Detroit, LA on list of 'Cities You Hate'

WOLVERHAMPTON, England, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- Officials in Wolverhampton, an industrial city in the English Midlands, are not pleased about making Lonely Planet's list of the world's worst cities.

The guidebook publisher ranked Wolverhampton fifth of nine "Cities You Really Hate," The Daily Telegraph reported. The cities, chosen in a reader poll, were Detroit; Accra, the capital of Ghana; Seoul; Los Angeles; Wolverhampton; San Salvador; Chennai, formerly Madras, in India; Arusha, Tanzania; and Chetumal, in the Yucatan in Mexico.

Wolverhampton's claims to fame are its soccer team, the Wolverhampton Wanderers, and Josef Stawinoga, who lived in a tent on the ring road for 30 years, dying in 2007.

But it also has a history that goes back at least to 985, when King Ethelred the Unready granted lands in the area to Lady Wulfruna. Boosters maintain it has much, or at least something, to offer visitors.

"I think it is scandalous that they can write off our city without having even visited it," said Richard Rhodes, head of the Wolverhampton Civic Association. "We have some wonderful places such as West Park and Bantock House (a mansion converted to a museum of Edwardian life) that would appeal to tourists."