Mount Vernon is hot (Baltimore: renters, insurance, condominium)

[barante]

I'll try Kumari. But one of the reasons I like Mughal Gardens is its ambience, probably a carryover from the times when used to be lounge/restaurant called Harvey House, popular with the real estate crowd. It reminds me of my favorite hotel, the Imperial. near Connaught Circle. The Imperial is like a step back to the days of the British raj; Mughal Gardens is a throwback to the 1940s.

[rudy_d]

Speaking of Indian food in Mt. Vernon, Akbar is also good and has excellent service, and I'd also like to check out Indigma. Has anyone been there?

[jonjj]

Tambers up in Charles Village has great Indian food also and you can order in the late afternoon when others seem to close until the dinner hour.

[jonjj]

Originally Posted by jonjj

Progress on the Brexton is going full speed. I walked by there today and noticed all the windows being replaced and inside gutting work. Should be great when completed. Also, if interested, all reading should try to hit the maps exhibit at the Walters.

I was wrong. I mentioned the Brexton but I was referring to the Medical Arts Building

[kharing]

Sorry in advance for high jacking this old thread. I have been here for two days and so far I am really feeling Mt. Vernon. I have been to Federal Hill, Canton, Harbor East (or whatever it is called) and of course the neighborhood I am subletting, Ridgely's Delight/Camden Yards. These areas are "nice" but very sterile. Am I right to think that Mt. Vernon is a cooler place Aka... more diverse?

I still have a month or two before I make a full commitment but I walked easily from the UMMC area to Mt. Vernon a few times so I am not worried about the commute.

I think I liked some parts of Pigtown...only ventured to the part that is on the rim of MLK near the hospital.

[barante]

Go for Mount Vernon. You can move to Pigtown (if it still attracts you) once you want to put down some roots.
Incidentally, I went to Kumari today for the first time. I was meeting a friend and suggested Mughal Gardens, but he liked Kumari better. We took the buffet which was very tasty with many selections. We had a table overlooking Charles Street. What more can you ask for.

[krakenten]

The Brexton was an awful mess-there will not be any parking, there's not even room for a dumpster.

Mt. Vernon was always lovely, even at it's worst, glad to see a ray of hope.

I'll never be able to live there again(I was at the Avon twice), but I must say it was always my favorite neighborhood.

Bolton Hill is beautiful, but so damn fusty-some of the homeowners seem to think renters are a form of vermin, and I remember several confrontations with people who thought they were entitled to order me around because they had a house deed.

One particularly obnoxious party got a comeuppance when scrap thieves took the plug out of the sewer clean-out and someone(not me!)dropped one of those quarter stick cherry bombs into it.

The resulting devestation was described to me, and I tingled, shivered and shook with delight!

I hate petty tyrants.

I remember all the howling when the elementery school got that elevated passageway-somehow that was going to bring down property values.

To a lot of the jackasses that lived there, everything was an eyesore, a fire hazard or an invitation to vermin.

How I hope they're all in retirement homes by now!

[atlas1882]

We've been living in Mount Vernon for about a year and a half now and we love it. My wife attends school at University of Maryland and she regularly walks to class. I commute to DC and take the train from Penn Station. The location couldn't be better, and from our perspective, the neighborhood is the best in Baltimore. Everything down by the water is nice in its own way, and we venture out regularly, but when it comes to getting the mix of residential and commercial right I can't think of anywhere that does it better than Mt. Vernon.

[kharing]

Now I need to start looking at prices. Keep seeing the same apartment listings on Craigslist.

Around 10 am this morning, I was walking around the Washington Monument (that's what it's called right?) and almost had to use my ninja skills on some crazy guy. He kept telling me "I'm David, and I'm lonely." I was cool but after crossing the street he started to follow me....once I made it clear I wasn't "the one" - he backed off. Kind of funny. Yeah, I think I found my spot! Crazy men follow men like flies to honey.
West Mount Vernon seems nicer than the east though.

[barante]

While your observation about the east side is correct, consider this: It was just a decade ago that Eddie C. Brown, a hugely successful money manager, bought an old mansion at 1201 Calvert Street to serve as his expanding company's headquarters. People thought he was crazy. Perhaps he was, but he was also part of a trend of important money managers moving to Mount Vernon. What made Brown different was that he put his money on an east side property.
I started my Baltimore life in 1967 in the 800 block of North Calvert. I didn't know the first thing about Baltimore. I didn't have a car and the apartment was three blocks from my employers, at the time still known as The Sunpapers. That's all that mattered. Over four decades, I graduated to Bolton Hill, Cedarcroft, Coldspring, Union Square and now Cheswolde, which is the Orthodox side of Mount Washington.
It has taken a long time, but the east side has progressed quite a bit.Vacant properties no longer exist. The calling-card corner of Calvert and Preston is no longer an eyesore. All this has strengthened the east side.
I really think that we ain't seen nothing yet in Mount Vernon. Largely due to the oil crisis and other economic considerations, it will blossom and many of the buds are on the east side. Like that bizarre Red Emma's bookstore cafe, which celebrates the memory of a 1910's anarchofeminist.
One odd fact: The Prime Rib, Baltimore's premiere restaurant, has been in the Horizon House at Calvert and Chase. That location may not have helped, but it surely hasn't hurt.