i hate baltimore too (California: low income, crimes, credit)
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I'm from D.C. born and raised I for the most part I do not like white people in D.C. Hell I'll add transplant blacks, asians, and hispanics too because they act the same as whites in DC as well.
They are stuck up, pretentious and just douchebags.
None of them are down to earth lol.
I'm pretty sure most other black natives feel the same way
When you have a transient group that's comprised of educated people who want to both rule and save the world, coupled with a native population that feels disenfranchised and pushed out, this type of resentment will be very evident and present. It's very obvious in DC, more so than in Baltimore since DC has undergone massive gentrification in the last 10-15 years. Baltimore's population is more grounded and folks here tend to have an intimate connection with their city.
When I lived in the DC region, I saw my own area transform right before my eyes. The same transformations and revitilizations occurred and still are with many other neighborhoods across DC as well. SE DC is a prime example of an area currently undergoing massive changes.
Neighborhoods in DC like Columbia Heights and the U St. corridor, which were considered by many to be "undesireable" 20 years ago are now places to live, be seen and socialize.
In reality, it's more about class differences and economics than anything.
Having lived (if you want to call it this living) in this city for a year I've got to chime in with my 1 cent worth (the other cent got stolen when someone busted into my car the other day).
Baltimore has crime like a Cinnabon has calories. In one year my family has been the victim of four separate burglaries -- both from vehicles and our home -- and we live in one of the priciest apartment complexes in the city directly on the waterfront. At least we have something in common with all of our new Baltimore friends now. Kind of makes us feel like we fit in.
In Baltimore it doesn't matter how nice the street you are on is, you're never more than 5-6 blocks from public housing projects, boarded up vacants and ever-present drug dealers. More importantly, if everyone on this forum knows where the "nice parts" are, don't you think the criminals do too? Of course they do and that's where they target. Look at the crime stats for Canton, Federal Hill and Fells Point (generally considered the better parts of downtown) -- the Crimespotter map practically crashes trying to draw all the little theft-from-car icons.
But maybe you're a 6'4" gun-toting cage fighter who isn't worried about crime. Fair enough. Here's what you can look foward to:
1. You may not be scared of crime but your insurance company is. Our car insurance doubled when we moved here. Costs us an extra $1,400 a year for two cars.
2. If you are into making art from "found materials" you're in heaven. There's trash everywhere. The "beautiful" waterfront people like to brag about gets so much crap dumped into it every time it rains that they have trash barges -- little boats with scoopers that go along and try to skim the trash off the surface. They've also strung booms like what they used in the Gulf to contain the oil spill to try and keep some of it from getting out into the harbor.
3. Taxes and more taxes. There are places with higher tax rates. But if you can afford to live somewhere you'd be paying them -- Beverly Hills, for example -- I don't know why you'd pick Baltimore instead.
4. Schools. "If I stay in the city I'd have to put my kids into private schools" is what should be etched into the bus benches here.
5. Limping. I've never seen more people limping in my life. It looks like half the city is running a three-legged race without a partner. WTF?
6. Interesting chemical smells. Baltimore has always been an industrial city. It still is to a large degree and many is the afternoon I've stepped outside to take a deep breath of what appears to be burning rubber. At least in Compton it's just weed and burritos.
There are things to enjoy in Baltimore, no doubt. The Inner Harbor can be fun. The water taxis are great. Camden Yards is a great ballpark. There are plenty of reasons you might want to visit for a day or two. I've also visited Alcatraz and while it was cool, I don't want to move in -- and at least nobody was stabbed while I was there (google "Baltimore 4th of July" to see how much fun the Inner Harbor was this year).
Having lived (if you want to call it this living) in this city for a year I've got to chime in with my 1 cent worth (the other cent got stolen when someone busted into my car the other day).
Baltimore has crime like a Cinnabon has calories. In one year my family has been the victim of four separate burglaries -- both from vehicles and our home -- and we live in one of the priciest apartment complexes in the city directly on the waterfront. At least we have something in common with all of our new Baltimore friends now. Kind of makes us feel like we fit in.
In Baltimore it doesn't matter how nice the street you are on is, you're never more than 5-6 blocks from public housing projects, boarded up vacants and ever-present drug dealers. More importantly, if everyone on this forum knows where the "nice parts" are, don't you think the criminals do too? Of course they do and that's where they target. Look at the crime stats for Canton, Federal Hill and Fells Point (generally considered the better parts of downtown) -- the Crimespotter map practically crashes trying to draw all the little theft-from-car icons.
But maybe you're a 6'4" gun-toting cage fighter who isn't worried about crime. Fair enough. Here's what you can look foward to:
1. You may not be scared of crime but your insurance company is. Our car insurance doubled when we moved here. Costs us an extra $1,400 a year for two cars.
2. If you are into making art from "found materials" you're in heaven. There's trash everywhere. The "beautiful" waterfront people like to brag about gets so much crap dumped into it every time it rains that they have trash barges -- little boats with scoopers that go along and try to skim the trash off the surface. They've also strung booms like what they used in the Gulf to contain the oil spill to try and keep some of it from getting out into the harbor.
3. Taxes and more taxes. There are places with higher tax rates. But if you can afford to live somewhere you'd be paying them -- Beverly Hills, for example -- I don't know why you'd pick Baltimore instead.
4. Schools. "If I stay in the city I'd have to put my kids into private schools" is what should be etched into the bus benches here.
5. Limping. I've never seen more people limping in my life. It looks like half the city is running a three-legged race without a partner. WTF?
6. Interesting chemical smells. Baltimore has always been an industrial city. It still is to a large degree and many is the afternoon I've stepped outside to take a deep breath of what appears to be burning rubber. At least in Compton it's just weed and burritos.
There are things to enjoy in Baltimore, no doubt. The Inner Harbor can be fun. The water taxis are great. Camden Yards is a great ballpark. There are plenty of reasons you might want to visit for a day or two. I've also visited Alcatraz and while it was cool, I don't want to move in -- and at least nobody was stabbed while I was there (google "Baltimore 4th of July" to see how much fun the Inner Harbor was this year).
Help me out here. I'm confused. So, at one point you're in California after moving there from DC. Then, you decided to live in St Pete. And, now you are writing about your experience in Baltimore. This all occured since 2010. I don't get it. Can you put this into some perspective so that it makes sense?
I guess my first question would be: If you moved to California to get away from DC, why the hell would you move to Baltimore? And, was this before or after the St Pete stuff?
Having spent more than my fair share of time in B'more (one of my best pals lives there), I have to agree that crime is rampant. I am not a scaredy cat, nor do I put myself in situations where I am an obvious choice for victimhood but ANYONE at ANY TIME can be held up/burgled/accosted in even the nicest and "best" areas of the city. I got mugged in broad daylight on a week day walking to my car from a Starbucks. The attackers? Two adolescent boys with a gun.
There seems to be a vast population of loud, foul mouthed, unhappy and unemployed youth who travel in groups just about everywhere in the city. I used to go out to drink (its super cheap!) with a gaggle of pals and there wasn't a week that passed that someone's car didn't get broken into. We actually bet on who would be next. Street harassment with disturbing and often racially oriented slurs are common. Its a rough place. And its a shame-- there are so many great looking neighborhoods and its got so much potential.
Jonjj -- Yup, been all over the place. Moved from DC to CA in 2010 and lived there for 14 months. I'm self-employed and can work from anywhere so my wife and I have been testing out options and figuring out where we want to settle down permanently. Enjoyed CA but the cost of housing and high taxes had us thinking that we might do better. I knew St. Pete a bit so we headed down to explore it and ended up putting a contract on a house. Then the Gulf oil spill hit and there was a lot of concern about long term impact on the local economy. Not so much for me personally in terms of my work, but worries that a prolonged impact on tourism could mean even bigger drops in housing prices (and thus our place going underwater), closed stores and restaurants, increased crime, etc. So at the last minute we cancelled the contract, ate a few $ and stayed put in CA.
A client offered an in-house position in Baltimore that was compelling enough for us to consider it. One of those "this isn't going to be forever but for 5 years or something it might be worth it." We decided it was, put a contract on a house here and headed back East. Got here to find the house gutted (all the copper plumbing ripped out) and that was the start of our Baltimore experience.
We're headed back West in two weeks feeling very confident that this is the last move for some time to come. Yes, there are places where you can get a lot more house for your money (our range had been $350-450k which is basically a condo in a good part of O.C.) and taxes do suck compared to say Texas (no state or local income tax and capital gains aren't taxed as income) but everything else on our list is there: great weather (most of the time); some of the top rated public schools in the country; very little crime (Irvine is consistently ranked the safest city in the US); tons of outdoor recreation; etc.
At this point I've been to just about every state and city of decent size in the US -- still got a handful to check off though but we're going to get a few on the road trip back out. I've lived for a year or longer in a half-dozen cities scattered across the country. My opinions are just that, my opinions, but for what it's worth I don't have any particular agenda here, I'm just calling them like I see them. For example, I wrote that there are "chemical smells" where we live in Baltimore. We have a rooftop apartment with a deck overlooking the waterfront. It was in the 60s last night and we had the doors and windows open enjoying an early spring night. Until around 10 when whatever the hell plant it is fired up and the smell was so overwhelming we had to shut everything up.
5. Limping. I've never seen more people limping in my life. It looks like half the city is running a three-legged race without a partner. WTF?
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LMAO.NO BS. Baltimore is a limping town. From old folks limping bc they're tired. Regular folks limping trying to catch a "hack". Whinos limping bc they're drunk. Even the thugs limp with a distinctive side to side penguin walk. Very keen observation.
LMAO.NO BS. Baltimore is a limping town. From old folks limping bc they're tired. Regular folks limping trying to catch a "hack". Whinos limping bc they're drunk. Even the thugs limp with a distinctive side to side penguin walk. Very keen observation.
Now that he brought it up, it does seem like people limp and drag their leg...Lmao.
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