America’s dirtiest cities are revealed – and New York isn’t the worst

New York has earned a reputation for its trash-filled, rat-infested sidewalks, but New York isn’t the dirtiest city in America, according to a new study.

Research published by LawnStarter ranked as the dirtiest metros in the entire country, taking into account factors such as air quality, infrastructure problems and the number of pests lurking in people’s homes.

The findings showed that Houston, Texas, is now the dirtiest city in the US, after overtaking Newark, New Jersey, last year.

Newark, just across the Hudson River from New York City, still ranks second.

And while the Big Apple didn’t claim the number one spot, it did take 12th place.

Of the 152 cities analyzed, Houston was the third most polluted city and had the third highest greenhouse gas emissions from large industrial facilities.

According to data, the city of 2.3 million also has the biggest cockroach problem LawnStarter’s sister site PlagueGnome taken from the Census Bureau.

Southern states appear to have many more cockroach-infested homes overall, with San Antonio, Texas and Tampa, Florida rounding out the top three.

And Americans terrified of mice or rats should avoid Boston, Philadelphia or Baltimore, the top three cities where rodents inhabit homes.

California also had some poor results on the list, despite billions of dollars spent cleaning up homeless shelters over the past five years.

By comparison, San Francisco spent a record $72.5 million on street cleaning in 2019 and is among the cleaner half of US cities.

Since then, the street cleaning division of the city’s Department of Public Works has received a $16.7 million budget increase in 2023, CBS reported.

The Golden Gate Bridge tower with the San Francisco cityscape in the background

Afternoon view of the downtown skyline of San Bernardino, California, the fourth dirtiest city in America due to poor air quality. Many other cities in the Golden State have poor air quality due to pollution

Ontario, California is pictured from above. The city is tied with San Bernadino for having the worst air quality in the country

Riverside, California also has the worst air quality in the country alongside Ontario and San Bernadino. All three cities are located east of Los Angeles and near many factories and warehouses

San Bernadino, popularly known as the ‘armpit‘ of California was the fourth dirtiest city among locals, mainly due to poor air quality.

Riverside and Ontario, which are also in the Los Angeles metro area, tied with San Bernardino for the worst air quality in the country.

These neighboring LA towns, once filled with orange groves and grape vineyards, have largely been replaced by warehouses that are heavily polluted. About 1 billion square feet of warehouse space to be precise, The edge reported in 2022.

According to data from the survey, San Bernadino residents were the most dissatisfied with the cleanliness of their city for the second year in a row.

The LawnStarter study also claimed that the southwestern US had problems with drinking water contamination.

“Except for Salt Lake City, every Southwest city we ranked violated the Safe Drinking Water Act at least once in 2020, the year of the most recent EPA data,” the study said.

Las Vegas – the 19th dirtiest overall – had the most unsafe water in the Southwest.

According to the study, Las Vegas had the most unsafe water in the southwestern US

Salt Lake City, Utah, was the only city in the Southwest with no major drinking water violations in 2020, according to the most recent EPA data

Virginia Beach, Virginia was ranked as the cleanest city in the US. It tied with three other cities in California and New Jersey for having the fewest greenhouse gas emissions from large facilities per capita

The most obvious image that comes to mind when you think of a dirty city is litter.

Interestingly enough, the study authors claim that Ohio residents specifically have the unique habit of throwing their used cigarettes on the ground.

Local media in northeast Ohio have picked up on the massive amount of discarded cigarette butts across the state cleveland.com reporting on information campaigns in 2021 to discourage people from littering.

Five Ohio cities ranked by LawnStarter were among the places with the highest proportion of smokers in the US.

Many cities in California, Virginia and North Carolina that were close to the water were the cleanest on the list.

Virginia Beach, Virginia was ranked as the cleanest city in the US, although the study shows that being on the coast isn’t the end of a zero-waste metro.

In fact, inland cities like Fremont, California, and Winston-Salem, North Carolina, were among the most flawless.