Transplants to MD - Pros and Cons (Baltimore, Silver Spring: fit in, crime)

[shaynaciao]

I have read some posts on here that say a lot of people living in Maryland are from other places and I would like to hear the comparisons on Maryland to your home towns, both pros and cons please. I know it varies greatly where exactly you live in MD, but general differences would be appreciated!

[North Beach Person]

In MD you have the "DC attitude": "the most important city, in the the most important country in the world and I'm the most important person here". That's not true so much once you get away from the city unless you get around people that have decided to be rural pioneers and uplift us po' folks in the hinterlands. Then you have people who are unhappy that the natives/locals don't necessarily want, need or can support boutiques, cutesy knick-knack stores, Guyanese restaurants or specialty coffee stores. The rural areas are like rural areas almost everywhere, you have to prove yourself by fitting in, adopt a live and let live attitude and be ready to help out if needed. I came from a very rural area in PA nearly 30 years ago so I didn't have much trouble fitting in, in fact there are people here all their lives that swear we hung out together in high school and did various and sundry things and I wasn't here then. Where I am is one of those places that has been hit by the aforesaid rural pioneers so my view may be a bit jaded.

[samstersmom]

I am from Upstate NY (Utica/Syracuse) and people up there are very friendly compared to MD. When we would move to a new home in NY our new neighbors would introduce themselves by bringing over baked goods or by just stopping to say hello when we were outside. Here in MD, I have lived in two different places and no one says hello. Everyone stays inside like there is an epidemic. I have mentioned this to my MD co-workers and they said, "Yeah, that's how it is in Maryland. Everyone wants to keep to themselves". I like Maryland though because there is a lot to do compared to Upstate NY (unless you like the snow) but the people are very different.

[bonnielisabeth]

I've lived in VA, GA, NC, and now Maryland.

CONS
Neighbors are less friendly here (except for my black neighbors, who are also southerners), and there is a lot more diversity (read--more asian and hispanic residents than the traditional southern black/white mixture I was used to.) When we go to parks in the Silver Spring / Rockville area sometimes we are the only people speaking English (usually everyone is speaking spanish or european sounding languages). People seem to be much more in a hurry, and the traffic is a problem. The ethnic restaurants, so far, have not been as good as I would have expected (considering the diversity), and were generally better in the Raleigh NC area and in Atlanta. There is more crime than I was accustomed to, and I feel much more unsafe here than anywhere I have lived outside of Richmond VA or parts of Hampton Roads. Never felt this unsafe in NC or GA, but knew this would be a challenge and was already primed to be more alert. We would not never have relocated to MD except this is where my husband received better job offers. I have a feeling we might fit in better in the rural areas that "north beach person" is talking about, but the commute might make it hard.

PROS
There is a lot of stuff to do in the DC area, much of it free. The museums are great! Public transportation seems good, and the public library collections are excellent. (Library buildings, unless they are brand new, are another story.)

[shaynaciao]

Wow, well, it seems like there is a recurring theme... not so great people, but tons of great things to do.

[bowian]

Originally Posted by shaynaciao

Wow, well, it seems like there is a recurring theme... not so great people, but tons of great things to do.

I can't argue too much with the PP. I think there's this attitude of "I'm busy," and being "busy" is something of a status symbol. This general area, not just Maryland, seems to have an abundance of people who feel the need to be important. Being busy is fine (I suppose being imporant is too), but so is sitting down doing absolutely nothing sometimes. If you're so busy, you don't have time to socialize, get to know people, relax. So you keep to yourself. At least that's one theory.

I also think there are a lot of great people here, but the "like thinkers" are kind of scattered and don't always find each other. Especially those who don't like cliques. To me, cliques are for school kids, and even then they're questionable.

And yes, there's lots to do.

[shaynaciao]

That does seem to echo what my sister has said as well. She recently did an internship in DC and said it's a very tight circle there, that people who are important in DC are nobodies outside of it... haha. I bet they wouldn't like that.

Anyway, I'm from Southern California originally and it sounds somewhat like what I am used to from there with the people. The more crowded a place gets, it seems people fight more for their personal space and lose their friendliness in the process. CA was more snobby in the sense of if you didn't have money and looks you were nothing, so at least DC is, if you aren't busy doing something, going somewhere then you're nothing... haha. Snobbery with more substance?

Thanks everyone for your opinions. I appreciate it and now I know a little more what to expect when I move there.

[oneworld25]

It seems like most of the people on this board are describing what the DC area suburbs are like. The Baltimore area, Western Maryland, and the Eastern Shore are quite different.

[westsideboy]

Transplants moving into areas populated by other transplants are going to find this kind of aloof attitude no matter what state they are in. How does a neighborhood of people that has no commonality or connection to each other other than moving into similar looking pre-fab structures bond together? Baked goods do sound a like a good start

I agree with onesir, you need to look outside the metro area to find real MD community spirit.

[ghart]

I grew up in a suburb of Baltimore and have lived all of my life, within 50 miles of the house I called home as a kid.

I've visited many states from Florida to New York and west to California. I enjoyed all of the places I visited and always found the people friendly.

But, I was always happiest back home!

In my life's travels, I have noticed that people who found some strange qualities with the people from where they came, found those same strange qualities about the people in Maryland.

Conversely, I know people who have moved to Maryland and enjoy every part of it and the people they meet here, just like they did at the places they came from.