Do Richmond people feel an affinity to Baltimore? Baltimore from a Richmond comparitive? (2015, schools)

[Pruzhany]

Originally Posted by Charlesaf3

Richmond isn't southern. It is mid Atlantic.

Just drive 20 miles in any direction out of Richmond and the Southern hospitality shines.

[Diff1]

Baltimore has confederate monuments

[PiersantiFamily]

I was born in Richmond and lived there most of my life. I only left because I went to a boarding academy for high school in the Shenandoah Valley and then went to the Dallas/Ft. Worth, Texas area for college. My family still lives there. I now live in Harrisburg, PA and we have close friends who live in Baltimore. It's not a long drive to get there, so we visit them and Baltimore often.

There are some similarities between the two cities, but in most area, they are very different. Baltimore is a bigger city, and much grittier than Richmond. I agree with previous posters that Baltimore tends to have a more Northern mentality and Richmond is definitely Southern, with a little bit of hipster. The traffic is far less in Richmond, overall. I feel that people are friendlier in Richmond than they are in Baltimore. As far as crime goes, Baltimore seems to be more dangerous than Richmond. We were down near Fells Point a few months ago, and friends were like "Don't go down that street, you will definitely get shot or mugged." There's dangerous areas everywhere, but there seems to be far more in Baltimore.

[LionLady]

Grew up in Alexandria, have lived in Baltimore for 20+ years. Become acquainted with Richmond over the past 5 years (daughter at VCU).

When I moved to Baltimore, one of the first things I noticed was that the folks behind the counter at the 7-eleven spoke English as their first language more often than not. Folks would say hello on the street (Fells Point) as we passed. DC feels more "metro" folks are aloof/in their own business. Baltimore is a bit more friendly with culture and arts. Yeah. The gritty/dangerous areas are really gritty and dangerous. Richmond feels southern. It is obviously smaller with less traffic but has awesome culture and the arts. I have to say, I think Richmond has the cool stuff that Baltimore does, without the worst of the bad stuff.

[cafepithecus]

I love Richmond. I find Baltimore to be a cesspool.

[VASpaceMan]

We've currently been in Northern Virginia (have been here for 5 years) and DC area is just not our thing. We've lived in Portland Or (loved it and nearby Seattle), Hampton Roads (my hometown), and Chicago (great city, and surprisingly friendly for a city of it's size). Have been researching and visiting Baltimore and Richmond as potential places to settle and raise kids.

There's some things that I absolutely adore about Baltimore. It has *SO* much potential. It really could be the jewel of the Mid-Atlantic if not the East Coast. It could be like a little mini San Francisco or Portland of the east. On the Chesapeake Bay, boating culture, seafood, pretty close to beaches, history, great architecture, great neighborhoods, high tech jobs, near NASA Goddard and Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab, a quirky artsy culture, good music scene. That being said, I think I had to cross it off our list. The crime level is absolutely mind blowing, and it's not just isolated to a few bad area. Locals will tell you that even in the nicest neighborhoods and suburbs you should expect to eventually be a victim of crime, if not violent crime. They refer to it as Bodymore, Murderland. You'll hear locals who've been there for years, who keep expecting it to get better, say they've finally given up. To give you an idea of the crime, a bad homicide rate for a city might be 20 (murders for 100,000 people), Baltimore's for years has been between 200 and 300. I don't think anyone expects that to change anytime soon, probably not in our lifetimes. The idea of raising kids there makes my skin crawl. I know we could probably find a safe suburb, but once the kids get old enough they would be hanging out downtown. Baltimore and Richmond have some definite similarities, some of the neighborhoods, rowhouses, mid atlantic, down to earth people, areas with quirky/creative types and musicians. Richmond did have a bad homicide rate years ago, but that's changed. Richmond seems to be just getting better and better every year. Every time I visit, I see something new that impresses me. Baltimore seems to be held down by intractable crime. Richmond seems to be blossoming. Recently, Richmond was voted best river town by outdoor magazine. Check it out: The Best River Towns in America: Richmond, Virginia | Best Towns | OutsideOnline.com

[Ibginnie]

Originally Posted by cafepithecus

I love Richmond. I find Baltimore to be a cesspool.

Funny, I feel the complete opposite.

[AllEars85]

You feel Richmond is a cesspool?

[novanwbie]

VASpaceMan-- I'm not surprised northern VA wasn't your thing -- we moved back to RIC last year after 10 years in NOVA, almost all of which were torture, after the initial buzz of being "close" to DC wore off, because we realized it was torture to actually get into DC through the burbs. Now we can take the train straight in, and it's almost easier, even though we're further away. We love RIC, for the reasons you listed. Our area is really safe, the schools are wonderful, and it's super easy to take advantage of everything the city has to offer. I hope you choose to move down here! It's not Portland or Chicago, but it stands well on its own merits!

I love Baltimore, and find its decline sad. I fear they're well on their way to being the next Detroit.

[Charlesaf3]

Whether or not Short pump is southern is not off topic in this context, Ludja