Is Glenn Burnie a good place to live?

[chaddukes]

I lived in Glen Burnie as a child. In fact, I lived in a bunch of MD towns (Crofton, Bowie, Waldorf, Leonardtown, Severn, Gambrills, etc.) as my folks constantly moved. There are a lot of positive things about Glen Burnie and I kind of liked the town. Having said that, the schools were the worst that I ever encountered. We had kids (notice that I said "kids," plural) that were 18 years old in the 7th grade.....I'm not kidding!

[asincero]

I grew up in Annapolis, but bought a house in Glen Burnie in 2004. I've since sold that house and moved back to Annapolis (more like Arnold, though). I also lived more at the Millersville/Glen Burnie border (right near Old Mill Highschool and near Oakwood Road) and not deep within the bowels of Glen Burnie.

Property is cheaper in Glen Burnie, but it is for a reason. I'd say "blue collar" is definitely a good word to describe Glen Burnie. The advantage of GB, though, is that it has everything you could possibly need. They have 5 shopping malls for example. The spot I was in was a good commuter spot too. Easy access to route 100 and i97.

Last I checked, crime is fairly low in GB. It's lower than Annapolis too. However, the area I lived in wasn't the best area. In fact, the day after I put my place up for sale, there was a fatal shooting right behind my house. Talk about bad timing; it caused me to lose my first potential buyer. However, I'd say the general area I was in (the Glen Burnie/Millersville border) is one of the better areas in GB. I rarely ventured deeper into GB; the more up north you went the worse it got.

Personally, after two years I just couldn't get into living in GB. I still worked in Annapolis when I lived in GB, and every time I drove back to Annapolis I felt more at ease and every time I'd drive back home to GB I'd actually started to feel a little depressed. LOL. But thats just me.

Enough hating on Glen Burnie though; lemme talk a little about Annapolis. I think the only reason why I like Annapolis is because I grew up here. Looking at the city objectively, I can't figure out what Annapolis' appeal is. Annapolis is only great if you're rich. If not, you're living in or fairly close to the ghetto. It's like, there's a lower class and there's a high class but not a whole lot in between. Glen Burnie, at least, is mostly middle class all around. The only middle class people living in Annapolis are people who lived there for a long time and bought into the area back when real estate prices were still sane (from what I hear and from what my parents tell me, Annapolis actually used to be more blue collar just like Glen Burnie back in the day; not any more though).

Another crappy thing about Annapolis is that you have your nice area, then you have your ghetto area just a few blocks away. It's nice area, ghetto area, nice area, ghetto area. You can never really get away from the ghetto areas unless you live on the outskirts of the city like I do now. Those million dollar condos they're currently building near downtown Annapolis may look nice and all, but you've got Clay Street right around the corner from the complex. Clay Street is like the South Central L.A. of Annapolis. You'd still be close enough to hear the gunshots at night, for sure. Then there's this one neighborhood thats filled with million dollar homes. But to get to it, you'll have to drive by Bywaters ... another high crime ghetto. It's crazy. Glen Burnie, on the other hand, is more spread out. If you're in a nice area, you'd have to hop in a car to get to a ghetto area.

I think I've rambled on enough. Another area that wasn't mentioned so far in this thread is Columbia. It's expensive like Annapolis, but at least you don't have the ghettos. At least, the areas I've been in have been real nice. And Columbia seems a lot cleaner too ... but that seems to be true for all of Howard County compared to Anne Arundel (however, Howard County folks do pay more in taxes I think so thats probably why everything looks so much better).