<p>Yeah, either you managed to stumble on the poorest part of Middletown, or something weird was going on, because no part of Middletown that I (as a rising senior) have ever went to has struck me as out-of-the-ordinary in terms of rundownness (and the parts I go to routinely are very nice). Certainly I have friends who live in areas that have always struck me as much less nice at home (in Baltimore – and those friends are by no means in the worst part of the city). But <em>shrug</em></p>