Top Five Corrupt American Cities

Right-o, I've been trying to compile this list for a few months now since I "Came Up" with the idea of a top five list. I'm like Al Gore, i invented something. Ha.

I don't know if I can include my hometown of Las Vegas in the list. We've had two mayors in the last two and some change decades and is a literal crime family running this city. Mayor Oscar Goodman was, no joke, the "lawyer to the mob" in the bygone days, then becomes mayor, THEN hands the reigns off to his wife. I truly do not know what to say but life here in Vegas has gone pretty well although the water problems and blah blah blah may make this city uninhabitable within a few years

If I, as a Vegan (not food, get your mind out of the gutter), can't figure it out, this list is just sorta, kinda what can be from my perspective. I don't think we have enough history to be in the top five.

5. Chicago. Vote early, vote often. Need I say more?

4. Detroit. They've been Democrat for most of the last few decades and you really do need to balance out the power every once in a while to keep things sane and Detroit ain't sane anymore. So many decrepit houses there, blah blah blah.

This is where it gets really tricky, #2 &3 are hard to parse.

3. Baltimore. Just watch The Wire or the new series We Own This City. Truth is told in those shows and I met a guy from Baltimore recently who told me, just like the show told me, how frakked up it is there. I'm surprised they were able to get back into the city to film We Own This City as they had kinda been kicked out after Homicide and The Wire.

2.Miami. The biggest real estate scam on the earth, funded by coc aine......what could go wrong? Ah, who cares when a building collapses because it's built on flimsy limestone, the architects and builders didn't care when it was built but only 100 people died, who cares, right?

1. NYC. WHY does it control the western world? Who gives a frak about the NYT bestseller list, why should they be the arbiter, and why does anyone care about that disgusting city?

There's gotta be a reason and it cannot be a good one. I don't have the time to go into specifics but most here know history enough to either agree or repudiate my #1.

Have fun, folks. This is a really interesting discussion and I did have a few minutes of this with a guy I know who's lived all over and been in the military so he knows more about cities I've never been to and neither he nor I could come up with a top 5 just off the top of our heads. Took me a few weeks of pondering this and then the discussion with my friend before posting this and my opinion could change on a dime or less.

So I kept this simple, sort of. I could type for days but you don't need my college dissertation (BTW, I never went to college, but you get the point) on this subject. Gotta leave some room for you guys to give your top five and the reasons why. Oh yeah, you gotta lay it all out. No wimping out.

I love lists.

a reply to: TheSpanishArcher

Your comments on NYC remind me of the distorted view of the USA that Europeans have. Not that our pop culture export has helped reduce the distortion.

For them, the USA is NYC, LA, and Florida.

Within the USA, the worship of NYC seems to be a thing of the political Left who are in any case big city "fans" (although they don't do much for said cities when they're the local government).

LV, hah! Good point, actually. If the mob is openly running the town, is that corrupt in the same sense that a supposedly 'honest' government is when it has been undermined by various influences and interests? I'd wager it is harder to break mob loyalty to their ideals than it is to do the same with Joe Politician looking to enrich him/herself.

Cheers

a reply to: TheSpanishArcher

NYC, why does it control anything, who cares about best selling books?
I don’t see NYC being all that relevant or all that corrupt, not saying it isn’t but, in the scheme of things it’s not really internationally recognised as controlling the West like London or Belgium, probably Jerusalem, maybe a US thing saying NY?

But can’t help you with my opinion on US corruption, just know less guns more crime (so I was told?)

a reply to: TheSpanishArcher

I'm astonished Washington D.C. didn't make your list. They've held the title for decades!

Back in 2018, Las Vegas made the top 10, along with Houston, Philadelphia, New Orleans, Newark to name a few.

Four years later and the consensus is that Chicago tops the list currently although I agree with your NYC pick; it's either or with these two.

Another interesting metric to uncover is what are the most corrupt states, as state governments set the tone for most major metro areas which in turn trickle down into the smaller cities and towns. Those that "do well" on the lower levels tend to be top picks for scumbag scouts.

It would be interesting to see which states are the most corrupt but have the least amount of corrupt cities.

NYC is a hellhole. NYS wouldn't be half the mess that it is if we (upstate) weren't carrying their sad asses financially while letting them dictate our state laws solely because of the population density in that dumpster. It's a huge city though so guess what extreme of idiot politician we get to deal with?! I found a group called Divide NY a while back and so far I don't know of anyone in this area (that I told to look into it) that hasn't joined. NYC needs to be removed from this state like the cancer it is.

Politicians in any major city are corrupt. Even small towns can have corrupt and power hungry politicians.

Gotta be pretty bad to beat out Atlanta and Baltimore....

a reply to: TheSpanishArcher

"most corrupt" is a silly designation. That white speck on chicken poop is still chicken poop.

Every city is corrupt as hell. If you disagree, try to work with zoning and get a building inspected. Have fun, see you in hell.

If you want the top five on this list at any given time just look for the five biggest democrat run cities. There is no such thing as a major city that does not have some degree of corruption at some level of operation, regardless of party affiliation. But true dyed in the wool straight to the bone corruption, look at the big dem cities. Its that easy.

a reply to: TheSpanishArcher

In other words all Cities that are run by Democrats.

a reply to: TheSpanishArcher

I feel the cities most prone to corruption are anchor cities of Megaopolises.

Chicago, NYC, LA, Miami, etc.

Easy to get lost in a shuffle.

And if you go districts that lead the rest in corruption charges here is your Top 10 with number of convictions between 1976-2016.

1. Illinois Northern (Chicago) - 1,731
2. California Cemtral (Los Angeles) - 1,534
3. New York Southern (Manhattan) - 1,327
4. Florida Southern (Miami) - 1,165
5. District of Columbia- 1,159
6. New Jersey (Newark) - 1,113
7. Pennsylvania Eastern (Philidelphia) - 1,009
8. Virginia Eastern (Richmond) - 1,001
9. Northern Ohio (Clevland) - 991
10. New York Eastern (Brooklyn) - 846

It seems the New York - Philidelphia - DC corridor has the largest corruption footprint.

a reply to: EternalShadow

D.C. didn't even occur to me mostly as it's Federal and my reasoning for this thread isn't about that upper level of government, I just wan't the cities but yeah, they are pretty screwy there for sure.

a reply to: bigfatfurrytexan

Not to disagree with you but this is meant as more of a fun thread than a really serious one. Sure, the designation is silly but, again, so is the thread.

I just want lists of what other people think and to compare them and maybe, learn something that obviously won't help me at all but I do like expanding my brain here and there. Not trying to get real deep here but it's mainly a leaning experimnent.

Come on, who takes list thread seriously anyway?

a reply to: Degradation33

Would have thought Baltimore would be on that list but you are right it seems to be located in that north eastern area. Newark is a bit of a surprise to me but I really know little of New Jersey except it basically sucks. The little sister to NYC I guess. The dumpster fire that is NYC is pretty well told by the next poster.

originally posted by: Magnivea
NYC is a hellhole. NYS wouldn't be half the mess that it is if we (upstate) weren't carrying their sad asses financially while letting them dictate our state laws solely because of the population density in that dumpster. It's a huge city though so guess what extreme of idiot politician we get to deal with?! I found a group called Divide NY a while back and so far I don't know of anyone in this area (that I told to look into it) that hasn't joined. NYC needs to be removed from this state like the cancer it is.

I'm gonna bump this just to try and not be the thread killer to my own thread which I do think is a great thought experiment. There's no right or wrong answers, just perspective.

a reply to: Degradation33

Do these cities make Democrats Corrupt, or is it the other way around?

I'd put NYC, LA, then D.C. in any order due to the corruption that they spawn throughout the entire world. Never been to those cities, but nothing I see in the media paints them as dream destinations. Would be interested to see which section of these cities host there respective mayors. Probably not the same places that come to mind when I think of these cities.

a reply to: ventian

That's why I put NYC #1, the crap they pull by being the arbiter of all in this country. Heck with what's corrupt in the city, their newspaper thinks they are the only paper out there. Corruption throughout the world, good words.

a reply to: TheSpanishArcher

Every border town. They all have elected leaders on the take from cartels. Every single one

a reply to: bigfatfurrytexan

That is so very true.

When we were selling the house to move to Tennessee, we ended up in Alabama, but anyway, the inspectors were toxic.

Trying to tell us that our roof framing was rotten... Really? I just spent the previous week plus discovering that it wasn't. I was, in essence, told that I had no clue about that. I asked if he'd even bothered to climb up there and actually, I don't know, look at it? Since I'd been standing beside him the whole time, the question was rhetorical.

I was told later that that same inspector will, for a small amount of money, pass you. IIRC, the going rate was 500 dollars for a residence such as ours.

It took four inspections to finally "Pass", even though, other than the garage roof, we did no more work on the place.

Corrupt, indeed.

No San Fran?

In no particular order:
NYC
LA
SF
DC
Chicago
Philadelphia
Atlanta
Cleveland
Detroit
Los Vegas
Seattle
Portland
Denver
Dallas

Now to compare and contrast: the location of the 12 Federal Reserve Banks

Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Richmond, Atlanta, Chicago, St. Louis, Minneapolis, Kansas City, Dallas and San Francisco