#worsttowns

[randomtowns]

25 Worst, Rebutted

Continuing the list from the previous post. In that previous post, I found most of the towns on the USA Today list to be not deserving of their place. There seemed to be a particular bias against Georgia. Others were expected, and others were obvious given their statistics. All of these trends continue for the top 25 worst places to live as follows. Let’s get started with more Georgia bashing...

Avon Park, FL Been there? No

Avon Lake is one of a string of towns along US 98 south of Orlando. It features several housing developments from the 1950s, where unchecked land speculation created networks of streets plotted in otherwise undesirable stretches of land, offering housing sites with little or no infrastructure just on their location in Florida. Coastal Florida is one thing, but its inland is another entirely. It’s an agricultural region, with cattle ranching and timber vital regional industries. That sort of industry often creates what exists here: a large community of poor with just a few in the wealthy ownership classes. The article points to Avon Park's nearly 20% unemployment rate, and that 1/3 of its residents are below the national poverty line. Its also adjacent to a bombing range that bears its name.

Lawrenceville, GA Been there? Yes

Lawrenceville is a bit of a microcosm of how the Atlanta suburbs, particularly in Gwinnett County, have changed in the past 20 years. It developed as a bedroom community for the city early on, with its easy access to freeways, but gradually saw an influx of African-Americans and Latinos, changing the dynamic of the area and bringing down housing values. Lawrenceville now has a poverty rate of over 21%, and the article likely zeroes in on the town due to its higher cost of living being so close to Atlanta, and it has one of the highest median home values for any town on the list.

Winton, CA Been there? No

Winton is a small, unincorporated town located on the railroad tracks between Merced and Turlock. Like many towns in the region, it’s majority Latino (71%) and is focused on agriculture. The article points to its high 20% unemployment rate and its staggering 24% poverty rate. Looking on StreetView, it looks like a nice enough town, with well-kept middle-class homes and no real signs of blight. Even its downtown area looks pretty healthy. I couldn’t find much info on why Winton has such poor numbers, so it would be interesting to talk to people to find out what’s going on here.

Phelan, CA Been there? Yes

Yes, there had to be at least one town from this region on this list. Maybe I’m just not getting it, but the High Desert region north of San Bernardino, anchored by Victorville, has always seemed like such an awful place to live. Phelan is a network of unzoned neighborhoods etched into the desert, centered on a couple of strip malls north of Highway 138. Phelan’s median home price is the highest on the list, at over $200,000. It’s too close to the Inland Empire to reap the benefits of cheap desert land. People come out to buy acreage and to not live on top of one another. But there are few services, as pointed out by the article, and it’s still a poor area, with an 18% poverty rate.

Robstown, TX Been there? No

Robstown is a small town just outside Corpus Christi. Robstown is 93% Hispanic, most of them poor, as it has a 41% poverty rate, one of the highest on this list. Robstown has several colonias on its fringes. Colonias are federally-recognized neighborhoods, usually in incorporated areas, where housing is substandard and infrastructure, such as clean water, is lacking. Robstown is also reported as having a crime issue, something that was disputed formally by city officials, which seems to have caused the mention of it to be removed, but its ranking mostly unchanged.

Douglas, AZ Been there? Yes

Aw, Douglas... It’s an isolated border community in Cochise County. Yes, it’s a dumpy town with a lot of abandonment. And the article points out that it’s poor, with a 29% poverty rate. Douglas was an important mining and railroad town through much of the 20th century. In the later part of the last and into this century, the community saw an economic boom from the Border Patrol and the influx of retirees. But this is waning, and the town is estimated to have lost 8% of its population in 2018. Douglas’ fortunes may have changed.

Buenaventura Lakes, FL Been there? No

A large neighborhood south of Orlando and east of Disney World that has been lumped into its own CDP. The area looks nice enough, with sweeping suburban streets lined with middle-class homes, several parks and even a library branch. But the article points out the tough realities: the median income here is well below the national rate while its proximity to Orlando means its cost of living in relatively high. The article points to a lack of supermarket access, but I counted two on the north side of the community and two to its south, including a Publix. This may seem like the town is undeserving, but the crime rate here is also 49% higher than the national average. The neighborhood is heavily Hispanic, with 44% reporting Puerto Rican heritage and 69% reporting speaking a language other than English in the home. This is not the first time we’ll see the Orlando area on here.

Chaparral, NM Been there? Yes

I remember reading about Chaparral years ago. The author had heard about the community, and drove through it, noting the menacing looks he received from people and the run-down nature of the community. It’s a small community etched into the Chihuahuan Desert north of El Paso, just over the state line. Its proximity to Fort Bliss likely means it’s largely reliant on it for employment. And its straddling of both state and county lines means that services are likely lacking, particularly police protection. But the article points to a sobering fact: the poverty rate here is over 43%, the highest on the list and making it one of the poorest places in the country.

Immokalee, FL Been there? No

Unlike its neighbor, Lehigh Acres, who also makes an appearance on this list, Immokalee is an agricultural community established as a railroad town in the 19th century. Immokalee has continued to grow as local tomato farming has flourished, but the town remains horribly poor, with a poverty rate of 42%, which makes it potentially the poorest town in Florida. The population is just 3% white, with the majority (70%) being Hispanic. This is made more ironic by the location of Ave Maria, a newer, very wealthy, Catholic planned community, started by the founder of Domino’s Pizza, just a few miles south of Immokalee. The town additionally sits adjacent to Seminole tribal lands, and they’ve put in a casino on the south side of town.

Lancaster, SC Been there? No

We had to have at least one South Carolina town on the list. Lancaster sits between Charlotte and Columbia, well east of Interstate 77. Andrew Jackson, the controversial president more associated with Tennessee, was born here. With a university campus and a number of historic sites, it seems like Lancaster would be okay, but it is horribly poor. The article lists a 34% poverty rate, a 15% unemployment rate, and points out that half of the town’s residents live on less than $31,000 per year.

Micco, FL Been there? No

Coastal Florida on the list? The article seems to hit Micco on its opioid death rate. The income levels are somewhat misleading as it’s largely a retiree community, with a median age of 69, and mostly composed of mobile home communities, including the massive Barefoot Bay development at the CDP’s northern edge. Most of the community is a few unrelated neighborhoods, with its commercial core along Highway 1. Brevard County in general is known to suck, but I’m not sure that Micco should be singled out as the suckiest.

Berea, SC Been there? Yes

Located just northwest of Greenville, Berea seems like any suburban area, with a mix of middle-class and mobile homes. The article mainly hammers on the 25% poverty rate, and with a reasonable median home price, that does potentially cause issues. In driving through (I believe this is the location of the Walgreens where the cashier seemed horrified that I was buying condoms), I recall it being a little run-down, but not particularly poor. But there may be more going on here than what’s in the numbers or what can be seen from the roads.

Laurinburg, NC Been there? No

Laurinburg sits near the South Carolina state line about 50 miles southwest of Fayetteville. Despite being an education center, with the Laurinburg Institute preparatory school and St. Andrews University located within town, the article points out that the town is flush with poverty. Over 1/3 of its residents are below the poverty line, and the unemployment rate sits at 14%. Additionally, the town has had a long streak of stagnated growth, growing less than 1% between 2000 and 2010, and losing an estimated 5% of its population between 2010 and 2018. The town seems to have crime issues as well, with above-average rates. Until 2019, the town regularly appeared on “most dangerous towns” lists for North Carolina.

Beverly Hills, FL Been there? No

Beverly Hills is a small CDP of mostly a namesake neighborhood located about 90 minutes north of Tampa, between Highways 19 and 41. The crime rate is slightly elevated, the unemployment rate is above average, and the poverty rate is very high, at 28%. Looking at the median home value plus a general StreetView scan, I think this has to do with the late 2000s real estate crash hitting this isolated exurb particularly hard, and it’s just had a slow but steady comeback. Low home values are going to inevitably attract lower-income people, and lower-income people often mean elevated crime rates. This doesn’t seem to be a particularly bad town though, especially when you consider how generally awful this mess of sprawl that oozes north from Tampa is in terms of quality of life. So I don’t know why this area was singled out. Residents seem to agree, as an article published in response to this in a local paper printed incensed responses from local officials and a valid general criticism of these lists.

Silver Springs Shores, FL Been there? No

Located just outside Ocala, the CDP is mainly a neighborhood. The article again points out high unemployment and a poverty rate also above 28%. And I think the same is happening here: a hard crash in home values and a slow recovery has depressed the community, resulting in elevated crime (making recovery harder) and a lower income rate. On StreetView, it’s easy to see that there are still a number of abandoned homes in the area, with others appearing run-down or not maintained. Again though, it’s a little unfair to single out a downtrodden neighborhood in a crappy part of Florida, so I don’t know that this needs to have its place in the search engine dynamic ruined by this appearance.

Shady Hills, FL Been there? No

The article may just be trying to prove my point about the rural counties north of Tampa being particularly crappy. Unlike nearby Beverly Hills though, I think this one is a little more deserving. There are A LOT of abandoned and dilapidated homes in this area. A lack of zoning and sensible development has left the area all over the place in terms of what’s around, but it’s mostly small houses and mobile homes. The article doesn’t like its elevated poverty rate (ironically well below that of both Beverly Hills and Silver Springs Shores) or lack of services, and points out a slightly elevated drug death rate. I don’t know that anyone is going to be upset about its place here unless they are trying to sell local property.

La Homa, TX Been there? No

Let’s get off the Deep South’s back and go back to bashing poor sections of Texas. 38% poverty and 14% unemployment are striking without the context of the region. La Homa is a CDP on the western edge of the Rio Grande Valley’s urban area. It’s pretty much all colonias (see Robstown above), but appears to mostly have running water, trash collection, and paved roads. The population is over 97% Hispanic. If you’re familiar with this region, then none of this will be particularly surprising. The Valley is a tremendously poor region of mostly recent immigrants and first-generation citizens. Services are few, economic opportunities fewer, and it’s a pretty depressing place to live, it seems.

Conyers, GA Been there? Yes

Conyers is a majority-black suburb of Atlanta and the county seat of Rockdale County. Its place on the list mostly seems to be due to its poverty rate, at 30%, and it’s slightly elevated median home price, which means that it’s likely a large portion of residents are spending way too much on rent. In fact, the article also points out that the homeownership rate in Conyers is just 28%. It’s a small, middle-class bedroom community, but it also has a sizable retail district with its place on Interstate 20. It doesn’t seem particularly poor or particularly bad for Georgia. In fact, its location among pine-covered hills is attractive. However, it does have a crime problem, with a rate more than double the national average, but mostly elevated by its property crime rate.

Golden Valley, AZ Been there? Yes

This is a rough area. Like a few other communities on this list, Golden Valley is less town more than a lot of roads laid out haphazardly across the empty desert and parceled out. You can build pretty much what you want and live how you want out here, in this community 90 minutes or so from Las Vegas and just west of Kingman. Driving the back roads is a little scary due to the area’s reputation as a meth production hub. There’s good people out there, of course, but there are also people who would kill you for your shoes. The article mainly knocks it on its unemployment and poverty rates, and points out its isolation. And it is really is isolated. There are a couple of gas stations and other businesses along Highway 68, which bisects the CDP, but residents are entirely reliant on Kingman.

Poinciana, FL Been there? No

I’ve never been to Poinciana (it’s out there), but I’m familiar with it. It’s the largest community on this list, at over 67,000 people, but it’s still an unincorporated CDP of subdivisions etched out into the swamplands south of Orlando. And what a distance to Orlando: it’s a minimum 1-hour drive into town, on roads that are constantly plagued with traffic. But I mainly know Poinciana for its place as the poster child of the late 2000s housing crash in Florida. A small retirement community up to that point, Poinciana was heavily developed just before the crash, with most construction being large houses. The values plummeted, and people left when their underwater mortgages were foreclosed on. The homes were resold to poorer, mostly non-white residents, while the wealthier found homes in areas closer in. But the article points to the area’s lack of services as its main issue. For almost 70,000 residents, there is a Walmart, a Publix, and a small Latino-focused supermarket, surrounding by just a few restaurants along a single strip of roadway. This puts residents at the northern end of the community at a minimum of 5 miles from any sort of retail businesses. To make things worse, the main route north out of Poinciana is a two-lane toll road.

Irondale, GA Been there? No

Irondale is a far-flung Atlanta suburb, along US 41 just south of Jonesboro. It has a high poverty rate, at 26%, but the article focuses on its violent crime rate, which is significantly higher than the national average. The median home value is likely statistically offset by a huge mobile home park included as part of the CDP, but the home values appear to decreasing as the area becomes less desirable and its distance from Atlanta more of an issue.

Beecher, MI Been there? No

Anyone familiar with Michigan is probably surprised to see that this is the state’s only appearance on this list. But leave it to Flint. It’s not quite Flint: Beecher is a CDP just north of Flint and outside the city limits. However, it’s pretty much suburban Flint. Many of the long-abandoned homes have been demolished, but what’s left are overgrown, empty plots next to small and dilapidated homes. There are well-maintained houses and pretty lawns, but there are also unpaved streets. The article points to its crippling unemployment rate of 23%, one of the highest on the list, and that that rate has been sustained and likely resulted in the 38% poverty rate. But past the terrible weather, the perpetually dismal economy and having to say you’re from Flint, Beecher’s crime rate is at least close to the national average.

Fair Oaks, GA Been there? Yes

The list wasn’t quite done with suburban Atlanta, and finishes its trashing of the region by rounding out each side of the city with a shot at one of its small northern CDP suburbs. Fair Oaks sits directly across the road from Dobbins Air Force Base, stuck between the cities of Smyrna and Marietta. Many of the homes were built before the base, and the base only worked to depress their values. Restrictions on flights over the community have been periodically negotiated, but the small sizes of the homes and its location in the heart of Cobb County has brought in a large number of poorer Latino and African-American residents. With a 32% poverty rate and an excessive crime rate 38% above the national average, only its relatively close proximity to freeways and much wealthier areas to the east make it seem like it has hope still.

Donaldsonville, LA Been there? No

In Louisiana, being a majority African-American town is not a good sign. Not because there’s anything wrong with the people, but it means that racism is going to keep a lot of people away. Historically, it shows that not many people want to live there, especially when it’s a town of this size. Donaldsonville is poor. A 39% poverty rate places it as the poorest place in Louisiana. It’s struggled economically. An industrial and river town, historically, the town has seen little if any benefit from the energy production to the south partially due to the highway configuration, which routes traffic well around the town to use the nearby Sunshine Bridge. Though it’s located along the famous River Road, Louisiana Highway 1, Donaldsonville is too far from the plantations and on the wrong side of the river to be viable as a stop, with its portion taken up by heavy industry, including the nearby ammonia plant.

Yazoo City, MS Been there? No

And you thought that there was just going to be that one little entry from the Mississippi Delta? No, the authors continue their bashing of the South by pointing to the oddly-named town’s embarrassing numbers: 20% unemployment, and a 42% poverty rate. Plus, they point out maybe the worst statistic: 20% of resident households live on an income of $10,000 or less per year. Like most of the area, Yazoo is majority African-American. Well away from the Mississippi River, it doesn’t seem to reap much benefit from its location beyond the typical Mississippi involvement in timber. The downtown area is mostly abandoned, with boarded-up shops, made all the more sad by music perpetually piped in on outdoor speakers. With its Amtrak station and Delta location, Yazoo has attempted to make good on the region’s Blues tourism. But it seems like the generational poverty so famous here is going to stick around for a few more generations, unless someone can offer a dramatic solution.

[randomtowns]

50 Worst... Sometimes

This is going to be a long post, because I’m going to be discussing 50 towns instead of just one.

These 50 come from a USA Today clickbait article titled “America’s 50 Worst Cities to Live” (https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2020/02/29/americas-50-worst-cities-to-live/111367058/). In addition to the obvious ambiguity in “worst,” “cities” also isn’t quite right as it mostly contains unincorporated census designated places. However, it’s not without merit. I remember, as a kid, pouring over the “Places Rated Almanac.” My parents had two of these, from the 80′s, apparently to try and pick a place to live. The almanac used statistics like climate, crime, available of mass transit, team sports, schools, and other publicly-available information to create a score that determined the town’s rating. What was the best? I actually don’t remember, but I recall that, in both editions we had, Yuba City, California was dead last. But my history with this led me to actually scroll through this entire article one night, thinking of why exactly these places had been deemed so deplorable and unworthy of habitation. I’m going to go through each one on the list, and talk about my thoughts on the place, if I’d been there, or reasons as to why the area comes up, in my opinion.

Let’s get started...

Piney Woods, NC Been there? No

Piney Woods is a CDP located just east of the Jacksonville, NC city limits, and directly across the road from the main entrance to Camp Lejeune, most known as a facility for Marines when they are deployed. The area is mostly low density residential, with a mix of middle-class homes and mobile home parks. The article faults it for its poverty rate, unemployment (both slightly above the national average), and lack of public transit. Like any community adjacent to a large military, Piney Woods is going to see many ebbs and flows in its fortunes, and is not going to be a place where most people would want to live. Being a military community means it’s a largely transient area, with few interested in the improvement of the overall community due to the temporary nature of their assignments there. Those who stick around are likely mostly if not totally dependent upon the fortunes of the base.

Oskaloosa, IA Been there? No

Oskaloosa is a town about 60 miles southeast of Des Moines along Highway 163. It’s just far enough to miss out on being a Des Moines bedroom community, but maybe close enough to live within its shadow. The article cites the slightly above-average poverty and unemployment rates again, and points to the home value being half of the national median. There’s an annual regional fair held here, there’s a small liberal arts college (William Penn University), and a couple of companies located here. Originally a coal mining area, it’s possible that Oskaloosa has fell into the trap of a lot of industrial Midwestern towns, where they are unable to move on with a mostly unskilled labor pool.

West Pensacola, FL Been there? Yes

West Pensacola is a CDP with a number of unrelated neighborhoods just west of the city of Pensacola. There is a strip of retail along the major highways, including a number of hotels. It’s mostly a community of small homes in small neighborhoods with medium- to large-sized lots. However, it does include a particularly rough, poor section of Pensacola that is conveniently just outside of the city limits. Additionally, the area is just north of Pensacola Naval Air Station, and the southern boundary of the CDP is littered with strip malls, tattoo shops and low-end motels. It’s likely that a lot of the residents here work at the NAS. The article points out high unemployment, low income, and low home values, all attributable to the above. I’ve stayed here a couple of times, last in 2003, and I recall the area as being somewhat dumpy but not having an overall dangerous feel.

Greenville, MS Been there? No

It’s inevitable that a Mississippi Delta community would come up on the list. The region is notoriously poor, and with a poverty rate of 35%, the article points out that Greenville is the poorest city in the country. It’s the economic center of the area, but it being located in a particularly poor area is going to inevitably doom it to being a poor town.

Moss Point, MS Been there? Yes

Moss Point is at the eastern end of a string of towns along the Mississippi coast. Unlike the other towns though, Moss Point has no beachfront property, and sits directly north of Pascagoula. This likely leads to it having lower home values than those surrounding towns, which was exacerbated by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, from which the town has never fully recovered. The article points out that it’s one of the poorest towns in the country.

Middletown, OH Been there? Yes

Middletown sits almost directly between Cincinnati and Dayton. Originally a canal town, it became a steel town in the 20th century, and has seen a similar fate as other steel towns. The article points out that the unemployment rate is just below 10%, and the poverty rate is just over 25%. Medium-sized (Middletown’s population hovers around 50,000) Ohio towns have had a rough time in the late 20th and early 21st century. If it’s not industrial exodus, it’s opioids, and Middletown is not exception to these issues. It’s pretty though, and it’s big enough that there are still nice areas in spite of the problems.

Augusta, GA Been there? No

One of the largest cities I have never been to. But can you blame me? James Brown’s beloved hometown has an awful reputation. Aside from the annual Masters golf tournament, there seems to be nothing to do here. The article points to a 10% unemployment rate and a 23% poverty rate. Like many southern cities, it’s a town of haves and have nots. The western side of town, home to the Augusta National course, features large, well-kept homes on large lots with mostly white inhabitants, but cross the tracks to the south and you’ll find many abandoned homes, or homes with bars on the windows, in a predominately black area. The consolidation of the city and county in the 90′s was meant to stem the tide of flight to the suburbs, and the resultant loss of revenue, but many middle-class residents have instead chosen to live across the river, in South Carolina. While Augusta has seen massive population decreases, North Augusta, SC saw a 20% jump between 2000 and 2010.

Bay St. Louis, MS Been there? Yes

Where Moss Point is at the eastern end of the Mississippi coast, Bay St. Louis is at its western end. You may look at a map and point out that there are communities to the west, but I’ve driven through here at night, and leaving Bay St. Louis is like leaving earth: it’s just dark, trees and bugs until New Orleans. Just like Moss Point, Bay St. Louis was heavily damaged during Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and has never fully recovered. The article points to its slightly above-average unemployment rate and its lack of recreation activities. It’s hard for me to judge that but, in looking at the map, it does seem to have few park areas that are not dedicated to sports facilities.

Lithia Springs, GA Been there? Yes

Lithia Springs is a small CDP just off I-20 west of Atlanta. Like a lot of suburban Atlanta, the area was developed with middle-class homes and little thought to zoning, only to be passed on in subsequent housing booms as the city grew. The article points out its lack of access to grocery stores. There is a Kroger at its eastern edge, but it’s strangely just outside of the CDP’s boundaries, which may explain this.

DeRidder, LA Been there? Yes

DeRidder is a small town north of Lake Charles, and is the seat of Beauregard Parish. Just across the Sabine River, in Texas, the region is known as “the pine curtain,” a reference to both its pine trees and its reputation as backward and isolated. DeRidder largely has the same reputation. It’s a logging town, and, likely due to that, it has a high unemployment and poverty rate, as the article points out. The parish’s low population is likely the cause of the lack of grocery stores and recreational options that the article laments.

Denison, IA Been there? No

Denison is a small town about 90 minutes north of Omaha. It sits in a heavily agricultural region, reliant on farming and meat production. The article points to its high unemployment rate, made higher within the last four years, a lack of an educated workforce, and low home values. Denison has emerged as a face of the new Midwest: now at 42% Hispanic. The unemployment increase can be attributed to the Tyson beef plant closing in 2015.

Atmore, AL Been there? No

Atmore sits just off of Interstate 65 north of Mobile. The article points to Atmore’s recent massive drop in employment and its current unemployment rate of nearly 20%. A new casino by the interstate, and some surrounding commercial development, are possibly the city’s plan at getting out of its rapidly declining economic state. As far as small Alabama towns though, Atmore does not seem anymore unsustainable.

Pahrump, NV Been there? Yes

Pahrump is a place you move to when you want to get away from people. Whether you’re a preper who distrusts the government, a retiree just seeking to live on your own terms, or a meth manufacturer, Nevada in general is possibly the most libertarian state, with Pahrump its possibly most libertarian community. The area is a mostly unorganized and random roads running off of just a couple of highways an hour or so west of Las Vegas. It’s close enough that you can still get what you need in the city, but far enough that you don’t have to feel closed in by the city or its housing prices. The article points to Pahrump’s drug issues as its main point of contention, but also its 10% unemployment rate. But it’s a cheap place to live, and its various qualities make it an attractive place to live while on government assistance. The town also features two of the few remaining legal brothels in the state.

Lakeland Village, CA Been there? No

On the more isolated southern shore of Lake Elsinore, against the Santa Ana Mountains, Lakeside Village did not grow the same as its Temescal Valley neighbors did. Interstate 15 has brought both steady traffic and a commuter route to Lake Elsinore, the lake’s namesake town on the other shore, but Lakeland Village seems to have been largely passed up. It has a reputation locally as both crime- and drug-ridden. The article points to its 12.9% unemployment rate, and high commute times.

Makaha, HI Been there? No

An isolated community along Oahu’s western shore, this is the only time Hawaii makes the list. The article points to its high cost of living contradicted by its below-average median income. It also points to its excessive 16.7% unemployment and 28% poverty rates. Its isolation (over an hour from Honolulu on a small, crowded highway) and reputation for having dangerous waves have kept it from being excessively developed like other parts of Oahu, but that also has meant that it has remained poorer than other areas.

Lehigh Acres, FL Been there? Yes

Lehigh Acres actually started as a stereotype: one of those large pieces of swampland where developers marked streets and plots on a map, and then speculators ate up, occasionally building homes with little or no infrastructure available. The area sat as mostly undeveloped until the 2000s real estate boom, and the subsequent crash was particularly devastating on the community, with its poor climate, lack of services, and longer distance to the beach. The article points to the community’s below-average income yet above-average cost of living. Google amazingly has nearly the entire area on StreetView.

Artesia, NM Been there? Yes

A town I actually like. Yes, despite having an oil refinery directly in its center, I’ve always found Artesia to be a charming little town, and a stark contrast to its larger, despicable Estacado neighbors to the north and south. There’s even a little brewpub here, called The Wellhead, that’s been open for many years. But the article reports an elevated poverty rate and lack of access to grocery stores. The latter may be due to the town’s only supermarket being very near to the Walmart Supercenter.

Arizona City, AZ Been there? Yes

Arizona City is a small, isolated CDP stuck between desert and cotton fields just south of Interstate 10, between Phoenix and Tucson. The article points to its above-average unemployment and poverty rates, and residents’ lack of access to both restaurants and grocery stores. But this is a snowbird town, and isolation is typical in places like this. This area just happens to be especially isolated. There is a large Hispanic population here, likely due to the surrounding agricultural industries, which may account for much of the poverty.

Bacliff, TX Been there? Yes

When I lived in Houston in the early 2000s, I would sometimes take drives to this small community along Galveston Bay, to sit by the water, and buy some quick food at one of the places along Highway 146. But it’s been a long time since I’ve been, and the article points out some changes. Bacliff’s above-average poverty may be directly related to the closure of its local chemical plant. The gang activity mentioned in the article is surprising, but it may be due to its proximity to Houston.

Earlimart, CA Been there? Yes

Yeah, okay, Earlimart sucks, I’ll give you that. There was an LA-based band in the 2000s called Earlimart, and the music led me to believe that they just got the name from the sign on the freeway, and never actually stopped here. I would say that Earlimart is the closest thing to a scummy Mexican border town I’ve seen in California. The article points out its staggering 41% poverty rate, above-average unemployment rate, and isolation from services. Despite its population, there are few restaurants here, but that’s largely because locals can’t afford to eat out. I’ve stopped here mainly for its cheap gas, but it’s a depressing little town, even for the low standards of the Central Valley.

Coatesville, PA Been there? Yes

Another steel town that has been forsaken. Meanwhile, it’s just a little bit too far from Philadelphia to be a viable bedroom community. The article points out its high unemployment and poverty rates, as well as its low home ownership rate. It’s hard to pick this as a lot worse than any of the countless similarly-sized towns throughout Pennsylvania, but I suppose the numbers are what puts this over the edge.

Perry, GA Been there? No

It’s strange to see a town right along a major interstate corridor be on this list as interstates often have a way of keeping a town afloat just enough with service and retail jobs. Reading over the article and the numbers, I’m not totally clear on why this one deserves such a high ranking (#29). Its unemployment rate is high, but not compared to cities surrounding this. This part of Georgia blows (the people are great though), but I don’t know why Perry gets such shade.

Bessemer, AL Been there? Yes

Another steel town, and one that has had issues with unemployment, poverty and blight for longer than most steel towns. This is partially due to early white flight, as the city was majority black by the 1950′s, and continues to be so today. A major interstate, close proximity to Alabama’s largest city, and a large water park, are not enough to boost the town out of its perpetual rut. The article points to a high unemployment rate and a very high poverty rate of 28%. However, there’s also an excessive violent crime rate (the highest of any city over 25,000 in 2019) and, it’s not just USA Today that thinks Bessemer sucks: the Wall Street Journal ranked it the worst city in Alabama in 2019.

Stockbridge, GA Been there? Yes

At one point, Stockbridge was a tiny town well outside Atlanta. As Atlanta grew though, Stockbridge became a large part of that city’s rising black suburbs, as African-Americans pushed out of the urban confines into home ownership as red lining and other racist policies were struck down. Based on the numbers provided in the article, it doesn’t seem that bad. My guess is that, like a lot of these poorer suburbs, it looks bad in terms of area housing costs versus incomes. Just like Perry though, I’m not sure why Stockbridge is getting picked on so much here.

Brooksville, FL Been there? No

The seat of Hernando County, Brooksville may be a symbolic center for the county’s issues with poverty, drugs, and crime. The article points to the town’s high unemployment and its low home value, and $49,000 median home value seems especially low for Florida. Then again, there are just not many large homes built in Hernando County in general, and Brooksville may be a more extreme example of that.

WHEW!!! That’s 50 to 26. I’m going to cover 25 to 1 tomorrow to break up the posts. Hope you enjoyed.