Baltimore's Greatness (rentals, how much, homes)

[rudy_d]

Originally Posted by Terrapin2212

And Baltimore just physically looks depressing. All the concrete, gray, brownness, etc. At least in Phoenix or Raleigh everything looks nice and brand new. Unless its the historic charm like San Francisco or Savannah or Charleston, might as well rebuild everything. Nothing "charming" about brick rowhouses or old factories and warehouses. I still stand by my comment that the Dominos Sugar sign and building, and the Power Plant, should be demolished and replaced with glass and steel skyscrapers. Plus everything east of Interstate 95 too. That would be a real makeover for the city.

I'm sure all those quickly-built houses made of vinyl, particle board, and fake veneers will look great in about 10 years, especially in the heat (not to mention that Phoenix doesn't even have the water to support the current population.) Many of Baltimore's rowhouses are still standing and in excellent condition after 100 years or more. The true eyesores in Baltimore are the "modern" buildings that people with your mindset have built in the past 40 years.

[chemistmcg]

Originally Posted by westsideboy

Not to burst your bubble guest2, but the city is still hemorraging population at a very fast rate. Just about 20,000 in the last six year. Here are some stats from census.gov

1990 - 736,014
2000 - 651,154
2006 - 631,366

City rise in population hailed as turnabout -- baltimoresun.com (http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/baltimore_city/bal-te.md.ci.population02oct02,0,7884148.story - broken link)

baltimore's population has actually gone up...

[westsideboy]

Hey, would you look at that! Good news for the city's PR machine. But of course the actual quote from the guy at the census bureau pointed out that the supposed increase could actually be a decrease based on the margin of error for between census estimates (4%). Either way it looks like the mass exodus over the last 50 years is slowing.

[NYMTman]

It is slowing because most who could have afforded to leave have already left. I was one such person who could afford to leave and left

[TheMaineGirl]

I'll be honest. I was VERY hesitant to move to Baltimore after coming from Maine (yup, I'm a New Englander, do I get generalized under that snotty category), but after living here for a little while I began to appreciate what Baltimore really has to offer. If your an artist, musician, filmmaker, business owner, or anything else, this is a great place to be. It's so inspiring to see a friend open up an art gallery and show local artists work, that wouldn't be able to be on display anywhere else. Or to work at a friend's restaurant and to see it become successful and make pizza that everyone loves. This city may not be for everyone, but can we please start focusing on the good? I feel really sorry for the people that think so negatively...you are missing out on so many postive things in life with that close-minded and negative outlook.

[Bmorelater]

Originally Posted by matt345

I'm not a big fan of Baltimore either, which is why I'm moving to Los Angeles. But I'm mature enough to recognize that just because this place doesn't work for me, doesn't mean that it can't work for other people. You really do post the same thing over and over again. I hope you get outta here fast and find that utopia that you think exists in Phoenix, Las Vegas, Charlotte, or wherever. But I think you'll find that these cities also have run down buildings in their centers and snobby people in their suburbs. Ever heard of Scottsdale, AZ?

I have a fairly unique perspective on this. I grew up here in Baltimore. When I was 19, I picked up and moved to Scottsdale AZ with my then fiance's family. There was a death related to DUI and they needed a fresh start. I wanted to go somewhere besides ECC for school, they needed someone with them to help them mourn and cope and help out around the house so it worked for both of us.

I went out, enrolled at Scottsdale Community College. I lived there for a year. Things didn't work out between my girl and I so I moved to Tempe and got a roomate named Justin I worked with at the Coffee plantation and went to ASU.

Yes, in Scottsdale, some people are very cliquey, but no not all of them are like that. I found the average makeup of the community is almost exactly the same as it is in any Baltimore suburb. You have the cool kids, the popular kids, and the nerds. Same deal for the adults. People are the same everywhere.

The barrios around Phoenix, southern Tempe and Mesa, are downright scary. Look like something straight out of Colors and Repo Man (remember those movies?) and gangs are rampant.

In Tempe right next to the college, Justin and I went to meet two girls for a movie and parked in a parking lot a block away from the Coffee Plantation, where we worked, to pick them up. We got some coffee, hung out for 10 minutes and went back to the car. There had been a gang shooting right next to the car in the 10 minutes it took us to walk a block, get coffee and come back. There was a morgue car, the whole lot was taped off and they were swabbing stuff off the cars to put in evidence bags.

So this stuff spills over into the "nice" areas. Scottsdale, not so much. It's definitely worse now, because this doesn't get better. This incident happened in 1992.

Contrast that with the Pointe, Camelback and other areas with palm trees and golf courses... yea it's nice but boy you will be paying for it.

A lot of famous people live there. Alice Cooper, the lead singer of Judas Priest, Michael Stipe, Tom Morello, just to name a few musicians that were living there when I was. It's a lot like LA, and has a lot of the same problems and perks, along with the price tag. There are clubs there that have to be seen to be believed. There's a huge cultural population. To tell the truth, other than the weather, scenery and urban sprawl, it's a lot like Baltimore with much nicer drivers(generally).

I'd definitely live there if I had the money and could get my extended family to move there; it's beautiful, but there isn't much work there outside of call centers and service jobs, unless you work for Motorola, are an academic, or are a health care or legal professional.

It's a dual society there. There is the wealthy, or service employee. Not much between. There's definitely a unwritten caste system going on. Make sure you test the job market before you buy something there.

Phoenix area has the same issues as Baltimore, plenty of scary urban wasteland, just not quite as many murders. More road rage murders especially. I remember seeing one on the news every other week. You are allowed to have a loaded gun strapped to your steering column there, at least when I lived there you were. So don't drive like you do here, cutting in front of people and stuff, you'll get shot for sure if you cross the wrong person LOL.

It's a nice place to live if you can cocoon yourself away from the dangerous people, but it's not paradise by any stretch of the imagination.

-B

[Bmorelater]

Originally Posted by chemistmcg

City rise in population hailed as turnabout -- baltimoresun.com (http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/baltimore_city/bal-te.md.ci.population02oct02,0,7884148.story - broken link)

baltimore's population has actually gone up...

At the rate this city breeds, duh?

I'm moving out in the next 2 years... Delaware or WVA. Taxes... they are strangling us in this state and it's getting much worse as I write this post. I'm a software engineer, grew up here, and planned on retiring here, but Baltimore has nearly completely lost it's charm for me. I love the city, my family and friends, but I can live just over the border from Frederick and get a huge tax cut while remaining near the tech corridor. I'd like to be able to afford to retire one day.

As taxes go up, you'll see more people leaving that don't want to support the 60% of the city that's on the dole. Baltimore is unsustainable because of this parasitic drain. Maryland is heading that route. I'm not paying for it any longer than it takes to sell, pack up, and get out.

The rest of the state is very sick of paying for Baltimore's problems as well. This state hates working people and it will drive them out with this new governer and his ridiculous spending. He's completely obliterated the budget balance that Robert Erlich established. He has created our current crisis with 1.5 -BILLION- dollars worth of new social programs. He can shove them up his ass. We don't have a budget crisis in this state, we have a governer that wants to reach into our pockets and take our money so he can give it away to get more votes.

I'm not the only one. My parents are moving to Delaware within 2 years as well. I'm not sure what my brothers are doing. This city is at the beginning of what will be a decline in it's fortune. I just hope I can recover what I put into my house.

I know a lot of people that feel the same way. 11 people in my block have for sale signs up on their houses, and most just moved there a few years ago or less. This isn't political opinion; it's reality. We're making our feelings known by selling our houses and getting the hell out. Voting didn't work for me.

It's not Baltimore, it's the taxes. My property tax quadrupled last year. WTF.

I can't afford to live here any more and pay for those new section 8 houses where Mercy hospital used to be. Those are nicer than my house and they pay $50 a month to live there. It's pissing me off and I'm not supporting it.

Baltimore is going to eat itself. O'Malley is biting the hand that feeds him, and it's going to bite back. Christ on top of that, they just passed bills 1&2. Say hello to 6% sales tax and this special session is costing 30k a day. You and I are paying them overtime to hastily raise taxes on us. It boggles the mind. I can't wait to see what they do next.

I'm out of here. The government here is one of the worst in the whole country. I have no idea why they think they can do this and assume people will swallow it. They won't, at least not the ones paying the bills. Talk politics, call me a right wing republican, whatever you like. I can't afford Baltimore anymore so I'm leaving. Well I actually can afford it, I just don't _want_ to afford it. This state is a blood sucking vampire.

-B

[barante]

I can understand your bitterness, and hope you will find your pot of gold at the end of a rainbow.
As to the rest of the post, it's mostly ill-informed bull. For example, no Section 8 rentals are going to go to the Mercy Hospital expansion site. Instead, a huge hospital highrise is going there.
'nuff said.

[emsgoof]

Originally Posted by barante

I can understand your bitterness, and hope you will find your pot of gold at the end of a rainbow.
As to the rest of the post, it's mostly ill-informed bull. For example, no Section 8 rentals are going to go to the Mercy Hospital expansion site. Instead, a huge hospital highrise is going there.
'nuff said.

No, there are section 8 rowhouses there. I worked right across the street at JHH for several years, and went by them several times a day. It's the JHH parking garage and Jefferson Building that are making way for the new medical high rise (critical care tower). Those houses are garbage inside, which is a shame, because they were really nice when they started building them.

[oldawg]

Then there are people like my wife and I. We are trying desperately to get back to Baltimore and can't. Listen to "Guest2"