What is the seediest city in America?

Tampa

Aberdeen, WA

Hands down, LA.

Vegas

Four answers, and nobody showed their work. You all receive an F.

Los Angeles.

[quote] Four answers, and nobody showed their work. You all receive an F.

Your mom showed her work. But I asked for a refund.

R5, porno capital of the country; neon-lit liquor stores, marijuana dispensaries and XXX shops; the Hollywood industry. I can go on..

Los Angeles & Las Vegas by a landslide

New Orleans.

Palm Beach, just imagine the rotten seediness of Trump and his guests.

San Francisco

Newark, NJ. The whole damn place is run by dagos connected to the mob.

Montecito. For now.

San Diego SF Denver

R15, San Diego is seedy?

Pick any of the cities run by Democrats.

R16 yes its busted .. outside the main city its ghetto

Ventura County, California.

Seedy AF!

Ventura, CA

Away from the theme parks, Orlando. Seedy, seedy, seeeeeeeedy.

I can think of many "resort" towns. Key West. Atlantic City. Panama City. Venice.

Another vote for Los Angeles.

Just a thread that invites all the MAGAized Q-Brained Nutcases to go ".... oh all the libruhl Blue "woke" cities with heroin addicts shitting on the street... it's true, I saw it on Fox!!"

R13 - are you posting from the 1960s?

[quote] Pick any of the cities run by Democrats.

As opposed to the meth-ridden unemployment shitholes of rural MAGA America.

There's different types of seedy. L.A. is fascinating sort of seedy. Cities in places like florida or Texas are just a depressing type of seedy.

Los Angeles is one of the strangest places I've visited. I've been there twice now. It was like merciless sunshine and this horrible feeling of desperation underneath the glitzy parts. The rest is just a strip mall and you never feel safe. I did enjoy Venice beach and some of the natural beauty. A few people were surprisingly nice, a man at the gas station actually shook my hand when I said I was visiting. And I ran into the waitress who of course was an aspiring actress, but that was enjoyable.

R28 So accurate I’ve never been more depressed than in LA.

Columbus, Ohio is becoming a hellhole. Crime. Zero affordable Housing. You cannot go to the store without seeing 4 panhandlers. Bad Traffic. MAGA Country...

The Tenderloin in SF is classic seedy. No area is more desperate filled with human sadness and hopelessness.

Vegas should be wiped from the earth

Reno, NV

If you have to ask why, you have never been there.

That said, it is so unabashedly seedy that is borders on charmingly so.

I keep being drawn to Eureka, California, a medium-sized city on the northern coast. But it's miles from nowhere and people have said it's seedy.

R31 DTLA is like the Tenderloin on, well, crack. It’s the TL times 10. I recently moved back to San Francisco from LA will never bitch about it here again after living in DTLA. Los Angeles is such a gross town. San Francisco is beautiful and I’m so happy to be home. Never to roam again, as it were.

Atlantic City. NJ

What is the seediest anywhere, period?

Fresno?

Gary, Indiana

No NY?

Seattle..

Miami, FL. People from all over the world go there to escape whatever they are running from.

Phenix City!

Most of these cities have many redeeming qualities. If you want seedy, try any number of depressed / hopeless cities that have lost most of their industry…from large cities like Detroit and Indianapolis to smaller cities like Steubenville, Ohio. These are truly seedy places.

The Tenderloin (San Francisco) is, indeed, seedy, but it's a relatively small area.

New Haven, CT

Flint, Michigan....hands down.

Beats Detroit.

Beats Los Angeles.

Beats even the hollers in West Virginia.

This thread reeks of MAGAcunts. San Diego is a seedy city? Bitch, fucking please!

I grew up in "small town America" so I know that looks are deceiving. Closet alcoholics, incest, spousal and child abuse, Nazi sympathizers, cheese pizza... truly hateful and disgusting people. But most of the fences are freshly painted, most of the grass is freshly cut, and sometimes the flowers bloom.

Chicago is getting there with Lori Lightfool!

I understand the nature of people picking L.A., but it's just never struck me that way.

In fact, I've never felt any of the L.A. mythology - "Hollywood," noir, vanity, etc. It's always struck me as just a regular city - granted a very big one - but regular. Good areas, bad areas; and much more work-a-day than I ever imagined before going there.

R51, I think you just answered your own question; not that you asked. Your expectations of LA were low or reasonable, so you were not shocked and disappointed by Hollywood Boulevard, DTLA, etc.

How are we defining "seedy?" Chicago may be high crime, and parts very shitty, but I never think of it as "seedy."

LA wins. I think you have to live there for a few years to get a good feel of it, but it’s definitely seedy. I really think it’s because so much of the city moved there from somewhere else that it doesn’t feel like home. NYC is definitely seedy but NYers are proud to be NYers. Even lifelong Angelenos think LA is a dump.

But is it actually a dump? There seems to be many nice parts of the city. And what major city doesn't have shitty/dumpy parts? I'm not denying that LA can win the "seediest" trophy, but I'm trying to learn what truly sets it apart.

Portland

I'll take a stab on LA.

Good weather. Close to the beach. Beautiful and varied scenery. Higher concentration of good-looking people than most cities. Every so often you will see a movie being made (outdoors scene being shot). It's exciting.

For just an average Joe or Jane seeking glamor, probably soul-crushing, though.

Los Angeles residential neighborhoods are getting nicer. But the main thoroughfares (Sunset Blvd. Melrose Ave) have gotten disgusting with the demise of brick and mortar retail, the homeless, and young blacks smoking weed and littering everywhere.

[quote]Los Angeles is one of the strangest places I've visited. I've been there twice now. It was like merciless sunshine and this horrible feeling of desperation underneath the glitzy parts. The rest is just a strip mall and you never feel safe. I did enjoy Venice beach and some of the natural beauty. A few people were surprisingly nice, a man at the gas station actually shook my hand when I said I was visiting. And I ran into the waitress who of course was an aspiring actress, but that was enjoyable.

I swear this passage is written in every thread about LA.

I'm from LA and while I do think dark shit happens here, I wouldn't call LA seedy. I think Vegas or New Orleans have much more of a seedy, skeezy, transient vibe.

[quote] I'm from LA and while I do think dark shit happens here, I wouldn't call LA seedy. I think Vegas or New Orleans have much more of a seedy, skeezy, transient vibe.

Ditto, R59. In addition to the places you mention; I would add cities in the Rust belt: Toledo, Detroit or Gary, Indiana.

LA has the noir alley thing going on thanks to films and advertisements and such, but I don’t feel that reputation is as far deserved as MANY other places in the US.

Santa Monica was just named one of the unsafest cities in America(safewise.com). LA is a shithole and they can’t have nice things. Used to love Santa Monica.

Ocean City, MD

Let's expand the boundary just a bit and include Tijuana.

And if we can't have Tijuana, let's take El Paso as the next worst place.

I can’t believe no one’s mentioned San Bernardino yet

LA appears to be winning.

seattle

Least seedy major city? I'm voting Minneapolis. Of course there's crime and some no-so-great areas, but just doesn't strike me as "seedy" at all.

R68 San Diego's pretty neat.

Atlantic City is seedy.

But the real answer has to be something like East St. Louis or Camden.

Utica, NY

Baltimore if those John Waters' films are to be believed.

R55 I think it’s taken in totality. LA is fortunate to be where it is geographically so the weather is always nice. But LA has fallen apart because of poor planning and management. Same with Detroit and some of the other major cities listed. Some of these smaller cities have kinda never been the greatest places to live to begin with.

Camden, NJ

I think what gives LA its seedy reputation is the high concentration of famewhores. They come from all over in the hope of achieving stardom, but the odds are stacked against them. So, it's understandable that there's a pervasive feeling of desperation and eventual hopelessness because that's the place where so many dreams die. That amount of negative energy can surely bring down a location.

Also, as some psychologists have said: "It's the unofficial capital for narcissists."

I wouldn't argue that many of the above are unqualified as good candidates.

New Orleans is a city that should be a great, and is in its history and architecture and cultural contributions. Among the near abandonment of responsibility for large swaths of the city and it's people, another sad element is that it's so much a land of broken or vastly diminished dreams of people who loved there for the easy good times and then grow old and pickled with cheap booze, jumping from part-time job selling cock rings and lighters, or scrubbing hamburger grills at restaurants in the wee hours. There seem to be large numbers of people who moved there hoping to fall in with 9ts attributes but who got pushed to the periphery to barely scrape by. It wears even worse with age and there's lots of that to be seen as well.

"Um, gurl .... Hell-oooooo!"

[quote] Pick any of the cities run by Democrats.

They’re so immoral.

Memphis.

Read some of the YouTube comments on this video. It's bananas. None of you even have to play the video, just pause it and read the comments.

Memphis has gotten soo bad that a comedic amount of cars have fake drive out tags for ages. Why? If you steal a car you have no way of obtaining a proper license plate so just buy a fake paper drive out tag on Facebook and put it where the proper one should go. Case solved.

This is an interesting discussion. I think when we talk about "seedy" - of course there's crime and "shittiness" as part of that, but also elements of corruption, desperation, an overall vibe that makes you feel uneasy.

Not to harp on LA, and again I can understand it "winning" the title, but LA to me doesn't have an overall seedy vibe, and the desperation from broken entertainment industry dreams is such a small part of the city, even if that's what it's known for. Maybe my whole LA-isn't-that-bad thing is because most of my visits have included seeing my friend who is from there, who grew up there, has a lot of family there. Being with him and his family - nurses, transit workers, academic administrators, government workers - really underscored how "normal" L.A. could be. Plus, even though I've seen what we'd consider "seedy" in parts of L.A., I've never had a general sense of unease in the city. Though if you're just visiting, as I have many times, and not living there, it's fairly normal to avoid the worse of a city/metro area. That's why a lot of smaller, struggling cities - rust belt, etc. - while probably very seedy, don't get a lot of votes because not many people have reason to visit.

If you are talking about Downtown LA and certain pockets, yes it's seedy. As for other areas, you people are crazy.

There's a reason many sections are filled with wealthy people.

Re: "LA has a depressed vibe because of all the 'boulevard of broken dreams' of people that came to Hollywood to be a star"... that's just pulp fiction. LA (as put forward in one of the many other LA threads) is immigrant landing zone (the way NYC used to be in the Ellis Island days) - more Koreans than anyplace outside of Korean, biggest Mexican city other than Mexico City, more Armenians than anyplace outside of Armenia, more Guatemalans and Salvadorans than anyplace... more Russians... more Samoans... more Nigerians... more Persians... more Filipinos... etc etc. LA seen through the lenses of these massive immigrant communities isn't even remotely "I came to LA to be in movies, but now I'm selling my ass for crack..." vibe.

Is it possible for a town to be on the skids and on the decline but NOT seedy? Seedy = sordid and disreputable. I remember some run down towns in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Way upstate NYS, that were on the skids but not especially seedy.

Cairo is an immense city with some very very poor parts but they aren't seedy. Same with Abidjan.

[quote]Being with him and his family - nurses, transit workers, academic administrators, government workers - really underscored how "normal" L.A. could be.

That doesn't change the fact that L.A. is a one industry town --- movies and television.

Portland is the most perverted yet most sexless city I've ever visited.

R85, international shipping/logistics is sort of its own industry. All that cheap crap from China washes ashore here first.

Yeah I agree with New Orleans and DTLA - actually many parts of LA. Both have stunningly beautiful areas - and the seediness is part of the attraction. But the desperation and hopeless, broken down old people are key elements of the “seediness”. In contrast, many cities like Detroit, Camden, Newark don’t seem “seedy” - just poor.

Parts of Fort Lauderdale seemed seedy to me too. Walking outside the strip of Wilton Manors I noticed some increasingly seedy neighborhoods/vibes. Probably true of much of Florida.

Los Angeles’s seediness is a result of its two defining factors: its size and its climate. Because the city is so large and low-density, there are many more smaller, cheaply built structures than a high density city like New York or Washington. Additionally, because the climate is warm and dry, many older structures which would have been replaced or better maintained in cities which experience precipitation or snow, have outlasted their sell-by date. There are a number of websites and IG accounts devoted to the wonderful tacky old buildings of Los Angeles.

Detroit, surely.

And Trenton?

I'd agree with others that the poverty-stricken, crime-ridden, unsafe cites like Camden, Newark, Detroit, aren't necessarily high on the "seedy" list, though "seedy" has different facets and not everyone is thinking about the same thing when they talk about "seedy." If it's JUST crime and poverty then we don't need to do anything but consult stats.

Most of the northeast has the most depressing cities I’ve ever seen… Syracuse Rochester Portland Maine Burlington New Haven Hartford Waterberry Kingston New York Buffalo Springfield Massachusetts etc. etc.

[quote] Los Angeles’s seediness is a result of its two defining factors: its size and its climate.

Climate also affects the homeless population. If it's a temperate climate, there will probably be more homeless / poverty-stricken people on the streets.

[quote]What is the seediest city in America?

Why, Warminster, Pennsylvania, of course!

Home of W. Atlee Burpee & Co!

I don't think it's LA's physical size alone but it's generally lower density levels.

"Seedy" clearly has different meanings to different folk. I think for most it means poverty, run down buildings. But those extoling LA as the Seedy Capitol of the World are posting something more, I think.

Charles Bukowski, Guns and Roses welcome to the jungle, Nathanial West, Raymond Chandler... a mélange of architecture - Spanish Colonial revival, next to West Hollywood Door, next to Disney fairy tale castle, next to stucco mid-century rancher, next to Okie frame bungalow.... all falling apart in picturesque ways.

For reference... NYC (Manhattan) was epically seedy in the 70s... a cesspool of drugs, art, unwashed bodies, crime... fertile ground. After HIV decimated the queer kids and Giulani stop-and-frisked his way to making Time Square World a sanitized tourist trap... NYC lost its edge. There's still poverty on the island, but the "seedy Glory" is gone.

Stockton, CA

West Haven CT. High unemployment rates and everyone just hangs out in malls, cheap steakhouses and in empty lots smoking reefer or meth.

I posted the definition above. Words have meanings. Seedy does not mean poor.

New Yorkers - where is the area around JFK airport. Is it Jamaica Queens or something? You all are going on and on about LA, but the area around the airport is seedy as hell. I had to spend a night there before a flight and it was scary to leave the hotel. Queens has more seed than the Wrigleyville Cumdump.

Lots of the LA area seems seedy--the airport area, lots of the 50s suburbia esp. where there aren't trees--San Gabriel & San Fernando Valleys. Much of teh Inland Empire.

Memphis is really dumpy and has a bit of unease to it---I remember that it reminded me of Detroit before the hipsters started moving there.

Burlington & Portland ME are hardly seedy.

New Orleans includes good seedy and bad seedy.

LA is 500 square miles- nice areas, and seedy areas. And to the idiot that said it's basically show business, you can add tech, healthcare and insurance.

The Inland Empire is not even LA County

R80 "Plus, even though I've seen what we'd consider 'seedy' in parts of L.A., I've never had a general sense of unease in the city."

On your next visit suggest you stroll from the Greyhound Terminal into Downtown L.A.

I’ve lived in LA for thirty years and, yes, there are some seedy areas, viz., near LAX, especially along Century Blvd near La Cienega and farther east into Inglewood. Downtown LA south of Union Station and near Little Tokyo (containing Skid Row and the bus terminal) is probably the seediest. But the rest of LA? Not really any seedier than other mega cities. And whoever keeping referring to broken dreams of entertainment wannabes – that’s an outdated trope. Modern LA is aerospace, healthcare, tech, banking, supply chain logistics.

My vote is Vegas. Away from the resorts, even just one street in either direction from the Strip, are exotic dancing clubs, adult bookstores, strip malls, tired hookers and street hustlers, and none of the polish of the resorts. No pedestrians, except the prostitutes.

Other cities have far more ominous bad vibes than LA. Ever been to Youngstown, Canton, or Steubenville, Ohio? Erie, PA? Those cities reek of seediness, primarily because of neglect of buildings, capital flight, and high unemployment.

"On your next visit suggest you stroll from the Greyhound Terminal into Downtown L.A."

I've been DTLA and it was seedy. My main point was that I can't see LA overall as the seediest city in America.

[quote]LA is 500 square miles- nice areas, and seedy areas. And to the idiot that said it's basically show business, you can add tech, healthcare and insurance.

Really? I've heard many people say that New York is more diversified while L.A. is basically a one industry town. I guess they were lying or didn't know what they were talking about. How do tech, insurance and health care compare, in terms of income generated, to movies, TV and the music industry?

I hear people say? Thanks Donald.

You might check out Google's 900,000 SF in Playa Vista for starters.

R106 And I was responding to a poster who said he'd "never had a general sense of unease" in L.A. I've actually done that walk and "general sense of unease" is a polite phrase for downright scary, especially towards dark.

Anyone with sense isn't around that area to start with. Greyhound bus terminal? It hardly defines LA.

Any border town next to or adjacent to Juarez, MX. So basically the Texas border towns.

Still the most dangerous place in America, and hundred upon hundreds of bodies are found dumped there like trash, such as the Maquiladoras’ female employees, men, kids and even animals.

It’s serial killer heaven and everyone knows it but does zero about it. Never will either, because of the cartels.

R110 Like it or not, that bus terminal does define the city for a lot of people. Initial impressions never fade away.

Atlantic City

The only people getting work in Hollywood are…

Mindy Kaling.

Because brown/female is so in right now. Regardless of talent. Literally.

Mindy Kaling is so deeply foul.

I avoided Secret Sex Lives... because it was hyped as her project. A friend told me that she wasn't in it, so I watched and it was funny.

Have never understood Mindy Kaling’s popularity.

She’s not a good actress. She’s had two children discretely; yet she is often in the public’s face.

What is it about this woman that enthralls people?

How did this thread devolve into a discussion of Mindy Kaling? Some posters here love to drag everything into a race conversation.

Mindy is annoying but not seedy, so really off-topic. Let's get back to trashing LA and its environs. It obviously strikes a nerve which makes it fun!

Baltimore

Omg def Baltimore

R118 Of course it strikes a nerve. All these 70s queens on DL moved there in 1978.

Port cities were always the seediest. Sailors and floozies. New York, San Francisco, New Orleans and Savannah. Hamburg and Marseilles. Saigon, Hong Kong and Shanghai.

Coco Beach Florida?

Floozies, R122? Is it the 1920s?

R122 Has a point. A scuzzy waterfront with dive bars, prostitutes, and lost souls... would be required for the Seediest City in America.

Kenilworth, IL. Nothing but trash!

Bend, OR, soon to be destroyed by volcano

Is there just one failed actor in here that keeps shitting on LA and replying to themselves? Yes, downtown, Inglewood, Venice are seedy. But there are a TON of great places like Brentwood, Pacific Palisades, Pasadena to name a few. The beach, the mountains, the sunshine. There is always something to do and I NEVER felt unsafe outside of driving through parts of downtown.

Just Flyoverstans jelly that they can't even afford an Inglewood rental. Nothing to see, but gin and regrets.

R128 NEVER feel unsafe on those freeways? You must be driving a cement mixer.

You've been worried about getting carjacked on the 405?

R82, I'm reminded of Miss Bernhard when she was relevant. "I wanted to see the morning light shining off our lady of the harbour on to all the Korean grocers as they stock their salad bars." Upspeak before we knew what it was.

Atlantic City and Jacksonville FL are both garbage.

R13= Archie Bunker

Jelly? You're so trendy, R129.

I’ve dreamed of visiting Pasadena CA ever since i was a child and would watch the Tournament of Roses parade on TV.

Ooh, Jacksonville is sort of a good choice. I've been there and can see it a bit, though I didn't really get deep into the city to confirm seediness.

San Francisco, LA, New Orleans, Portland, and Seattle are beautiful cities with great areas and some areas are not so great. The places where I have physically felt unsafe and I almost got mugged once, was in the Tenderloin, SF - passing through to get to SOMA and shouldn't have walked. Someone attempted to steal my bag in Seattle, walking up from Pioneer Square to Capitol Hill. I felt unsafe in parts of Memphis and definitely knew I was being cased in NOLA walking on one of the lesser known streets of the French Quarter up near Esplanade.

That being said, there's nothing quite like the desperation I felt in Gallup, NM. Probably the most depressing town I've ever passed through and I felt completely unsafe there filling up at a off-brand gas station which I think may have been owned by the reservation people. They did not want me there and I got out of there as fast as possible.

Texas border towns haven’t been seedy since the 50s. The extreme policing of the borders has made the American border towns some of the safest in Texas. Crime is lower than most major US cities. Again, they may be poor - but not seedy. Just a lot of poor immigrants struggling to survive - most with strong work ethic and absolute fear of doing anything illegal in case they get caught. The Mexican side border towns are where the crime is.

I think some people do not understand what "seedy" means. Seedy means shabby or run down. Las Vegas is not seedy. There are sections that are somewhat run down, but overall it's very modern and clean. Much of Los Angeles is quite seedy, especially the huge area in the LA basin (the flat lands as I call it). It's very industrial and forgotten in appearance, as if nothing has changed in the last 50 years. Everything is paved over in concrete and no amount of palm trees (which almost 100% of the palms in LA were planted there and did not grow there naturally), can spruce it up. No city I've ever visited so disappointed me as much as LA did the first time I visited on my own as an adult. At least you don't have to travel far to get away from the seediness of LA. Within a short time you can be in absolute paradise.

Every big city has seedy areas. San Francisco certainly has them, but even San Francisco overall is far more beautiful than LA. The flora all over San Francisco helps to soften even the seedy areas.

Somewhere in Mississippi I should think.

141 responses in an no honorable mention of Philadelphia?

Jackson, Mississippi?

Downtown Atlanta is downright scary.

Brownsville, NYC

LA is always mentioned in these types of threads. Probably because everyone who mentions LA is an insecure New Yorker.

New York sucks. It's seedy because it's a playground for the rich and the soul is non-existent.

New York is the seediest city in America.

I'll take LA any day over NYC.

Some of the townships you pass through on the Amtrak from Seattle to Portland looked like Deliverance

I thought it’d be scenic 🙄

R147 Most of Oregon and Washington are horrible rednecks and definitely deliverance

But this thread isn't about small-town seediness, there are thousands or millions of seedy towns in the USA, too many to list!

Keeping the discussion to cities might help us narrow the possibilities, and I'm thinking New Orleans, myself. It's not a place where people with ambition go (or stay), it's been fading for decades if not centuries. If anything is the opposite of seediness, it's the possibility of a bright future.

I don't mind a little seediness in a city -- gives it some edge.

[quote]If you want seedy, try any number of depressed / hopeless cities that have lost most of their industry…from large cities like Detroit and Indianapolis to smaller cities like Steubenville, Ohio. These are truly seedy places.

I'll throw Chester, Pennsylvania, into the ring, then. Terrifying. It's like Baltimore with the good parts edited out.

Seedy towns photograph well in nocturnal pics

Parts of Philadelphia are quite seedy. Not downtown though. Not anymore. I live and work in South Philadelphia and I walk to the local Target/CVS sometimes after work. There’s several parking lots underneath the expressway and it’s Druggie Central. Begging you to give them money for drugs. In the summer the area can reek of piss and unwashed asses. One day I caught a guy shooting up behind the Staples. I quickly went across the street. Needles and condoms, broken whiskey bottles.

Denver. The 16th Street Mall is like a scene out of a depressing post-apocalyptic film most nights. Denver attracts people who couldn't make it in a real city so that adds us add edge to everything as well.

Actually, that’s not what seedy means, R140

Seedy isn’t just run down or poor, not in popular parlance. It’s a sense of moral decrepitude, of sleaze, of vices, hustlers, porn shops, drugs, hot sheet hotels…an underbelly simmering, probably with some corruption and organised crime.

Around Times Square, circa 1970s/80s, embodies it. So does Hollywood Boulevard.

1970/80s

People’s definition of seedy is definitely all over the place. But still interesting to read. To me Chester and Philadelphia aren’t seedy - just poor. And like LA, Philly has some beautiful parts and some poor parts but with less homeless issues.

New Orleans and Marseilles as port cities seem to conjure the image of “seedy” to me. IMO, it has an undertone of sexual squalor - not just poverty and desperation.

I regularly go through Penn Station in New York. Although the new Moynihan Hall is gorgeous, the area around it is genuinely speedy. I regularly see guys with needles in their arms. Last week, a woman stood in the staircase of the subway with two needles in her tits....never seen that before.

Reno, NV

The gambling, the whores, the pawn shops, the bad shrimp.

Good old seediness doesn't exist anymore in an age of free internet pron, ubiquitous cameras etc. The anonymity that made seedy areas fun is gone. You only get the sordid part now without the redeeming features.

R17, report to R24 for your bead reading.

Seedy at night = "the streets are dark with something more than night"

Imperial Beach, California. Meth Central. Most of the drug dealers are connected to white nationalist terrorist organizations. Big military population that is transient. The people who are permanent? Not the salt of the earth, more like the raw sewage.

Is there ANY city in America that doesn't have a seedy neighborhood/section where the poorest people congregate? That's the way it is in America unless you live in some kind of separate, gated community. The same cities can have beautiful neighborhoods too where you'd be happy to live.

Can you point to any city that is 100% seedy, all over? That I'd be interested to hear about.

R163 It was mentioned above. Although it does have some newer "box stores" on the edges, Gallup NM has an epic sadness to it... pervasive.

"Can you point to any city that is 100% seedy, all over? That I'd be interested to hear about. "

Maybe some non-coastal smaller cities, ravaged by the loss of industry and population, meth, opioids. But, I can't think of a larger city that people would actually have reason to visit.

People are getting the meaning of seedy wrong. It means places teeming with life (and most of the time, not necessarily clean or legal) that have an undertone of depravity (sexual and otherwise), crime, grime, etc.

A great example is Times Square in the 70s/early 80s or (in history) major port cities (Marseille, Seville, New Orleans, Naples).

The rust belt cities mentioned are not seedy, they're just poor and sad.

* teeming with life and money.

R166, did you just make up that definition of seedy?

[quote]"Can you point to any city that is 100% seedy, all over? That I'd be interested to hear about.

Gary, Indiana fits the bill.

It makes an indelible impression on anyone who passes through/by it via highways, but I have never heard anything about the place that wasn't awful. There are only 19 single-houses or condos of any sort for sale priced at $200,000 or more. The highest is $815K, and second place comes in at $300K cheaper than that, neither beautiful. Nor are the buildings in its historic district beautiful or especially interesting.

He didn't make up that definition of seedy. Half of you are so far up your own asses and deep in your own navels, and have been or several decades, that you deny the existence of DICTIONARIES and that words have assigned meanings. A definition is not an OPINION.

You sure are a fool, R170.

"connected with activities that are illegal or morally wrong, and often looking dirty or unpleasant"

illegal OR morally wrong

The definition fits poor cities with lots of crime.

Learn to read, R170.

"Sordid and disreputable" is another definition.

"Sordid": involving ignoble actions and motives; arousing moral distaste and contempt.

"Disreputable": not considered to be respectable in character or appearance.

OF course there's dictionary definitions and "seedy" as used encompasses much of those definitions. But these definitions do vary somewhat. Plus, there's also popular usage, isn't always dictionary correct, but it does help form people's understanding of a term.

I guess the mistake on this thread was that the OP didn't set out the exact definition of seedy he wanted to be considered.

Portland, OR

Legal stripping, slots in bars, dirty bookstores galore.

"Seedy isn’t just run down or poor, not in popular parlance. It’s a sense of moral decrepitude, of sleaze, of vices, hustlers, porn shops, drugs, hot sheet hotels…an underbelly simmering, probably with some corruption and organised crime."

Yes! But IMHO one of the things that defines seediness is that seediness lacks the energy to become truly dangerous - it takes energy and ambition to form a really dangerous gang or to become top drug lord of your city! But the seedy ones may steal or sell something that's easy pickings, but they're no more going to rise in the underworld than they are in the real world. Seedy is lazy.

Just so we all have an understanding…

Every dictionary has its own definition, R175.

[quote] Reno, NV

[quote] The gambling, the whores, the pawn shops, the bad shrimp.

Reno has been cleaned up in the last 10-15 years and now has a booming economy. Downtown is rapidly being gentrified and cleansed of all of its seedy motels (thanks to a Trumpian developer that has torn a lot of them down in the last 2 years for a downtown entertainment district, which is kind of sketchy and another story entirely). There are still plenty of seedy gambling halls here, but hordes of people are moving here from California and elsewhere (no state income taxes, nice climate, and lots of recreational activities).

Newark NJ

Needles, CA

I Vote Victorville Ca. Where seedy meets the Mojave. A truly desperate place. Cleaning up Reno is putting lipstick on a Pee Eye gee. Reno is good place to gamble though. The climate will drive one indoors most of the year. Same for Vegas. Vegas has got some olympic contender seed in the hoods around the strip.

I think Barstow is seedier and more despondent than Victorville.

Whatever city the Michigan kidnap Gretchen Whitmer crew is from

Yes, R12, San Francisco. What a shitshow (literally) of ugly people and ugly streets.

r8 Is most american porn made in Los Angeles?

I thought most porn was made in the San Fernando Valley, eg. Chatsworth.

Don’t commit to your answer until you’ve seen Garberville, California. I’ve seen homeless people sprawling in filthy tents on sidewalks, screaming city schizophrenics, guys with T-shirts that say If you don’t love the flag GET OUT, rural cafes where every head turned and every conversation stopped when I opened the door because I wasn’t One of Them, and Garberville slithered below them all. That place gave me a case of the willies I will never forget.

The Benbow Inn near Garberville is a charming place to get away to.

So its billboard has indicated, R187. I’m speaking of the town. It’d be nice to learn I got a very wrong impression the one time I went through there.

Another vote for Tampa.

Convicted felons everywhere. The women have more tattoos than the men. Adult businesses on every corner. Just awful.

The article is 10 years old, but probably still holds up today.

A gang of homeless runs the streets of Olympia, WA

R184, the Valley was porn central right up until the 2000s(?) It's still a big deal, but not as much because of amateur porn sites, OnlyFans, etc.

OK thanks r192 I have noticed that a lot of british gay porn stars who do work in the US seem to film in Los Angeles but far from all.

Los Angeles.

Try living here for five minutes and you'll find out why.

Lompoc

Chavs luv LA. They hate SF and Boston

LA is a dump

Vegas.

Seattle.

Dirty heroin needles everywhere.

Reading, PA

Wherever Liberty U is. Those are some heavy duty pervs.

Atlantic Seedy

Columbus Ohio is working on it. The crime is out of control---multiple shootings every weekend and the city hired a black woman to fix it, who has ZERO idea of what she is doing.. Traffic is a nightmare. The Republicans are ruining the state. You cannot go to a supermarket without at least 3 panhandlers hitting you up. Video from Columbus Police Department.