CNBC.com slideshows 20 Cities You Don't Want to Live In ... Yet

Clevelumbus · #1 Posted **Mar 20, 2011, 4:05 AM**

Piling on is an age-old tradition. People get a whiff of negative air and, like a pack of wolves, turn against it.

That has happened to a lot of cities, many of which were struggling to reinvent themselves from industrial towns. The recession didn’t help and now that the recovery has gained momentum in the broader economy, many towns are having to work twice as hard to jumpstart growth.

City-data.com came up with a list of 20 cities that, by the numbers, are some of the most beaten-up, undesirable cities in America. But instead of focusing on the numbers, we asked Bert Sperling, whose specialty is “ Best Places ” to tell us what’s good about each of these cities — what’s improving and what each has to offer.

Several of the cities are older cities, where you’ll find “a tremendous amount of infrastructure … public theaters and concert halls ... that you won’t find in newer cities,” Sperling said.

And true to the cyclical nature of life, opportunists are already starting to move in to some of these places; new seeds of life are being planted.

“A lot of these places are attracting young people, who have a dream but not a lot of money,” Sperling said. In these cities, “they can buy a foreclosed home for not a lot of money — It’s like homesteading in the Old West!”

Here are 20 cities you probably don’t want to live in — yet — and what each has to offer.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/42135402?slide=1
By Cindy Perman - 18 March 2011

LMich · #2 Posted **Mar 20, 2011, 4:07 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Clevelumbus

City-data.com came up with a list

[/end thread]

Sorry; had to do it.

Clevelumbus · #3 Posted **Mar 20, 2011, 4:16 AM**

That didn't take long!

dimondpark · #4 Posted **Mar 20, 2011, 4:31 AM**

Quote:

Oakland, CA
The Good: Oakland is just minutes to downtown San Francisco and has one of the best mass transit systems in the U.S., Sperling says. Plus, several world-class universities are nearby. It has a Mediterranean climate and offers beautiful views of San Francisco Bay. Several major corporations call it home, including Kaiser Permanente and Clorox. It’s also a major West Coast port, with an estimated 200,000 jobs in marine shipping.

Whatever Sperling, the life I have in Oakland without even leaving the East Bay isnt even possible in 90% of the crappy "cities" you'd deem desirable.

dimondpark · #5 Posted **Mar 20, 2011, 4:32 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Clevelumbus

That didn't take long!

That's the first thing I noticed too.

+1

mrnyc · #6 Posted **Mar 20, 2011, 4:40 AM**

well lists aside this is certainly encouraging:

The Recovery: Cleveland is experiencing one of the strongest recoveries in the U.S., according to a report late last year from the Brookings Institution and the London School of Economics. The basis of the report was annual growth in employment and per-capita income. In fact, Ohio overall has one of the fastest-growing economies of all the states, according to the Federal Reserve.

bnk · #7 Posted **Mar 20, 2011, 10:22 AM**

I do not do slide shows but I went for it. It was a poor list all together.

Feels like a Forbes list. Thumbs down.

vid · #8 Posted **Mar 20, 2011, 5:30 PM**

The best part was all the pretty photos.

The worst part was everything except the photos.

Even the design was bad. How hard is it to make a slide show that doesn't involve waiting 5 seconds to load an entire page every time you click the next button?

hudkina · #9 Posted **Mar 20, 2011, 5:38 PM**

Cities You Don't Want to Live In ... Anymore

1. Las Vegas
2. Phoenix
3. Los Angeles
4. Miami
5. Atlanta
6. New Orleans
7. Charlotte
8. Portland
9. Orlando
10. Fresno

pesto · #10 Posted **Mar 20, 2011, 5:51 PM**

I actually thought this was a pretty good list of cities who do have a bad rap and you may not think about all the time (except Detroit) but have enough core left to make a comeback. Helps you remember that there are a bunch of dead or dying cities out there and that people can change that. Or people can just let them die.

Xing · #11 Posted **Mar 20, 2011, 5:53 PM**

Anyone else notice how often they brought up Tornadoes as a reason you dont want to live in any of those cities... yet.

urbanactivist · #12 Posted **Mar 20, 2011, 6:15 PM**

Cities you didn't want to live in, but had to move to for a job and are leaving at the first opportunity...

1. Fort Worth
2. Dallas
3. San Antonio
4. Houston
5. Austin
6. El Paso
7. Corpus Christi
8. Brownsville
9. Midland/Odessa
10. Lubbock

urbanactivist · #13 Posted **Mar 20, 2011, 6:22 PM**

Yeah, I didn't get this CNBC list. Some of those cities are hurting, but there's no rhyme or reason to it. Some of the cities had rather low unemployment rates... well beating the national numbers. It ain't the Census either, b/c again cities like Little Rock had healthy gains of 10,000 people from 2010. For going through such catastrophic events like New Orleans did, the unemployment rate is low and the city is building/rebuilding quite rapidly. So I'd think people do want to live there.

jtk1519 · #14 Posted **Mar 20, 2011, 7:33 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by pesto

I actually thought this was a pretty good list of cities who do have a bad rap and you may not think about all the time (except Detroit) but have enough core left to make a comeback. Helps you remember that there are a bunch of dead or dying cities out there and that people can change that. Or people can just let them die.

I agree. It was a very good list and in a way, a flattering one to be on because there was a lot of data provided as to why those cities will rebound and be hot spots in the coming years. The site format left a lot to be desired, but the list itself was very good and full of facts and data rather than just a bunch of opinions.

glowrock · #15 Posted **Mar 20, 2011, 7:37 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by urbanactivist

Cities you didn't want to live in, but had to move to for a job and are leaving at the first opportunity...

1. Fort Worth
2. Dallas
3. San Antonio
4. Houston
5. Austin
6. El Paso
7. Corpus Christi
8. Brownsville
9. Midland/Odessa
10. Lubbock

Exactly. urbanactivist! And the new job opportunity is, in all place, Pittsburgh!

Aaron (Glowrock)

#16 Posted **Mar 20, 2011, 7:51 PM**

of course there's no mention of saint louis' multiple universities, of which Washington University consistently ranks as one of the best in the nation, including its #4-ranked medical school.

i'm sure the three-sentence write-ups given to each city didn't do any of them justice but it pisses me off that, for example, cleveland and memphis get highlighted for their schools but, of course, saint louis gets overlooked once again.

strongbad635 · #17 Posted **Mar 20, 2011, 8:44 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by IWant2BeInSTL

of course there's no mention of saint louis' multiple universities, of which Washington University consistently ranks as one of the best in the nation, including its #4-ranked medical school.

i'm sure the three-sentence write-ups given to each city didn't do any of them justice but it pisses me off that, for example, cleveland and memphis get highlighted for their schools but, of course, saint louis gets overlooked once again.

They did the same with Baltimore, mentioning Johns Hopkins HOSPITAL but not Johns Hopkins UNIVERSITY. Or Towson. Or Loyola. Or Morgan State Univ. Or Notre Dame of MD. Or University of Maryland Medical School.

They were forced to disclose Baltimore's low unemployment rate, but they omit the fact that it is far below the national unemployment rate. They make an obtuse reference to "traffic congestion," but omit to mention that the Baltimore metropolitan area has average commuting times well below Los Angeles, Dallas, Atlanta, Miami, Houston, or the San Francisco Bay area. They thankfully don't lump Baltimore in with other "bad weather" cities, as once again this is a myth. Spring comes early and fall lingers later in central MD than in other cities of a similar latitude like St. Louis, Kansas City, or Denver. And the average January low temperatures are within 5 degrees of Atlanta, Dallas, and Memphis (warmer than Nashville!)

Can't really disagree with the jab at the public schools in Baltimore City, they do face a lot of challenges. But so do inner city schools in EVERY major city. That is what Baltimore has in common with Austin, Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.

CNBC created this list as yet another attempt to define what "good" cities do (bend over and take it up the ass for big corporations, and sprawl) and what "bad" cities do (attempt to force companies to pay for the use of their city's infrastructure, pay to educate their workforce, and offer transportation choice other than driving). Typical.

robk1982 · #18 Posted **Mar 20, 2011, 9:08 PM**

They really had to use a 20+ year old picture of Flint? Most of those buildings don't even exist anymore, having been replaced by the growing UM-Flint campus (which wasn't mentioned in the article).

mind field · #19 Posted **Mar 20, 2011, 9:17 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by urbanactivist

Cities you didn't want to live in, but had to move to for a job and are leaving at the first opportunity...

1. Fort Worth
2. Dallas
3. San Antonio
4. Houston
5. Austin
6. El Paso
7. Corpus Christi
8. Brownsville
9. Midland/Odessa
10. Lubbock

Having been in Odessa for two weeks now for work, i pray there is not a more decrepit town in the entire state of Texas. I can't wait to leave here. This place is unbelievably ugly. Trash EVERYWHERE, dismantled oil derricks littered everywhere, butt ugly architecture, hardly any trees or greenery. This place must be the butt crack of Texas.

jtk1519 · #20 Posted **Mar 21, 2011, 12:05 AM**

Odessa is the single worst place in Texas, if not America.