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What are the most beatdown places you've visited?

My two candidates are actually 'bad parts' of my hometowns . I've spent a pretty healthy amount of time in (the cheaper parts of) metropolitan areas but I have yet to stumble into anywhere I'd consider worse than:

Martinsville, VA... Fayette St & surrounding neighborhood. It had a pretty bad rep before the 25%+ unemployment hit but, at least, when I left the area about 5 years ago, there were a few blocks that I'm confident were as lawless as anywhere you'd care to find in this country. Some pretty crazy stories for a small area of a small town.

Richmond, VA... Nine Mile (projects, etc.)... This neck of the woods actually looks not-so-bad on the surface; underneath, though, there are a lot of similarities to the area I mentioned above. I had a wild personal experience there when I first moved to RIC (I'll spare you guys the 'is this real life?' racial story). It's a different world and it scares the shit out of me.
 
The outskirts of Agra, India. Get a mile or two away from the Taj Mahal and you will redefine your concept of poverty.
 
I've been in a lot of poverty stricken areas of the world, and spent a decent amount of time with families that live in garbage dumps living of off the scraps/trash that can be salvaged/sold.

Worst community I've been to is a community near the Lusutfu River on the side of the mountain that forms the border between Swaziland and Mozambique near Big Bend. The families that lived there used to live in the low veld near the river, but a sugar company came and took their land. When they asked where they should go - they were pointed to the nearby mountain. The terrain is too rocky to do any sort of subsistence farming - the only means of food outside of aid is whatever they happen to catch in the river (which is dangerously infested with hippo and crocs - and is pretty contaminated itself). The AIDS rate is over 90% - and because of this most don't even have the energy to try to fish.

I first met children from this community when I worked at a nearby school whose principal took 40 kids in and converted a couple of school rooms to dorms for the boys and girls to live - they would return home every 2 weeks to see they family and share whatever food they had saved. After 4 weeks with them, they took me back to see their families (for one girl, it was the first time she had been back since she became a double-orphan). I can remember when the thought crossed my mind that they would be so much better off living in the dump.
 
vtwhat etc said:
My two candidates are actually 'bad parts' of my hometowns . I've spent a pretty healthy amount of time in (the cheaper parts of) metropolitan areas but I have yet to stumble into anywhere I'd consider worse than:

Richmond, VA... Nine Mile (projects, etc.)... This neck of the woods actually looks not-so-bad on the surface; underneath, though, there are a lot of similarities to the area I mentioned above. I had a wild personal experience there when I first moved to RIC (I'll spare you guys the 'is this real life?' racial story). It's a different world and it scares the shit out of me.
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Brcko, Bosnia-Herzegovina
Baghdad, Iraq
East Berlin -- circa 1981
Lumberton, NC
Laurinburg, NC


Not necessarily in that order.

vtwhat -- My wife is from Martinsville. I agree with you that that town has definitely turned into Shitsville.
 
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19deac92 said:
Brcko, Bosnia-Herzegovina
Baghdad, Iraq
East Berlin -- circa 1981
Lumberton, NC
Laurinburg, NC


Not necessarily in that order.

vtwhat -- My wife is from Martinsville. I agree with you that that town has definitely turned into Shitsville.
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NEG. REP.
 
Urban meadows are not a good sign.

Sent from my SCH-I435 using Tapatalk
 
BobStackFan4Life said:
Anyone spent time in Detroit, East St. Louis, Bratislava, etc.
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lol at Bratislava being on that list, it's quite nice

As for truly poor places - I've spent time in the Caucasus, the "stans", etc - but rural India is a whole different level. Just heartbreaking to experience.
 
vadimivich said:
lol at Bratislava being on that list, it's quite nice

As for truly poor places - I've spent time in the Caucasus, the "stans", etc - but rural India is a whole different level. Just heartbreaking to experience.
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a buddy of mine spent time in mumbai for work and says the same. it was almost too much to take.
 
Laurinburg has an amazing array of fast food restaurants. Like all them, in a 5 square mile radius.
 
You think Lumberton and Laurinburg are bad, and then you go farther east.
 
ChrisL68 said:
You think Lumberton and Laurinburg are bad, and then you go farther east.
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Oh, you mean metropolises of the likes of Whiteville and Chadbourne? Yeah, I've been there, too. Bladenboro and Snow Hill are noteworthy as well.

To me, Laurinburg and Lumberton are just innovative in the way that they suck.

To paraphrase an old Mac Davis song, Happiness is Lumberton in my rear view mirror.
 
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