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*This is the topic of discussion on local radio this morning. People are up in arms over the Washington Posts piece. Below, I attached the original Post article. Hahahahahahahaaha! Smh!
Live Baltimore says Washington Post column denigrating Baltimore is 'deplorable'
A recent campaign by Live Baltimore encourages Washingtonians to live in Baltimore and commute to D.C.
(Staff photo by Lauren Loricchio, Baltimore Sun Media Group)
Sarah MeehanContact ReporterThe Baltimore Sun
Live Baltimore responds to a Washington Post column bashing Charm City.
Live Baltimore, the organization that recently launched a campaign encouraging Washington workers to consider moving to Baltimore for its lower cost of living, says it will continue to push that message after a Washington Post column bashing the city was published in response to the campaign.
After the Baltimore Sun reported Sunday that Live Baltimore had launched the campaign, Washington Post reporter Fredrick Kunkle published a column Wednesday with the headline, "Come to Baltimore, where the housing is cheap — and life is too."
The piece opened with: "Tired of paying high rent in D.C.? Don’t mind riding the train for an hour or more? Or getting shot? Move to Baltimore!"
That tone, dubbed flippant by a number of readers in the comments section and on social media, carried throughout the column.
In response to the story, Live Baltimore issued a statement last night denouncing the piece.
"Live Baltimore finds The Post's disrespect for Baltimore's residents — especially those touched by violence — deplorable," the organization said. "While we are pleased to see both city and non-city residents speaking out against the author's inflammatory and offensive comments, we will not drive clicks to articles of this nature by responding through our own social media channels." Opinion: Baltimore's long-term play
Kunkle said in an interview the intent of the piece was not to make light of the city's homicide rate, rather to point to reasons, such as high crime, that housing prices are lower in Baltimore.
"It was more the idea that the city is selling itself and saying, 'Our real estate is really cheap and it's cheaper than in D.C.' ... without basic noting that one of the reasons is that Baltimore has been dysfunctional for a long time," he said. "Anytime somebody’s selling something and making it sound as if houses are really cheap because of, I don't know, rainbows, when in fact it’s because there are very serious problems.” New campaign targets D.C. workers who could live in Baltimore
Live Baltimore executive director Steven Gondol said in an interview this morning the column wasn't what he expected to see based on his conversation with Kunkle.
"We think there’s great talent in the Baltimore and D.C. area, and we know that that talent sometimes leaves the area, especially in D.C., because of the high cost of living,” Gondol said. "When contacted by The Post, our understanding was that it was really a conversation and we weren’t really trying to get into whose museums were better, it was trying to get into what’s at hand, what are the push factors in D.C., what are the pull factors in Baltimore.”
He said he was shocked by some of the language in the piece.
"To see how he trivialized the homicides last year, the Freddie Gray [case], it was just like it stunned us,” Gondol said.
Gondol doesn't feel as though the column undermined the campaign. After the piece was published, he saw a lot of support for Baltimore on social media and in the comments on the article.
"A pretty superficial, racist and [asinine] Post article for sure, but hey, maybe it's alarmist message will keep away the type of Washingtonians we don't want relocating to Baltimore anyway," commenter Richard Chisolm wrote beneath the column.
A reader with the user name ilovecomics added in the comments section: "'Don't go there, you might get shot' is such an oversimplified, overused, and flippant argument. Word to the wise: you can got shot in D.C., you can get shot in Baltimore, you can get shot in a poor neighborhood, you can get shot in a rich neighborhood, you can get shot any freakn' place on this planet. 'Getting shot' is not exclusive to Baltimore. This argument really grates me and I'm kind of surprised (and disappointed) to see it in WaPo."
Other readers sided with Kunkle, who said he didn't expect readers to be so enraged but wasn't surprised by the response, given the power of social media.
"Property taxes are high. ... Live Baltimore fails to tell you about that," commenter Carol Cooke wrote. "If there is a surge in people moving here from D.C. you can say goodbye to affordable housing. But the crime will stay the same. And rent is not cheap unless you rent in the poorest most crime ridden areas."
Live Baltimore will continue to move forward with the campaign, Gondol said.
"We really want to move forward and get to what the intent of the campaign was, and that is that we have increasing opportunities here," Gondol said. "It’s purely about numbers and through transportation you can make it work.”
Come to Baltimore, where the housing is cheap — and life is too
By Fredrick Kunkle February 3
Tired of paying high rent in D.C.? Don’t mind riding the train for an hour or more? Or getting shot? Move to Baltimore!
A new ad campaign is trying to persuade Washingtonians to relocate to Maryland’s biggest city because it’s cheaper to live there.
The campaign – which was initiated by the nonprofit civic booster Live Baltimore and first reported by The Baltimore Sun — says housing prices in Baltimore are so low that you might be better off living in Charm City and commuting to D.C. The campaign’s ads compare a $669,000 house near Union Station in the nation’s capital to a comparable home costing $299,000 near Baltimore’s Penn Station.
An ad campaign is under way to entice Washingtonians to flee the tight housing market in D.C. for Baltimore and commute by train. (Courtesy Live Baltimore)
The ads, part of a broader effort to sell Baltimore to Washingtonians, have run in social media, Washington City Paper and on MARC trains, which connect the two cities.
According to the Sun the number of people commuting from Baltimore to D.C. for work has nearly doubled in recent years, from about 3,000 to about 5,940, according to most recent American Community Survey estimates from the U.S. Census. The Maryland Transit Administration, which runs MARC, also reports a small uptick in the number of people traveling to D.C. from the city.
Ernst Valery, a developer hoping to break ground on an apartment building near Penn Station, told the Sun that Baltimore has the potential to “be a bigger city than D.C.,” that Baltimore has “grit,” and that “D.C. feels like a Disneyland sometimes.”
Eugene Poverni, a principal at Poverni Sheikh Group, also described his ambitions for Baltimore as being the next Jersey City or Brooklyn, apparently because of its proximity to Disneyland, the Sun reported.
Live Baltimore executive director Steven Gondol, who made the move from D.C. to Baltimore about 12 years ago, said he thought the city was more “easy-going,” compared with work-a-holic D.C.
“It’s not ‘Where do you work?’ or ‘What do you do?’ — but ‘What are you doing this weekend?'” Gondol said. “In Baltimore, living is just so much easier.”
If you manage to stay alive. Isn’t it also possible that Baltimore’s housing prices are so low and its residents are in short supply because the city is a little troubled?
Last year, you may recall, a section of the city erupted in riots after 25-year-old Freddie Gray died from injuries suffered in police custody. Six officers face charges in connection with Gray’s death. The riots exposed long-simmering tensions in the city’s poor communities where residents have felt ignored and left behind as other parts of the city have prospered. Last year also happened to be the deadliest year on record in Baltimore since the 1990s. A few years before that, the city’s dangerous, gang-run jail became a national scandal. [Fear and fury in Freddie Gray’s Baltimore neighborhood as first of six officers goes on trial]
Once upon time, Baltimore was all that. In 1970, almost 906,000 people, or nearly 1 of every 4 Marylanders, lived there, and its docks and mills helped keep the lights on in a lot of other places around the state. Now it’s the other way around.
The population has shrunk to an estimated 623,000 people, and the rest of Maryland is now paying a lot of its bills. The Maryland Reporter, in one of many stories analyzing the city’s deeply entrenched woes, said 20,123 taxpayers left Baltimore and 18,361 became city residents, making for a net reduction of 1,762. That also translated into a net decline of $314,908,000 “or about -3.05% of the static tax base,” the article says.
So “grit” isn’t doing it for a lot of folks. Besides, if by “grit” you mean danger and dysfunction, D.C. still has a lot of that, too, and not just on Capitol Hill.
So, hey, Baltimore – you still have a lot going for you. You have one of the coolest museums around, the American Visionary Art Museum. You have one of the finest fish bowls in the land, the National Aquarium. Your favorite sons and daughters include John Waters and Anne Tyler. David Simon immortalized you in “The Wire.” Barry Levinson did the same with “Diner.” The city was H.L. Mencken’s playpen. It’s the home of the Orioles, Cal Ripken and Camden Yards. It was the home of writer Edgar Allan Poe. (Never mind that Poe liked Richmond, Va., a lot more. Or that Baltimore returned its affection by helping Edgar liquor up and kill himself at the age of 40.)
But still — it’s a nice place to visit. I just wouldn’t want to live there.
STOP SPAMMING. You've already said you don't even bother reading articles you post and there's not even any relevant commentary added. What the heck is the point of just re-posting dozens of articles a week for no reason? We're all capable of going to washingtonpost.com without you copying and pasting entire articles for no reason.
STOP SPAMMING. You've already said you don't even bother reading articles you post and there's not even any relevant commentary added. What the heck is the point of just re-posting dozens of articles a week for no reason? We're all capable of going to washingtonpost.com without you copying and pasting entire articles for no reason.
It is nuts how many reps I've gotten for this one post. Apparently, I've tapped into a lot of built-up resentment against Infinity_Heights.
I am a broken record myself, but to state it one more time.
Baltimore is considered one of the most violent cities in the world.
On this crazy dangerous planet, B-more is 19th on the list of murders in cities with more than 300K.
More dangerous than Guatemala City! (just google images for GC and you'll be horrified that Bmore is more dangerous)
I am a broken record myself, but to state it one more time.
Baltimore is considered one of the most violent cities in the world.
On this crazy dangerous planet, B-more is 19th on the list of murders in cities with more than 300K.
More dangerous than Guatemala City! (just google images for GC and you'll be horrified that Bmore is more dangerous)
Correct; the prevalence of gun usage is a serious issue in the third world+the U.S.
Stop your bloodclot cryin'! What in the hell are you talking about??!! There are certain articles I read thoroughly, others I scrim through.
These 2 particular articles I've read. Interestingly, people rather discuss Beyounce's Super Bowl performance than anything substantive.
Quote:
Originally Posted by bufflove
STOP SPAMMING. You've already said you don't even bother reading articles you post and there's not even any relevant commentary added. What the heck is the point of just re-posting dozens of articles a week for no reason? We're all capable of going to washingtonpost.com without you copying and pasting entire articles for no reason.
Stop your bloodclot cryin'! What in the hell are you talking about??!! There are certain articles I read thoroughly, others I scrim through.
These 2 particular articles I've read. Interestingly, people rather discuss Beyounce's Super Bowl performance than anything substantive.
It's entirely useless to simply re-post news articles to C-D. If people want to just read a news article then they'll go to a news site. This shouldn't be hard to understand, but maybe you're just "scriming" my explanations rather than actually giving them substantive consideration.
Growing up my well-traveled father, who was involved in the transportation logistics industry, mentioned a few times that he never met anyone from Baltimore that he liked. Now that I have been exposed to the Baltimore area, I can see why. Of course not everyone is a precocious prick, but I do think that Baltimorean's do suffer from an identity crisis. Not northern, not southern, but the worst of both.
I just got back from a week in Baltimore and everyone there was very nice. It's according to the company you keep.
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