moving in November (Baltimore, Mount Vernon: best neighborhoods, transfer, neighborhoods)

[jtzito]

Hi all,

My bf and I have recently decided to move to baltimore from upstate NY...he works as a teacher and I will be looking for a job as a social worker. We were hoping to get some information about good city neighborhoods where we can find a 1-2 bedroom apt. for 900-1200/month. Also, we both drive and we were hoping for some advice for areas w/ ample parking, etc. We may end up getting rid of 1 car depending on where i end up working (he is working outside of the city in the Halethorpe area, so will most likely be driving). I have heard mixed reviews of the Public Transport in the city...can someone who uses it regularly make any suggestions? What neighborhoods have best access to pub. transport.? Apologies if this is redundant...Thanks in advance!

Jenna

[jonjj]

Anywhere in the city is fairly good for public transit. But, your best bets are living near the light rail line or the metro line to save time. Neighborhoods: Hamden (light rail, parking, affordable, and safe) Patterson Park (affordable, relatively safe, parking). In terms of public transit, a lot depends on where you will be working.

[DanB]

Originally Posted by jonjj

Anywhere in the city is fairly good for public transit. But, your best bets are living near the light rail line or the metro line to save time. Neighborhoods: Hamden (light rail, parking, affordable, and safe) Patterson Park (affordable, relatively safe, parking). In terms of public transit, a lot depends on where you will be working.

a) of all the best neighborhoods, none are really near the metro or the lightrail. hamdpen is "close" to the lightrail, but if you live in the center of hampden, you are almost a mile away from the lightrail.

b) lets say you do happen to live near the lightrail or the metro, great, but its pretty useless unless where you work, or where you hangout is also near the lightrail/metro. In my experience I have never ridden the metro, and have ridden the lightrail exactly 1 time(hampden->airport).

There are probably other threads ranting/bashing the lightrail/metro so i wont get too into it.

Baltimore's public transportation lays heavily on the bus system, which I have never ridden so i can't comment on that.


overall, my opinion on baltimores public transportation is that it is lacking, and baring a few select circumstances, you will probably need one or more cars.

[rudy_d]

I agree with the others that it really depends on where your destination is. The bus isn't as bad as many people think if you don't have to transfer, and the Metro and light rail are good if your destination happens to be close to the line. Mount Vernon or Bolton Hill that have pretty easy access to all 3 forms of public transport, but parking can be tough.

[jtzito]

Thanks for the information, we are looking into apts. that have parking options...willing to pay the extra $ for the guaranteed parking and not having to worry about getting a million tickets/towed. I lived in Albany, NY for a number of years and experienced the nightmare of parking on the street there, and way too many tickets and 2 tows later I am very committed to finding off-street parking options.

[DanB]

Originally Posted by jtzito

Thanks for the information, we are looking into apts. that have parking options...willing to pay the extra $ for the guaranteed parking and not having to worry about getting a million tickets/towed. I lived in Albany, NY for a number of years and experienced the nightmare of parking on the street there, and way too many tickets and 2 tows later I am very committed to finding off-street parking options.

to compare upstate ny parking to baltimore parking:

doesn't nearly all of upstate parking do alternate side of the street parking? at least thats how it was in Rochester, NY. I thought it was a major pain in the ass. Baltimore doesn't have that any where. There are some spots you can't be in once a week for street cleaning, but aside from that parking in baltimore is pretty easy(except maybe mt. vernon and fed hill)