New job in Northern Baltimore suburbs, where to live? (Towson: townhouse, neighborhoods)

[steppinthrax]

Originally Posted by designer_genes

I was trying really hard to take you seriously and then you said this and now I can't. You are seriously ignorant to how science works.



Thank you for actually understanding the process. I'm actually not a postdoc, I'm a graduate student. But, everything else you said is absolutely accurate. A career in medicine or the sciences means you have to pay your dues for a long time, but once you do so your career prospects shoot sky high very quickly. Salaries in academia lag behind those in industry (not just at Hopkins, everywhere), but people that choose to stay in academia and forego the six figure salary (unless you are a tenured professor, then you can get six figures in academia too) do so for the love of the science. Scientists in academia have almost complete intellectual freedom to pursue whatever problems interest them, whereas in industry you have to do whatever the higher-ups say you're going to do to help the company's bottom line. This is a choice literally every scientist faces in his or her life and it's nothing new and nothing unique to Hopkins.

I got into very prestigious schools in New York (Columbia), Philly (Penn), and Boston (Boston University) and I turned them down to come to Hopkins. And a huge part of the reason why is exactly what Tinawina has pointed out, which is that I'd be eating ramen noodles every night on my salary in those other cities, whereas I live quite a comfortable life here in Baltimore. I'm completely satisfied not making a lot right now because 1.) I'm doing what I love. 2.) I'm getting paid to go to school. and 3.) Baltimore makes it very easy to live on what I make.

So, steppinthrax, when you cite low salaries as a negative about Hopkins, you are failing to understand that for people like me, Baltimore is actually a more attractive option than elsewhere because that low salary gets us more bang for our buck AND you are failing to understand what drives us as scientists (hint: it's not money).

LOL

Well You and Me are two completely different people.

And when I mean different I'm talking on a molecular level....

I look at education as an investment. I've received my return on investment for my B.S. and M.S. many magnitudes over each year (I didn't go to a prestigious university) I can't fathom going to school all those years and spend all those thousands of dollars for that (in your previous post).

I've also read articles that discuss how certain degrees are not worth obtaining at prestigious universities, because you will not make any much more.

In the DC area people will be working on job. They have their employer pay for some IT certification program. They get the cert, then they quit and are making 10K more. I look at that as money well spent....

[BmoreNOmore]

Originally Posted by Tinawina

Man, these boards are exhausting. LOL

The poor OP just wants to know where to live and as usual, the thread gets hijaked by the typical bickering.

Anyway, OP you one half are a young childless professional couple looking to live someplace relatively safe with arty stuff nearby that the wife can walk to, and that has a reasonable commute to Hunt Valley, preferably one that leaves public transportation as an options. You like to have bars, restaurants and healthy food around. Correct?

The posts that have directly addressed your question have given you some good advice. The areas along 83 or the lightrail that loosely fit that description have all been mentioned. You can look up basic data about these neighborhoods on the non-forum part of City Data. Each area also has its own webpage through their civic orgs. You don't have to take anyone's word for it.

Good luck OP! Happy hunting. You have some pretty good options to choose from, I doubt you'll make a bad choice.

It's good they here it now because it's like the ONLY topic of conversation in Baltimore.

[steppinthrax]

Originally Posted by BmoreNOmore

It's good they here it now because it's like the ONLY topic of conversation in Baltimore.

The crazy thing is the OP was once in NoVa. NoVa is one of the the creme de la creme of the east coast. This was also Long time ago. He will get a reality check if he tries to come back....

[designer_genes]

Originally Posted by steppinthrax

LOL

Well You and Me are two completely different people.

And when I mean different I'm talking on a molecular level....

I look at education as an investment. I've received my return on investment for my B.S. and M.S. many magnitudes over each year (I didn't go to a prestigious university) I can't fathom going to school all those years and spend all those thousands of dollars for that (in your previous post).

I've also read articles that discuss how certain degrees are not worth obtaining at prestigious universities, because you will not make any much more.

In the DC area people will be working on job. They have their employer pay for some IT certification program. They get the cert, then they quit and are making 10K more. I look at that as money well spent....

Yes, we are clearly very different because you only view a degree as "worth getting" if it makes you more money and I wholeheartedly disagree with that worldview. Money is not the only thing that makes my degree "worth getting" (although it will eventually pay dividends in that aspect as well). What makes it worth getting is being mentored and trained by the best and the brightest out there. Put simply, I like learning. That is, after all, what school is for, is it not? The pursuit of knowledge is a visceral human instinct and it's sad to me that it's been beaten out of so many people by greed and complacency.

For some people, it's enough to be miserable at work all day (think of how much of their lives they must waste being miserable) just to rake in the dough. I, on the other hand, would prefer to actually get fulfillment and intellectual stimulation from my work.

That said, if you actually read my posts, you would know that I don't pay to go to school. My education is covered by the university because I produce original research for them. So I am actually $0 in debt right now.

[dogpark]

Originally Posted by steppinthrax

The crazy thing is the OP was once in NoVa. NoVa is one of the the creme de la creme of the east coast. This was also Long time ago. He will get a reality check if he tries to come back....

Plenty of folks complain about the expense, traffic and cookiecutter environment of NoVA and are only there to work. In fact, there are quite a few work in DC/live in Bmore folks up here, taking the MARC train.

[dogpark]

Originally Posted by designer_genes

Yes, we are clearly very different because you only view a degree as "worth getting" if it makes you more money and I wholeheartedly disagree with that worldview. Money is not the only thing that makes my degree "worth getting" (although it will eventually pay dividends in that aspect as well). What makes it worth getting is being mentored and trained by the best and the brightest out there. Put simply, I like learning. That is, after all, what school is for, is it not? The pursuit of knowledge is a visceral human instinct and it's sad to me that it's been beaten out of so many people by greed and complacency.

For some people, it's enough to be miserable at work all day (think of how much of their lives they must waste being miserable) just to rake in the dough. I, on the other hand, would prefer to actually get fulfillment and intellectual stimulation from my work.

That said, if you actually read my posts, you would know that I don't pay to go to school. My education is covered by the university because I produce original research for them. So I am actually $0 in debt right now.

Remember, steppinthrax was worried about getting raped at Towson U while living in White Marsh, so Baltimore is all bad...

[designer_genes]

Originally Posted by dogpark

Remember, steppinthrax was worried about getting raped at Towson U while living in White Marsh, so Baltimore is all bad...

Oh right, I forgot.

[Tallybalt]

Back in the 1990s we went to a private fundraiser for a health charity at a grand house somewhere in Northwest Washington. The hostess and most of the guests were indisputably rich. Not just well off, but genuinely rich. It was one of my few exposures to this especially privileged world. One of the things I remember from the fundraiser was being sat at a table full of well-off Washingtonians and at one point the conversation topic drifted to Northern Virginia. They were contemptuous, in that charming way of the rich, of Northern Virginia and described it as a place filled with midlevel government bureaucrats and the pushy nouveau riche in their McMansions. I actually started feeling angry at one point because I knew people who lived in various parts of Northern Virginia because it's a perfectly fine place to live and people live there because it's best suited to their needs.

Nonetheless, what is creme de la creme to you is not the creme de la creme to other people. We have disparate needs and desires and expectations and being so heavily dismissive and critical of one blameless area in favor of another blameless area hardly helps your case. If anything, it says much more about you than it does about the particular place you criticize.

Originally Posted by steppinthrax

The crazy thing is the OP was once in NoVa. NoVa is one of the the creme de la creme of the east coast. This was also Long time ago. He will get a reality check if he tries to come back....

[steppinthrax]

Originally Posted by dogpark

Plenty of folks complain about the expense, traffic and cookiecutter environment of NoVA and are only there to work. In fact, there are quite a few work in DC/live in Bmore folks up here, taking the MARC train.

I had friends who TRIED to live in Baltimore and took the Marc train. One got so sick of how the LR would shut down in the middle of the track and/or break down for some reason, he just picked up and moved to DC.

[steppinthrax]

Originally Posted by dogpark

Remember, steppinthrax was worried about getting raped at Towson U while living in White Marsh, so Baltimore is all bad...

I was going to TU while living in White Marsh.....

I wasn't concerned for my safety (male). It makes the University and City look bad....

One of the reasons to take in account if you decide to allow your female child to attend TU.