Please tell me something nice about Bmore!!

[rochfamily]

Mr. Lennox, I must disagree with you stating that the winters in MD are freezing. We are moving to Baltimore this summer from Minnesota, where the winters are truly freezing. Come to MN in the winter and you will find out how freezing actually feels. Our family visited the school our daughter will attend and almost started laughing when we were told that when the weather is 32 the kids do not go outside to play. 32 degrees here in the winter is like a heat wave! Also, there is crime in every city and frankly reading all of the terrible comments from Baltimore residents gets tiresome. We are originally from Chicago and have lived in Boston too. Every city has good and bad parts to it and Baltimore is no different.

[Sal_TMermaid]

I am originally from Baltimore, and unfortunately it gets a bad rap, just about everywhere, and shows like "The Wire" do it such a disservice in my opinion! To the person who said Baltimore is "a very depressing place" -- no more depressing than any other big city when all you know is what you see when you ride around the parameters or outer rim and think all there is are old industrial smoke stacks and the Inner Harbor! Wrong -- and there are other nice neighborhoods other than the ones downtown that have been there for years. Try the website "Live Baltimore" to check out all the diversity in communities there. I am an African American middle class black kid (not a kid now) who grew up in a suburban city neighborhood. Check out Roland Park, Gittings, Guilford, Mt Washington, Ashburton and tell me there aren't beautiful parts of my city!! Like all big urban cities -- yes -- including DC which is where I live now -- there are the ills that plague big cities. You have to ask yourself are you a city person? Sounds like you are -- there are things the city offers that suburban cul-de-sac land cannot. There are places to avoid in any city Chicago included, and you can easily do that in Baltimore and feel very safe. Mt. Washington is one of my favorite neighborhoods -- beautiful old big homes that basically sit in the middle of the woodlands. It's also one of Baltimore's safest and is a premier neighborhood. Mt. Washington is zip 21209. Check it out on a realty site, and see what conclusions you draw. There's the Mt. Washington Tavern a cool neighborhood watering hole, a Whole Foods, Starbucks, Smith Hawken. That whole area is really beautiful -- my brother happens to have a condo near there, and there's an exclusive community -- Village of Cross Keys (developed by James Rouse who developed the Inner Harbor and nearby Columbia) around the corner from him. Do the research -- I think you'll be pleasantly surprised

[Spin26]

I chose not to read anyone else's response. To sum up my feelings on Baltimore: It is a beautiful city. Sure, there are low income areas, but thats in practically every city. Baltimore is soooo much nicer than DC. Traffic is lighter to a degree, it is MUCH easier to navigate, people have a different attitude (in some areas not so much), it is visually more appealing, & finally it's not DC!!

Just give it a chance if you're so interested. Don't listen to other people's preferences, find a middle class area, rent , and see how things go.

[kinkytoes]

Okay (drum roll) Baltimore has:
1. the BEST Crab-cakes
2. the BEST Bars
3. Funny alternative names - Harm City tee hee hee
4. Smalltimore - Come here and find ur clique and you'll see what I mean.
5. The Ravens Stadium
6. Camden Yards
7. Warmer winter temperatures than surrounding areas
8. Easily accessible drugs ha ha ha
9. Many Wonderful Universities
10. A good Job Mkt - law, architecture, software, healthcare, finance. ..
11. NattyBo - ask someone
12. The Art scene
13. The local film scene
14. The local music scene
15. Did I mention the great food of all sorts?
16. Art, history and culture - Ft. Mchenry, Arena Players, BMA, BSO ...
17. Enclaves - find one that's right for you.
18. Falling violent crime
19. The aquarium
20. Great inter-state transport - Baltimore Penn Station

[kinkytoes]

I think real-estate agents have been having a great time selling Federal Hill, Fells Point and Canton. Maybe because they sold a lot of "dollar" houses there in the 90's and the ROI is much higher. I agree the rowhouses there are dinky, tiny and unattractive. I also prefer um diversity in my living surroundings.

Have you visited Mount Vernon or Bolton Hill?

You like Ocean City. . .

Originally Posted by Tom Lennox 70

Baltimore is just a very depressing place. It has one of the highest crime rates in the country and the streets are controlled by drug dealers and street gangs. There are over 300 murders a year in the city. ALso the weather is very cold and dreary throughout the year except for the summer months. The winters in all of Maryland are unbearably freezing.

The entire look of the city is depressing too with miles or miles of industrial wasteland and brick row-houses. The water in the harbor looks very polluted and not inviting unlike Lake Michigan which is always blue and shiny, at least during the 5 times I've flown through Chicago on connecting flights. For some reason the tourist office is proud of Bmore's row-houses.....they are just utterly depressing even if they weren't falling apart. You know brick and stone buildings (with the exception of monuments like in DC) are just very drab and sullen looking....Baltimore can't be compared to the glass and steel wonders of the Chicago skyline. At least outside the Inner Harbor area.

I personally don't like Baltimore or anywhere in Maryland much...with the exception of Ocean City and Deep Creek Lake and some of the rural areas.

[cory81]

Best thing about Baltimore besides the crab cakes? A Ravens home game. Absolutely crushes a Redskins home game in terms of atmosphere.

[Oriental Lilly]

I find Baltimore a great and safe place to have fun as long as I'm not walking down a street alone after midnight (seeing as I'm a young woman, that's dangerous anywhere).

Baltimore is filled with great restaurants, bars, places to shop, especially the Inner Harbor. And if you're a baseball fan, Camden Yards is a great stadium with cheap tickets to watch the Baltimore Orioles and there's an amazing and huge convention center that I've been to several times that seems to hold events every week varying from hobbies like car or antique shows to conferences to expos of all kinds. There's just so much to do!