Are DC and Baltimore typically considered one large metropolitan area? (Washington: living in, centers)

[Bluefly]

Originally Posted by RaisedWell

To answer the question, "no". When I drive to Baltimore I am taking a trip to another city. Honestly, I can count the times I have been there.

mikey0321 said it best.

But a sizable number of people actually do live in Baltimore for the cheaper / funkier city and commute to DC everyday, so your perspective is not universal.

[Stephen 81]

Originally Posted by Jericho-79

Maybe I used the wrong analogy. Forget the Twin Cities.

How about Los Angeles and Anaheim out in SoCal?

Both LA and Anaheim make up the Greater Los Angeles area.

I think residents of Charm City could go ballistic if they were told Baltimore was the Anaheim to DC's Los Angeles. Anaheim is a large suburb whose history revolved around Greater Los Angeles. It didn't develop an independent downtown and culture that later merged with LA's.

DC and Baltimore are two culturally distinct cities with radically different histories and increasingly, different demographics. The cities' suburbs overlap, yes, but you won't find many people who think of Baltimore and Washington as one metropolitan area.

I will say, though, that a lot of DC/MD/NoVA natives cheer for the Orioles, as they are the team we grew up with (and as a bonus, they are marginally less awful).

[bornindc]

Originally Posted by Stephen 81

I think residents of Charm City could go ballistic if they were told Baltimore was the Anaheim to DC's Los Angeles. Anaheim is a large suburb whose history revolved around Greater Los Angeles. It didn't develop an independent downtown and culture that later merged with LA's.

DC and Baltimore are two culturally distinct cities with radically different histories and increasingly, different demographics. The cities' suburbs overlap, yes, but you won't find many people who think of Baltimore and Washington as one metropolitan area.

I will say, though, that a lot of DC/MD/NoVA natives cheer for the Orioles, as they are the team we grew up with (and as a bonus, they are marginally less awful).

I agree 100 percent, DC and Baltimore are completely distinctive cities. The LA/Anaheim comparison isn't even close. As earlier described in this thread, any resident of DC or Baltimore will tell you that they are from DC or Baltimore, not the same. A guy from Anaheim who's traveling will as often or not say he's from LA, no way someone from DC says they are from Baltimore or vice-versa. The cities do share suburbs, but the Howard Co./Anne Arundel Co. suburbs are a lot more dependent on DC than Baltimore from my experience. There is practically no rush hour traffic from these areas in to Baltimore that I've observed, the heavy rush traffic in to Baltimore is from the northern & western areas of Baltimore (which are much more affordable suburbs - so if you worked in Baltimore it'd be a no-brainer to live north or west of the city). There are a ton of other differences as have already been brought up.

BTW, a lot of us original DC area people didn't follow the O's, because Baltimore ISN'T the DC area. I'm a huge sports fan but paid absolutely no attention (since I was in Little League anyway) to baseball until the Nats arrived.

I don't think there is another comparable DC/Baltimore situation in the US. DC is distinctive in being a city created politically and plopped down on the map (not including the original towns in the area like Alexandria and Georgetown). As such DC did not grow up as organically as Baltimore, they are just different in a lot of ways.

[DiderotsGhost]

I would consider them as being part of one giant megalopolis. In essence, there is a huge overlap between the two metro areas so that it would be impossible to distinguish "DC Metro" from "Baltimore Metro" without making arbitrary distinctions. And most of the southern Baltimore 'burbs (e.g. Columbia) are more like far northern DC 'burbs.

Culturally, Baltimore City is a different world than Washington, DC. The overlapping, identity-less sprawl between the two cities is shared, however.

So if the question is 'are they like the Twin Cities', then the answer is 'not really.' If the question is 'should they be considered one giant metro area for housing and statistical purposes', then the answer is 'yes.' It's not uncommon for people in DC to drive up to Baltimore for a night and vice-verse. But it's more common for the people in Maryland to split time between the two than NoVa (which is about 50-60 miles away from B'more).

[FlyDrive100b]

This was a post I had touched on before, given that newark is very different from say new york city with its own airport and history although being in the new york metropolitan area.

Baltimore is different and I have disagree with how the census organizes things, parts of the washington csa should be in the washington msa and parts outside the csa should be in the csa or even the msa but to include baltimore in the csa is census guesswork to me.

You could say that Baltimore does have things in common with D.C. in terms of the federal government and people traveling down similar to new york city through Newark area , in the case of two cities that are different but have a few things in common with friends and relatives in between that bridge the gap.

If you look at howard and ann counties they are south of baltimore but given that they are close to D.C. its sandwiched in between.

Picture a double cheese sandwich/burger in which the sauce and meat and the bottom is different (Baltimore) but the middle contains a bit of both (Howard) while the double meat burger has 2 cheeses in which one is constant being D.C. and the two halfs have another each (fairfax, loudon, Moco vs. howard, ann arudel).

Could've used a better analog, but while being part of the burger its very different although still part of the burger technically speaking in which you eat the whole thing while being very different from the rest.

[rlchurch]

Whatever the census people do, they do. DC and Baltimore are two distinctly difference metropolitan areas. They couldn't be more different if they were 5000 miles apart.

[14thandYou]

Originally Posted by tech2enable

You could say that Baltimore does have things in common with D.C. in terms of the federal government

What branch of the federal government is located in Baltimore?

[RaisedWell]

Originally Posted by Bluefly

But a sizable number of people actually do live in Baltimore for the cheaper / funkier city and commute to DC everyday, so your perspective is not universal.

I know my perspective is not universal. Most people born and raised here don't see Baltimore and DC as one. I actually thought about moving there because of the cheaper housing. I realized that I would be doing a lot of commuting not just during the week but off-hours as well because all of my friends/family/activities are HERE.

[FlyDrive100b]

Originally Posted by 14thandYou

What branch of the federal government is located in Baltimore?

Great Question, I find that a lot of federal jobs were located in Baltimore almost like D.C in many ways. , but there are appears to be a few federal agencies headquarted or have main operations in Baltimore (didn't know that before) or at least in the Baltimore area or in adjacent ann arundel county .

The social security administration, centers for medicare and medicaid are headquartered in Baltimore County (baltimore city is technically independent although located in the same county).

The NSA (national security administration) is headquartered in adjacent ann arundel county along with fort meade.

http://www.greaterbaltimore.org/Port...ltimore_TS.pdf

[BWALDON]

FlyDrive100b, you seemed to have used your search engine "google" an awful lot. I'm interested to know if you are a native of Washington? If not, how long have you lived in Washington. Thanks....