Poll: The most dangerous strip in Baltimore?

[Woodlands]

Originally Posted by DavidSKi

My experience with a bad area (if it was even really bad),

I just stayed in Bmore for a week looking at houses. Our hotel was located in Catonsville, Baltimore Pikeway.

On Thursday, my wife and I were late for an apartment showing in the innner harbor, so I took a look at google maps, and it suggested to go due east, turning from the Pike to Edmondson to Franklin street to West mullberry, merging onto MLK, dropoff at the university and so on.

If you know me, I have been compiling a map of areas which are no-no's. SO i super imposed that map over what Google gave me, and wow... I was going straight into the battle zone. But hey it was 1pm, no biggy right?

So... Jenn and are jump in the car, and i tell her that were gonna go explore the "bad" area on our way to the apartment. She was up for it.

We go pass 695, and drive a little ways, admiring the old houses, saying to ourselves, this isnt such a bad area, pfft.

The pike disappears and we are now on edmondson, bars are now normal on doors and windows.

Right before the street turns into Franklin the row homes kick in, and Jenn is now looking at me with a concerned look.

To scared to stop and flip a U-turn we keep going.

Now on Franklin, we have a few young adults weaving all over the road in motor scooters, a dealer posted up on every 2-3 corners, and of course Murphy’s law kicked in and we hit EVERY RED light.

Jenn now looks like she’s ½ gonna die, ½ kill me first. She then asks me if I have my 9mm in the car. (I have a Florida Concealed License). I tell her no, Maryland does not honor FL gun law and it would be illegal for me to have brought it on this trip. She then starts flipping out.

We hit the redlight where I was supposed to turn onto west mulberry, but missed it trying to settle Jenn.

We are now in deep crap. Trash piled in the street, no cars driving on the roads, and we are now getting eyeballed by thugs posted on their stoops.

At some point on this trek, we pass a fire station. There were 3 fireman outside, 2 white and one black. As Jenn and I drive by them all chipper and smiling, the 2 white men look at us like we were trapped in a burning building with no way out, and the black man is shaking his head.

A few blocks up I notice that this wonderful street looks like its coming to a dead end. Now I start to panic because I now have to drive through all of this again and this time, they will be able to smell the fear off of us.

I then notice it isn’t a dead end, it’s a kiddy cornered cross street and I get excited.

I go to run the last red light just as a dirt bike flies through the intersection that I almost hit.

My mind is now running the slow motion day-mare of having to stop in this hell, after hitting a kid off a motorcycle and facing the irate locals. We now reach the cross street and turn right.

O there’s MLK! Sweet a bridge and an onramp! Were safe!

I drove and I drove and I drove until I was on the 395 flying around the stadiums headed back to down town. I park in the pier v parking lot put the car in park and jenn and I both start breathing again.

Oooo never again. AND were getting gps systems in our car to make sure we don’t accidently end up in these areas.

So on a scale from 1-10, 1 being innerharbor and 10 being the worste place in baltimore to be, what does my trek rate in at.

LOL- Wow.. sounds like the area that you rode is only safe enough to view using Google Street View

[Billiam]

Originally Posted by rudy_d

Trying to save some time one night after a long drive, I experimented with taking 40 for the first time to get into the city from I-70 and failed to bear right at the intersection you mentioned, and I agree it was not a pleasant experience. Very little traffic, most of the houses boarded up, but still plenty of people milling about. There are some areas north of Hopkins hospital that are very similar.

However, if you stick to the main drag, route 40 may seem scary the first or second time for someone not used to an urban environment, and it's not exactly scenic, but I don't think it's really "dangerous." Likewise with Greenmount. It deteriorates rapidly south of about 29th St. down to Monument, but it's heavily traveled and has a large police presence. I wouldn't recommend taking a leisurely stroll on parts of it, but in a car there's really nothing to worry about.

Haha ive done that before. But caught myself fast! I than got back on franklin. After Franklin, I got onto N Monroe st. Man I was dumb. I was heading to Union Square. I thought oh its great looking in the photos, so i guess all of the area will be as good looking. Uh...no. Its true what they say, in Baltimore, if you don't like the neighborhood you're in, go a few blocks and you will be in a totally new and different neighborhood, for better or for worse! The area would be incredible for Gentrification though! I was sort of glad i went to these areas though, ive never really seen to the real Bmore ghetto, or atleast something close to it! Im going to areas of NE and E baltimore soon, and i will probably end up in some bad parts...but oh well! Its something i should expect right?

[carey24]

I had to vote "yes at night" because that's where my bf's firehouse is and I go down to visit him. I always have a full tank of gas and fully charged cell phone. My mother still begs me not to go lol.

[upinflamezzz]

Originally Posted by Tom Lennox 70

I don't think education and morals go hand in hand. There are so many decent, hardworking, genuinely good people in small towns and inner cities across America who never went to college.

All the corrupt stockbrokers and robber barons on Wall Street and Manhattan are college educated, many from the Ivy League. Someone can have an engineering degree and work for NASA but they can go home and pay for their daughter to have an abortion. Morals are not something taught in colleges or public schools, its something taught in the family and in religious institutions. Actually a lot of urban black churches do their best to instill good moral values in youth and for every drug dealer you see there is probably a Christian preacher or chaplain trying to counteract his effects.

What's wrong with paying for a daughter's abortion? Do you have any idea of what it's like growing up in a life of poverty with no hope? My parents were 17 with two kids and everyone in the family struggles to this day because of it. Parents nad children. I wish my mother would have had an abortion and I would have never had to go through this perpetual struggle. Nor would she.

[Scriv]

Want to know why the political powers in Baltimore were torn between proping up and demonizing "The Wire"? Because it provided some jobs and money in the city, at the same time it reflected the reality of a VERY LARGE portion of Baltimore city.

[ToneGrail]

Originally Posted by chippeebobippee

Once you are above (north) of 36th Street, there are no probs meaning nothing that ought to startle or scare someone witless.

Let me add that you should stay on the west side of the Greenmount at that point (Guilford) as opposed to the east (Waverly) until you get to Belvedere.

The hoods east of Greenmount aren't safe until you reach Belvedere Square and north of it. The McCabe St boys are regularly battling a gang in Pen Lucy over turf.

Responding to the OP, I drive at least once a week from eastern Towson to Patterson Park (aka Baltimore-Linwood) for band rehearsal. My route : Loch Raven -> Alameda -> Harford -> E25th -> N. Wolfe -> Orleans -> Milton. I would say that is one treacherous route. I basically drive through the worse parts of East Baltimore (CHUM, Broadway East, Middle East, McElderry Park). I wish I could get a carry permit.

[Cha Ching]

Originally Posted by upinflamezzz

What's wrong with paying for a daughter's abortion? Do you have any idea of what it's like growing up in a life of poverty with no hope? My parents were 17 with two kids and everyone in the family struggles to this day because of it. Parents nad children. I wish my mother would have had an abortion and I would have never had to go through this perpetual struggle. Nor would she.

Thanks, upinflamezzz. I was just going to address that. And I'm sorry your circumstances were so difficult because of your family's condition.

It's a legal medical procedure. One that the NASA engineer or stockbroker and his daughter obviously decided was the right one for them.

Something I've noticed when I've brought this up with the sanctimonious. When pressed, they admit that it would be just fine if the poor people got their daughters abortions (fewer undesirables, I guess). It's the rich white girls who are "killing their babies."

We can thank the American educational system for keeping kids ignorant of how their bodies work. How're those "Abstinence Only" programs working for ya, guys? And we can thank those who refuse to see the need for a healthcare system that works in this country. How are poor women supposed to obtain birth control, even if they do know how to use it? There is not a Planned Parenthood on every corner in America. And with all the new crop of "activist pharmacists" who now feel that they can withhold birth control from women with a valid prescription, what else will they have to deal with?

I also find it curious that it's always men who feel the need to lecture to women about abortion. Something they will not ever have to worry about.

[7th generation]

Please keep this thread on topic.
Discussions about abortion and related subjects, should be visited in the Politics and Other Controversies forum.
Thanks.

[Merc63]

Since I moved to Baltimore in '99, I've driven that route many times (originally I lived in Canton and worked out in Woodlawn at SSA HQ, so drove Rt. 40 from downtown all the way out to Cook's Lane daily). Occasionally when I have to go from the office here down to our facility on Green Street, I'll use that as the fastest way to get there. Never felt scared like the OP did.

Now, when I helped my wife's company do a charity cleanup of a school in Sandtown a little ways off North Ave, that was a bit nerve wracking (we were cleaning up needles and patching up bullet holes in the walls)