etc. No way.

[@adamclair7983]

I would say that Slab City is the worst place in the USA. It used to be a military base in the desert in southern california. The military abandoned it and it is now a homeless city where people live for free. It was in the movie Into The Wild and it's a truly a sad and desolate place. This is the place he referred to by the salton sea

[@ohslimgoody]

Has the money market but a cramp in your home purchasing plans.

[@mnoneya9050]

Not a fan of Chicago. Been there a few times. Gets worse every time. I started calling it Chiraq because it’s so dangerous.

[@timwoody3835]

Actually a lot of the rural areas with poverty are prime places to put manufacturing. There is low cost labor and land with business friendly regulations.

[@Liethen]

Big manufacturers prefer urban areas so they have a larger pool of potential workforce. Though a small population is not a deal breaker. If you are placing a smaller factory somewhere you don't need a city to get enough workers. There are lots of smaller places with populations of about 5,000-10,000 that will have multiple factories and food processing plants. What prevents these from proliferating in Appalachia is infrastructure related. No business is going to foot the bill to build said infrastructure, and the entrenched power-players in the area would shoot down any plan to do it as a state or county project. Don't want the competition. Which is a missed opportunity as the region is geographically positioned right between high population areas to sell said good to. With the tribal lands there are issues related to tribal governance that can make it more hassle than it's worth for a rich company. The Mississippi one I don't understand. Being so close to the both good agricultural land and navigable waterways would make me think they would be the processed food powerhouse of the country.

[@TheNewRevolution]

I grew up in poverty in Kentucky and had to leave to find economic opportunities. I still have family that live there. It's almost like the land time forgot. Nothing ever changes. It's extremely poor. Visiting I almost feel like I'm visiting another country. The culture is different. I can't imagine what my life would be like had I not left. Poverty is passed down from generation to generation.

[@thy1fallen]

As a fellow Kentuckyen thease may have been coal towns and the coal compenys left leaving them in poor shape and no flood protection and have had a bad flood this year, and to your point parts of the commonwealth of kentucky dont have great access grest education oopportunities

[@marieneu264]

I live in Louisville, KY and I find it heartbreaking that I lived such a different life than so many outside of our large city. It is like an entirely different world when we travel around the state for ballgames or other events.

[@anthonyp9184]

Michigan the murder mitten

[@newgrl]

If you want to see what Warren Jeffs, who is in prison for life+20 years in Texas, is all about, I believe Netflix UK has "Keep Sweet, Pray, and Obey" available. It's a documentary series covering Jeffs, his father Rulon, and the FLDS, and their downfall in Texas.

[@faithk13]

My dads from southwest Detroit and he said most of the homes were burned down/torn down because they were empty and being used as drug stash houses 🥴 it was incredibly unsafe. It’s definitely getting better throughout the years but still not the best

[@garyclements318]

Seriously, no mention of LA, skid row, San Francisco and Philadelphia.

[@amyhousewright6811]

And West Virginia is a huge mining town, coal mining, and that’s going away

[@Frau44]

The strangest vibe I got from a town was Salem Massachusetts. Weird vibes.😮

[@JohnRodriguesPhotographer]

King cotton still rules in Mississippi and Arkansas.

[@willlane2388]

Some areas have suffered because manufacturing has left the nation, leaving behind a region known as the Rust Belt. Huge plants, mills and facilities are abandoned and rusting away along with their corresponding towns.

[@wareagle8811]

Born and raised in Southeastern Kentucky, he's not wrong. Just fortunate my parents got me out of there when I was young. It's an incredibly beautiful area, but a very forgotten part of the country.

[@greatwhiteape6945]

Alcohol problem bad with the Eskimos in Alaska.

[@roscoe314]

Why urban blight in the US. For Decades, the Rural areas have had control over state legislatures and have drained the wealth from the cities. The cities are in Tax deficits. In KY, Louisville gets 71 cents of every dollar they pay in state taxes. Also the State legislature being dominated by people in the counties, do not approve projects aimed at improving the cities so urban areas are often run down and dilapidated.

[@roscoe314]

Also, the further south you go in the US the more likely the people in the poorest area are likely to work for the actual federal Minimum Wage.

[@roscoe314]

Unfortunately this is all Politics.

[@roscoe314]

And there is also the issue of school funding. The Urban schools have traditionally been the poorest performing. So, The US came up with the brilliant *sarcasm idea of giving even more money to schools that perform the best in testing.

[@roscoe314]

Low education and low wages go hand in hand.

[@j09j19]

You are correct about Detroit. The abundant production of the automobile manufacturers Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler in Detroit, Michigan, gave the city the nickname "The Motor City," sometimes shortened to "Motown," from which the record label Motown got its name because of the abundance of incredible music artists from that area. Detroit has been in decline for decades now because of decreased manufacturing production of cars and other goods.

[@godslayer1415]

uncompetitive vehicles no one wants... sounds familiar.

[@garycamara9955]

I actually dislike New York. My mother in law was from Buffalo, its on lake Erie.

[@veanell]

New Orleans that he showed are houses within the projects that were built poor by the government and were heavily hit by Katrina. A lot of new Orleans was not rebuilt

[@jaynepetersen454]

It used to be called "Detroit Motor City"

[@ThatShyGuyMatt]

Chicago is great, but mainly if you stick to the city itself where the skyscrapers are. If you go outside of the big city area, it's dangerous.

[@karenzigman45]

You two are the cutest couple!

[@dillkilltv3942]

Alot of native reservations are like these places

[@Steph.sMusic]

Yes, both southeast Kentucky and southern West Virginia are in poverty. I been to both places with my church, we've done Mission trips there to help deserving families. It's a sad thing to see with your own eyes that it's a completely different living situation from how we live, being the middle class from the suburbs of Philadelphia. I've worked in mostly trailer homes in both places and they just don't hold up very long, at the most 10 to 12 years, then they have to buy another one. The most I've seen on one lot is four. And it's a shame that ASP (Appalachian Service Project) that would help these people shut down their operation in West Virginia, so now there's no one to help the locals. They are still in operation in Kentucky as far as I know. Red Bird Mission which is the other that operates in south east Kentucky still helps families in their area.

[@cecilybilbrey8024]

The reservation is tough because Native Indian Reservations are sovereign nations unto themselves in the U.S. like Scotland is part of the U.K. but is ita own country and therefore is not subject to England's laws. Even U.S. Marshall's have no jurisdiction on the reservation . That means state and federal assistance is not really an option

[@wolfe6220]

Detroit's deterioration was a shame. There was some beautiful structures there. Now they're just rotting.

[@ronclark9724]

These abandoned homes had good bones, but unfortunately the poor that live there have stolen anything that could be sold... Thus these abandoned homes do not have good bones left anymore... The wiring, the pipes, the furnace, and the hot water heater are long gone...

[@runrafarunthebestintheworld]

@@ronclark9724 Homes bones. LoL. 😅

[@FEARNoMore]

Such a rich history lost. All it would take to revitalize is big companies giving the area another chance.

[@jeremyjdl713]

Those houses from new Orleans are called shotgun style houses. I grew up in the inner city in Houston Texas in a shotgun style house. These houses were modeled after the slave quarters plantation owners put up for the ppl they kept enslaved. Meaning these houses are barebone, the most basic ghetto house you can imagine. Glad I made it out of the hood, shit was hell 😂 lol

[@MontanaGMama]

Montana......Glacier National Park

[@nikkidelgado5843]

Alaska is one of the most beautiful states I visited. If you love an active lifestyle you should definitely visit Alaska.

[@wanderer85295]

Detroit reminds me of Beruit in the 1980s

[@haraldisdead]

The shit thing about poverty in America, is that you can't even go back to basics and do subsistence farming and live as peasants, because all land is owned by someone else, and everything is highly regulated.

[@defftony]

The place I was raised wasn't on this list but I joined the Airforce and left. The internet wasn't what it is today, and I was genuinely shocked to find out that the USA has more differences from 3rd world nations than just infrastructure. Anyone still living in one of these places and able to watch this video is able to leave and should. I'm not sure how sentiment is in other cities, but people not wanting to leave was a major issue. On the other side of things, our Air Force recruiter had the highest rates of people who ship to basic training remaining in the Airforce of all recruitment centers. I had to spend two extra weeks to get fit enough to pass the pushups and sit-ups, but at least I never had to worry about getting jumped or small meals and hand-me-down clothes or sleeping with no heat or real insulation in brutal winters etc.

[@JohnRodriguesPhotographer]

The blight in Detroit is the result of the automakers leaving town. With them a lot of infrastructure shut down.

[@blackoutj3ff]

The Salton Sea can viewed in all of it's wonderful splendor in the famous video game Grand Theft Auto V lol

[@rustydavis5017]

I Worked For a Company ( 37 Years ) That's Home Offices Were Close To Detroit , BUT They Would NEVER Allow You To Fly Into OR Out of Detroit Because of How Bad the Areas That You May Drive Though ........ No Joke .......

[@MrYabber]

The Automotive industry in Detroit was BOOMING from the 20s up until a certain point. The history of Detroit is complicated, I’d recommend watching how it fell apart because it is interesting. All types of car parts were produced there as well and that no longer happens.

[@lindadeters8685]

I’ve been to Colorado City twice. Both times we were followed by a police car from the time we entered till we left. The first time I got a speeding ticket for going 27 mph in a 25 mph zone. It was sooo creepy. We saw very few people, but felt lots of eyes on us.

[@waynes9275]

northern Wisconsin is also poor in allot of areas. Awesome for nature lovers but not so much for good income.

[@bigbabii3133]

I grew up in detroit. I used to go in that candy store as a kid. It's a few doors down from a church. It's getting better but it was difficult growing up there

[@chrissellers9091]

I do survey work in and around detroit. There's areas in the city where when you start digging, the first 6 inches is literal trash.

[@Murry20]

I live just outside Detroit. It's not pretty. But there are still great people there. I hope they continue to fix it up.

[@ptournas]

This is about large cities and rural areas. I grew up in a small city (population of about 100,000) just north of Boston called Lynn. When I young I learned an old short poem about the city that went: Lynn, Lynn, city of sin You never come out the way you came in You ask for water, but they give you gin The girls say no, but they always give in I didn't realize how far our bad reputation had spread until I lived in Las Vegas for a year and Southern California for a year when I was about 25. People would ask where I was from and when I said Lynn, Massachusetts, around a third of them would recite the poem back to me. I didn't think it was all that bad growing up, but maybe it was. We lived in a housing project for six years and for the first four years or so a police car patrolled the project every hour, 24 hours a day.

[@sassyscrofa1972]

I never knew the poem had four lines. I only ever heard the first two. I grew up in Newbury, a rural area between Rowley & Newburyport. As a kid I was always told that Lynn was a bad evil place full of drugs, crime & death. 💉👮‍♂💀 I'm old now (50) but still have never been to Lynn. When a place gets a rep like that, it sticks. 😬

[@ptournas]

@@sassyscrofa1972 It wasn't nearly as bad as it's reputation back then. It did have it's share of bad people, but even in the housing project I lived in, which was a place many kid's parents told them to never to go, the majority of the kids grew up to become respectable adults. I actually think it's a lot worse now than back then, despite all the improvements they've made attempting to lose that reputation. I don't enjoy going back visit any more. I was told years ago the poem came from sailors who would come to Lynn during the war, when their ships docked in Boston and Charleston, looking for bars and and women. Lynn had lots of bars and women! I think it was World War II, they were talking about, though it might have been World War I.

[@tonieltaylor7755]

It's nice now. I live on the beach. Come back. A lot of work is being done 😏

[@TheEWFX29]

Yeah I'm from New Bedford Ma. All those old mill cities have reputations as rough and a hard area. But compared to some places it isn't that bad. Sometimes its good to be from those areas if you move out. You know the BS and can deal with it better than people who haven't experienced such things can. It gives you a thicker skin and a better eye for BS.

[@manxkin]

I have an acquaintance in New Orleans who has an absolutely beautiful shotgun home. Yeah, Parts of Chicago are really bad. It’s an absolutely beautiful city…except for the ghettos! I live 35 miles from Chicago and never go to the city anymore because of the increasing crime. Really sad because I do love Chicago. The reservations that I’ve driven through are really shameful. Anyway. There’s a great disparity between wealth and poverty in the U.S.

[@JohnRodriguesPhotographer]

The rural poverty areas Kentucky West Virginia to an extent the result of the cold industry being forced by the government to shut down. That same government didn't think one bit about the thousands of people that relied on that industry for income. Education in those areas tends to be a low priority. Where are they going to go to work? There is no other infrastructure for them to work at.

[@halicarnassus8235]

15:45, Dogs are also a weapon of self protection. They exterminated all non Cult members dogs. 😢

[@mevrammcoyoteV8f150]

Definitely..Kansas..armpit of the Midwest..thanks

[@jordanhurd1988]

I live near Hildale/Colorado City and it is quite eerily quiet.

[@drowningincats3921]

Many ppl who aren’t from the States VASTLY underestimate our geographical size. Our size means you can find almost any environment here. Tropical looking beaches lined with the homes of millionaires? We got it. Snowy mountaintop populated with the dirt poor? We got it. High plains desert littered with the middle class? Check. Cities you can walk the streets at night and enjoy friendly nightlife? Yea. Cities where it’s not wise to leave ur house EVER? Yup. Massive classic plantation homes in the midst of swamps? Of course! Entire tent towns populated by the homeless with their own set of rules and enforcement? We got a few. Giant ancient trees that dwarf any other on earth? Those are here. A gigantic mirrored bean statue to represent a city? Do you even need to ask? You want to eat some raccoon in thick pine forest with filthy rich ppl who like to pretend they’re middle class? We have an entire State for that. You wanna travel out into the cold and snowy wilderness to live, and never want to see another human again? We call it Alaska. You want a literal tropical paradise? We call it Hawaii. The good, the bad, the ugly. We literally have it ALL.

[@drunkpacman]

Sometimes bigger companies will move into the low wealth areas because there are resources, but they will brinng and contract people to come in to work because the lack of education in the area.

[@license2kilttheplaidlad640]

Was expecting to see Slab City

[@ruth2141]

A lot of the New Orleans houses he shows are what they call "shotgun" houses. You said it looked like a caravan home, which I think is what is called a mobile home in the US. But these are permanent, woodframe houses, some more than 100 years old. Each room is the width of the house, no hallways, just one room after another. There are different stories about why they started being built and where the name came from, but some say it's because if you open all the outside and interior doors you can fire a shotgun and the bullet passes through all the doorways and out the back without hitting anything.

[@low-kei4655]

Born and raised in Detroit

[@lindacarroll6896]

Watch Lawrence's video when they thought they were in a shooting situation on Navy Pier.

[@stacyharris8725]

Here's a Form o

[@larryyeadeke2953]

Sometimes it's difficult to feel sorry for some of these people. They live in poverty but find money for booze and drugs. Like handing an anchor to a drowning man.