I Went To The Saddest Place In The United States

the second you enter Louisiana you'll never forget it the smell the crime the depression the freeloaders it's the infrastructure crime taxes political corruption horrible horrible well that sucks now I've seen some really bad areas Oakland Camden parts of Philadelphia Memphis but I don't think I've ever seen anything like the rundown country ghetto that I saw in Shreveport Louisiana it was day six on my southern road trip this was the first time I saw anything like this back in New Orleans I saw a lot of poverty in some rundown areas but in New Orleans a lot of it was in small doses and the homes weren't as visually terrible plus a lot of the worst of New Orleans had been raised to the ground after the hurricane this though this was bad they call it ratchet City shreef pit ship port South Arkansas that's mean but that's what they call it here but it doesn't matter what nicknames they give the place it already has a brand this has been called the worst place in Louisiana and the unhappiest place to live in the country driving around for two days I can see why [Music] oh [Music] that's an oil refinery and we're in Shreveport Louisiana this is where we're going to begin because this is how it all got started here as you probably know Louisiana's made its fortunes and seen its misfortunes because of oil and for Shreveport it's been a big Misfortune you could say refineries like this have made but also unmade the place because it is not in a good way these days that was a big oil boom in the 60s and a bunch of people came in here and drilled baby drilled there was a lot of money in shreef park but then what goes up comes down the price of oil collapsed by two-thirds a barrel so what happened well the banks and all the big companies like GM started shutting down and people got broke and a lot of people left for Texas and it's been downhill ever since the 80s at one point sharifport had 200 000 people now they're down to 185 000. it was just announced this is officially the fastest shrinking city in the country some of these refineries are right in the middle of the worst hoods here that's where I am now this is an area on the south side of Shreveport with the neighborhoods that are notorious in Louisiana places like Queensborough Allendale Cedar Grove I mean the night before I got here there were news stories all over the state about people getting gunned down in the part of town I'm in right now I spent the whole day driving around these hoods and I have to say they are bad bad bad you gotta stick around for that drive around Shreveport on the fringes of town and you see broken down everywhere signs of life that just aren't alive anymore just a couple miles from downtown I saw some former hustle and bustle this is South Texas Street it's a broken out part of town that I'm pretty sure a lot of the middle class here never sees there's really no reason to be down here anymore this entire stretch of road used to be thriving now it's all just gone the only Signs of Life are a few stragglers wandering around before 8 A.M on a Sunday morning I would assume that at one point this was a thriving extension to downtown but it would take a mini Miracle to get this place all spruced up again and it's like this all over town businesses that people cared about so much and worked so hard to keep afloat are now buildings being turned back to Rubble downtown proper is kind of okay there really isn't a lot going on in downtown Shreveport just a few blocks of restaurants and some Office Buildings and a couple's trees with some sort of life I drove around downtown on a Saturday and it was mostly empty just not a lot going on I have to give the city credit though a lot of downtowns closed down but they try to make it look somewhat decent at least on a few of the blocks but it's a lot more rough here than it looks just the night before three dudes hopped out of a car with rifles and gunned five people down right here on that corner in the middle of downtown at 2 A.M they were just standing there at least one of them died from what I heard and then you get just a block or two from the downtown core and it's boarded up all over the place is it just an America where we abandon things when they're broken there's nothing downtown station just abandoned and all this empty land downtown there's no one buying any of it we're seriously two blocks from downtown seen a downtown this much grass and open land and unused space the city's just really underfunded driving around you can really see the oil bust rust there's a lot of stuff that's demolished and neglected everywhere you turn in Shreveport when the oil boom was going on there weren't enough houses for all the excited people today there's plenty of houses around white flight was not kind to this place they've had a lot of time to become a major American city but it's been hard for them to find that thing to get things jump started here while driving around the downtown area that I met Big D he runs an old barbecue joint on the edge of this part of town the d stands for Darnell that's him right there nice older guy we kind of chatted for about a half hour he's been here for 40 years and he said he remembers when the mob used to run this place he also told me downtown's booming what are you talking about look there's an apartment building going in right across the street I was like okay dude but we talked about the shootings and all the uneducated people in town he seems pretty frustrated when is going on downtown Shreveport man looks like stuff's gone foreign downtown but the whole thing we got this two terrible roads around here you know coming down the street right here full Street coming this way it's so ridiculous to you just wouldn't believe that's in anywhere on Earth it's been that way for you for we getting good police protection around around this area and I love that I like to see it all over time I bought a rib sandwich from Big D homemade and everything then I gave it to this homeless guy he seemed to really appreciate it Big D seems to be hanging in there but he's one of the last small business owners that are making a go of it in town anymore there just aren't a lot of opportunities here for jobs at least anything that's not going to take a whole lot of elbow grease some Deep Pockets and a prayer but they have the casinos right those are supposed to have been a big deal here [Music] looks like I didn't win anything looking around it looks like a lot of other people didn't win anything either this is the Horseshoe Casino it's one of eight casinos in Shreveport and if you know anything about casinos you know that they really can make a bad Community even worse the casinos were supposed to help this place yeah they brought a lot of money in but you can't really tell inside the casinos they look pretty bleak usually casinos have a lot of people running around that are drunk and yelling and in Good Moods having fun all the casinos I went in Shreveport looked pretty ho-hum there are a lot of empty seats on a Saturday night maybe the hotels should stop charging 300 bucks a night I know if Texas ever makes casinos legal this place is really gonna feel it that's right Mappy I don't know what Louisiana would do with no Casino money maybe drill deeper if everyone gets a Tesla Louisiana wouldn't have any money I can't even imagine what Shreveport would look like if that happened or maybe I can and now it's time to head into the worst parts of town I didn't know it going in but what I'd see in shreveport's hoods was some of the most uniquely run down I've ever seen I drove around shreveport's worst areas in the early morning on the second day I was here it is really rough I tried to drive around and record everything I saw that morning every street I turned down had abandoned burned out boarded up broken roads it just went on and on there's so much overgrown here sometimes it's hard to tell if somebody lives in a house other times it's easy to tell no one lives there but a lot of the worst parts of shreef Park are dark and gloomy and super dangerous you can't tell if people are peering out from behind the shrubs or all the stained broken windows it's very intimidating I have to say and I do this for a living a lot of shreef ports a jungle Southern ghetto up to this point it was in the top three worst hoods I'd ever seen but it would easily be passed later on the trip that's called foreshadowing I guess you could say shreveport's an extreme example of just how bad things have become in Louisiana the state ranks 49th for poverty 47th for incomes it's 47th in boot insecurity and last for income gap it's also a very unhealthy and polluted state the schools here in the bottom three and this state's dead last for social and economic incomes looking at all this you might think it's a poor State overall but it's not the state's actually really rich it's in the top five in the country for energy chemical production salt sugar rice shipping so where's all the money going corporate subsidies and bad politicians just look how much money the state gives back to the richest companies in the world it's a state that can't fix its hospitals or schools or roads but comes up with a hundred million dollars for a football coach what the hell here in Shreveport it's mostly crime and poverty that are dragging it down and those two are very connected where we are right now driving around is actually the poorest neighborhood in the entire state of Louisiana households on this street bring in about 22k a year on average half the people in this area are on welfare and reported no taxable income last year half of them Citywide one in four people live in poverty making Shreveport one of the poorest big cities in the United States minimum wage just isn't cutting it anymore even though a lot of homes on this street are about 100K most people are just treading water around here one website called this the third worst place to raise a family shreveport's been called sad and miserable and just all sorts of stuff I didn't stop to ask anybody if they like living in this part of town I don't know how you actually ask a stranger that [Music] thank you [Music] crime wise it is cray cray shreveport's in the top 20 in the country for murder rates gangs are bad people are getting shot all the time cars are getting jacked every public park in mall in town is considered potentially dangerous and there's lots of warnings about staying out after dark lots of people dealing and stealing I hear all the gangs and crime skyrocketed after Katrina because a lot of people fled the coast and came up here and never left there just aren't enough fathers at home and there's definitely not enough cops on the streets here I hear they're more than a hundred officers short and they're even having trouble getting people to apply I don't blame them for not applying did you know Louisiana has the highest percentage of people in prison of any place in the world it's true [Music] there's a lot of liquor stores and casinos here but not a lot of culture I hear there's not a lot of civic pride in town anymore people complain about trash and the rundown and I have to agree with them a lot of it looks terrible I always hear that Louisiana's are tough as nails and generous and proud where's all of that I talked to a guy in town who lives in this hood and he told me really just about how bad it is he wanted to remain anonymous for obvious reasons talk to me about like Shreveport like what's going on here why why do I keep hearing about crime and it's it's bad here like what's what's the vibe in Shreveport well uh there is a lot of poverty around here the school systems are [ __ ] terrible I mean look at this this uh statistics excuse me uh there's drugs readily available everywhere in any neighborhood uh and you know uh it's not a great place to raise a family but you know a lot of people do and uh some turn out all right but most fall into this uh dark hole that Shreveport can uh if you let it Shreveport can uh get you to that dark hole that's for sure but uh everybody wants to leave not really many people want to [ __ ] live here for the rest of their lives and uh you know some people do leave but it just has a way of bringing people back and um it's [ __ ] up because uh and I mean there's kids getting killed uh catching straight boys there's kids overdosing there's kids dying in car accidents um robberies burglaries uh you know and for the amount of it's not a big city there's only like a quarter million population here and uh it's crazy how many murders and if you look at all those statistics though of all the other crimes it's it's very high for the somewhat low amount of people that reside in this the in this place you know we're going to hear more from him and another concerned resident later they're both pretty skeptical about where this City's headed so everybody wants to know how do you fix this well the latest plan is a Changing of the Guard shreveport's been run by democrats since 1990 but the city just elected a Republican mayor that was a big surprise here based on the demographics and all people were just fed up they wanted to try something new the new mayor says he's going to be tougher on crime and knock down a lot of the abandoned buildings and crack houses we'll see how that goes they're also going to have to figure out how to turn the economy around here too outside of Health Care and energy it's pretty bleak words out Shreveport has the worst job economy in the nation for mid-sized cities and that is not good of course not everybody here is unhappy there's some good parts of town where we are now is on the fringes of Shreveport where families can relax and just get out of the dreary here's what that looks like down here home prices are in the three hundred thousand dollar range a lot of what I'd call far south central Shreveport is actually pretty nice lots of big homes and it seems very safe and inviting I think a lot of these people fund the bad side of town and are frustrated that they're mandatory Investments are not paying off much but that's just how it is more and more in the country now I think these people are being pretty patient if you ask me what I was out and about in Shreveport I didn't really do very much to be honest despite being here for two days I was kind of confined to one kind of little tiny area in town that actually isn't in Shreveport that's because much of Shreveport is ghetto dangerous or just empty so I hung out in Bossier City or Bossier as they call it it's right across the river from Shreveport there's some casinos and hotels and a little bit of fun safe areas to kind of hang out in you could call this part of town hip if you wanted to it's a total different vibe than everything across the river in Shreveport I'll tell you that look at this outdoor concert all these people are smiling they seem happy you can kind of walk around all over here and look across the river at the bad side and be glad you're on the safe side and that's the Red River by the way nobody swims in it because of pollution [Music] I saw an air show from nearby Barksdale AFB that's another good thing about Sharif porn the Air Force Base has added some stability I gambled some I never win on the stupid machines but I did take in a little dough at the sports book with this upset victory no matter where you go in Louisiana it's hard to forget you're in Louisiana folks sure dress like it lots of hats and boots and cowboy wallets all over Shreveport and undercarriage lights are a big deal here for dudes with big old trucks there's a lot of music and art and good food in Bossier on my final night I headed to bojacks and thought you know what I'll try the damn crawfish it was my final night in Louisiana and all I didn't suck the heads though I just don't get it I saw people putting down platters of these things you don't really get a lot for all that work and they don't really taste that good and the yellow poop guts I just don't know what am I eating am I eating crawfish poop and then as we left I followed a crawfish gut pile out the door that was disgusting but that's Louisiana back at the casino things are still humming along for the house but I didn't see too many Smiles just lots of Samo Samo The House Always Wins this casino is sort of shreef Port itself it takes and offers very little in return the way things are going in town there are very few jackpots being hit I don't understand based on statistics shreef ports assumed to be one of the unhappiest places in the country but then Harvard did a study once and they talked to people and five of the 10 happiest places in the country were here in Louisiana so which one is it but I don't think any of these people care too much about statistics or rankings or any of that they know they're ranked badly and everything they're just too busy worrying about day to day and they are what they rank in and I don't think Big D cares about rankings he's going to stick it out in Shreveport till he dies no matter what I bet he thinks he's gonna Outlast all the bad politicians and all those gangs and he'll probably just stay out of the way like the rest of the community just hope something changes but mostly hoping just doesn't get any worse this would be my last day in Louisiana the next day I'd see something equally tragic as I began my journey out of state into Arkansas Shreveport is is a predominantly Democrat area you know some Independence but predominantly Democrat but we've had for the last 25 years a Democrat mayor and I think that things have gotten to a point and people are like we want to change and and the people of Shreveport are really you know we've got some really good people here and we've got some people who are like we're not putting up with this anymore and so Shreveport actually voted in their first Republican mayor in all that time [Music] and I was reading today that he is going to bring in the federal government and try to start investigating using the RICO Act to try to bring down some of the organized crime in the area because it has gotten so so bad and which I think is is wonderful because you know we need something big we need something big to happen to to help us um but I also think it's like everywhere else I think it's a series of bad decisions um I think that it's it's bad leadership it's um you know just just to be very real about how I feel about it I think it's it's a lot of our society moving away from God and not um not having any more of the values of having family structures and I think that that is a big part of you know what what's happening because you see so many times in our community you know moms raising kids and you don't see dads and I think that's you know a huge part of where the crime and things like that come in so I think that you know if we begin to move back and begin to to bring back some of our values I think that we'll begin to see you know but that that'll be big changes right there the population is going down do you know any people that have left that are like we're going to Texas or we're going to Forever yes I I have some close friends who have left I have a close friend who's been to San Antonio this summer and you know it's hard to see him leave but you know you just realize that um you know people have got to do what's what's best for them and what you know everybody wants some good opportunities for their children so hopefully we can you know bring that back here but in the meantime yeah I think we're going to continue to have to see people leave are you optimistic I'm optimistic I'm optimistic because I see I see God moving and so I think that um as long as we have we have people here who are willing to to work towards good change I think that I think that things can change and we have a lot of we have a lot of outreaches in Shreveport and we have a lot of people who who just care you know just I mean a lot of really caring people that are not willing to sit back and and just let let things go and that's huge and um it makes me really hopeful about the new mayor not the not that it's a certain party or whatever but it just makes me hopeful that people are are willing to say hey we've had enough of this and we need to change and they're willing to step outside of their comfort zone to say hey we want it we want things to get better here and that's that's what we need I think that Shreveport is a place with just a lot of wonderful people and I hope that um that people will you know check out check out things here we have a lot of different events and things and I hope that people will look into those and maybe you know come to visit and see see the good things that the Shreveport Bossier area has to offer yeah someone just got shot on Market in Texas last night yeah what what's going on with all the Knuckleheads shooting people around here I just eating eating uneducated 90 percent of that is an education and not educated a person not educated is most subject to get in trouble than an educated person you don't you don't educate your kids you can expect trouble that I'm lying you can expect it's coming shut down the left educated they got more Avenues into to to to travel on you know and just at one Avenue this early Seasons I saw my mama out there don't understand so I'm addicted and that's all they're going to do so that's that's what that's what needs to be done I don't know what they're gonna we're gonna do with it you know your new administrations come in like but anytime I want to come in and they end up they might clean up one session but they move on to another section tell me about how long how long that we have to keep waiting on this change to come you know the education is what I've made downfall educating the children because the past they're not educated the kids are going to be real educated they don't have the Senators to go to school every day because the parents didn't you know that's that's that's that's me I see how would you describe Shreveport in like two sentences progress but a long ways to go so what is it about Shreveport that like is it gangs is it drugs like why is it so bad here in in other cities in Louisiana is not nearly as bad uh I'd say that um well it is it is a hub for um narcotics coming through from Mexico uh there is a a cartel presence here but um yeah it's a it's a road so basically you know you come from Texas these mules and whatnot and they shop in Shreveport and on the way to their other destinations whether it's the East Coast they're up to Chicago you know or Florida whatever and also that uh there's not much to do here you can gamble uh maybe hit up one of our bars you know uh [ __ ] go to our small aquarium for maybe 20 minutes you know man uh I mean shootings have been happening here for [ __ ] uh uh long period of time is real bad in the 90s but we actually uh had the most murders in uh a year pretty recently I forgot what year it was but it was pretty recent so who like who's shooting who like why are people shooting each other okay um so it's mostly uh gang wars you know for the most part or just over shocks you know and I'm not going to mention any specific gangs but uh there's there's definitely a lot of gang violence going on because you know I mean I know how I know how that mentality is you know like because it's all a get back game you know one of your uh people got killed one of your brothers got killed no no no you know and uh [ __ ] it's just body after body dropping you know they it's very rare that you know in situations like this where most of the gangs are like ah you know what you killed my cousin and I killed your mom but you know uh let's just stop the violence you know that doesn't [ __ ] happen it never [ __ ] happens there's unborn children that don't even know they're they're in the womb and they're gonna be born into a [ __ ] game you know it's just [ __ ] crazy so what are the what are they trying to do to stop all the violence in Shreveport that I'm not sure of honestly uh our police force is um pretty uh aggressive to say the least of you you don't want to [ __ ] around over here especially in Bossier it's even worse than Bossier uh but yeah I don't know what the hell they're doing I mean they're not doing enough because this [ __ ] happens like a kitty I killed outside a skating rink recently and she she wasn't available like 17 18 years old that's it it's just it's it's very sad when it's happening talk these innocent people you know I I advise anybody that doesn't live here to not live here because uh it can be pretty rough out here I've seen a lot happen to people and uh heard of a lot happening to people and this is a place where you need to tread lightly it's uh you know I hope Shreveport can be a better place one day but I've never seen it I I can't even imagine that ever happening so um they say they did a ranking on the happiest cities in the country and Shreveport was last so technically According to some website that did rankings she reports the unhappiest place in the country does that surprise you to hear that uh-huh no uh it doesn't at all but damn [ __ ] I knew we were a [ __ ] shitty ass depressing city but for to be the lowest wow yeah I mean it surprised me a little bit but not much not much at all you know to be able to see him on happier very much so the majority you know are you looking to move and need advice I do Consulting that's right I'll sit down and talk about where the next perfect place for you and your family should be I do it all the time together let's find you a new home that's safe and checks all your boxes and I can also help you find your new house too email me and I'll work with you on not just helping you figure out where to move but I can help you find your perfect home too that's right I know awesome reliable agents all over the country and I'd love to connect you to somebody who can help you search for that perfect home hey guys if you learned something new about America or what it's like to live in America great you should think about subscribing and turning on your notifications you can also click one of these videos or playlists for more this is page next manager this has been a Corner House Entertainment production

Channel: Nick Johnson

Views: 563,185

Keywords: louisiana, louisiana travel, louisiana hotels, louisiana realtor, louisiana homes for sale, what is louisiana like, louisiana crime, new orleans, shreveport, baton rouge, louisiana history, plantations, slavery, southern living, deep south, road trip, moving to louisiana, louisiana tourism, cemetaries, louisiana culture, louisiana hunting, oil jobs, shreveport hotels, shreveport casinos, gambling, texas, houston, louisiana jobs, things to do in louisiana, red river, gas jobs

Id: O2TAeDPyqvw

Length: 37min 40sec (2260 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 27 2023