Other cities with better suburbs than Baltimore? (Silver Spring, Ellicott City: homes, neighborhood)

[mrboltonman]

Catonsville is ok and I definitely agree with Historic Ellicott City

[Tiger Beer]

Originally Posted by mrboltonman

Catonsville is ok and I definitely agree with Historic Ellicott City

Catonsville the one I saw firsthand, and quite liked it.

Since seeing that one, I looked at google maps, and Towson and Pikesville looked alright. Maybe it's all better within the city itself though, not sure. I liked Catonsville and Ellicott City though.

[barante]

. . . that most of Baltimore City is composed or erstwhile suburbs. The earliest city was along the waterfront and it was all uphill from there. By the eearly 1800s, horse and buggy transportation enabled the suburbs to reach Mount Vernon, a few decades later Eutaw Place and Bolton Hill. By the 1890s, we have Forest Park and Roland Park. So it's just a matter of your time horizon as to what should be regarded as suburbs. Look at Station North around the old Goucher College. Look at the substantial rowhouses, once-prestigious churches. That, too, used to be suburbia.

[KLynch10]

A big reason the inner suburbs have character is because in most other cities they would actually be in the city. Baltimore has very small city lines.

A lot of the suburbs are pretty lame, but places like Towson/Lutherville, Catonsville, Ellicott City, Parkville, Severna Park, Linthicum, Arbutus have character. Places like Columbia and Owings Mills make me want to barf!

It's a shame Brooklyn Park went way down hill. Awesome bunglalows, and so close to downtown!

[rsh56]

Originally Posted by KLynch10

A big reason the inner suburbs have character is because in most other cities they would actually be in the city. Baltimore has very small city lines.

A lot of the suburbs are pretty lame, but places like Towson/Lutherville, Catonsville, Ellicott City, Parkville, Severna Park, Linthicum, Arbutus have character. Places like Columbia and Owings Mills make me want to barf!

I agree! Towson and Ellicott City is my favorite.

[jonjj]

I don't get the Towson experience at all. It is walkable for about two blocks. I think the goal was to have it sort of become a Silver Spring or Chevy Chase. It's got a long way to go. Catonsville is a bit better. It does have a walkable downtown area and some diversity.

[trickymost]

Originally Posted by jonjj

I agree on this one. Really, the burbs around Bmore are kind of a drag unless you have tons of money and then shoot for horse country with land. I happen to like Ellicott City but that's about it for the burbs. The rest are just off-shoots off of a highway with nothing really appealing.

+1 to that.

Baltimore suburbs are very meh compared to other suburban areas between Richmond and Boston.

The only positive thing I can really say about the Baltimore suburbs is how rapidly you transition from urban to horse country and how close you are to various places on the bay.

I'll use central NJ as an example - you drive in any direction from anywhere in central NJ, and it's a long time before you ever feel like you're leaving a suburb or city center or new town or what have you. If you head east, you'll never actually hit nowhere unless someone could build a road out into the Atlantic.

In Baltimore, if you head north/northwest or west between Parkville and Reisterstown, you go from urban to exurban to suburban to horse and estate country to nothing in about 15 minutes and probably about 15 miles. That's pretty cool.

[NYMTman]

Originally Posted by KLynch10

A big reason the inner suburbs have character is because in most other cities they would actually be in the city. Baltimore has very small city lines.

A lot of the suburbs are pretty lame, but places like Towson/Lutherville, Catonsville, Ellicott City, Parkville, Severna Park, Linthicum, Arbutus have character. Places like Columbia and Owings Mills make me want to barf!

It's a shame Brooklyn Park went way down hill. Awesome bunglalows, and so close to downtown!

Yes, and Philadelphia and Boston have even tighter city limits than Baltimore. Regarding Boston if you want to compare apples to apples you have to consider areas like Roland Park, Lauraville, etc in addition to the County suburbs.

[rsh56]

Originally Posted by jonjj

I don't get the Towson experience at all. It is walkable for about two blocks. I think the goal was to have it sort of become a Silver Spring or Chevy Chase. It's got a long way to go. Catonsville is a bit better. It does have a walkable downtown area and some diversity.

Towson is walkable and it's more similar to Bethesda than Chevy Chase(mostly residential) or Silver Spring. Towson seems a bit smaller than Bethesda, plus more affordable. Though unlike Bethesda, there isn't such reliable public transportation or as many restaurants.

[KodeBlue]

Reistertown isn't a typical suburb.