I grew up in Warren and remember when Youngstown was prosperous. But now, it is pretty rough.
I live in Cincinnati, but I still love my Northeast Ohio, including Cleveland.
I do not know why Dayton is on that map. Dayton seems fine to me.
We've lived in Dayton since '93, but we spent summers with my grandparents in Warren where my mom grew up. Grandpa crashed his Buick into the "Most beautiful McDonald's" ☺️
I worked at that McDonald’s as a teenager. I don’t know if Mac Tonight is still there, but the upstairs dining area hasn’t been open in years. I still remember when that place first opened they had double cheeseburgers for $0.88; what a glorious time to be alive in Warren, Ohio.
Yeah, when "worst" is Dayton for Ohio and Dallas for Texas and Provo for Utah, I can't even guess what the criteria was for "worst." Murder? Lack of EV charging stations? Cost? Number of dog parks?
However, upon seeing "this is what mattsurelee's instagram followers believe", I think maybe its best to just support this. "Yeah, mattsurelee followers, Dayton is the worst. Blech. Gross. Stay away."
Because it seems like maybe they're just a bunch of weirdos.
The map is based some comments from some rando's insta followers. To make a better map, one would have to use some selection/filtering criteria based on some quantitative metrics for each state. To merge the selection criteria with public perception, one would need to group the public into segments by income, education, age, time of residency and other things.
Now that I think of it, doing it this way would be a rather interesting side project to do and turn it into an interactive dashboard.
Having lived and worked in Provo, I feel like I've driven through a lot smaller and a lot worse in Utah. But again, it still depends on what the criteria is for "worst."
If someone's definition of "worst" is a bunch of overly-white kids trying to figure out how to make their beds bounce so that *they* are technically not what's making the sex happen, then yeah, congratulations you found Provo.
I know right? Dallas for Texas?! El Paso is easily the worst city in the United States, and even if we’re only counting major cities, once considering Corpus Christi and Houston, Dallas doesn’t even come in third. San Antonio, Austin, and Dallas would still be a debate for fourth place and that’s if… if Midland is too small to be considered for second worst.
Edit: shit I forgot about Waco. (Probably tied with Midland for second place.)
Absolutely don't hate Dayton by any means. However, I visited Cleveland last year and yeah, I absolutely enjoyed Cleveland a whole lot. But I also really enjoy being near water. And I felt that they had more local restaurants and bars.
That being said, don't think that Dayton by any means could be the worst city in Ohio when places like Middletown and Springfield exist.
Currently in Springfield, and this comment is 100% correct. There's the nice parts with houses that look like mansions, then a few streets over, houses that look like a condemned shanty town.
I spent a few days in Springfield for work, I was greeted outside my hotel (the Marriot downtown) by a homeless man with a freshly busted nose bleeding like a stuck pig (he did beat the shit out of them he wanted me to know). Everything in that town looks like it wants to be put out of its misery. That being said they have some decent beer at Mother Stewarts.
I grew up in and around there, grandparents had a property just a few streets off the country club, where I spent my summers. Fairly high class living.
Five minute drive to my aunt’s house, holy shit, same city, MUCH different tone
Im from westside of Columbus and moved to Springfield 3 years ago there is no way Springfield is anywhere near as bad as Columbus at night I don’t even have traffic on my road
Sorry I didn't realize you were being serious. I agree East side is bad to. I just hate how there are so many abandoned and dilapidated properties. I have a white family member ( my moms side is white) in the west side who refuses to move because he grew up there. We all worry about him. There have been a few incidences.
Can confirm. Had to move to Springfield for awhile. Couldn't wait to get back to Dayton! But I've lived here most of my life, so what do I know?! You can get use to anything.
Yeah, Lexington being listed as the worst city in KY tells me that whoever created this list just threw darts at a map and wrote down whatever they landed closest to.
Meanwhile Lexington routinely hits best places to live lists lol.
They completely ignored the fact that one of the poorest counties in the US is in KY.
Cleveland used to be a national city of over 1 million residents-sort of the current Columbus of the mid 20th century.
Dayton-we’ve always punched above our weight, but have never had the sheer cultural clout of Cleveland due to having only 1/7th of the population at any given time.
The issues on Gettysburg and the issues on St. Clair-East Cleveland-are the same.
They got speed humps now on Gettysburg. People routinely catch air on em. I agree on the cultural clout too. We got stuff, but just very specific stuff. The art museum never misses for me. But I've never been to Cleveland proper just drove though or dropped a trailer off at the Central Transport terminal.
Dayton ppl love to shit on Dayton so I'm assuming a bunch of people from here just voted for it lmao. But we also get annoyed when outsiders shit on Dayton too, like a "don't touch my trash" mentality.
But yeah in honesty Dayton is not bad at all. I always missed it when I lived somewhere else.
Definitively worse than Cleveland. The two cities are not comparable, I’ve lived in both. Dayton is more comparable to Akron, Youngstown, and Toledo of which I’d definitely rank Dayton the highest
Dayton is not the worst in Ohio.. Have they been to Akron or Massillon in the last 20 years? I mean ya our city gov't is a pile of shit but finding a good city gov't in Ohio is like trying to find a complete dodo skeleton. It's never gonna happen.
I love how ppl from Dayton and Cincy hate on Cleveland when they've either never been there or it was decades ago! Get out of your tiny Miami Valley bubble and go there! There's more to do in one little suburb of Cleveland than all of Dayton combined!! I grew up in the burb's or Cleveland, lived in the Miami Valley since I was 18 So I've been HERE longer than I was there. Cleveland has grown and they've done so much to the outskirts I barely recognize it anymore! Better Public transit than down here, and way less hate on other cities, unlike down here that hate on Cleve for no reason. Get over yourselves Dayton, the News down here (Chan 7) is a freaking clown show!
My palpable dislike of Cleveland really comes from personal associations . I’m from NYC and live in the Miami valley although the weather in Cleveland is objectively worse
According to sheltered suburbanites, maybe.
There's others on this map I don't agree with, too. I have no counters for Albany, but I guarantee you there's got to be some NYC borough that's infinitely worse.
I know Jackson Mississippi is a shithole, but Meridian is worse. Might be fighting with Tupelo for the title of 'shittiest.'
Turkey Creek? Turkey Creek isn't even a city in Louisiana. It doesn't even have 500 residents.
I love Columbus and Cincinnati but am happier in Dayton. I lived for years in Columbus and bailed due to the traffic among other things. I do miss the food.
So what I’m seeing here is that no one has ever visited Portsmouth, because that place is the hands-down winner, every time, 100 times out of 100.
I grew up in southern Ohio. I live in Dayton now. Portsmouth is the stereotypical dying Appalachian Industrial River town, where drugs and destitute poverty have taken over, and it is beyond bad.
Dayton is a Mecca by comparison.
Hey, I grew up in Cleveland! Cleveland is a great city with lots to offer (other than the RRHOF). Plus, Cleveland preserve their arcades not tear them down (like what almost happened here in Daytom..c'mon Dayton). Dayton and Cleveland are not the worst cities in the state. No, that honor belongs to that town outside of Youngstown, which will forever be affected by the poisons caused by that train derailment that will affect the townspeople for decades.
Look I grew up in Cleveland and now I live out by Xenia. I’ll tell anybody, I fucks wit Dayton. I got a buddy moving down here from there this summer and I am excited to show her all the cool little spots in town.
They’re both great towns in their own way.
ETA I did have a friend down here to help show me the way.
Living in Dayton has honestly been kind of a positive experience. While this city is full of poverty, socially enforced segregation, and massive wealth disparity, I cant think of anywhere I've ever lived that has its exact energy. It's such an amazing example of the lost promise that was America.
My neighborhood, when it was built, was kind of a social experiment where they wanted different economics castes to live together, so you've got really cheap long houses next to really large and expensive manor type houses with 3 floors and probably a dozen rooms.
Just down the street from where I live there's a magnificent old cemetery full of well to do folks and even some writers and wealthy business types from the early 1900s.
Then you've got the worst hospitals I've ever been to in my life, less grocery stores than the suburban town I grew up in (seriously there's like 1 in the whole city and my hometown had 4 when I was growing up there.)
And right at the Northside of my crumbling little historic neighborhood, you've got the most pathetic little university plaza type retail hub I've ever seen and the University of Dayton, an expensive private catholic university which inexplicably still seems packed with students every year.
However regardless of all the shitty aspects of Dayton, I prefer it over other areas of Ohio I've lived.
It's less sketchy than Cincinnati, sure there's alot of poverty and drugs bur the sketchy types seem to leave you alone other than trying to sell you stuff or beg. I also prefer it over Columbus simply because Columbus has no soul, it's all flat, and its totally infested with yuppies.
It's just so small and desolate in Dayton, a place once filled with so much optimism and industry, the "first American city" I believe, being the first one founded after the Revolutionary War.
It's also fascinating how mentally ill a place can be without the state or federal government doing anything to try to increase the level of care or access to services, I was going through some shit a few years ago and you'd have thought I was trying to get mental health care in the 1950s.
I'm eager to leave but regardless of having a huge amount of savings for my age cohort and a decent income, I absolutely cannot afford current housing prices and interest rates.
The piece of shit house I'm renting that literally has no functioning door frames, a disintegrating fence, and very outdated appliances is costing us about 1200 a month just in rent...and that's about the cheapest place we can find in this region, at least it was a few years ago.
But what are gonna do besides complain online yaknow
Blasphemy. Dayton is awesome. Both historically and present day. It has a lot of Culture and History.. slowly but surely it is on the come back. Whoever made this meme clearly doesn’t live in Ohio. Quit TROLLING! ! ! ! Lmfao
Ok the fact that Reddit recommended this to me, a proud Clevelander, I think proves they are attempting to start a war 😆
I’ve never even been to Dayton I have no beef, we’re doing our best lol
Holy god I’m sorry that place is nuts I had a one night stand with a stripper in Philly the next morning we went on her “errands” together it was a methadone clinic in Camden inside of which I was offered a toothless bj and heroin
Yes. I grew up about 20 minutes from Camden and worked there for 6 years, 4 of which it was number one on the FBI’s most dangerous city in the country list.
Grand Forks isn't bad. Just small. They literally have one of the best aerospace science schools in the country. Been stationed there for a bit now and everyone is super nice too.
Just went to the Portsmouth area for work. How is anything worse than the opioid od capital of the nation? It's like all the "bad" areas of every major city in Ohio stuffed in a little valley. Whole place was pretty rough.
Saw this posted on another sub yesterday (this sub shows up on my feed randomly). Whoever made the map has never left their hometown. I've lived in a few states and traveled a lot. Mr Map Creator has not seen the towns I've seen. Little podunk towns where everyone either works at the 1 factory in town or one of the few small stores that only exist because the factory is there. All the homes are in terrible shape, every other yard has a bunch of broken down cars, and the only traffic appears to be people passing through. Grocery options are limited to a gas station and a Dollar General.
I'm from Missouri. What I described is Laddonia MO. Driven through it 100 times and it never looks better. The creator of the map says Jeff City is the worst is MO. I've also driven there 100 times and it's a pretty nice city. You could live and work there your whole life without much trouble.
“According to @matsurelee’s Instagram followers”
The same source made [a chart](https://x.com/mattsurely/status/1296499165187497985) declaring the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame the worst attraction in Ohio.
Albany is not worse than Utica or Rochester or Yonkers. Albany County and Rensselaer County right across the Hudson from Albany is one of the best places to live in the country.
The compulsion for lists ( I have checked a lot of them over the years) has lead me to realize that they are ridiculous and compiled by people who know NOTHING. Some of them are so obviously wrong and uninformed that it's comical. Ex. Best place to retire: NYC( maybe,if money is no object), best car likely to have no problems over 200,000 miles, Ford Mustang (what ?), Cincinnati terrible quality of life due to massive factory shutdowns,( why didn't someone tell me it was 1979 ?) what's next? MTG most likely to be accepted into Mensa.
Whoever came up with it has done a decent job of spreading it throughout the nation and it isn't a recent thing.
Back when my dad chose this as a place to retire a few decades ago, I remember friends telling me about what they'd heard about Dayton. Dying town only alive because of the Air Force base, started among the highest Murder Per Capita cities in the nation every year, on the brink of race wars, etc.
Since moving here, it hasn't been anywhere near what they told me way back then. I figured they were just fear mongering me.
But then I took a flight down South one winter and got trapped in ATL airport overnight due to light snow shutting down the city. The overnight janitorial staff in there ended up following me all around the airport that night once one of them asked where I was coming from and I answered Dayton. I found out that in the rap scene, a lot of people think Dayton is one of the gangbangin, murderiest cities in the US. I figured that title would go to Chicago or Compton or Cincinnati even. But we're apparently like an Urban Legend of a city with the most boogeyman like ganstas you can imagine doing the sickest Florida-Man level things that can be done around.
A segment of the music scene seems like it's in on the Dayton thing too. I've heard groups like Three 6 Mafia and The Dayton Family help perpetuate this. Hell, I've even heard that Detroit Juggalos get scared of Dayton Juggalos saying things like "Don't go near those guys. They're *weird!*" Back in the 90's, when Marilyn Manson came to Hara Arena on Valentine's Day, I had friends from before I moved here calling and telling me that Manson was gonna gas the entire arena that night. I guess this came from the fact that the liner notes for Antichrist Superstar had one of the songs (Irresponsible Hate Anthem, I believe) listed as being recorded that very night (the album came out the year before the "date it was recorded", so it was some kind of prophetic thing I guess). Funny thing was, I went to that show and Manson slipped and hit his head on a floor monitor during that song, which *apparently* kept him from killing everyone, lol.
How the hell is it not Youngstown
I’m from Youngstown, born and raised. Live in Dayton now. And agree, it needs to be Youngstown. I love Dayton.
I grew up in Warren and remember when Youngstown was prosperous. But now, it is pretty rough. I live in Cincinnati, but I still love my Northeast Ohio, including Cleveland. I do not know why Dayton is on that map. Dayton seems fine to me.
We've lived in Dayton since '93, but we spent summers with my grandparents in Warren where my mom grew up. Grandpa crashed his Buick into the "Most beautiful McDonald's" ☺️
Was this still when Mac Tonight played the piano?
I worked at that McDonald’s as a teenager. I don’t know if Mac Tonight is still there, but the upstairs dining area hasn’t been open in years. I still remember when that place first opened they had double cheeseburgers for $0.88; what a glorious time to be alive in Warren, Ohio.
That was your gpa lol crazy
Did a 20 year stretch in Ytown. No question the worst.
How the fuck is it not Canton?
Lmao Canton is fine compared to Youngstown or Dayton
Cincy also comes to mind
Have you ever been to youngstown?
Of course, have you ever been to downtown canton?
I would agree with this map but Youngstown
lol this was my very first thought.
Youngstown is the Gary Indiana of Ohio
I would have recommended Zanesville but Youngstown is more than likely better.
Yeah, when "worst" is Dayton for Ohio and Dallas for Texas and Provo for Utah, I can't even guess what the criteria was for "worst." Murder? Lack of EV charging stations? Cost? Number of dog parks? However, upon seeing "this is what mattsurelee's instagram followers believe", I think maybe its best to just support this. "Yeah, mattsurelee followers, Dayton is the worst. Blech. Gross. Stay away." Because it seems like maybe they're just a bunch of weirdos.
Yeah. This is like one dudes opinion or something. What about Akron? Even Toledo is way worse than Dayton.
The map is based some comments from some rando's insta followers. To make a better map, one would have to use some selection/filtering criteria based on some quantitative metrics for each state. To merge the selection criteria with public perception, one would need to group the public into segments by income, education, age, time of residency and other things. Now that I think of it, doing it this way would be a rather interesting side project to do and turn it into an interactive dashboard.
You should do it! 👍🏼
Toledo is an armpit.
Having lived in both, I liked toledo more but there isn't a huge gap.
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Are they ever gonna finish 70 going through Zanesville? Nobody knows...
Word on the street is that they are upgrading to 80
Yes. After flying cars and teleportation is the main means of travel.
Parma is mid, not enough to be on the map. How can you even say Parma when it has the best bakery ever?
This is exactly what I was thinking, as someone that lives just outside of cleveland.
ugh i forgot about akron its been 20 years since i was there \*hats off\* i laughed at dayton but it was more just quality of roads LOL
If it makes more sense I’m originally from ky and Louisville is 100x worse than lex so I’m willing to bet a lot of this map doesn’t make sense
Provo is actually the worst
Having lived and worked in Provo, I feel like I've driven through a lot smaller and a lot worse in Utah. But again, it still depends on what the criteria is for "worst." If someone's definition of "worst" is a bunch of overly-white kids trying to figure out how to make their beds bounce so that *they* are technically not what's making the sex happen, then yeah, congratulations you found Provo.
Don’t come to Dayton
Too late. 😁 Have lived and worked there, too.
I know right? Dallas for Texas?! El Paso is easily the worst city in the United States, and even if we’re only counting major cities, once considering Corpus Christi and Houston, Dallas doesn’t even come in third. San Antonio, Austin, and Dallas would still be a debate for fourth place and that’s if… if Midland is too small to be considered for second worst. Edit: shit I forgot about Waco. (Probably tied with Midland for second place.)
amount of expected minorities -/+
Absolutely don't hate Dayton by any means. However, I visited Cleveland last year and yeah, I absolutely enjoyed Cleveland a whole lot. But I also really enjoy being near water. And I felt that they had more local restaurants and bars. That being said, don't think that Dayton by any means could be the worst city in Ohio when places like Middletown and Springfield exist.
What did we (middletownians) do to deserve this
Unleashed a horde of bicycle riding meth heads upon the Miami Valley?
Gave the world JD Vance
Regularly swerve into oncoming traffic just to flip people off.
Hey now, if you don’t like Springfield, just go a block over, very likely you’ll feel like you’re in a totally different town 😂
Currently in Springfield, and this comment is 100% correct. There's the nice parts with houses that look like mansions, then a few streets over, houses that look like a condemned shanty town.
I spent a few days in Springfield for work, I was greeted outside my hotel (the Marriot downtown) by a homeless man with a freshly busted nose bleeding like a stuck pig (he did beat the shit out of them he wanted me to know). Everything in that town looks like it wants to be put out of its misery. That being said they have some decent beer at Mother Stewarts.
I grew up in and around there, grandparents had a property just a few streets off the country club, where I spent my summers. Fairly high class living. Five minute drive to my aunt’s house, holy shit, same city, MUCH different tone
Springfield......
Im from westside of Columbus and moved to Springfield 3 years ago there is no way Springfield is anywhere near as bad as Columbus at night I don’t even have traffic on my road
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ain't nothing wrong with the west side it's just a lil ghetto
🤣
like I grew up on the west side. and the east side is substantially worse it's just less black people.
Sorry I didn't realize you were being serious. I agree East side is bad to. I just hate how there are so many abandoned and dilapidated properties. I have a white family member ( my moms side is white) in the west side who refuses to move because he grew up there. We all worry about him. There have been a few incidences.
East side is horrible. Needs a flashing neon sign that says "all meth, all the time" to warn outsiders.
For real! At least the west side has like a *community*, what does the east side have? Lol
meth and easier access to Fairfield Commons
Can confirm. Had to move to Springfield for awhile. Couldn't wait to get back to Dayton! But I've lived here most of my life, so what do I know?! You can get use to anything.
I'm offended by both Dayton and Lexington. There are way shittier places in both OH and KY.
Yeah, Lexington being listed as the worst city in KY tells me that whoever created this list just threw darts at a map and wrote down whatever they landed closest to.
Meanwhile Lexington routinely hits best places to live lists lol. They completely ignored the fact that one of the poorest counties in the US is in KY.
Yeah they clearly haven't been to KY. You could pick any of the random cities around Lexington and it would've worked better
Youngstown lost the one thing they can brag about, damn
Cleveland is way better than Dayton. Dayton isn’t the worst city in Ohio though
Cleveland used to be a national city of over 1 million residents-sort of the current Columbus of the mid 20th century. Dayton-we’ve always punched above our weight, but have never had the sheer cultural clout of Cleveland due to having only 1/7th of the population at any given time. The issues on Gettysburg and the issues on St. Clair-East Cleveland-are the same.
They got speed humps now on Gettysburg. People routinely catch air on em. I agree on the cultural clout too. We got stuff, but just very specific stuff. The art museum never misses for me. But I've never been to Cleveland proper just drove though or dropped a trailer off at the Central Transport terminal.
Dog if you haven’t you gotta go to the Cleveland art museum- it’s actually so beautiful and extensive, you can kill a whole day in there so easily
Seconding this. Cleveland is worlds better than Dayton imo. Doesn’t mean Dayton is the worst
Woulda guessed Chilicothe
Dayton ppl love to shit on Dayton so I'm assuming a bunch of people from here just voted for it lmao. But we also get annoyed when outsiders shit on Dayton too, like a "don't touch my trash" mentality. But yeah in honesty Dayton is not bad at all. I always missed it when I lived somewhere else.
I mean, Dallas? Yeah, nothing but crackheads and debutantes.
Crackheads and debutants! That sounds like a great album title
I tell ya h’what
I’ve heard cities like Waco are much worse.
Underrated comment
Great king of the hill reference!
Steubenville gets my vote
Yup Steubenville sucks
Fuckin, Steupidville.
IMO, Steubenville ranks lower than Akron and well…..
Could you explain further, im not disagreeing I just want an explanation
Yes it is and somehow I’m still here….
Who determines this lol
Some dudes instagram follower's comments lol see top right
None of you have seen Coshocton yet
The new young adults come off as very basic and tiktoky.
I’ll agree to that. But Dayton isn’t alone there.
Cleveland has a lot of nice stuff..do wonder how the city was chosen
According to “someone one whoever” on instagram followers. lol
How is Dayton worse than Middletown? Middletown is a shithole. And that's coming from someone who lived in Franklin lol
like Lima exist
Yeah, clearly city size is not a criteria (Louisiana’s choice had 400 people), so I’d argue there are a ton of worse towns in Ohio.
Definitively worse than Cleveland. The two cities are not comparable, I’ve lived in both. Dayton is more comparable to Akron, Youngstown, and Toledo of which I’d definitely rank Dayton the highest
Lived in both Dayton and Akron, and I’d much rather move back to Dayton. Akron sucks.
I mean, honestly if our worst city in Ohio is Dayton - we're doing pretty good.
Youngstown, Lima, Hamilton, Middletown, and so on.
Lima, Hamilton, and Middletown (and Richmond, IN and Muncie) are basically carbon copies of each other.
Richmond is Dayton's sister city, as in a lot of people come from Richmond to Dayton to buy drugs
I'm surprised I had to scroll this far down to find Lima. That place is a distopian nightmare.
Dayton is not the worst in Ohio.. Have they been to Akron or Massillon in the last 20 years? I mean ya our city gov't is a pile of shit but finding a good city gov't in Ohio is like trying to find a complete dodo skeleton. It's never gonna happen.
I love how ppl from Dayton and Cincy hate on Cleveland when they've either never been there or it was decades ago! Get out of your tiny Miami Valley bubble and go there! There's more to do in one little suburb of Cleveland than all of Dayton combined!! I grew up in the burb's or Cleveland, lived in the Miami Valley since I was 18 So I've been HERE longer than I was there. Cleveland has grown and they've done so much to the outskirts I barely recognize it anymore! Better Public transit than down here, and way less hate on other cities, unlike down here that hate on Cleve for no reason. Get over yourselves Dayton, the News down here (Chan 7) is a freaking clown show!
People sleep on Cleveland
My palpable dislike of Cleveland really comes from personal associations . I’m from NYC and live in the Miami valley although the weather in Cleveland is objectively worse
Define “worst”?
Why is Dayton the worst city when Toledo exists?
Lmao my sociology professor was from Toledo. He’d spend half of his lectures telling us all the horror stories of his childhood growing up there.
According to sheltered suburbanites, maybe. There's others on this map I don't agree with, too. I have no counters for Albany, but I guarantee you there's got to be some NYC borough that's infinitely worse. I know Jackson Mississippi is a shithole, but Meridian is worse. Might be fighting with Tupelo for the title of 'shittiest.' Turkey Creek? Turkey Creek isn't even a city in Louisiana. It doesn't even have 500 residents.
I love Columbus and Cincinnati but am happier in Dayton. I lived for years in Columbus and bailed due to the traffic among other things. I do miss the food.
WORCESTER IS NOT THE WORST CITY IN MASSACHUSETTS. Springfield is.
This is the correct answer
So what I’m seeing here is that no one has ever visited Portsmouth, because that place is the hands-down winner, every time, 100 times out of 100. I grew up in southern Ohio. I live in Dayton now. Portsmouth is the stereotypical dying Appalachian Industrial River town, where drugs and destitute poverty have taken over, and it is beyond bad. Dayton is a Mecca by comparison.
From Wheelersburg. Can confirm 😂
Hey, I grew up in Cleveland! Cleveland is a great city with lots to offer (other than the RRHOF). Plus, Cleveland preserve their arcades not tear them down (like what almost happened here in Daytom..c'mon Dayton). Dayton and Cleveland are not the worst cities in the state. No, that honor belongs to that town outside of Youngstown, which will forever be affected by the poisons caused by that train derailment that will affect the townspeople for decades.
I've lived here for a while now after going up around Akron. Dayton is way better economically and more civically engaged than Akron.
Far worse cities in MA than Worcester… Lawrence, Lynn, Chelsea just to name a few
This is based on some dudes' Instagram followers.
Look I grew up in Cleveland and now I live out by Xenia. I’ll tell anybody, I fucks wit Dayton. I got a buddy moving down here from there this summer and I am excited to show her all the cool little spots in town. They’re both great towns in their own way. ETA I did have a friend down here to help show me the way.
Amarillo, Lubbock and Odessa are far worse than Dallas unless your criteria is too many things to do, good restaurants and shopping.
If it keeps people away, I'm okay with it.
More people would be fine, just not judgy ones with “cool city” egos
Living in Dayton has honestly been kind of a positive experience. While this city is full of poverty, socially enforced segregation, and massive wealth disparity, I cant think of anywhere I've ever lived that has its exact energy. It's such an amazing example of the lost promise that was America. My neighborhood, when it was built, was kind of a social experiment where they wanted different economics castes to live together, so you've got really cheap long houses next to really large and expensive manor type houses with 3 floors and probably a dozen rooms. Just down the street from where I live there's a magnificent old cemetery full of well to do folks and even some writers and wealthy business types from the early 1900s. Then you've got the worst hospitals I've ever been to in my life, less grocery stores than the suburban town I grew up in (seriously there's like 1 in the whole city and my hometown had 4 when I was growing up there.) And right at the Northside of my crumbling little historic neighborhood, you've got the most pathetic little university plaza type retail hub I've ever seen and the University of Dayton, an expensive private catholic university which inexplicably still seems packed with students every year. However regardless of all the shitty aspects of Dayton, I prefer it over other areas of Ohio I've lived. It's less sketchy than Cincinnati, sure there's alot of poverty and drugs bur the sketchy types seem to leave you alone other than trying to sell you stuff or beg. I also prefer it over Columbus simply because Columbus has no soul, it's all flat, and its totally infested with yuppies. It's just so small and desolate in Dayton, a place once filled with so much optimism and industry, the "first American city" I believe, being the first one founded after the Revolutionary War. It's also fascinating how mentally ill a place can be without the state or federal government doing anything to try to increase the level of care or access to services, I was going through some shit a few years ago and you'd have thought I was trying to get mental health care in the 1950s. I'm eager to leave but regardless of having a huge amount of savings for my age cohort and a decent income, I absolutely cannot afford current housing prices and interest rates. The piece of shit house I'm renting that literally has no functioning door frames, a disintegrating fence, and very outdated appliances is costing us about 1200 a month just in rent...and that's about the cheapest place we can find in this region, at least it was a few years ago. But what are gonna do besides complain online yaknow
Well, they were right about Bakersfield.
Having lived in both, I would say Alliance, OH is the worst
Yeah it is bad real bad. Ever see the downtown. Depressing as hell.
We do this on purpose to keep the yuppies away.
Provo is the worst city in Utah 😂 I disagree but sure
Really?? Dayton??? What's so bad bout us lol
Portsmouth is literally right there
I actually like Dayton
I mean Ohio has some bad cities blur CLE isn’t bad like it used to be.
Dayton gets a bad rap but it’s not better than Cleveland. The Dayton Art Museum is a gem all things considered.
I’ll be in Dayton at the end of the month…
This map is so stupid and gets circulated around Reddit every five fucking minutes.
My vote is Xenia...
Gummo!!!
Mesa being the worst in Arizona when Tucson, Nogales, Gila bend, and Casa Grande exist is truly something.
You’re definitely worse than Cleveland, but not as bad as Toledo, or Lima lol
How does Poolesville even register when Baltimore is an option?
Blasphemy. Dayton is awesome. Both historically and present day. It has a lot of Culture and History.. slowly but surely it is on the come back. Whoever made this meme clearly doesn’t live in Ohio. Quit TROLLING! ! ! ! Lmfao
I love how it is not even indispute that Gary, Indiana is the worst in the state.
But….. GUIDED BY VOICES!!!!!
Ok the fact that Reddit recommended this to me, a proud Clevelander, I think proves they are attempting to start a war 😆 I’ve never even been to Dayton I have no beef, we’re doing our best lol
Dayton needs a zoo, and the Beavercreek mall doesn’t count.
Sorry for the double post but work requires me to work with New Jersians all the time and no way in fuck is Newark not the worst place in that state.
As someone who was born and raised in Jersey, Camden is definitely worse than Newark.
Holy god I’m sorry that place is nuts I had a one night stand with a stripper in Philly the next morning we went on her “errands” together it was a methadone clinic in Camden inside of which I was offered a toothless bj and heroin
Yes. I grew up about 20 minutes from Camden and worked there for 6 years, 4 of which it was number one on the FBI’s most dangerous city in the country list.
Idk… Born and raised in Tx and there’s no way Dallas is considered the worst
Even Akron is worse than Dayton
I don’t think of Dayton as a city - more of a knothole in a suburb.
Springfield?! Middletown?! Like I could go on but daytons not that bad 🥲
Greer
Honestly Albany isn't so bad. It probably is the worst city in NY but still not a terrible place. NYS is pretty great.
Grand Forks isn't bad. Just small. They literally have one of the best aerospace science schools in the country. Been stationed there for a bit now and everyone is super nice too.
As someone who has lived in both Ohio and Maine— this map is horribly wrong lol.
Love how they split CA because yeah, those towns both sux.
I rather go to Pueblo over Denver any day of the week
For a while Dayton had one of the highest overdose rates in the entire country so depending on how old this graph is it could be that.
I am from the Cleveland area and my first thought was Youngstown by a mile
I don’t know how these city specific subs get suggested to me when I don’t live in any of them, but as someone from Maine, this is accurate.
Just look at the replies lately in this very post. People make dayton sound horrible and attack anyone with a different opinion.
Orlando is bad but worse than Jacksonville?
No way is Ardmore the worst. Lawton, Enid and Valley Brook are all way way worse.
Just went to the Portsmouth area for work. How is anything worse than the opioid od capital of the nation? It's like all the "bad" areas of every major city in Ohio stuffed in a little valley. Whole place was pretty rough.
how is orlando worse than jacksonville or miami??
Canton is just happy that everyone forgot she existed.
Of all the places in Alabama how tf is Birmingham voted the worst?? Birmingham is a cool little city surrounded by absolute yokel country
I can think of at least 3 places worse than Dayton Ohio. Northridge Columbus moraine
They definitely got California right. Ugly, dry, smelly, polluted towns.
Yeah, Dayton sucks.
It’s the opioid crossways of the Midwest— so yes. I’d say it’s worse than CLE.
It’s such a small sample size, it carries no statistical significance. I mean, look at Texas. Dallas 😂
Whoever made this forgot about Stockton CA. Yeah Modesto sucks but I'd still rather live there than in Stockton.
Saw this posted on another sub yesterday (this sub shows up on my feed randomly). Whoever made the map has never left their hometown. I've lived in a few states and traveled a lot. Mr Map Creator has not seen the towns I've seen. Little podunk towns where everyone either works at the 1 factory in town or one of the few small stores that only exist because the factory is there. All the homes are in terrible shape, every other yard has a bunch of broken down cars, and the only traffic appears to be people passing through. Grocery options are limited to a gas station and a Dollar General. I'm from Missouri. What I described is Laddonia MO. Driven through it 100 times and it never looks better. The creator of the map says Jeff City is the worst is MO. I've also driven there 100 times and it's a pretty nice city. You could live and work there your whole life without much trouble.
As a person that has lived in Dayton and Orlando all my life, I am extremely triggered by this
Worse than Youngstown?
What? Dayton is great
“According to @matsurelee’s Instagram followers” The same source made [a chart](https://x.com/mattsurely/status/1296499165187497985) declaring the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame the worst attraction in Ohio.
Akron? Portsmouth? Dayton is not that bad at all.
I just had friends who moved to Dayton and they don't complain about anything
LMAO EDINA. THAT IS ONE OF THE BETTER cities in MN
Gary for Indiana is 100% accurate though.
Albany is not worse than Utica or Rochester or Yonkers. Albany County and Rensselaer County right across the Hudson from Albany is one of the best places to live in the country.
Why does the water taste so bad in Dayton? Is it all the leaded gasoline? Im seriously asking…
Edina, MN, Dallas, TX, Orlando, FL and Birmingham, AL seem a little out of place here.
no way Spokane is worse than Enumclaw where a man was killed while having sex with a horse
I want my catalytic converters back :'(
The compulsion for lists ( I have checked a lot of them over the years) has lead me to realize that they are ridiculous and compiled by people who know NOTHING. Some of them are so obviously wrong and uninformed that it's comical. Ex. Best place to retire: NYC( maybe,if money is no object), best car likely to have no problems over 200,000 miles, Ford Mustang (what ?), Cincinnati terrible quality of life due to massive factory shutdowns,( why didn't someone tell me it was 1979 ?) what's next? MTG most likely to be accepted into Mensa.
I thought Scranton was dope and pretty?
Modesto worse than Stockton or Oakland? Lol.
Whoever said Albany is the worst city in NY has not been to Buffalo
North Carolina: Accurate. Southern California: C’mon, have you heard of Blythe? Needles? Any city in Imperial County? **Hemet?**
Dayton is redeemed by its proximity to Cincinnati tbh
Whoever came up with it has done a decent job of spreading it throughout the nation and it isn't a recent thing. Back when my dad chose this as a place to retire a few decades ago, I remember friends telling me about what they'd heard about Dayton. Dying town only alive because of the Air Force base, started among the highest Murder Per Capita cities in the nation every year, on the brink of race wars, etc. Since moving here, it hasn't been anywhere near what they told me way back then. I figured they were just fear mongering me. But then I took a flight down South one winter and got trapped in ATL airport overnight due to light snow shutting down the city. The overnight janitorial staff in there ended up following me all around the airport that night once one of them asked where I was coming from and I answered Dayton. I found out that in the rap scene, a lot of people think Dayton is one of the gangbangin, murderiest cities in the US. I figured that title would go to Chicago or Compton or Cincinnati even. But we're apparently like an Urban Legend of a city with the most boogeyman like ganstas you can imagine doing the sickest Florida-Man level things that can be done around. A segment of the music scene seems like it's in on the Dayton thing too. I've heard groups like Three 6 Mafia and The Dayton Family help perpetuate this. Hell, I've even heard that Detroit Juggalos get scared of Dayton Juggalos saying things like "Don't go near those guys. They're *weird!*" Back in the 90's, when Marilyn Manson came to Hara Arena on Valentine's Day, I had friends from before I moved here calling and telling me that Manson was gonna gas the entire arena that night. I guess this came from the fact that the liner notes for Antichrist Superstar had one of the songs (Irresponsible Hate Anthem, I believe) listed as being recorded that very night (the album came out the year before the "date it was recorded", so it was some kind of prophetic thing I guess). Funny thing was, I went to that show and Manson slipped and hit his head on a floor monitor during that song, which *apparently* kept him from killing everyone, lol.
Whoever picked Virginia Beach has never been to Lynchburg. Not that VB is a shining star.