Was in downtown LA with my sister back in May. Had some homeless psycho quickly flick his lighter at us from a meter away as he was walking by in the street while we were standing on the sidewalk. This was during our walk between The Broad museum and Chinatown and there was not another soul within a block or two when this happened. Amazing how you can be in the downtown of the second most populated city in the USA and feel isolated. Spending a week in Los Angeles was really enlightening to the fact that the most famous places to visit are often not the best. And sometimes very far from it. You can never go wrong with traveling to National Parks, historic cities, and smaller towns. Looking forward to a trip to Ontario this spring. Will be my first time out of the country and I'll be sure never to fall for tourist traps and modern art museums ever again.
@@TheyCallMeMr.Fahrenheit Will do. My next trip to California will be flying to San Diego, exploring the city, and then renting a car to explore almost all the national parks in California from south to north. Already been to Pinnacles National Park but hey, I wouldn't mind exploring another trail or two.
He's right on the money with Los Angeles. When you go to Los Angeles, downtown is just not the place to be. When I went for a trip myself, I exclusively went to Beverly Hills, Hollywood / West Hollywood, Malibu, and Santa Monica (as well as the Pacific Coast Highway between Malibu and Santa Monica, and Mulholland Drive through the canyons between LA and the San Fernando Valley). Honestly these are some of the best sights to see when you go to LA.
I visited Baltimore's inner harbor in the 90's with my husband and friends and it was beautiful. Once we left the inner harbor it was awful. So many homeless begging for money. So dismal and sad.
Hi Kabir, l live in Fort Worth, Texas, and l remember back in the '70's there was nobody left in downtown by 6:00pm, after all the office workers went home. Then the Bass brothers, a family of billionaire's and multimillionaires began revitalizing the place. Now it's got a lot of nice restaurants, bars, hotels shops and entertainment venues. He said that Los Angeles was the biggest port in the country, but I believe that the port of South Louisiana is. It extends from south of New Orleans all the way to Baton Rouge and is lined with all kinds of docks, warehouses and factories.
I don't think you'd do well in Phoenix. They broke a record this year : 113 consecutive days during which the daytime high temperature was over 100 F [38 C]. I suspect that might be enough to melt a Brit ;-)
If you want to visit Orlando, and not the parks, slip up a couple of miles to Winter Park. Rollins College is there (gorgeous architecture), a fun boat tour of the chains of lakes, shopping on Park Avenue. Having grown up there, the clubs downtown in the 80s-90s were fun and safe. But things have changed in the 30 years since I lived there. However, some of the new builds, especially turning the Naval Training Center into a huge live/work/play/school area that's really nice. I refuse to use I-4 though. It was fine until they "made it better" and now the traffic is ridiculous.
He did DC dirty. Actual downtown DC has a ton going for it. And if he's going to consider Rosslyn to by the business center for DC, he needs to give that same consideration to Bethesda, MD, which has more going on.
I used to live in Columbus. Wasn’t much to see or do Downtown. Especially after they closed down the City Centre (Looong time ago.) Mostly hung out on High street though OSU or Short North or Germantown for fun.
I used to love downtown San Antonio. It's charming, historic, scenic with the riverwalk and trees and plenty going on to interest everyone. Now it's nothing but road construction, homeless people and crime. It used to be even very popular with the locals year round. Hopefully they get their act together.
6:25 It's unfair to say downtown Baltimore is horrible as like he said that is wear the tourism is. But the rest of the city has some of the worst crime in the nation!
He's wrong about Vegas. Dowtown has and continues to improve. It still has its problems, but it is packed most nights, especially on the weekends. COVID-19 halted some of the development, but it has now picked up. As with anyone who doesn't live here, he makes a lot of assumptions that are just not based on any merit. In addition, he makes it sound like there are no casinos/hotels. There are a lot and new ones on top of that and new bars and restaurants.
As someone who lives in Norfolk Virginia, i can confirm that VB Town Center is a joke. Google maps actually has the area labeled as a shopping mall, and i think thats pretty accurate. Downtown Norfolk on the other hand is a very nice area along a river with plenty of festivals, interesting local shops, and every type of cuisine you can imagine. It is surrounded by interesting neighborhoods like the Neon District with murals on every building, Ghent which is the hipster hangout with breweries on every corner, Chelsea is a hidden gem, the railroad district, which has a Portland feel, and Old Town Portsmouth across the river, which is basically another downtown all on its own. The only thing Town Center has going for it is that is where the fancy chains are. If you want to go to the Cheesecake Factory, PF Changs, Shake Shack, or Wegmans (the fancy grocery store), you go to Town Center. The Oceanfront is nice, but its very busy and touristy, so most locals avoid it and go to the other beaches in the area instead. Its one of those places where most of the people working at the gift shops along with the people going there are not from Virginia.
Traditionally, downtown is seat of govt & commerce. So local/city govt buildings, courts, police HQ, etc. Businesses usually grow in same area either to access govt centers or provide goods/services to population. In the past, zoning limited mixing of commercial & residential, so wasn’t unusual to have downtown area fairly deserted at night. Modern trend has skewed towards mixed zoning/construction, revitalizing some areas that suffered from economic ups & downs.
Living in LA all my life, I’m not too surprised it made this list. I’m from the Valley and I like it better there. I’ve been all over LA often, but I just like where I grew up more.
I've lived in Columbus for 3 years now, yes, the downtown district specifically, isn't that impressive, but like Kyle said, there are great and fun neighborhoods in other areas of the city. Living in Upper Arlington, I visited Old North often, some great food there, and the Arcade bar is my favorite. North Market is pretty good too
To be fair to Los Angeles, a lot of our homelessness problem comes from the red states. All DPSS offer up a 1 way bus ticket to somewhere. Everyone chooses Cali because we try our best. We are a border state. But 2 other border states have been illegally shipping (human trafficking) their immigrants to us. Further aggravating the crisis of affordable housing and raising our taxes. Now add on the "no exceptions" abortion ban in a lot of red states.
To be fair that's like saying it's Mexico fault there's people crossing the border, when in reality it's our government, it's California and Los Angeles fault that it has that homeless problem, some laws need to be changed, as far as "immigrants" go Cali most likely had the least sent their way come on now, California been having people crossing the border that's not new, but Chicago, New York Denver ect isn't used to that, why didn't California governor do what Texas Governor do and kept the bus moving to somewhere else? I'll tell you why because your state wants them there.
@ReneOne-br5lm Why would I blame Mexico for anything? The first illegal immigrants came from Europe. They slaughtered over 65 million Natives to steal our country. Then they ripped our children out of our arms to indoctrinate them. When they didn't comply, they were murdered. Only 17 million were killed in WWI. Isn't the invasion of all the Americas the real first World War?
The reason columbus is dead at night is because that's when most of the crime happens. Even back in the 90s my dad wouldn't go downtown without his service pistol (cop)
To be fair, Virginia Beach is only the largest city in the Hampton Roads area because it's nearly 250 square miles of mostly suburbia. Norfolk is the actual historic downtown on that metro. As for LA, I agree with Kyle. Its downtown is really sad for the second largest city in the country. As for Skid Row, LA actually has a neighborhood that carries that name. I went to a convention once at LA Live and walked to Skid Row to see it. While I am not necessarily a person who's afraid of such places, it is objectively pretty run down and depressing. It's a shame that this sort of abandoned urban fabric place just rots right next to the very center of the city. Sadly, Skid Row is in ways more interesting than the very core of the city itself. Downtown LA is pathetic when you compare it to the downtown of a city like Chicago. The USA's 4th largest city (Houston) also has a center that's nothing to write home about given the size o the city.
Lots of people in the burbs in those cities. Most of the night life is in more accessible or more convenient locations. Not many downtowns are hopping night spots in my experience. I thought this would have been about stuff like looks, cleanliness, accessibility, crime, costs, public transport, number of vacant buildings or crack houses, things that would keep me away from a downtown in other words.
I visited Baltimore inner harbor which was beautiful but once we left the inner harbor it was just awful with so many homeless. And that was in the 90's
Sacramento CA is the worst downtown. Even Old Sac is bad and they've been trying to get life back into it. Just the homeless and lack of decent restaurants or clubs makes it just dull and dreary. Hopefully someday they can liven it up.
Absolutely correct regarding Phoenix. Actual downtown Phoenix is all business not much after business hours, you need to drive to one of the suburbs for activities. The City turned down the Arizona Coyotes hockey request for a new arena in Phoenix therefore they are moving to Utah. As more people relocate to Phoenix the suburbs just keep growing out from the central district creating more sprawl and destroying the desert. It may be more affordable than California, but believe me it is getting up there.
I went to school in Phoenix (Tempe) and you couldn't pay me to live there. I would nope out every summer and head up north to the Grand Canyon or Lake Powell to work.
4:40 I live in the DC metro area and can confirm Baltimore is a living hell. People have been leaving it for the simple reason that they don't want to be murdered. Also, the recent collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge has further ruined the shipping sector which was basically the only thing holding the city together.
I would not live in any of these areas, I love the small rural towns which always have lovely things going on, I live in the mountains in Va, we have wonderful events, always a big deal, farmers, girls scouts, schools, vets.. You are not going to find that in big cities..... Have to make a short list, museums, plenty of local shopping, the food is amazing, wineries..The list goes on, guess that is why we are invaded with arbnb....Peace Out.
I visited Baltimore's inner harbor in the 90's and it was very nice. However once we left the inner harbor it was awful. So many homeless begging for money.
@beverlybennett963 You obviously missed that "Downtown" usually means the hub of government agencies. Plus upscale businesses. Most people live in suburbs. Others prefer rural. EVERY state has this. Couldn't help but notice you didn't recognize the Campfire Girls, colonizer.
Was in downtown LA with my sister back in May. Had some homeless psycho quickly flick his lighter at us from a meter away as he was walking by in the street while we were standing on the sidewalk. This was during our walk between The Broad museum and Chinatown and there was not another soul within a block or two when this happened. Amazing how you can be in the downtown of the second most populated city in the USA and feel isolated. Spending a week in Los Angeles was really enlightening to the fact that the most famous places to visit are often not the best. And sometimes very far from it. You can never go wrong with traveling to National Parks, historic cities, and smaller towns. Looking forward to a trip to Ontario this spring. Will be my first time out of the country and I'll be sure never to fall for tourist traps and modern art museums ever again.
Next time you make out California way, try San Diego. It's safer than LA, it's more vibrant than LA.
@@TheyCallMeMr.Fahrenheit Will do. My next trip to California will be flying to San Diego, exploring the city, and then renting a car to explore almost all the national parks in California from south to north. Already been to Pinnacles National Park but hey, I wouldn't mind exploring another trail or two.
He's right on the money with Los Angeles. When you go to Los Angeles, downtown is just not the place to be. When I went for a trip myself, I exclusively went to Beverly Hills, Hollywood / West Hollywood, Malibu, and Santa Monica (as well as the Pacific Coast Highway between Malibu and Santa Monica, and Mulholland Drive through the canyons between LA and the San Fernando Valley). Honestly these are some of the best sights to see when you go to LA.
I visited Baltimore's inner harbor in the 90's with my husband and friends and it was beautiful. Once we left the inner harbor it was awful. So many homeless begging for money. So dismal and sad.
Hi Kabir, l live in Fort Worth, Texas, and l remember back in the '70's there was nobody left in downtown by 6:00pm, after all the office workers went home. Then the Bass brothers, a family of billionaire's and multimillionaires began revitalizing the place. Now it's got a lot of nice restaurants, bars, hotels shops and entertainment venues.
He said that Los Angeles was the biggest port in the country, but I believe that the port of South Louisiana is. It extends from south of New Orleans all the way to Baton Rouge and is lined with all kinds of docks, warehouses and factories.
I don't think you'd do well in Phoenix. They broke a record this year : 113 consecutive days during which the daytime high temperature was over 100 F [38 C]. I suspect that might be enough to melt a Brit ;-)
I love downtown Vegas there is a lot going on there right now. The locals love downtown. Its also the safest place.
If you want to visit Orlando, and not the parks, slip up a couple of miles to Winter Park. Rollins College is there (gorgeous architecture), a fun boat tour of the chains of lakes, shopping on Park Avenue. Having grown up there, the clubs downtown in the 80s-90s were fun and safe. But things have changed in the 30 years since I lived there. However, some of the new builds, especially turning the Naval Training Center into a huge live/work/play/school area that's really nice. I refuse to use I-4 though. It was fine until they "made it better" and now the traffic is ridiculous.
Downtown Vegas is alot of casinos, pawn shops, bail bonds, drunk tourist, and homeless drug addicts. At least it's not boring, tho.
He did DC dirty. Actual downtown DC has a ton going for it. And if he's going to consider Rosslyn to by the business center for DC, he needs to give that same consideration to Bethesda, MD, which has more going on.
@@vinceniederman Whenever what happens?
As someone who lives in Columbus, I can confirm, our Downtown is weak but well diverse and yes Akron is in Ohio.
I've been to Columbus twice it was alright
I used to live in Columbus. Wasn’t much to see or do Downtown. Especially after they closed down the City Centre (Looong time ago.) Mostly hung out on High street though OSU or Short North or Germantown for fun.
Kansas city metro is great. Free train that runs up and down.
I used to love downtown San Antonio. It's charming, historic, scenic with the riverwalk and trees and plenty going on to interest everyone. Now it's nothing but road construction, homeless people and crime. It used to be even very popular with the locals year round. Hopefully they get their act together.
6:25 It's unfair to say downtown Baltimore is horrible as like he said that is wear the tourism is. But the rest of the city has some of the worst crime in the nation!
He's wrong about Vegas. Dowtown has and continues to improve. It still has its problems, but it is packed most nights, especially on the weekends. COVID-19 halted some of the development, but it has now picked up. As with anyone who doesn't live here, he makes a lot of assumptions that are just not based on any merit. In addition, he makes it sound like there are no casinos/hotels. There are a lot and new ones on top of that and new bars and restaurants.
As someone who lives in Norfolk Virginia, i can confirm that VB Town Center is a joke. Google maps actually has the area labeled as a shopping mall, and i think thats pretty accurate. Downtown Norfolk on the other hand is a very nice area along a river with plenty of festivals, interesting local shops, and every type of cuisine you can imagine. It is surrounded by interesting neighborhoods like the Neon District with murals on every building, Ghent which is the hipster hangout with breweries on every corner, Chelsea is a hidden gem, the railroad district, which has a Portland feel, and Old Town Portsmouth across the river, which is basically another downtown all on its own. The only thing Town Center has going for it is that is where the fancy chains are. If you want to go to the Cheesecake Factory, PF Changs, Shake Shack, or Wegmans (the fancy grocery store), you go to Town Center. The Oceanfront is nice, but its very busy and touristy, so most locals avoid it and go to the other beaches in the area instead. Its one of those places where most of the people working at the gift shops along with the people going there are not from Virginia.
Traditionally, downtown is seat of govt & commerce. So local/city govt buildings, courts, police HQ, etc. Businesses usually grow in same area either to access govt centers or provide goods/services to population.
In the past, zoning limited mixing of commercial & residential, so wasn’t unusual to have downtown area fairly deserted at night. Modern trend has skewed towards mixed zoning/construction, revitalizing some areas that suffered from economic ups & downs.
Couldn’t get through the 6th minute on this, had the phrase “down town” overload!!
Las Vegas Boulevard (the strip) is technically Paradise, Nevada, so it’s not actually in Vegas itself.
Phoenix is enormous, it took almost an hour to cross the city from the airport to my friends at the south end of the city in El Mirage. Nuts...
Living in LA all my life, I’m not too surprised it made this list. I’m from the Valley and I like it better there. I’ve been all over LA often, but I just like where I grew up more.
I've lived in Columbus for 3 years now, yes, the downtown district specifically, isn't that impressive, but like Kyle said, there are great and fun neighborhoods in other areas of the city. Living in Upper Arlington, I visited Old North often, some great food there, and the Arcade bar is my favorite. North Market is pretty good too
To be fair to Los Angeles, a lot of our homelessness problem comes from the red states. All DPSS offer up a 1 way bus ticket to somewhere. Everyone chooses Cali because we try our best. We are a border state. But 2 other border states have been illegally shipping (human trafficking) their immigrants to us. Further aggravating the crisis of affordable housing and raising our taxes. Now add on the "no exceptions" abortion ban in a lot of red states.
To be fair that's like saying it's Mexico fault there's people crossing the border, when in reality it's our government, it's California and Los Angeles fault that it has that homeless problem, some laws need to be changed, as far as "immigrants" go Cali most likely had the least sent their way come on now, California been having people crossing the border that's not new, but Chicago, New York Denver ect isn't used to that, why didn't California governor do what Texas Governor do and kept the bus moving to somewhere else? I'll tell you why because your state wants them there.
@ReneOne-br5lm Why would I blame Mexico for anything? The first illegal immigrants came from Europe. They slaughtered over 65 million Natives to steal our country. Then they ripped our children out of our arms to indoctrinate them. When they didn't comply, they were murdered. Only 17 million were killed in WWI. Isn't the invasion of all the Americas the real first World War?
The reason columbus is dead at night is because that's when most of the crime happens. Even back in the 90s my dad wouldn't go downtown without his service pistol (cop)
The Strip in LV isn't actually in the city, it's part of unincorporated Clark County.
To be fair, Virginia Beach is only the largest city in the Hampton Roads area because it's nearly 250 square miles of mostly suburbia. Norfolk is the actual historic downtown on that metro.
As for LA, I agree with Kyle. Its downtown is really sad for the second largest city in the country. As for Skid Row, LA actually has a neighborhood that carries that name. I went to a convention once at LA Live and walked to Skid Row to see it. While I am not necessarily a person who's afraid of such places, it is objectively pretty run down and depressing. It's a shame that this sort of abandoned urban fabric place just rots right next to the very center of the city. Sadly, Skid Row is in ways more interesting than the very core of the city itself. Downtown LA is pathetic when you compare it to the downtown of a city like Chicago. The USA's 4th largest city (Houston) also has a center that's nothing to write home about given the size o the city.
Lots of people in the burbs in those cities. Most of the night life is in more accessible or more convenient locations. Not many downtowns are hopping night spots in my experience. I thought this would have been about stuff like looks, cleanliness, accessibility, crime, costs, public transport, number of vacant buildings or crack houses, things that would keep me away from a downtown in other words.
This is the first time I'm actually happy my city(Boston) wasn't listed on a US city list
People leave Baltimore because it's just awful
I visited Baltimore inner harbor which was beautiful but once we left the inner harbor it was just awful with so many homeless. And that was in the 90's
4:40 high violent crime, high poverty
Sacramento CA is the worst downtown. Even Old Sac is bad and they've been trying to get life back into it. Just the homeless and lack of decent restaurants or clubs makes it just dull and dreary. Hopefully someday they can liven it up.
Absolutely correct regarding Phoenix. Actual downtown Phoenix is all business not much after business hours, you need to drive to one of the suburbs for activities. The City turned down the Arizona Coyotes hockey request for a new arena in Phoenix therefore they are moving to Utah. As more people relocate to Phoenix the suburbs just keep growing out from the central district creating more sprawl and destroying the desert. It may be more affordable than California, but believe me it is getting up there.
as a resident of the county St.Louis proper is becoming a Hell Hole and has been going down for years
I went to school in Phoenix (Tempe) and you couldn't pay me to live there. I would nope out every summer and head up north to the Grand Canyon or Lake Powell to work.
4:40 I live in the DC metro area and can confirm Baltimore is a living hell. People have been leaving it for the simple reason that they don't want to be murdered. Also, the recent collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge has further ruined the shipping sector which was basically the only thing holding the city together.
I would have switched LA and Las Vegas. I think LA's downtown is much worse than Vegas by miles.
I really thought my hometown of Miami would be on the list because it’s really bad
Oh nooo downtown Los Angeles is the absolute worse 😂
And all the homeless on skidrow are courtesy of red states.
I was just glad to not see our downtown on the list.😊
I kinda of like this guy.
Ive never heard anything good about Baltimore.
Downtown LA is gross. I avoid it.
I would not live in any of these areas, I love the small rural towns which always have lovely things going on, I live in the mountains in Va, we have wonderful events, always a big deal, farmers, girls scouts, schools, vets.. You are not going to find that in big cities..... Have to make a short list, museums, plenty of local shopping, the food is amazing, wineries..The list goes on, guess that is why we are invaded with arbnb....Peace Out.
Facts. Im accustomed to the mountain lifestyle, my grandparents lived on a mtn top in WV. Nice, small, closeknit people/towns
I visited Baltimore's inner harbor in the 90's and it was very nice. However once we left the inner harbor it was awful. So many homeless begging for money.
@beverlybennett963 You obviously missed that "Downtown" usually means the hub of government agencies. Plus upscale businesses. Most people live in suburbs. Others prefer rural. EVERY state has this. Couldn't help but notice you didn't recognize the Campfire Girls, colonizer.
@@mygreywolf colon!zer?????????????
Baltimore is way worse then 9