Here's What's Wrong With Baltimore (2013, rent, condo)

[HandsUpThumbsDown]

Originally Posted by montanamom

How 'bout this from someone born and raised in Maryland, who spent 7 years in the Baltimore area.

What's wrong with Baltimore? Everything that is two blocks or more away from the Inner Harbor.

"The Baltimore Area," huh?

[westsideboy]

Originally Posted by HandsUpThumbsDown

My apologies if it seemed like I was giving you crap for it, WSB. Just a tiring topic, for me.

Sorry for not deleting the "giving me crap" part before you reponded. I didn't mean it that way either.

I don't think I have ever waded into this hornet's nest before, because normally the people that do are like CtownKeith that mix legitimiate points with outright racist scare tactics.

I suspect I will be painted the same way for pointing out the obvious, because it isn't P.C., I am from a "hillbilly town," and any other crap people can throw my way, but whatever, I can take some heat and think this issue has been simmering for too long to not take a position on it.

[HandsUpThumbsDown]

I honestly don't know if there's a double standard or not. I'm not eager to jump on either side. I just know that I cringe every time I hear "reverse racism," because there is no such thing - racism is racism no matter who is doing it to whom!! By adding the "reverse" it implies that there is one standard, acceptable type of racism ... which I have a big problem with.

[westsideboy]

Originally Posted by HandsUpThumbsDown

I honestly don't know if there's a double standard or not. I'm not eager to jump on either side. I just know that I cringe every time I hear "reverse racism," because there is no such thing - racism is racism no matter who is doing it to whom!! By adding the "reverse" it implies that there is one standard, acceptable type of racism ... which I have a big problem with.

I agree, and THAT is the point. Look at how the media covers events and see what acts of racism are villified and discussed for days on end, and which are explained away or brushed under the table as quickly as possible.

[LunaticVillage]

Why does everything have to be a damn race issue? Do people realize that Black folks, the majority in Baltimore city, do this to their own kind at a much higher rate than they do this to Whites? It has more to do with Baltimore's history of deindustrialization and lack of opportunity than mere race. If a certain group of people are labelled as second class citizens by the dual membership of their skin color and the poor crime-ridden neighborhood where they live plus they are hopelessly unemployed and downtrodden as a result of massive structural inequality, they stop caring and do whatever they want even if that is beating up a White yuppie for no reason at all. Even people from nicer neighborhoods with college degrees, clean criminal records and good credit are having hell finding work these days. What do you think kids in the hood are going through?! Unemployed Black folks in the hood in a city like Baltimore have it hard even when the rest of the country is experiencing prosperous times.

Upper middle class Blacks in the affluent areas of Baltimore, PG County, Montgomery County and Howard County don't act like this unless they are some petty wannabe teenage thugs trying to emulate worldstarhiphop videos. When you deprive tens of thousands of people of good jobs for generations, the outcome is a socially disorganized environment with a lot of crime.

Thats whats wrong with much of Baltimore and every other inner city in America. If every city from Baltimore to Detroit to Trenton hadn't shutdown factories and moved them overseas decades ago, there would be exponentially less crime in these cities as well as every other big city in America. People used to get paid the equivalent of 90K a year to screw bolts in an assembly line in America once upon a time.

Jobs continue to leave the country at an alarming pace. Illegal immigration keeps real wages down and takes jobs away from Americans. Higher education is insanely expensive and only a small percentage of the population is smart, skilled and or capable enough to become an electrician, engineer, computer programmer or nurse; the only good jobs left. It doesn't help that inner city schools are the pits. Many of the remaining good jobs are a complete joke which involve nothing but surfing the internet all day pretending to work while getting paid big scrilla by Uncle Sam via tax payer dollars "working" as a paper-pusher for the federal government. Today, there are few job opportunities for scores of inner city dwellers and we have a welfare system that encourages unemployed mothers to squeeze out children they don't take proper care of. Add tons of liquor stores, easy access to guns and well-established foreign hard drug connects and you have the average American inner city. This is not limited to Baltimore.

[Jermaine88]

Originally Posted by montanamom

How 'bout this from someone born and raised in Maryland, who spent 7 years in the Baltimore area.

What's wrong with Baltimore? Everything that is two blocks or more away from the Inner Harbor.

I think most people have come to that conclusion. I would say about 5 miles is more accurate.
That is accurate in most cities with "touristy areas, or wealthier areas."

But, there is a huge gap in quality the neighborhoods, of life and people in Baltimore. It seems much larger in Baltimore then many other places I've been in the country. Yet, what some people consider historic, others call old, a hellhole, dirty and ghetto.
The population lost is proof something is wrong. Some rather blame it solely on taxes and the economy. But there are many statistics, and events like the one the OP posted that are making people run for the hills.

[LunaticVillage]

But, there is a huge gap in quality the neighborhoods, of life and people in Baltimore. It seems much larger in Baltimore then many other places I've been in the country.

I disagree with that. It just so happens that the dominant population in Baltimore tends to be lower middle class to lower income Black folks. Most, if not all, large cities have a huge gap of quality of life in neighborhoods. It wouldn't be America otherwise. America has the largest income equality gap in the developed world, not just Baltimore. Detroit and New Orleans are similar to Baltimore in their widespread blight and demographics. Swaths of Philadelphia are also just as run-down and dangerous as anywhere in Baltimore and stand in contrast to its wealthy downtown districts. Although NYC ranks as the safest big city in America, the rough and tumble high-rise projects in Brownsville and East New York are a world away from the wealthy jet-setting lifestyles of lower Manhattan residents.

Brownsville: Inside One of Brooklyn’s Most Dangerous Neighborhoods - LightBox

Englewood in Chicago is just as crime-ridden and visually blighted as anywhere in East or West Baltimore. The infamous Cabrini Green projects in Chicago were right across the street from million dollar condo's. San Francisco is one of the richest cities in America and the world, yet the neighborhoods of Potrero Hill, Sunnydale and Hunter's Point are home to some of the worst public housing complexes in the country.

San Francisco Bay Guardian News

Life at the bottom: S.F.'s Sunnydale project - SFGate

Plywood boarded up abandoned homes and apartments, high crime, overabundance of liquor stores, high unemployment, government dependence for income, heavy drug/gang activity, regularity of gunfire/murder and a warehousing of poor Black folks in these areas is the common thread.

[mufc1878]

Originally Posted by montanamom

How 'bout this from someone born and raised in Maryland, who spent 7 years in the Baltimore area.

What's wrong with Baltimore? Everything that is two blocks or more away from the Inner Harbor.

utter crap post. I think baltimore is a pretty terrible city but Mt. Vernon, Guilford, Roland Park, Homeland, are some of the best neighborhoods in the US that combine historic character with live-ability, and walkability and also have been kept up maintenance wise.

[rfp]

Originally Posted by LunaticVillage

... The infamous Cabrini Green projects in Chicago were right across the street from million dollar condo's.

At least you used the right verb tense. Cabrini-Green has been gone for several years. The million-dollar condos have expanded.

Although ChiTown has had over 500 homicides in 2012, about 85% of those were gang-related, were on the South-Side, and were black-on-black. I would feel safer along Michigan Avenue than I would in Inner Harbor.

Chicago depends a lot upon tourism, and Chicago cops come down hard. You won't find any dirt-bike riding here. Those 'youts' would soon see the inside of Stateville.

[jonjj]

Chicago has been having difficulties with crime rates rising lately. I have a pretty good friend that recently moved to Michigan from Chicago. I asked him about how the city was doing and his response:

They tore down Cabrini-Green and other projects in an effort to mix up the population - that's led to a lot of it; it's less "contained." There was a stabbing in WP right before I left and a BoA robbery. A brutal stabbing in Lincoln Park. Wasn't there a shooting in the Mag Mile? Not to mention the flash mobs where they beat/rob random people. Two summers ago, we started having those flash mobs, then they got worse this past summer. Hesitant to see what happens this summer - I worked with CPD daily and they had a hard time dealing with that.

It's not bad yet in the "good" areas by any means - I felt safe walking alone in Bucktown/WP at any time of day...but you started seeing crime pop up here and there. You can only let it run unchecked down on the S and W sides for so long...