People laugh when you tell them, "I'm from Baltimore!"

[Digger 68]

Originally Posted by pwduvall

Some of us just try to be fair. I don't understand the haters desire to overstate the city's problems (which are very real) and completely ignore the city's assets. There is plenty to be concerned about, and no need to resort to hyperbole.

You know many of the posters in this thread are not rational, make no sense, and post ad nauseam.

Other state city forums are bad, but boy is the Baltimore Forum weak. This thread should have died long ago.

I am looking forward to cool Fall weather over the next few weeks so I can be on my bike and avoid this sub forum.

[choccity]

Originally Posted by adriftinthebay

DC is worse than Baltimore in many peoples' eyes -- even worse corruption, cronyism and number of government workers on welfare. Why would you say something so dumb? At least say another town, not DC.

I like Baltimore and tell people all the time I'm from there even though its no longer true.

I lived in Baltimore for 10 years. I will leave it at that.

But, as a born and raised DC Native, DC does have it's cronyism and corruption on the government level which has nothing to do with the original dc folk. Just like Baltimore.

The city is a tale of three. The people born and raised, the gentrifiers and the government. The government is the employer, most of us don't deal with the corruption, not part of my daily life anyway.

Do you have proof of government workers on welfare that's such a big problem that you had to mention it here?

[Woodlands]

Originally Posted by adriftinthebay

DC is worse than Baltimore in many peoples' eyes -- even worse corruption, cronyism and number of government workers on welfare. Why would you say something so dumb? At least say another town, not DC.

I like Baltimore and tell people all the time I'm from there even though its no longer true.

True.. I believe DC does have all of those things at the City and Federal level for that matter. I think the DC overall still seems to prosper despite some of the shortcomings of its government.. which also has improved since the 1980s. This is in part because of the citizens that have live in or moved into the city and joined these long term residents and consistently demanded better. To a certain extent a city government is only as good (or as bad) as its citizens. Baltimore City Government seems to spend 80% of its time and resources chasing problems and trying to clean them up and 20% trying to be proactive. City jobs tend to be low paying(stepping stone thus high turnover) with the exception of high level appointees some of whom, are placed in office to protect/support their elected benefactor and not because they possess the needed skill set. Again.. I think this is sloooowly changing but the affects of decades of this are still very apparent. The other thing that Baltimore has going for it is what I call "guerilla urbanism" where residents take certain issues into their own hands.. From shoveling snow off of city streets not just in front of their own property, neighborhood clean ups of city lots, graffiti removal, even installing speed humps and traffic calming devises/signs on city streets ...There was a high profile case of this in Charles Village with a statue being erected in an intersection to slow traffic and when the city removed it there was an outcry.. which ultimately force the city to study and address the underlying speeding issue that it had avoided.


At any rate.. more Baltimoreans need to make more demands of the city government to act responsibly from 311 and following up when things are not done correctly to collectively holding agencies and council reps accountable when things are not done. But at the same time show civic pride, get involved and actually partner with the city on neighborhood improvement efforts. I have found the city to be fairly helpful and responsive when approached as a partner as opposed to simply when residents complaint, get agitated and castigate them for what they have done wrong.....This includes when you see a city employee doing something right or providing you with good customer service.. take to the time to acknowledge them in person.. and send an email to the agency and acknowledge the employee in writing as well. We did this in our neighborhood one time when a city employee during a storm too the time to place people recycling containers upside down and further in their yards so they woudnt blow away or simply closing the lid. Again a small act.. but much appreciated..by residents and hopefully by the individual that we praised. Since that time.. there have been few complaints with DPW in our hood.. It also helps that we now have the roll carts.. so we don't have the trash can Olympics where DPW crews used to throw cans and lids down the block and force residents to go on a scavenger hunt to find them....

[Rufus Clay Banger]

From my perspective....if a City as big as Baltimore has to have "monitors" in place to make sure "squeegee boys" don't confront drivers not interested in paying to have their windows washed at stop lights, then that city is far from being inhabitable. We're talking the lowest possible decency standards that can't even be met by the natives. What person in their right mind would voluntarily subject themselves to such a dastardly culture? Baltimore is a crap town. No good reason to go there, live there, or work there. It offers NOTHING that any other medium sized city in America doesn't offer, but without the low lifes on every corner, at every stoplight, in every neighborhood.

[debold4215]

People in the county call it Baltimore Murderland.