Gotham List (even bigger)
I have been making a list (since 2022 if you can believe it) of reasons that Gotham is the most cursed city (merging canons across soft resets, video games, movies, and more) that so far includes:
multiple gangs (there are over 100 different gangs or crime families in Gotham according to an unnamed Gotham PD officer. Real life Chicago has 55 distinct gangs or crime families.),
Extremely high crime rate (Gotham is the third for mundane crime. Hub City and Bludhaven are numbers 1 and 2),
barely legal tax haven laws,
massive government corruption,
a smog problem so bad that the Flash can't run at full speed without wheezing (Speed Force is not sufficient to deal with the bad air in Gotham),
Multiple bioweapons have been deployed in Gotham (Clench Virus, two different zombie viruses, O.M.A.C. virus, some of the stuff Doctor Death creates, etc),
There are more guns than people in Gotham (guns out number people in ranges from "not defined but a lot" to 10 to 1, mostly due to smuggling, depending on the canon),
Gotham has the most unexplained disappearances of people of any city in DC US,
Gotham is home to a massive human trafficking ring that spans Gotham, Hub City, and Bludhaven (potentially more, but not stated directly),
Multiple slums (Bowery, Narrows, Dockside, Rookery, the Cauldron, the Bottoms, the Lows, Riverside, East End, Crime Alley, Hob's Bay [note, there is a Hob's Bay in both Gotham and Metropolis. Both cities share a bay and both cities have a slum with the same name], Toxic Acres, Hell's Crucible, the Village, the Underworld [note, this is more of a shanty town set up by homeless in the sewers than a slum], etc),
Gotham Bridge has collapsed at least three different times (mainly due to corruption and fraud when building a new one or repairing it),
Gotham is the most densely populated city in DC's world (depending on canon, it has a population of between 8 and 10 million),
Gotham has been taken over by criminals and had the government forced out (as defined by the government no longer being in power and requiring the federal government to retake or isolate the city, even if Batman does most of the work retaking the city) multiple times (Deacon Blackfire once, Bane thrice, Joker six times, Ra's Al Ghul twice, etc),
Gotham subway and rail system are cursed to be unreliable and never on time (this may be a joke, but given that it involves Gotham, I have doubts),
Gotham has a high suicide rate compared to the real world, Gotham has a major drug abuse problem,
Gotham has a homelessness problem,
Between 20% and 50% of Gotham is built on reclaimed swamp ground and below sea level depending on canon (for comparison, 50% of New Orleans is below sea level in real life),
Gotham has a series of dams, levees, and sea walls that are barely maintained and in generally poor condition,
the vast majority of smuggling on the Atlantic Coast comes through Gotham (which is part of the reason there is so many drugs and guns in Gotham),
Gotham has a very tough and kind of cruel college that creates super villains (a lot of the Batman rogues gallery got their diplomas there, taught there, or are otherwise linked to there. Hugo Strange, Harley Quinn, the Riddler, Professor Pyg, Poison Ivy, Doctor Death, Scarecrow, Two Face, Mr Freeze, Penguin, Kiteman, Manbat, etc),
Gotham General Hospital is corrupt, has used and sold patients for illegal medical research, and was involved in an insurance fraud scandal (this doesn't even factor in the sheer number of times it has been burnt down, blown up, or taken over by organized crime),
Gotham is slightly radioactive due to a poorly maintained nuclear power plant that is currently in use (it is still within habitable limits, so Gotham City Counsel is ignoring the issue),
most of the city is slightly radioactive due to a failed nuclear power plant that is not in use and abandoned (Gotham is still within habitable limits. Note that this is a different power plant from the still active but poorly maintained nuclear power plant),
multiple mad scientist labs legally there (Gotham intentionally has very few laws mandating ethics or limits of research),
for an unknown reason, Benedict Arnold is important to Gotham and has his own monument (this isn't really all that bad, but it is still slightly bad that a traitor is important to the people of Gotham),
Gotham holds the record for most continuous days of criminal violence (54 years) and Batman cried when the ongoing record ended (to put it simply, there was a 54 year stretch where there was at least one violent crime each day),
first in DC US for police brutality (it was once joked that Harvey Bullock is responsible for most of the claims. The only reason he hasn't been fired is due to the mortality rate for Gotham Police),
Gotham Police Department has quite frankly a ridiculous casualty and death rate (half never get through the first year, and less than 1 in 20 make it five years without being crippled, killed, or transferring out),
Has the most corrupt or second most corrupt (depending on the run, either Gotham is the most corrupt with Bludhaven second most corrupt or Bludhaven is the most corrupt with Gotham the second most corrupt) police department in the DC US (one canon even goes so far as to have only one honest cop in the Gotham PD),
4 different coroners in Gotham have been drug addicts, 1 was selling bodies illegally, and 2 were serial killers, (no necrophilia that I know of so far)
Gotham Academy, the best and most elite boarding school in Gotham, is cursed, haunted, or otherwise problematic in so many ways it would need its own small list (so far, a demonic Monk who was head master and killed kids for immortality [note, he did not specifically need to kill kids, he could have killed anyone, he just chose to kill kids], three different ghosts, mysterious tunnels, a bloodline demon witch being named Calamity, another curse to bind the families that killed Amity Arkham to the school, and a cursed book titled *Book of Old Gotham*). Remember this is the best and most elite school in Gotham,
Gotham Cathedral (building started in 1790s and finished in 1980s) was modified to funnel souls to hell by the demonic monk that was the Headmaster of Gotham Academy,
A dysfunctional legal system (there is no death penalty in most canons, so everyone goes to either Blackgate or Arkham, both of which are prone to escapes),
Most meta humans are sent to Arkham because it is considered more secure than Blackgate and has fewer escapes (seriously, do Blackgate villains just walk out the door?),
Arkham had a literal revolving door installed by Jimmy Olsen as part of a prank war against Batman,
The bay around Blackgate is described as infested with vicious, man-eating sharks,
Gotham Fire Department is so underfunded and/or corrupt that they take bribes to not show up to fires and extort people to pay them before they put out fires,
Batman has specialized suits for dealing with vampires, zombies, werewolves, demons, New Gods, Old Gods, magic users, and eldritch horrors. While not directly terrible, it implies something about the threats in Gotham,
The Dark Garden preys upon Gothamites in an attempt to capture the eldritch being Jane Smith (who really just wants to be happy and human in the light) and has preyed on people in that location since before Gotham was a city,
an old God's corpse (this old god is leaking forbidden knowledge that causes people to lose their humanity slowly and do ever more depraved acts in pursuit of knowledge),
a living old god named Barbatos (special note, some canons have instead made him into an aspect of Darkseid dedicated to making Batman suffer and Gotham worse) who is bat themed and has his own underground Gotham city (he spreads a corruption encouraging violence and vengeance),
a twisted eldritch version of Gotham that is buried deep under Gotham that is usually but not always linked to the bat old god,
a summer home for the King in Yellow (this is a rumor from the insane Bat Old God. To my best knowledge, the King in Yellow has never directly appeared),
a door the various old gods came through that is mostly shut (emphasis on mostly, stuff leaks through),
Dracula either moved to Gotham or had his tomb forcibly moved to Gotham,
the blood of the average person in Gotham is so polluted that it is slightly toxic to vampires,
built on the grave/resting of a warlock (Adam Gotham), who is both alive and dead at the same time (cursing the land to be a place of constant misery to fuel his power),
evil floating in from the Jersey Pine Barrens (this evil floating in decreases empathy and encourages devilish behavior. Also, the Jersey Devil may occasionally hunt in Gotham, but this might just be an urban legend in Gotham. As far as I know, the Jersey Devil has not made an appearance and has only been referenced by an unnamed crazy side character)
a literal hell gate (it is mostly sealed, but leaks enough evil to make demons feel at home. It is never stated what effect this evil has on normal people),
Etrigan once compared the smell of Gotham to Hell (Gotham apparently smells of blood, ash, Brimstone [sulfur] and suffering to the Demon Etrigan or he was just exaggerating to make a rhyme),
16 sealed greater demons (a demon lord and their court. They are in most canons buried or imperfectly sealed under Arkham and spread a corruption that encourages the seven deadly sins),
Arkham is cursed by its founder to prey on the minds of people in the building, driving them even more insane so that no one is ever healed (note that some canons link this to the demons while other canons have them as stand alone curses affecting the building at the same time),
according to a prophecy, the apocalypse is probably going to start in Gotham or Metropolis (no one knows which apocalypse will end the world or when it will happen, though),
the location of a crack in the Door to the Afterlife (this is mostly connected to Deadman. Also, this makes it harder to pass over and makes it easier for the dead to affect the living in Gotham),
the line between death and life is really fuzzy in Gotham because of Deadman shenanigans (this makes it harder to die),
is the second most haunted city in DC USA (they kept New Orleans as most haunted)
a strange aura weakens green lantern power constructs in Gotham (this may be related to the StarHeart being sealed in Gotham for a while),
The StarHeart, a relic of willpower related to the Green Lantern Corps was sealed in Gotham for a while, projecting the "evil" side of willpower to influence people (note that the evil side of willpower is just the aspects of willpower the Guardians of Oa did not want in their main rings and was safely used by Alan Scott, so I am not entirely sure what the effects of it are),
built on a cursed Indian burial ground (cursed so the dead never find peace and blight the living),
cursed by an ancient shaman (the writers never bother to define what this curse does, so it is just a generic curse),
666 minor demons who just live regular lives with regular jobs while waiting for the apocalypse (Baytor is the most famous and is a bar tender to make ends meet),
Space and time are not quite right in Gotham after the Infinite Crisis Superboy punch (this led to the return of Jason Todd and made it so time moves just a little faster or slower depending on location in Gotham, and a few buildings are not the correct interior dimensions. The variance is supposedly small and mostly unnoticeable),
Gotham exists in a state of "Temporal Disruption" due to the various time travel and other weirdness (it was never explained what this means practically, but it does not sound like a good thing, so I am including it),
cursed by Zeus (this curse is why Gotham has, on average, 320 days of rain or overcast skies each year. Everyone is affected by SAD all the time),
unusually vicious mutant rats,
according to Bedbug (a bedbug and mind control themed villain) Gotham is infested with genetically engineered bedbugs he created (good news, his engineered bedbug out competed the normal bedbugs. Bad news, his engineered bedbugs breed faster, are harder to kill, and can be used for mind control),
Gotham, despite being in New Jersey and having extremely cold, snowy winters, somehow, despite all logic or reason, has a native vampire bat population (The writers have never bothered to explain how the bats survive the winter and have never even provided a BS explanation. Seriously, the writers could have thrown out any explanation, but never bothered. The furthest North **any** vampire bat has been found is in Southern Texas),
mutant fish (the fish are adapted to survive Gotham Bay and River water. Also, the Joker once dumped a chemical that caused fish to grow a Joker smile. Yes, these fish are still eaten),
The Bowery, one of Gotham's many slums, has a vicious feral dog problem (the residents encourage and protect the feral dogs to keep rents low. Rent lowering gunshots don't work in Gotham, but rent lower vicious dogs are a thing in Gotham),
mysterious ruins from a lost civilization that the sewers run into and are a part of (the sewer alligators breed there and the ruins are seen as the Gothic and unusually large portions of the sewers),
Tunnels were built to connect every major building in Gotham in case of war (these tunnels are not maintained, destabilize the ground, and allows for convenient escape paths),
blessed/cursed by a nature goddess from New Genesis to keep the toxic stuff in so that Gotham doesn't pollute the world,
Cursed by Memento (a powerful demon), using vestiges of past tragedies, to suffer the past as new horrible events (this means that Gotham is stuck with revolving tragedies),
cursed by Spectre along with a blood curse from slain Native Americans to be a place of blood and vengeance (this was almost a Old Testament turn everyone to salt style curse, but it was weakened at the last moment),
cursed by a witch to both bind the Wayne family to Gotham and make Gotham suffer,
cursed by Deacon Blackfire (this curse was supposed to drain life from Gotham to give Blackfire complete immortality, but it is incomplete and half broken, so it does something but no one knows what)
a massive active fault line (this fault line can produce a quake that was 7.6 on the Rictor scale),
a magic well (this well makes regular magic easier to cast and makes Gotham attractive to magicians like Zantanna),
a chaos well (chaos magic is the opposite of regular magic. The well makes chaos magic easier to cast and makes Gotham attractive to chaos users like Witch Boy Klarion),
There is a magic shop that Zantanna frequently buys from in Gotham that has questionable morals and an inhuman shop keeper,
Gotham is built on a leyline nexus, causing it to atract magical beings (this led to the creation of the other "Mayor" of Gotham, currently Simon Dark. The other Mayor is supposed to keep all supernatural or magical being in check while they are in Gotham),
due to a failed Poison Ivy plot, the grass in Gotham may be evil and aware,
Russian mobsters with Russian backing who are trying to make Gotham worse in hopes of conquering Gotham (not sure why they would want it),
a second group of Russians (not related at all to the first group) who are trying to make Gotham worse so the US looks bad and Russia looks better by comparison (I really want to know how bad DC Russia is that Gotham makes it look bad),
a weak dimensional wall allowing influences from the Phantom Zone (the infamous prison sub reality/dimension that has the worst of several aliens species shoved in to it),
a bottomless pit under part of Gotham that leads to the abyss (also, the being in the abyss occasionally like to watch Gotham),
a different bottomless pit that smells of dirty underwear established by the Lego Batman movie (yes, this is a joke and true. I did say it was a merged canon list),
Gotham River and Bay water is so polluted that Aquaman can't swim in it,
Scarecrow fear toxins in the water (at low enough levels that it only causes paranoia),
trace amounts of shed Clayface is in the water (this pollutant cause bodies to twist and mutate, or causes cancer depending on the story line),
trace amounts of Hugo Strange's monster man mutagen in the water (this causes growth, decrease in intelligence, increased strength, hair growth, and claw formation at full strength. It is not stated what the trace amounts actually do to Gothamites),
trace amounts of TITIAN (a mutagenic chemical that transforms users into Bane like monsters) in the water,
Trace amounts of Crioxin (a nerve agent made by Ace Chemicals that causes people to feel no pain, go insane, and develop slightly enhanced bodies) in the water of one of the slums,
Joker chemicals in the water (the chemicals cause mania, unstoppable laughter, and death at full concentration, but in the diluted form just causes mania and involuntary smiling),
Gotham has a higher than normal number of Lazarus pits (the pits offer revival, healing, and immortality in exchange for decreased empathy, decreased humanity, and an obsessive desire to continue living at all costs),
Lazarus pit runoff in the water,
The Marsh of Madness is up river from Gotham in some canons (this marsh causes delusional homicidal madness and ego mania),
Marsh of Madness runoff in the water,
Slaughterer Swamp is up river from Gotham in some canons, though most canons have either the swamp or marsh but not both (this swamp causes violent undead and preserves life in a twisted mockery of all that is holy and has a very evil zombie named Solomon Grundy),
Slaughter Swamp runoff in the water,
Thomas Wayne may or may not have accidentally released psychoactive drugs into Gotham's water supply (may or may not mainly because the writers keep swapping back and forth on it),
the tap water barely is considered water by Aquaman's hydrokinesis (and Aquaman can freely manipulate soda, which is 90% to 95% water. Gotham tap water is more or less thin sludge),
pollution due to being in a barely regulated industrial zone (it is legal to dump industrial runoff in Gotham River),
run off from an unnamed well that causes increased physical abilities in exchange for homicidal violent impulses (aborted Bane plot thread from before they decided Bane should just use chemicals in his Venom),
trace amounts of Bane Venom in the water (because the well was cut. Also, the Bane venom causes slightly increased physical abilities and anger issues in the diluted state),
Gotham tap water is barely purified river water (mainly because if the water treatment plant gets too Gung Ho and purifies the water too much, they get a black liquid that is extremely dangerous and expensive to dispose of. So Gotham City Counsel decided to only have them clean the water until it was probably reasonably safe-ish),
Gotham River has its own version of Nessie (Gotham River Beast) that may or may not exist. It lives in Gotham River, but no one knows what exactly it is or if it is actually real (earliest mentioned sighting is in the 1920s by mobsters, but to the best of my knowledge, it has never been directly shown in a comic and only serves as background lore),
an evil real estate agent who sells failed amusement parks, theaters, and other buildings to criminals (named The Broker),
A slightly evil carpenter (named Duffy) who specializes in death traps (her villain name is the Carpenter),
A slightly evil crafter who makes novelty weapons (called the Maker. The writers really went deep on these names),
Poison Ivy, as an avatar of The Green, has stated that The Green see Gotham as an infected wound upon all life,
so many lead pipes or paint that Superman can't see through most Gotham homes and apartments (also note that at one point, the fumes from leaded gasoline blocked Superman, but hopefully that problem has gone away),
a lot of homes and buildings are filled with asbestos (this is according to Firefly, so it might not be fully accurate. The pyromaniac would probably blow the problem out of proportion),
an aura of despair and negative emotions that is slightly grating to psychic individuals,
an Atlantis Leviathan who is fated to flood the world under the docks (there is apparently seven of them and the Atlantic Ocean's is under Gotham's dock),
Gotham, as in the city itself, is aware, intelligent, and has an unhealthy interest in the Bat Family (Tim Drake in particular) and interacts with Gotham through its assorted Voices such as Mayne, The Veil, and a couple others (special note, it is implied but not confirmed that the Joker can sense Gotham as a Voice, but intentionally chooses to abuse Gotham instead of helping like the other Voices) (note: depending on canon this is because of either an improperly sacrificed woman, a demon possessing the city that was warped by Gotham, or just a confluence of everything happening in Gotham),
while not exclusive to Gotham, Kryptonite is used as an underworld currency so a fair bit goes though Gotham,
the dimensional wall (4th wall) is extremely thin, allowing Many Angled Ones (readers) to see into Gotham and occasionally influence Gotham,
Gotham both has an unusually high concentration of new heroes and an unusually high number of hero deaths each year (tragic backstories are really common in Gotham)
Batmite exists, and he intentionally stirs up trouble in Gotham in a misguided attempt to help Batman semi-frequently,
Gotham has a weak dimensional wall in regards to the 5th Dimension (where Batmite is from, also referred to as the imagination dimension) so Gotham can be affected by the imagination of people at a very weak level,
Due to the various villains like Mr Freeze and Poison Ivy's plots, the ground is unstable and the sewers are damaged,
in not just one, but two different canons, the founders of Gotham made a deal with a primordial evil (once a demon and once an eldritch being) for help establishing Gotham (in exchange for all the souls in Gotham at a future point long after the founders were dead and a portal that would let the eldritch being come though fully into Gotham's reality making a new plane that is hostile to all but eldritch beings, respectively),
The DC US government once cut off the city from the rest of the US temporarily instead of helping to recover Gotham after an earthquake (see No Man's Land. This one is hard to explain),
Gotham and Batman live in a quasi-time loop, where if Batman dies, fixes Gotham, or other conditions occur, Gotham and Batman resets under different conditions (this leads to the multiple canons of Batman. Fixing the city just leads to a new reality where Bruce experiences a tragic event in Crime Alley that causes a costumed person to be active in Gotham [note, not always Bruce]). This is due to higher dimensional beings (writers),
Hugo Strange may have worked with an unknown government agency to improve the genes and bodies of everyone in Gotham to create perfect soldiers (it is not stated if this project was actually successful, but some of the earlier experiments did escape into Gotham),
the various things in Gotham somehow came together to create The Body, a hivemind of evil soil that wanted to take over Gotham (do note it is implied that Batman destroyed them all, but I am including it because if the soil can spontaneously come alive and be evil, it needs to be on this list),
Gotham citizens, while not being meta humans technically, are empowered by everything going on in the city and are no longer baseline humans (standard thugs in Gotham are as strong, fast, and dangerous as soldiers who went through basic training),
The Gotham Rogues and Gotham Knights (Gotham's football and baseball teams) have a horrid track record and are regarded as bad teams (yes, this needed to be after the more than human bit) (also, fun note, Bruce Wayne is a Baseball fan as part of his cover in a couple canons),
Trigon maintains a small force from his cult to watch or he directly keeps an eye on Gotham due to the fact that the end may start there and due to the fact Raven sometimes stays in Gotham (this gets a special mention because he is more involved personally than the beings other cults worship),
11 different cults (Satanists, the KKK [yes, I am considering the KKK a cult], Cult of Ghul [useful idiots who worship him as a god that he doesn't want around all the time], Cult of Baal, Old God Cult [technically speaking there have been at least 9 different eldritch cults, but they are effectively the same in different canons], Cult of Adam Gotham, Cult of Trigon, Cult of Barbatos, Cult of Blackfire, Cult of Geo Populous, and a generic cult from the Silver Age that never specified what they worshiped),
at least 3 different shadow governments (the line between cult and shadow government is weak in Gotham. I put the Court of Owls, Black Glove and League of Assassins in this group),
and worse of all, it is in New Jersey (try reading a Batman comic and give everyone a Jersey accent).
If anyone knows anything else wrong with Gotham, let me know, and I will update my list.
Yes, I do know my list is so monstrous that it requires a lot of scrolling.
Also, side note, but if anyone needs my list commented on Reddit, just drop my user name. If anyone needs my list on a site that is not Reddit, please shoot me a link. I like to read the comments that tell me of new and terrible things I have missed about Gotham.
TL;DR: The writers like to find new and exciting ways to make a mentally disturbed orphan suffer.
