What's THE WORST Place You Ever Lived In?
What's THE WORST Place You Ever Lived In?
Mary_Ethel
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/6/04
#0What's THE WORST Place You Ever Lived In?
Posted: 11/30/04 at 9:13am
When I was a student at Boston University, I lived in Boston's "Student Ghetto" in a forty-year old building falling apart.
It was a FIFTH floor walkup--the apartment was maybe 500 square feet--and the kitchen, bathroom, and living room--all "alcoves"--not really rooms--were piled on top of each other like logs in a cabin.
The heat NEVER worked--quite nice during those four-month Boston Winters! 
I lasted an entire year there--Lord knows how!
What's THE WORST place you ever lived in?
#1re: What's THE WORST Place You Ever Lived In?
Posted: 11/30/04 at 9:17amAlbany, NY.
Unknown User
Joined: 12/31/69
#2re: What's THE WORST Place You Ever Lived In?
Posted: 11/30/04 at 9:18amThe barracks at the Air Force boot camp in San Antonio Texas, followed VERY closely by my Tech School barracks in Wichita Falls, Texas. Maybe it was just Texas that bugged me.
#3re: What's THE WORST Place You Ever Lived In?
Posted: 11/30/04 at 9:20am
White Plains, NY...
Nice apartment but a cultural wasteland of a city...
Mary_Ethel
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/6/04
#4re: What's THE WORST Place You Ever Lived In?
Posted: 11/30/04 at 9:21am
Dg, please watch what you say about my BELOVED Lone Star State! 
#5re: What's THE WORST Place You Ever Lived In?
Posted: 11/30/04 at 9:24amNasty, right? And that gi-normous toilet bowl right in the middle of it all. Wierd, man...
Mary_Ethel
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/6/04
#6re: What's THE WORST Place You Ever Lived In?
Posted: 11/30/04 at 9:25am
But Albany is one of the oldest cities in North America!:
http://home.nycap.rr.com/albany/hoods.html
#7re: What's THE WORST Place You Ever Lived In?
Posted: 11/30/04 at 9:42amMy mother's car. When I was 14, she left my stepfather and for severay weeks we lived out of her car until we could find a place to stay - it was an adventure - but I wouldn't want to try it again!
Mary_Ethel
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/6/04
#8re: What's THE WORST Place You Ever Lived In?
Posted: 11/30/04 at 9:44am
My gosh, redhot--sounds like you were caught right in the middle of some LIFETIME movie! 
#9re: What's THE WORST Place You Ever Lived In?
Posted: 11/30/04 at 10:00amMary please - you don't know the HALF of it! but as I always say - that which does not kill us makes us stronger!
judy_in_disguise
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/31/04
#10re: What's THE WORST Place You Ever Lived In?
Posted: 11/30/04 at 10:03am
hehe I live in the student ghetto right now, in a city that is crappy enough to begin with!
I'm in a building of rowhouses that was built circa 1900, so the damn thing is about 100 years old and built in the British style of the day. I'm on the fourth floor (aka the penthouse). We have one bathroom that is three floors down from my room (I almost break my ankles every time I have to pee at night!). The bathroom is separated- there is one room for the toilet, and another for the shower and sink (please tell me how that makes sense!). My room has a very low ceiling (good thing I'm only 5'6') with an even lower gable that I constantly smack my head against (because I'm a genius). I am lucky though- the floor space of my room is relatively large in comparaison to other houses in the ghetto, and my a$s is awesome from climbing so many effing stairs all day!
Our shower is a claw-foot tub with shower curtains around it, that stick to you. Ew.
Don't even get me started on the windows. There are no screens. Apparently to put screens in, the whole window would have to be replaced, and landlords in the ghetto just don't care. So picture me, no air con, in the summer, window wide open...in a city where the squirrels think they run the place and are about as domestic and populated as New York City pigeons. That made for some seroiusly fun squirrel-chasing times this summer. Wouldn't be suprised if there was a squirrel carcass in the storage closet.
Our living room is the end of a hallway. It's quaint.
Our apartment is sectionalized by particle board from the rest of the building and the lock on our apartment door is one of those crappy little bathroom door locks.
I guess that's why our bathroom doors don't HAVE locks.
Our bedroom doors have deadbolts though- go figure.
Honestly this place makes absolutley no sense. Our kitchen is on a slant and if you drop round food on the floor, it could be weeks until you find the moldy crap.
OH! And heating! Works fine on the the third floor. But there's actually no heating vent on the fourth floor (my floor), so I have to hope the heat will rise. Thank goodness for sweaters!
The four girls who live here though have made this place a home. It is ****ty, our little "slanty shanty"- the architecture hangs by a thread and if we gain any more weight the whole place will probably come crashing down right from the fourth floor. But it's still better than most student apartments, and with enough clever, non-40-plus decor, it's a pretty decent place.
Updated On: 11/30/04 at 10:03 AM
#11re: What's THE WORST Place You Ever Lived In?
Posted: 11/30/04 at 10:06am
M-E: I'm sure you didn't intend this thread to be the "official Albany NY" thread, BUT...On paper, Albany is fantastic--the river, the mountains, the varied and beautiful architecture. In practice, though, it is a small-minded, parochial, tiny little town run by mindless beaureaucrats and the sycophants and parasites who live off them. Picture D.C. without culture (not that DC is over-run with culture).
The classic line for Albany came from the curator of the Albany Museum, who replied (when I asked him where the modern art galleries were in the building) "Oh, we don't have room for the 20th century". That about sums it up.
#12re: What's THE WORST Place You Ever Lived In?
Posted: 11/30/04 at 10:07amDowntown Ghetto Milwaukee, WI...When I was three I saw my first gang Gun battle in our backyard and had bricks fly through the window of the room my brother and I shared. Needless to say, our parents got us the hell out of there as soon as we could.
Mary_Ethel
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/6/04
#13re: What's THE WORST Place You Ever Lived In?
Posted: 11/30/04 at 10:10am
My gosh, Judy, that sounds like something right out of STREET SCENE!
I can shed one tiny bit of light on your horrendous living conditions:
Many years ago, it was considered quite "proper" for your bathroom's comode to be in a slightly separate section than the bathtub/shower. [I'm thinking it was perceived to be more "cleaner" and "private" that way.]
I believe many homes in the UK are still built that way.
WiCkEd4LyFfE
Broadway Star Joined: 6/13/04
#14re: What's THE WORST Place You Ever Lived In?
Posted: 11/30/04 at 10:14amjoey: White Plains isnt that bad. You've got the Westchester Mall right next to you! :)
judy_in_disguise
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/31/04
#15re: What's THE WORST Place You Ever Lived In?
Posted: 11/30/04 at 10:16am
yeah, some 80 year old dude I was in a show with explained to me the whole bathroom thing- it's still not practical though!!
Student apartments are fun if you're living in the ghetto and it's the lifestyle. I could never handle it for more than a few years though.
#16re: What's THE WORST Place You Ever Lived In?
Posted: 11/30/04 at 10:41amI declare RedHot the winner. Nobody comes close to living out of a car.
#17re: What's THE WORST Place You Ever Lived In?
Posted: 11/30/04 at 10:52amThe dorms at Niagara Universtiy. Not only were they older than jesus but as my father put it when coming out of the guys bathroom. "I've seen subway bathrooms in NYC cleaner than that"
#18re: What's THE WORST Place You Ever Lived In?
Posted: 11/30/04 at 10:52amI spent the first year of my life sleeping in the drawer of a built in dresser in a trailer. It explains a lot.
Mary_Ethel
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/6/04
#19re: What's THE WORST Place You Ever Lived In?
Posted: 11/30/04 at 11:00am
But Carl Magnum, the student housing at Niagra University looks DARLING!
https://www.niagara.edu/housing/
#20re: What's THE WORST Place You Ever Lived In?
Posted: 11/30/04 at 11:00am
The off topic board.
It's kinda prickly, but often the temperature changes from cold to hot to cold.
I've been blessed to live relatively comfortably my whole life.
#21re: What's THE WORST Place You Ever Lived In?
Posted: 11/30/04 at 11:03amI went to school up in Potsdam NY. Anyone ever been somewhere REALLY cold? Now I am in Buffalo where it is warmer but there is WAY more snow. sigh.
#22re: What's THE WORST Place You Ever Lived In?
Posted: 11/30/04 at 11:06am
Buffalo gets a bad rap in the snow department.
I went to school at Syracuse, and the snow is much worse. I grew up in Buffalo just gets more press. I think in part because of winter national football coverage. Now that I live in Rochester, I get the best of both worlds.
#23re: What's THE WORST Place You Ever Lived In?
Posted: 11/30/04 at 11:15am
I think Buffalo has just had some really bad cases, but we still have some winters with not too much snow...
Like, I remember being stuck on the thruway for 17 hours during a snow storm once! Right before thanksgiving. HORRIBLE.
Praying for another mild winter this year!
shesings
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/14/04
#24re: What's THE WORST Place You Ever Lived In?
Posted: 11/30/04 at 11:18amThe Stratford Arms (amda student housing) - when we moved in they told us there would be other "tenants" living there on seperate floors - in actuality they were on the same floors scattered throughout us. And these weren't just any old tenants. What we came to find out is that AMDA bought the building from the government, and due to some agreement they couldn't kick out the former tenants - until they died - which wasn't too far of b/c the building used to be a home for mentally ill elderly people. Yes thats right. So here we are a bunch of musical theatre kids sharing our home with crazy old people. Crazy old people who woul dpiss on the floors, or breeding roaches because he thought they were his pets (he lived across the hall - did you know roaches make nests?), or running up and down the halls at night naked beating the walls with a broom, or playing one song over and over 24/7 as loud as it can get, or in a few cases dying - which no one noticed until the stench really kicked in. We had to share bathrooms with these people who literally couln't take care of themselves. A few of them had nurses to help them bathe and things, but the showers were just little closets at the end of the hall and they would just leave the door open for all to see. It was seriously a madhouse. And filthy. I seriously told my parents that if I had to live there the next year I wouldn't go back to school. Oh the crazies.....
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