Cut and Shoot, Tx

Wooahhhh said:

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Around a couple of Ford plants and 8 Mile Rd in Detroit

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Used to go on an annual Spring walleye fishing trip with my Uncle to the Dee-troit river and we would get off I-94 at River Rouge to get to the boat launch. Passing through those blocks of 80's/90's urban blight was eye-opening for a privileged kid from the 'burbs. Blocks of city buildings entirely boarded, cars up on blocks, drunks staggering around or already passed out on the sidewalks, and a disproportionate number of people with missing limbs and deformities. After passing through that hellscape, it was always a surprising juxtaposition because the fishing was usually fantastic.

A toss up between Kayenta, Arizona off Hwy 163 on the Navajo Reservation S/W of Monument Valley and Helena, Arkansas.

Not sure what it was called, but a spot south of Laredo on this side of the river with thousands of people living in cardboard and pallets and garbage.

Also saw some pretty bad stuff in rural West Virginia a few years ago.

Flea market on the edge of Laredo.

Maybe not 3rd world...but a couple years ago I was vacationing in Arkansas (White river). On the way back we took "the scenic route" and ran across this home that had Nazi flags hanging from the edge of the roof (one on either side of the entrance). Definitely a "we're not in the suburbs anymore" moment.

Detroit...2mile-7mile ish

And hamtramek, MI (spelling)

Rural Appalachian area. No doubt. Specifically time spent in Kentucky

Back in the woods in Hankamer did have houses with dirt floors years ago. There was only one way in and out and you didn't dare go down that road without a very good reason

West Baltimore. That being said, there are parts of Baltimore that are really cool; the town overall gets a bad wrap.

Tahachi, NM in the mid-90s, just north of Gallup. When we drove through all we saw was small stucco houses with metal roofs,

Bad side of St. Paul growing up.
Hoboken in the 80's
In Kc a 10 year old wanted to touch my wife's hair at a charity function because she had never seen a white woman in person.
Southern border of Arizona
Jensen drive in Houston

Del Mar Heights, TX

Fish camps off of Venice, LA

Back road portions of Roman Forest, Splendora, and Plum Grove, TX, in the early 2000s before they cleaned it up.

Salt of the water said:

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I grew up in the green area on this map. Others have already noted the third worldiness of some parts of the RGV. For how poor it is, I think it's alot less dangerous than some of the poverty stricken areas around the major metro areas.

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Another valley rat! What school did you go to?

East Tennessee. Everywhere.

Came here to post this.

Grew up in Anahuac. Best friend lived at the Hankamer intersection.

Never go left. Stories I heard were of no plumbing, dirt floors, dog fights.

Oak Island and Smith Point were off the grid, too.

Had a friend that lived in Oak Island, and there were some bad places out there.

If you ever saw True Detective (the 1st one) on HBO, that's exactly what it was like.

plowboy1065 said:

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Back in the woods in Hankamer did have houses with dirt floors years ago. There was only one way in and out and you didn't dare go down that road without a very good reason

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Former mining town in Colorado. I don't even remember the name of the town. What wasn't falling apart, was patched together with wood from what seems like it was crumbled houses... and the town thoroughfare. Which was all boarded up.

It reminded me of Honduras in a way.

GasPasser97 said:

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Came here to post this.

Grew up in Anahuac. Best friend lived at the Hankamer intersection.

Never go left. Stories I heard were of no plumbing, dirt floors, dog fights.

Oak Island and Smith Point were off the grid, too.

Had a friend that lived in Oak Island, and there were some bad places out there.

If you ever saw True Detective (the 1st one) on HBO, that's exactly what it was like.

plowboy1065 said:

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Back in the woods in Hankamer did have houses with dirt floors years ago. There was only one way in and out and you didn't dare go down that road without a very good reason

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There were a few guys that lived back there and would do some day work in the fields for us from time to time. Luckily most everyone knew our trucks so it wasn't a problem. There was a couple of times I would send someone in my truck to go pick a guy up because I knew that if it was a vehicle or person they didn't know he might not make it back out.

Deep river

Mine is the 15 hour drive from Sour Lake to San Marcos during the Rita evacuation. We were doing some biological sampling in Pine Island Bayou. Decided to go out in AM and finish up but a GW came up and told us to leave. SH 105 was a parking lot. Civility and social norms degraded and lot's of racial tension. Old people and pets trying to find shade under trees. Ran into a scared elderly couple at a closed gas station somewhere near Woodlands. Gave them some of our boat gas. So damn surreal.

Now in George West doing mussel sampling on Nueces and probably leaving tomorrow to avoid same experience.

The Valley (where I grew up) & New Orleans.

Rankin TX

It's either Rio Bravo or El Cenizo. First places I thought of when I clicked on this thread. It really does not feel like the United States, their city councils conduct business in Spanish, and there is zero economic activity.

Alto, San Augustine, and parts of Clarksville

I agree with you on Clarksville, TX. Where else have they closed Walmart because of shoplifting?

87Flyfisher said:

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Eagletown, Oklahoma between Broken Bow and the Arkansas line.
The locals claim that it has the highest percentage of convicted felons of any community in the USA. for some reason there are 4 bars that are all housed in boxcars.

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Came here to post SE McCurtain County, OK. More specifically Haworth, Moon, and America.

People in backwoods Southwest Arkansas drive over to Moon, OK so they can feel better about themselves and where they live. (and people in Tom, OK are now mad they didn't make your list.)

gomerschlep said:

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Ever been to Jackson, MS?

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Hundreds of times. My folks are from there. There's some bad spots but the Delta can be much, much worse. Get near the levies and it's another world. Get across the levies....

Hunt's Point the Bronx on the way to the Food Distribution Center several times. Last time I was there with a US Army Veteran who works with me and was deployed to Iraq during both wars as well as Afghanistan. His words were that it reminded him of some of his deployments. Never gladder than when I got out of that place each time I was there. Truly a third world type place.

Ha. I grew up in the Cleveland, TX area and know several folks out in Plum Grove.

For me, it is No Trees, TX (yes it's real). There is a little roadside bar there where you would serve yourself. Part of the bar had dirt floors and another part had no roof. This was 15-18 years ago.

Beulah Woods