Twitter Debates The Worst Places In New York City - There's One Clear Definitive Answer

New York City has this remarkable ability of being the best place in the world while also being absolute hell on Earth at the same time. You can do just about anything here. Literally anything you set your mind to. The good and the bad. The exciting and the boring. 

This Twitter account @MosesNYC posed the question of what the three worst places in NYC are. It's nearly an impossible question given how horrible this city can be at times, but we've got plenty of good suggestions. 

For the sake of the blog let's take out coronavirus and all the social distancing rules that are in place now. Every place is miserable right now so that doesn't count. Also subways are out, that's too easy. You can compare little details between one another but at the end of the day they all have something horrible about them. 

Keep in mind there is really only one answer which I will elaborate at the end of the blog. Let's just run through some options others suggested. They're all wrong compared to my answer, but what the hell let's see what else is bad. 

If you want a quick path to hurting yourself, go to a Whole Foods right after work. There's a lot of decisions you can make on a daily basis, but stepping foot in a Whole Foods around 6:00 PM shoots right to the top. The first time I did this I actually started laughing out loud. The line is just impossibly long for such a small store. You'll find people crying around this time. Panic, fear, desperation, frustration. You'll locate all of that in a Whole Foods. As for his other choices I don't have any experience in Union Pool and I avoid Brooklyn like its the plague. 

The Union Square subway stop is a disaster, I agree. Keegs brings up an extremely specific street corner that I can't picture in my head but vendors dumping their hot good garbage on the side walk certainly doesn't sound like a great time. 

Now this is an attack. I won't accept of this. Am I still a 26 year old douchebag who pretends he's still just out of college? Yes. Do I live in Murray Hill? Yes. But are the bars the worst places on Earth? Okay, if you're over 40 and stumble in sure you won't have a good time, but if you're getting a drink after work there's nothing wrong with a Murray Hill bar. Am I an asshole for saying that? Possibly. Absolutely do not go out at night to a Murray Hill bar. You don't plan your night around a Murray Hill bar, but for happy hour it's perfectly acceptable. 

This one hits home for me since my old job was on 35th and 8th. Quite possibly the worst job of all time paired with a horrific area. Everything is disgusting, homeless people are jerking off left and right, and the food options are horrid. I don't know what happened with 8th avenue but it's a shit show. 7th avenue is literally one (1) avenue over and is a completely normal area. I don't get it. 

Yeah I'd say prison is right at the top of the list. Really tough to beat prison, but this city will amaze you time and time again. 

Okay this is a new one. I did not know Saddam Hussein had a secret torture chamber in New York City. It's closed now which is good, but five years ago I could see this place being worse than a lot of destinations on this list. Fair submission. 

Jeff went with a movie theater which I can't really relate to. The only one I go to is in Kips Bay and it's fantastic. I've never waited for anything in there. Then again, anything in Times Square is just asking for a miserable time. Packed Hair of the Dog is not a fun time at all. You do the old one step in one step out and go look for something else with less than 400 people inside. 

Lots of people are saying Penn Station and that's fair. It's dirty and comprises of a large group of people sprinting to a gate the moment it shows up on the big screen. It's a shit show no doubt. Penn Station is really bad, but in my mind it doesn't hold a candle to the Port Authority Bus Terminal. 

There is no place, and I mean no place on Earth worse than the New York Port Authority Bus Terminal. Where do I even begin? As a commuter for several years I grew to despise even the name being uttered out of someone's mouth. For anyone going there for the first time may God have mercy on your soul. If you enter through the wrong building there are different levels and areas you won't have access to. You actually will get lost and have no one to ask for help. You'll be walking around on the verge of tears because it'll feel like you're in a never-ending nightmare. 

You also have no idea where your bus is leaving from. For me I would try to catch the 132 line on the 3rd level. It could be leaving from gates 321, 323, 324, or 325. There's no schedule at all. You just have to guess. When you show up there during rush hour to get home there are 30+ person lines everywhere. It's a mad house and every employee is useless or not around to help. You have no idea where the first bus is coming from and just have to pick a line. I've had times where I chose wrong and waited on a line where the bus didn't come for an hour while the other line had busses comes three times in that span. I've also had moments where I switched lines seeing a bus was coming only for that bus to not allow boarding for 20 minutes while the line I was previously on left 5 minutes after I hopped off line. I hope none of that made sense. It shouldn't because that's how fucked up the Port Authority is. It's nonsense. You'd think there would be an electronic scree at every gate telling you when the next bus is arriving. That would make too much sense. Nope, instead you have to guess!

God forbid you ever have to use the bathroom in this place just call it a day. Miss whatever bus you're trying to catch and go find a bathroom somewhere else. If you enter into a PA bathroom there's a better chance than not you won't come out alive. Also if you're waiting a while for a bus and want to snack on something don't even think about buying food there unless you want to shorten your life span by decades.

I haven't gotten to the worst part of this godforsaken place: the basement. There will come a time where you stay late at work or go out for drinks and have to catch a late night bus. You'll sprint to catch the 12:30 on the main levels but it'll leave early as a fuck you to your face. That's when it dawns on you that you have to venture downstairs. That's where the late-late busses leave from. Every homeless person in NYC resides in the Port Authority basement. Once again, you really don't know when the bus is coming so you're just standing outside and praying. Spending any amount of time down in the Port Authority basement is too much time. It's downright horrifying and I hope I never have to do it again. The lights are 100 times extra brighter down there too for no reason at all. 

All of the above suggestions were good, but if you don't think the Port Authority is the worst place in NYC then I'm convinced you don't actually live here. Avoid it like the plague. If you have to pull a Mantis and sleep in the office, do it. I'm getting PTSD just typing this blog so I'm going to stop now. Hopefully one day they demolish that building and figure something else out because it just gets worse and worse. It's nuts to see how nice Grand Central Terminal is and then see the Port Authority. You would think they were located in different countries.