Utica, NY.
I happen to have been born in New Hartford NY, a small town outside the thriving metropolis of Utica NY. I lived there for the first ten years of my life, before moving to a suburb of Rochester NY.

Shithole? Please allow me to tell you.

The only real growing business there seems to be the F.X. Matt Brewery, which produces the Saranac line of beers. Utica Cutlery is dead and gone, the lumber industry died around 1920, and all else has turned to rust and dust. When I was a child I remember my father referring to Utica as a dead city. So what is it now?

newyorktraveler.net/utica-lunatic-asylum/

According to Urban Dictionary: "A shithole. Located right in the middle of New York State and centrally located 5 hours away from 3 major cities (just far enough to be out of reach). Most people living there are either retarded or want to get the hell out. Did I mention it sucks?"
Winter's in Utica are proof that hell freezes over.

ask.metafilter.com/79777/why-are-houses-in-Utica-NY-so-cheap

Basically, Utica has no industry other than government at this point. The city is controlled by the Mafia, has harsh weather and is generally not a hospitable place to anyone. It's New Jersey without the charm, Mississippi without the education, Las Vegas without the entertainment. It had almost (but not quite) become a joke to Newark.

When people ask me where I'm from I reply, "Fairport NY. I graduated high school with Philip Seymour Hoffman's older brother, Gordon."

New York. It's like West Virginia, only further north.
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Sat 31 Oct 2009, 3:51, 3 replies)

.
Matt also makes most of Brooklyn Brewing's stuff under license, so the town can't be all bad.
(tuqueboy has been in a medically -induced coma since, Sat 31 Oct 2009, 4:16, closed)

Newark
is an anagram of wanker. Or rewank, where the first one wasn't good enough.

Sorry.
(Klangtarnflatchslapper looks just like a Telefunken U-47, Sat 31 Oct 2009, 9:39, closed)

I once spent three months near a town called Monticello in NY
God Damn that place is scary.
( jim_bob can herd cats., Sat 31 Oct 2009, 10:18, closed)